ESPN 'Hustle' chronicles downfall of Pete Rose

The script is a fictionalized account based on MLB's Dowd Report.
By MEL BRACHT
DAILY OKLAHOMAN
ESPN examines Pete Rose's gambling woes in the network's third original movie, "Hustle," which debuts at 9 tonight.
Unlike the network's first two films, "A Season on the Brink" and "Junction Boys," "Hustle" isn't really a sports movie. Excluding actual game footage of Rose, the movie includes less than two minutes of filmed sports action.
That aspect is one of the things that drew famed director Peter Bogdanovich ("The Last Picture Show") to the project.
"I'm not an expert on sporting events and sporting things," Bogdanovich said. "I do love baseball."
ESPN hits a home run with a captivating character study of Rose's dark years, beginning in 1986 a year after he broke Ty Cobb's hit record and culminating with his ouster as Cincinnati Reds manager and banishment from baseball. It is a fictionalized account based on the Major League Baseball's Dowd Report.
"We found it [the report] very insightful, very enlightening," ESPN executive vice president Mark Shapiro said in a conference call earlier this week. "We wanted to stick to it as close as we could."
Difficult role
Tom Sizemore captures many of Rose's hustling mannerisms in a shady role.
"Tom had a difficult role," Bogdanovich said. "A lot of things he [Rose] did were reprehensible. Yet a lot of people who knew him said he was a very likable person. We wanted to find a balance."
Dash Mihok co-stars as Paul Janszen, who placed Rose's bets and covered his gambling debts when Rose refused. Mihok said producers took some license in making his character "a tad more innocent" than Janszen actually was.
The most damning indictment of Rose's gambling problem came from Rose himself. Appearing in New York before commissioner Fay Vincent and commissioner-elect Bart Giamatti, Rose told them, "I would have to be the dumbest son of a bitch in the world to have bet on baseball."
Rose no longer is denying those charges.
The controversy surrounding whether he should be allowed into the Baseball Hall of Fame is sure to make the movie a ratings hit.
After the movie, a live public forum, hosted by Jeremy Schaap, is planned. Guests will include Bogdanovich, former Reds reliever Rob Dibble and former Reds beat writer Hal McCoy.