By Sheila McLaughlin
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Mark Hubbs, 63, of West Carrolton was chosen by councilman Jim Tarbell as the one who most looks like former Reds star Pete Rose. (Jeff Swinger photo) | ZOOM |

Mark Hubbs of West Carrollton has fooled a lot of people in his 63 years.

To his surprise - and maybe embarrassment - his dead-on resemblance to "Charlie Hustle" literally was a show-stopper in recent years at Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, Tenn., when those around him in the audience turned and began chanting "Pete, Pete, Pete, Pete!"

He's posed for pictures, been asked for autographs and even had a car pull up alongside him on the interstate outside Louisville with a sign plastered against the window inquiring, "Are you Pete Rose?"

His daughter shook her head "yes," just to toy with them.

"It's been going on since 1976. You just have to have fun with it," Hubbs said Saturday afternoon after beating 11 other contestants, including a teen-ager, in the Pete Rose look-alike contest at Findlay Market in Over-the-Rhine.

Daughter Melanie Hubbs of West Carrolltonsaid she talked him into entering the contest for one reason.

"We'd like to have the tickets," she admitted before Cincinnati City Councilman Jim Tarbell arrived to judge the competition.

Hubbs' victory carried a prize of two Opening Day tickets and a ride in Monday's Findlay Market Opening Day Parade. Before selecting Hubbs as the winner, Tarbell quipped to the small crowd of onlookers that gathered in the dreary cold: "This one's obviously a relative of some kind. This is a fix."

Leo Schwarber, a 59-year-old truck driver from Melbourne, Ky., was first runner-up. His wife, Judy, said he's been stopped for autographs countless times and even once bared his chest to a woman to prove he wasn't a Pete impersonator.

"He told her it was hairless from diving into third base," she said.

Schwarber and three other runners-up took home four tickets to Thursday's game against Pittsburgh. They are Chris Gibson of Pleasant Plain, second runner-up; John Mittermaler of Oxford, third runner-up; and Todd Nagel of Green Township, fourth runner-up.

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E-mail smclaughlin@enquirer.com