Cincinnati Reds great Pete Rose died Monday at his Las Vegas home due to a serious heart condition, a Nevada coroner said Tuesday.

Rose, 83, suffered from hypertensive and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, which occur when blood vessels become thick and stiff, making the heart work harder and making it harder to circulate oxygen and nutrients throughout the body.

Melanie Rouse, the coroner in Clark County, Nevada, where Rose lived, confirmed the cause of death in a statement Tuesday. Rose’s heart disease is common—about half of Americans over age 45 have it—and can worsen with age.

That appears to have been the case for Rose, who was in a wheelchair during his final public appearance Sunday at a sports memorabilia show in Nashville, Tennessee.

Rose acknowledged his health problems in 2018, when his lawyers disclosed in court filings related to his divorce that he was “in poor health and disabled.” In that same divorce case, Rose’s attorneys said he had trouble walking, was on blood thinners and had undergone three heart procedures in five years.

“His health is deteriorating,” the court documents said.

Despite those problems, Rose kept a busy schedule and continued to travel around the country, often to sports memorabilia shows. He regularly appeared at Las Vegas casinos, signing autographs and posing for photos with fans.

At the Nashville event on Sunday, he met some of his teammates from his days in Cincinnati with the Big Red Machine at the annual Music City Sports Collectibles and Autograph Show. A photo on Facebook showed Rose in a wheelchair while the others stood next to him.

Rose flew to Las Vegas a short time later and died the next day. “Amazing that they all got to see each other one last time,” the post said.

Earlier this year, in April, Rose canceled an appearance at former UC basketball coach Bob Huggins’ annual charitable fundraiser in West Virginia “due to health reasons,” according to a post on the event’s Facebook account. “We send Pete our warmest wishes for a full and speedy recovery,” the post said.

In recent years, Rose had spoken often about his mortality and his desire to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, an honor that eluded him for thirty years due to the permanent ban imposed by Major League Baseball after it was revealed that he had played baseball. had bet. .

He was recently the subject of an HBO documentary about his life on and off the field, including his gambling. And in an interview with The Enquirer in June, Rose reflected on that life, the consequences of his gambling and his legacy in baseball and beyond.

“What, are they waiting for me to die?” Rose said about his chances of getting into the Hall of Fame. “Wouldn’t that be terrible if I died next week and they hired me again next year?”

Rose was also thinking about the future when he wrote his last post on the social media site X on September 21. The man known to fans as Charlie Hustle wrote about his grandson, a baseball player at La Salle University, who was recently featured in a Philadelphia newspaper article.

“I couldn’t be more proud of my grandson,” Rose wrote. “Keep busy with baseball in La Salle. #Rose’s legacy lives on.”

(This story has been updated with new information.)

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: How Did Pete Rose Die? Coroner announces cause of death