Late 70's, I was either 10 or 11 years old. The 700WLW All Stars charity softball team was playing in the little town I lived in. The team would always have one or two members of Cincinnati Reds and a couple of the Bengals on the team.
After the game, my little brother and I went up to Pete Rose and asked him to sign our baseball. Pete just looked at us and told to go away.
Ray Knight was standing there, heard Pete and told us to come over to him. He asked us our names, and was super nice to the both of us. He signed our ball and asked my brother for his. We only had the one nice ball between us. He walked over to his bag, pulled out a ball, gave it to my brother after he signed it.
Two things happened that day, 1. Ray Knight became my all time favorite ball player. 2. learned that Pete Rose was prick.
I'm not happy that he's dead, but I sure as heck don't think he was a nice person at all.