"When you play this game twenty years, go to bat ten-thousand times, and get three-thousand hits, do you know what that means? You've gone zero for seven-thousand"
About this Quote
The subtext is pure Rose: defiant, blue-collar, a little accusatory. He’s pushing back against fans and media who treat elite athletes like machines or morality plays. A .300 hitter is celebrated because the baseline is failure; the skill is returning to the box after you’ve been beaten most of the time. By framing success as surviving 7,000 personal defeats, Rose turns resilience into the real stat. It’s also a subtle warning about ego: the applause is loud, but the game keeps receipts.
Context matters because Rose’s persona and later scandal complicate the moral. “Charlie Hustle” sold relentlessness as virtue, and this quote doubles down on that mythology: not talent, not purity, just showing up and taking your outs. Coming from a figure whose legacy is contested, it reads as both wisdom and self-justification - an argument that the grind, not the verdict, should define the man.
Quote Details
| Topic | Sports |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Rose, Pete. (2026, January 16). When you play this game twenty years, go to bat ten-thousand times, and get three-thousand hits, do you know what that means? You've gone zero for seven-thousand. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/when-you-play-this-game-twenty-years-go-to-bat-101150/
Chicago Style
Rose, Pete. "When you play this game twenty years, go to bat ten-thousand times, and get three-thousand hits, do you know what that means? You've gone zero for seven-thousand." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/when-you-play-this-game-twenty-years-go-to-bat-101150/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"When you play this game twenty years, go to bat ten-thousand times, and get three-thousand hits, do you know what that means? You've gone zero for seven-thousand." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/when-you-play-this-game-twenty-years-go-to-bat-101150/. Accessed 21 Feb. 2026.




