I have always loved this image of a young Pete Rose with that sparkle in his eye. The reference is from his second year baseball card in 1964, and his most sought after by collectors, even more so than his rookie card released a year earlier, probably because it captures a young Charlie Hustle and the era so perfectly. The excitement of a kid who loves baseball, and just cant wait to play, is what I always got from looking at it. He would later say "I'd walk through Hell in a gasoline suit to play Baseball", and it showed. I could relate, and I never forgot it. I loved watching him play as a kid. He always hustled, always. There were no satellite feeds or sports networks in the mid 70's in Canada. I saw him play against the Expos on CBC a few times, when the games on TV were far from regular, or frequent, and later in 1984 when he was an Expo. Mostly I had to watch him play only at All-Star games or in the postseason, or later on bits of This Week in Baseball where my buddy Trevor and I watched him get a hit every single game for six straight weeks in '78. He always made things happen it seemed. It was through baseball cards, and newspaper boxscores where I mostly watched Pete become the MLB All-Time Leader in games played, at bats, plate appearances, most hits, most two hit games and the most 200 hit seasons of 10. A player could accomplish 200 hits in a season for the next 21 years and still not have as many hits. And maybe most importantly, nobody, but nobody ever played in more winning games for their team than Pete. No matter what your opinion is of him, it can't be denied that no one played the game of baseball harder, or with more passion than Pete Rose did. He was an absolute joy to watch play baseball, and an absolute  joy to paint, and I can't wait to paint him again.  #RIPCharlieHustle