MLB legend Pete Rose made heartbreaking admission in final interview weeks before death

Controversial baseball legend Pete Rose was still holding out hope for a 'second chance' in the sport just weeks before his death.

Rose, who was handed a lifetime ban from baseball in 1989, passed away at the age of 83 on Monday at his home in Las Vegas, with the cause of death not yet revealed.

While he is considered one of the greatest players in history, the MLB icon's career was a highly controversial one after he was banned from the sport for betting on the Cincinnati Reds as both a player and manager of the team.

And a few weeks before his passing, Rose admitted he was still hoping for forgiveness. 

'There’s nothing I can change about the history of Pete Rose,' he told Texas television station KLTV in an interview published on September 7.

'I keep convincing myself or telling myself, "Hang in there, Pete, you’ll get a second chance."'

'This is the one country that gives you a second chance,' Rose added. 'I continue to hope that someday I’ll get a second chance, and I won’t need a third.'

As well as his betting scandal, in recent years Rose was also accused of having an improper sexual relationship with a minor in the 1970s. 

In 2017, the Phillies canceled his induction onto the team's Wall of Fame after a Cincinnati woman said in federal court that she had a sexual relationship with the married Rose that began during his first stint with the Reds in 1973, when she was 14 or 15. 

However, Rose has never been charged with statutory rape and the statute of limitations has expired. 

Although he has reportedly admitted to the relationship, he has insisted that he believed she was 16 at the time of the affair, making her old enough in the state of Ohio to consent to sexual activity.

In recent years, Rose has made appearances at Reds games in Cincinnati, where he is still regarded as one of the best player's in team history and one of the city's favorite home-grown athletes.

Rosespent the majority of his baseball career with the Cincinnati Reds but also enjoyed stints with the Philadelphia Phillies and Montreal Expos. 

Baseball's all-time leader in hits (4,256), singles (3,215), games played (3,562), and at-bats (14,053), the Cincinnati native won a pair of World Series with the Reds, another with the Phillies, while hitting .303 for his career. 

A 17-time All-Star, Rose was also the 1973 National League MVP, the 1963 NL Rookie of the Year, and the 1975 World Series MVP. 

He returned to Cincinnati, where he finished his career as a player-manager for the Reds, hanging up his spikes as a player for good in 1986.