Pete Rose Played With 11 Hall of Famers

In an interview yesterday with Dan Patrick, Pete Rose spoke on a number of subjects. Once subject that piqued my interest was based in a comment that he made. Here is the quote:

“I know nobody that played with me took steroids,” he said. “I played with 11 Hall of Famers and played against 52 Hall of Famers, and I don’t know any of them linked to steroids.”

Now that got my wheels a-turning. Who are these 11 Hall of Famers that Rose played with. Consider this, Rose played from 1963-1986 (ironically the same number of years that he has been suspended).  In thinking about which teams he played with I came up with 7 definite answers. Here are the ones I got off the bat (in that order):

Johnny Bench
Joe Morgan
Tony Perez
Mike Schmidt
Steve Carlton
Tom Seaver
Frank Robinson

When I asked Pete for his input, aside from my first five answers, he gave me this one:

Barry Larkin

Now that makes 8. So I decided to think about who he played with on Montreal while with the Expos that became Hall of Famers. Andre Dawson came immediately to mind but I was unsure if Dawson signed with the Chicago Cubs before or after 1984. After checking the trusty Baseball Reference.com Dawson did in face play with Rose in Montreal as well as Gary Carter. That put us at 10.

Here is where it gets tricky. We were absolutely stumped. I went and checked every year that Rose played and looked to see who his teammates were and found a player who had a cup of coffee with the Philadelphia Phillies in the form of 6-at bats during the 1981 season. Any guesses? It was an 18-year old Ryne Sandberg. Bringing the list to 11.

Now I'm going to sound like an infomerical: Wait!!!! There's more. I'm going to add a 12th Hall of Famer. Now Pete didn't play with him but played for him: Sparky Anderson was the manager of the Big Red Machine.

So there you have the list. Maybe if I'm feeling up to it I'll try to deduce who were the 52 Hall of Famers that Pete Rose played against....Maybe ;)

Until Then, enjoy the clip of the interview Pete Rose did with Dan Patrick on July 25, 2013:

Sisco Kid