#StaffFavorites — The pairing of Andy Warhol and Pete Rose seems an odd one on the surface--they had never met or even heard of one another. But there is a story here that brings these two disparate personalities together, resulting in Warhol making several images of Rose. It's not the obvious and well-known story of Rose's infamous parting with the sport of baseball, because this imagery actually came a few years before that time when Rose was still riding high in Major League Baseball. In 1985 the Cincinnati Art Museum approached Warhol to commission a painting of the Cincinnati Reds golden boy to celebrate Rose's highly anticipated feat of breaking Major League Baseball's all-time-hits record. In the summer of 1985, Rose was on the chase for hit number 4,192 and baseball and the world at large were abuzz with what he was about to accomplish. Andy Warhol knew little of baseball, but was undoubtedly familiar and fascinated by celebrity and fame. He made four paintings on canvas, a screenprint edition and several drawings, among them Pete Rose I, 1985. All of the works were based on a reproduced image of the famed player taken from Rose's own instructional book "Pete Rose on Hitting". On September 11, 1985 Rose successfully broke the record and several others, which he still holds to this day. — Sang Lee, Special Projects — Featured artwork: Andy Warhol, Reds - Pete Rose 1, 1985, graphite on paper, 31 5/8 x 23 5/8 inches — #worldseries #baseball #peterose #cincinnatireds #mlb @mlb #cubs #hof #majorleaguebaseball #warhol #andywarhol #popart #art #cincinnatiartmuseum #hitking #charliehussle #4192 #americanpasttime #switchhitter (at Leslie Sacks Gallery)