MLB's all-time hits leader, Pete Rose, who lost out on making it into the Hall of Fame due to his gambling habit, at the age of 83. Now, his cause of death has been revealed. "The manner of death was natural," says a statement from Melanie Rouse, the coroner for Nevada's Clark County, per and the .
Rose, who's said to have passed away at his home in the Silver State, died from hypertension (aka high blood pressure) and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, with diabetes also playing a part, Rouse's statement noted. reports that Rose was last seen in public in Tennessee the day before he died, at a sports collectibles show in Nashville. Former Cincinnati Reds teammate Johnny Bench didn't run into Rose there, but he talked to other ex-teammates who did, and Bench said Tuesday on a sports talk show that "the guys were very concerned about [Rose] on Sunday because they said he just wasn't the same old Pete.
" In 2018 divorce papers, Rose's legal team indicated that his health was "deteriorating" after a handful of heart procedures over the preceding five years, with Rose saying that he was, at the time, "disabled and can barely walk or travel." In a June interview with the , Rose pondered the possibility of ever being inducted into the Hall of Fame. "What, are they waiting for me to die?" he said.
"Wouldn't that be horrible if I died next week and then next year they reinstated me?" (More stories.).