A quarter century later, there are no easy answers to the Pete Problem

Rose told the room that he finally understood what it meant to "reconfigure" his life. He said, "I disrespected baseball." He looked at Perez -- calling

Kostya Kennedy

A quarter century later, there are no easy answers to the Pete Problem

Three decades after he became the alltime hit king, Pete Rose sticks to a heavy schedule of appearances and autograph sessions that earn him more than $1 million a year :: Isaac Brekken/AP

By 1968, when he won his first batting title and finished second in the MVP voting at age 27, Charlie Hustle was already one of the game's brightest stars. — By 1968, when he won his first batting title and finished second in the MVP voting at age 27, Charlie Hustle was already one of the game's brightest stars :: Walter Iooss Jr./SI

Rose told the room that he finally understood what it meant to "reconfigure" his life. He said, "I disrespected baseball." He looked at Perez -- calling him, "like a brother to me" -- and apologized directly, and also apologized to the other teammates from the Big Red Machine. "I'm a hardheaded guy," Rose choked out. "But I'm a lot better guy standing here tonight. .... I guarantee everyone in this room I will never disrespect you again." As he fought to get his composure, he added, "I love the fans, I love the game of baseball, and I love Cincinnati baseball."

si/dam/assets/140305102734-pete-rose-cover--single-image-cut.jpg — Focus on Sport/Getty Images

To purchase a copy of Pete Rose: An American Dilemma, go here.

Kostya Kennedy

Kostya Kennedy, a senior editor for Sports Illustrated, joined the magazine in 1994 and writes on a range of topics for the magazine and SI.com. He covered hockey as a writer for many years and edited Sports Illustrated's The Hockey Book (2010). He has written often on baseball and he edited the magazine's Scorecard section. Kennedy's journalism experience includes time as a staff writer at Newsday. He was news editor at The Queens Tribune in New York City and he has written for The New York Times and The New Yorker among other publications. Kennedy received a bachelor's degree in philosophy from the State University of New York at Stony Brook and earned an M.S. from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, where he was awarded a Pulitzer Fellowship. He has taught journalism at Columbia and at New York University.