Plot

On the evening of September 11, 1985, before a sellout crowd of 52,000 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati, Pete Rose was poised to collect hit number 4,192 of his long brilliant career, passing Ty Cobb as the all-time career hits leader. Rose came up to bat in the first inning against the San Diego Padres Eric Show and on the fourth pitch lined a clean single to left center. As he reached first base, thousands of camera flash bulbs fired off rapidly, his teammates mobbed him, fireworks exploded above the stadium and the crowd overwhelmed him with an unprecedented nine-minute standing ovation. In 1963 Pete Rose ran to first base on a walk. Baseball was never the same. From Pete's first at bat to that immortal September evening where history was made, "4192" traces the Hit King's rise as one of baseball's greatest and most controversial stars. Pete Rose was perhaps the most versatile player in Major League Baseball history, having played five hundred or more games at five different positions in his twenty-four year career. He holds numerous major league records including most hits, most games played and most at-bats. He was the 1963 NL Rookie of the Year, the 1973 NL MVP, 1975 World Series MVP, won two gold gloves, three World Series rings, and appeared in seventeen All-Star games among other notable achievements.

On a warm September evening in 1985, before a sell-out crowd, Pete Rose stood on the edge of history. With one swing he would collect more hits than anyone in the history of the game he loved. 4192: The Crowning of the Hit King is a love letter to baseball that highlights the playing career of one of the games most honored and controversial stars.

But this story begins long before the legendary sprint to first on a walk in 1963. It begins in a neighborhood off the banks of the Ohio River, where a boy, with limited natural athletic ability, tosses a ball with his father, whose mantra is to win at all costs. The boy was Pete Rose and his awe-inspiring career spanned more than two decades and brought numerous individual awards as well as three World Series titles. But at its heart, beyond the awards and statistics, this is a baseball story about a man who loved to play the game and what drove him to chase a record that had been deemed unbreakable.