Robert Rose (baseball)

Robert Richard Rose (Bobby Rose, born March 15, 1967) is a former major league baseball player from Covina, California. He played on the California Angels in the major leagues, and on the Yokohama BayStars in the Japanese Central League.

Biography

Rose signed with the California Angels in 1985, and made his major league debut in 1989. He only played 73 games in the majors, and signed with the Yokohama BayStars after he was involved in a car accident in 1992.

He led the Central League in RBIs and doubles in his first year (1993), and played in all 130 regular season games from 1993 - 1995. Rose continued his success, showing incredible clutch hitting skills, and greatly contributed to his team's championship in 1998. He won the Central League golden glove award in 1998 at second base, and played his best season in 1999, hitting 37 home runs with 153 RBIs and a .369 batting average. This remains the highest batting average in Japanese baseball among right handed hitters, and his 153 RBIs ranks second-most in Japanese baseball history. He also led the league with 192 hits, which was the Central League season record until Norichika Aoki renewed it in 2005. He led the league in hits for the second straight season in 2000, and had the second highest batting average in the Central League, but suddenly announced his retirement in the off-season. The main reason for this abrupt departure seems to be that his family wanted to return to the United States, and the BayStars also lacked the financial backing needed to renew his massive contract.

Rose signed with the Chiba Lotte Marines during the 2002 off-season, returning to Japan after two years of inactivity. However, he went hitless during spring training, and announced his second retirement in March, 2003, before the start of the regular season.

Despite the fiasco at the end of his career, he is still remembered as one of the best foreign players in Japanese baseball. He was 71 at-bats shy from passing Leron Lee in career batting average (at least 4000 at-bats are required to qualify for the record), and hit over .300 for seven of his eight seasons in Japan. He also hit three cycles during his career (the most in Japanese baseball history).

External links

* [http://www.baseball-reference.com/r/rosebo01.shtml Major league career statistics]
* [http://www.japanesebaseball.com/players/player.jsp?PlayerID=366 Japanese baseball career statistics]