CINCINNATI — Near the entrance of Great American Ball Park on Monday night, Shane Vicars laid a baseball among the bouquets of roses in front of the statue of Pete Rose.
Vicars’ signature adorned the ball. He and his wife, Candie, live just a couple of blocks from the home of the Cincinnati Reds, and they felt compelled to take the short walk to the stadium and pay their respects.
“I have plenty of baseballs signed by him,” Shane Vicars said, “and I just wanted to give one to him.”
Another baseball was inscribed “RIP Hit King” and “Thank you.” And then there were, of course, roses. A half-dozen were on the plaque with his name, his nickname — “Charlie Hustle” — and the years he played for his hometown Reds.
Vicars, 50, is not unlike so many other kids who grew up in Cincinnati idolizing Rose, who died Monday at age 83.
“Pete was Cincinnati,” Vicars said.
Geoff Moehlman was born just weeks after Rose’s final game in 1986. Even though Moehlman never saw Rose play in person, here he sat on a large, concrete baseball 15 feet from the statue of Rose. It shows him diving headfirst and sits outside the stadium, across the street from a sportsbook. Moehlman, in a red Reds cap and a white jacket with Cincinnati spelled out in full across the chest, watched…
