UPDATED: April 15, 6:37 p.m.


Pete Rose, Major League Baseball’s career hits leader, is teaming up with two local businesses to open a baseball academy and brew a beer named after the Cincinnati Reds great.

Derek Hurley, owner of The Bull Pen Scouting and Training Facility in Cypress, said the first Pete Rose Hit King Baseball Academy is planned for a 20-acre plot of land located at 4256 FM 2855, about 3 miles north of Hwy. 90 in Katy.

Hurley is developing the facility and will manage it with co-owners Ryan Baker and Johnny Johnson. Rose will be heavily involved with the project, he said.

“This is kind of a legacy project for [Rose],” Hurley said. “This is a one of a kind venture where he isn’t just putting his name on it.”

The baseball academy will have four full-sized baseball fields with field-turf surface, 10 indoor batting cages, locker rooms, a film-study room and golfing bays where players can drive golf balls.

The academy will focus on training youth, high school and college players in hitting, fielding, tactics and other baseball skills. There will be several teams based at the complex for players of different skill levels, Hurley said.

“Pete wants to give back to the kids,” Hurley said.

The facility will also have a food truck court and a sports bar called The Rose Garden. Patrons will be able to watch televised sporting events and drink a new Pete Rose line of beers being brewed by Katy-based No Label Brewing Company, Hurley said.

“We’re going to [give] it an all-inclusive feel,” Hurley said. “We’re going to make this his Hall of Fame, to honor him.”

The ownership group is set to break ground on the facility this spring and expects to complete construction possibly by October, Hurley said.

Hurley, who played in the Pittsburgh Pirates organization, said he, Baker and Johnson will be teaming with No Label to make the Pete Rose line of beer, which will be served at the academy among other locations.

Jennifer Royo, co-founder of No Label, said the brewery staff and ownership are excited to be working with Rose and the baseball academy. They are still in the planning process, but hope to start releasing beers in June, she said.

“The first beer of the series will be a blonde ale,” Royo said. “It’s a good, popular style of beer. We thought it would work well with baseball.”

The blonde ale will be followed up by other types of beer, including an India Pale Ale, Royo said.

“We are expecting other types of beer,” Royo said. “One of the beers we are looking to do is an IPA. They’re working on the recipes.”

The beers will be served at the baseball academy, the No Label brewery in Katy and the Pete Rose Sports Bar and Grill in Las Vegas, Royo said. The brewery is also exploring other options for distribution, including potentially at Sugar Land Skeeters games, she said.

The names of the various beers in the Rose series have not been chosen and designs for labels are still in the works, Royo said. Rose’s iconic slide could be incorporated into the label, she said.

“We started with Hit King [as a name], but nothing has been finalized,” Royo said.

Royo said the idea to team up with the baseball academy and Rose to make the beer was a result of discussions with one of the academy’s co-owners, Johnny Johnson.

“Johnny frequents the brewery,” she said. “He thought of us and contacted us. Within two weeks, Pete Rose was here and we were doing it. We [are] extremely excited.”