O’Brien has crafted a sort of American tragedy about an undersized athlete raised to win at all costs.

I’m not sure there’s ever been a book that does a better job of sketching out that man than Keith O’Brien’s.

Outside of a true devotion to the craft of hitting, there is arguably nothing admirable about the adult Pete Rose.

O’Brien’s narrative is compelling, meticulously reported, and bolstered by interviews with many of the principals, including, for a while, Rose himself..

O’Brien’s work is so well researched and adheres to traditional journalistic standards in such a way that it is, by any objective measure, as fair as possible to all the principle figures, particularly Rose himself.

Sports biographies don’t get much better than this enthralling and tragic account.