Steve Mears: Turner matching all-time hits leader in hustle category

Friday night in Cincinnati, Ohio was the setting for the 2016 debut of possibly the most exciting player in baseball, and his name is Trea Turner. He is not a home run hitter and he doesn't crow-hop throwing 97-mph darts across the diamond. Turner is the true throwback to a simpler game to the bygone years of "Charlie Hustle," who is still loved in Cincinnati.

Pete Rose was not particularly fast, as he only averaged nine stolen bases a year against seven caught stealing, which surprises most people that know of the legend of "Charlie Hustle" and thought he was a top base stealer. Rose was a grinder by the true definition of the word in baseball, and I'm not just throwing out the word because it sounds 'cool'.

Rose ran hard to every base and what he stole was hits by running out balls at maximum effort with his head down and without looking back. He did it when he earned a walk and for the occasional home run he would hit. He gave 100 percent effort all of the time and, every once in a while, Rose would leg out an infield hit that would be a simple 6-3 groundout for the other players who chose to jog it out to first base.

Rose got the "Charlie Hustle" nickname as a cut-down from Yankees pitcher Whitey Ford, who walked Rose in a spring training game and watched Rose sprinted down to first base. The 'Chairman of the Board,' as Ford was known by, asked, "Who's that, Charlie Hustle?" Rose was 19 years old at the time and Ford was a grizzled veteran at 32 years old, and Ford had no idea who Rose was. It was not an act from Rose.

That is who he was, and he took Ford's cut-down and turned it into his nickname and a brand and embraced it. "I never walked anywhere on a baseball field," Rose said. That is why Cincinnati as a blue-collar town loved Rose, as he was just their type of guy. He did not even look like much of an athlete, and when he was called up his Jell-O minor league baseball card listed him at 5'10" and 185 pounds.

Turner is also 185 pounds, according to his BaseballReference.com page, but a taller 6'1", and "Turner the Burner" looks like a sprinter, long and athletic with little body fat. Turner has combined speed and hustle to redefine what Rose exemplified. Any infield grounder that is hit slow enough can turn into an infield single for Turner.

There is a good chance that Rose saw Friday night's game to watch his Reds play against Bryce Harper, who was returning from the knee contusion. Rose and Harper have a mutual admiration, and Harper used to hustle to first base like Rose. "Used to be's don't count anymore" as the song goes "they just lay on the floor 'til you sweep them away."

Turner was the Nationals' star on Friday night, going 3-for-3 with a walk. His second hit was a hard double down the line. His third hit, meanwhile, was a ball which Reds infielder Brandon Phillips would normally take his time with to get the runner out. Turner's speed, however, was too much, and Phillips could not even glove the ball in time. That's where the combination of speed and hustle buys you hits.

Those hits change games. Charlie Hustle had to be smiling. Here's the link to Turner's Friday night:

Before Joe Maddon managed a single game as the manager of the Cubs he was sending out Twitter messages. This one read: "Respect 90... going to make daily push for our players to respect that distance..run hard for 90 feet, and the respect will come back to you"

That is a powerful message that Rose would be proud of. 'Respect 90' was then painted as a slogan on the first base line of the Cubs' spring training home field in Mesa, Arizona in 2015. Turner respects 90 feet, and as you watched some of the games in Cincinnati, you saw that Billy Hamilton respects 90, too. Then you saw some players "jog 90." It cost one player a potential single or an error to the other team and would have saved a challenge that was thrown away. If only he had "respected 90."

Another player jogged to first base on a pop to the outfield that dropped in and, instead of a 'gift' double, he got a 'gift' single. Hustle does not cost you anything, as they say. It is not dependent on speed; however, when you combine hustle with speed, you get Turner.

Steve Mears blogs about the Nationals for Talk Nats. Follow the blog on Twitter: @TalkNats2. His thoughts on the Nationals will appear here as part of MASNsports.com's season-long initiative of welcoming guest bloggers to our site. All opinions expressed are those of the guest bloggers, who are not employed by MASNsports.com but are just as passionate about their baseball as our roster of writers.