Ray Fosse-Pete Rose infamous 1970 collision back in All-Star Game spotlight at Cincinnati

OAKLAND, Calif. – Ray Fosse’s body still aches, 45 years later.

He never did fully recover physically from one of the most infamous plays in All-Star Game history, when Pete Rose bulled him over in 1970 to score the winning run in the 12th inning at Riverfront Stadium.

With the game back in Cincinnati tonight, Fosse is reminded again of that moment. Over and over. Not that he needs another look.

“As if it happened yesterday,” said Fosse, a Cleveland catcher at the time and now an Oakland broadcaster. “As much as it’s shown, I don’t have to see it on TV as a replay to know what happened. It’s fresh.”

That night changed his career.

“It seems to be a play that people kind of relate to, that will somehow be kind of an opener, an icebreaker,” he said. “It’s like, ‘Oh, you’re the guy.” ’

To this day, he introduces himself to A’s players as “just Ray Fosse, one of the broadcasters.”

Later, they tend to figure it out.

Fosse has pain and arthritis, endured five knee surgeries has two bum shoulders he never had fixed and a stiff neck.

In fairness, he knows a lot of that is a result of the rigors of being a catcher.

“My body hurts. My shoulder still hurts,” he said. “There was not anybody at the time to say, ‘Don’t play.’ I continued. That’s something that I take with a lot of pride.”

Fosse recalls it being 160 degrees on the artificial turf that night in Ohio, when the A.L. blew a 4-1, ninth-inning lead and lost 5-4 on Rose’s run. Rose says Fosse left him no room to slide into home on the decisive play.

“He’s the one blocking the plate without the ball,” Rose said last week. “I’m the one who missed three games with an injury to my knee. He played nine more years after that.”

Two days after the All-Star Game, Fosse caught nine innings in a win at Kansas City. He couldn’t lift his arm above his head.

“They didn’t have the technology, I didn’t see any of it, as far as X-rays, no MRI, not really anything,” Fosse recalled in May at the Oakland Coliseum.

Fosse spent parts of 12 seasons in the majors. He made the All-Star team again in 1971, yet his best year was already behind him.

During a conference call last week to discuss Fox Sports’ coverage of the All-Star Game, Rose bristled at a suggestion that the play ruined Fosse’s career.

“No. 1, I didn’t break the rules,” Rose said. “Two, I did not try to purposely hurt him. Three, I did not ruin his career. Four, I took him out to eat the night before the game.”

Fosse had a 23-game hitting streak in the first half, at age 23. He hit 16 home runs before the break and just two the rest of the season.

Has he wondered how his career might have turned out if Rose had taken a different path?

“We probably wouldn’t be talking now,” Fosse said, chuckling. “From a pure baseball standpoint, I really haven’t thought about it that much. All I know is that having hit 16 home runs at the All-Star break, could I have hit 30? Could I have hit 30 annually?”

To this day, the roster from that All-Star Game is bookmarked on his computer.

“I wouldn’t change a thing,” Fosse said. “Long after I’m gone, I’m sure they’ll still be showing the play. It’s part of the great game and I would never, ever say there’s any animosity or hard feelings about anything, about playing a game that I loved and still love.”