American baseball legend Pete Rose, whose career ended in disgrace after he was given a life ban for gambling on games, has died.

The Cincinnati Reds hitter died Monday at age 83, Stephanie Wheatley, a spokesperson for Nevada’s Clark County, confirmed on behalf of the medical examiner.

Rose held the record for most career hits, 4,256, over a 24-season career.

He reached the milestone, breaking his hero Ty Cobb’s 4,191, in September 1985 in Cincinnati, with his mother and teenage son Pete Jr, who would later play briefly for the Reds, in the crowd.

With more than 47,000 spectators cheering, the game was stopped and when he was given the ball and first base bag as a souvenir, Rose openly wept on the shoulder of first base coach and former teammate Tommy Helms.

Rose had 200 or more hits in 10 seasons, and more than 180 four other times, and led the league in hits seven times.

He won two World Series titles, in 1975 and 1976, and a host of minor honors in the game he graced both as a player and as a manager.

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The brash Rose, nicknamed “Charlie Hustle”, was known for his shaggy hair and an action-oriented approach that allowed him to run and dive to bases even when he didn’t have to.

But just four years after his record-breaking moment, he was banned from the sport for betting on baseball games, including some involving the Reds.

Rose denied any wrongdoing, but a league investigation found him guilty of “extensive gambling activities during the 1985, 1986 and 1987 baseball seasons” and banned him for life.

Betting on baseball has been a primal sin since 1920, when several members of the Chicago White Sox were banned for throwing in the 1919 World Series.

By all accounts, he never gambled against his own team, but even betting on the Reds exposed him to blackmail and raised questions about whether a particular management decision was based on his own financial interest.

The ban remained in effect and Rose never made it into the Baseball Hall Of Fame.

Major League Baseball issued a brief statement offering condolences and noting his “greatness, grit and determination on the field of play.”

Reds principal owner and managing partner Bob Castellini said in a statement that Rose was “one of the fiercest competitors the game has ever seen” and added: “We must never forget what he achieved.”

Rose’s old teammate, Johnny Bench, who was also part of the ‘Big Red Machine’ as the dominant Reds team of the 1970s became known, said he felt a “deep sense of loss” after Rose’s death.