The season is still a few months off and so we Game Thread another classic game. This game is from September 11, 1985 when Pete Rose broke Ty Cobb’s all-time hits record with his 4,192nd hit. Eric Show was the pitcher that day. When he gave up the hit, you may remember he sat down on the mound during the Reds' celebration which earned him the ire of the fans and even his fellow Padres.
All in all, last Wednesday night was one start Eric Show would like to forget. First, the San Diego righthander, whose chief claim to fame had been his membership in the John Birch Society, allowed Pete Rose's 4,192nd hit. He plopped down on the mound during the delay for festivities, an action which Padre Garry Templeton later said was "bush." Then he got into a dugout shoving match with leftfielder Carmelo Martinez, over a ball that fell for a single and led to the game-winning run. Finally, Show refused to stay to answer the post-game questions and, in his absence, his teammates ripped him.
"I'm tired of hearing about his unlucky luck," said Tim Flannery. "That's been at the root of the problem all year. If something goes wrong, he quits. That's why runs aren't scored for him. Guys don't want to play for him. One guy got tired of hearing it."
Before the game, when Show had been asked about the possibility of giving up The Hit, he came up with this droll answer: "I guess it doesn't mean as much to me as it does to other baseball enthusiasts. Don't get me wrong. I'm certainly not putting down Pete. It's a fantastic accomplishment. But in the eternal scheme of things, how much does this matter? I don't like to say this, but I don't care."