A Broken Rose
30 Years Later, Former Braves' reliever Gene Garber Discusses Stopping Pete Rose's Hitting Streak
By Gene Garber (as told to Steve Eubanks)

Introduction: It was 30 years ago, August 1, 1978, one of those sticky summer nights in Atlanta that make Mogadishu look cool and temperate. The thermometer and humidity meter both pushed the triple-digit mark. But for the 31,159 paid attendees crammed into the old Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, things would get a lot hotter before the night was over.

For the second night in a row, the stadium was electric, an unusual occurrence during a period when the Braves were consistent bottom dwellers, one of the National League’s worst teams. This game against the Reds was not just big local news: it was the biggest story in the country. On that lazy summer day, rain fell and creeks rose in Texas (yawn), Chicago congressman Philip Crane announced his bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 1980 (zzzz…), and Pete Rose continued his impressive run at Joe DiMaggio’s 37-year-old record of hitting in 56 consecutive games. The last of those events held an otherwise stupefied nation spellbound.

Rose had already put together a pretty good season. His 3,000th career hit had come in May. A month later, the streak began in Chicago with an unassuming single off of Cub’s pitcher Dave Roberts. In the following 48 days, Rose had 66 hits, getting at least one in 44 consecutive games. He got hits off Vida Blue, Steve Carlton, Jim Kaat, Bob Welch, Tommy John, and on July 31, he swatted one of Phil Niekro’s knuckleballs into left field to tie Baltimore’s Willie Keeler, who hit in 44 consecutive games in 1897.

As leadoff hitter for a Reds' team that sported such greats at Ken Griffey, Dave Concepcion, George Foster, and Johnny Bench, Rose was the brightest superstar on an all-star roster that first night of August. Larry McWilliams started for the Braves, a pitcher Rose late said he “wouldn’t recognize if he walked up to him.” Through six innings, Rose drew one walk (he scored the Reds’ first run), and hit a screamer back to McWilliams that that pitcher miraculously caught.

In the top of the seventh, the Braves brought in Henry Eugene Garber, a reliable reliever from Lancaster, Penn., with a jerky side-arm or submarine delivery and a 2.15 ERA. The next hour would prove to be one of the most memorable in Braves history up to that time.  

Gene Garber
We were enjoying having Pete’s streak going, because we loved having people in the ballpark. As a last-place team we sometimes had 3,000 people in the stands. Then Pete and the Reds come to town with Pete’s streak and we got 35,000 yelling and screaming people a night. Now a lot of them were screaming for Pete, but the overriding factor was, hey, it’s fun just having people here.

When the series started, I felt that somehow I would get a chance to break Pete’s streak. I told my wife that I had that feeling, and then it happened. There are a lot of recollections from that night, because Pete’s reaction to it didn’t let me forget it and didn’t let fans forget it. Even 30 years later it’s still fresh in my mind.

I came into the game in the seventh inning and we were up by four runs. They had guys were on first and second and Pete came up and hit a line drive right at the third baseman for a double-play to end the inning. Then in the bottom of the seventh and bottom of the eighth we scored eight runs, so we were ahead 16-4. That was a good feeling, because the night before the Reds had stomped us the same way. In fact they were laughing at us from their dugout. And I don’t forget things like that.

In the bottom of the eighth, once we got up by 12 runs, Bobby Cox came up to me in the dugout and said, “Gene, I’m taking you out.”

I said, “No, you’re not. I’m ending this streak.”

He said, “Well, I might want you to pitch tomorrow.”

And I said, “Bobby I’ll start tomorrow and go nine innings if you want, but I’m ending this streak.” I knew Pete was going to be the third hitter in the ninth inning.

Bobby looked at me with a little smile and said, “Alright. Good luck.”

One of the reasons players love Bobby Cox is because he understands what it’s like. He was a player, so he knew the situation. We were a last-place club; we weren’t going anywhere. If we won that night and won the next night we were still six games out of fifth place, and he appreciated what I wanted to do.

So, I went out for the ninth inning and got the first two guys out. Then Pete came up. It wasn’t until that moment that I thought, “What if I walk this guy! My name will be mud.” The thought had never occurred to me before, and it didn’t occur to me that night until he was standing in the batter’s box. I mean, it could be the bottom of the ninth and the bases loaded and I never worried about walking anybody. But for some reason that became the overriding thought in my mind. I told myself “Just don’t walk him.”

Of course, I wanted to get him out. I don’t think Pete Rose ever tried to make an out for someone, and by the same token I never wanted anybody to get a hit off of me. My knees started shaking the more I thought about it.

Then I got behind him two-and-one. I said to myself: “OK, your best control pitch is a change-up, so go with that.” People think it’s easy to throw a strike any time you want, but it doesn’t work that way. I was a control pitcher, because I didn’t have the best stuff. I didn’t throw hard, so I had to rely on control. The change-up was a feel pitch for me. When the ball left my hand I could feel whether or not it was a good pitch.

When the two-one left my hand I could tell it was a really good pitch, and somehow Pete fouled it off.

I came right back with another change-up at two-two, and right when I released the ball I said, “Oh no.” It didn’t feel right, and I knew it was up. The ball just hung there screaming, “Hit me! Hit me!”

Pete swung and missed it, and my reaction immediately went from “Oh, no,” to “Alright!”  
 
Comment: The game and the streak ended on a Rose strikeout. Moments later, Rose was in the interview room with microphones open and cameras rolling. When asked how he felt, he snapped, “How do I feel? I feel pissed off!” It went downhill from there. For the first time, the nation’s sports fans got a glimpse of the dark side of Rose that everyone would come to know all too well a decade later. People who grew up with him and some of his teammates knew what a reckless bully Pete was, but at the point the public only knew the sanitized version of Charlie Hustle. That night, Atlanta radio listeners and television viewers got an education, and an earful.
 
Gene Garber
This was one of the first times Pete didn’t use good judgment in front of a camera and it took a lot of people back. You have to understand that Pete was extremely confident that he would break DiMaggio’s record. He was sure it was something he could do. Also, in this instance, he was the last out of the game. So, before he got off the field, there was a television camera in his face.

When I got into our clubhouse our guys said, “Gene, they want you over in the interview room.”

I said, “Fine, I’ll be there in a minute.” And I grabbed something to drink and went into our lounge. I was saying to myself, “Alright, what should I say about this thing?” But as I was thinking about what to say, I saw Pete live on television. I looked up just in time to hear him say, “Garber was pitching like it’s the ninth inning of the seventh game of the World Series.”

To me, that was a compliment. That’s how I tried to throw every pitch. Phil Niekro put it best when I got to Atlanta. He said, “You want to make every pitch like it’s the last pitch you’ll ever make.” That was a good verbalization from a future Hall-of-Famer of how I tried to play my whole career.

After hearing Pete rip me up one side and down the other (for not throwing any fastballs) he finally said, “That’s it. I don’t want to give Garber any more ink.”

I said out loud to the screen, “Pete, I think you’ve just given me all the ink I’ll ever want.” And here we are talking about it 30 years later.

I think that was the first time people started questioning who the true Pete was. Had he been given five minutes to cool down and say, “Ok, the streak is over, so how do I react to this?” he probably would have reacted differently. Had he been the first guy up in the ninth inning, I think his reaction would have been totally different. Pete was so confident in what he could accomplish that it caught him by surprise when the streak ended. Then he had to talk about it immediately.

After watching his interview live, I said, “I’m going to go sit down next to him and justify what I was doing.” So I stayed in our clubhouse where I was accessible to the media, just not in the interview room. 

Comment: Far from receiving overwhelming support after breaking the streak, Garber got a chilly reception in Atlanta. Fans and even some local columnists opined that Rose had a point. The Braves pitchers should have grooved one down the middle, they said. After all, the game was over, the Braves won, and almost nobody cared. Garber struck out the side in the fateful ninth inning. Rose had four hits in five at-bats in the series finale a night later.

Gene Garber
There were a lot of mixed reactions from everybody, including our team. Heck, I would have loved to see the streak continue, but not at my expense. But I understand it. We had another game against the Reds the next night, and people wanted the streak to continue so we’d have 35,000 people there instead of 5,000.

I think Ted Turner would have loved to see Pete’s streak continue, too. But I’ll tell you one thing I know for sure: if Ted had been pitching that night, he would have done exactly what I did. Just like me, his only goal would have been to get Pete out.

Photo Credit: (AP Photo)