- Pete Peterson (baseball)
Harding William "Pete" Peterson (born
October 17 ,1929 inPerth Amboy, New Jersey ) is an American retiredcatcher andgeneral manager inMajor League Baseball . He is the father of formerNew York Mets andOakland Athletics pitching coachRick Peterson .A graduate of
Rutgers University , where he was a full season starter on the third-placeCollege World Series team in 1950 and second-team College All American that same year, Peterson spent the first three-plus decades of his career with thePittsburgh Pirates as a minor and MLB player, minor league manager,farm system director andgeneral manager .A righthanded batter and thrower, he appeared in 65 major league games over four seasons (1955; 1957-59) and batted .273 with three
home runs in limited service, due to a two-year stint in Korea with the U.S. Army. Peterson and is also noted for appearing in the historic last games played at both thePolo Grounds andEbbets Field in September of ((by|1957. He was 2-for-5 with tworuns batted in against the Giants at the Polo Grounds, twice driving homeRoberto Clemente . His playing career was effectively ended as the result of a broken arm suffered in a home plate collision atWrigley Field in early by|1959. Later in 1959 he began his managing career at the Class B level and reached Class AAA in 1967 as skipper of the Pirates' top farm club, the Columbus Jets of theInternational League .From 1968 through 1976, he directed Pittsburgh's highly productive farm system and, when longtime general manager
Joe L. Brown retired following the 1976 campaign, Peterson succeeded him, splitting duties with longtime executive Joe O'Toole, who handled business matters. One of his first (and most noted) moves was the 1976 trade of catcherManny Sanguillen and cash to the Oakland A's for managerChuck Tanner . On Peterson's watch, the Pirates remained consistent contenders and in 1979 won theNational League pennant and defeated the favoredBaltimore Orioles in a seven-game World Series. That Bucs' team, led by Hall of Fame sluggerWillie Stargell , was augmented by two bold in-season trades made by Peterson. Frustrated withFrank Taveras ' defensive inconsistency, Peterson dealt the erratic shortstop to the Mets forTim Foli . Later in the season, he put together a package of three pitchers and acquired two-time National League batting championBill Madlock from the San Francisco Giants.The Pirates faded from contention in the early 1980s and by 1985 the team — rocked by a drug scandal among its players — was put up for sale. Peterson was fired early in the 1985 season after a series of missteps, which included the acquisitions of veterans
Amos Otis ,Gene Tenace andGeorge Hendrick . Peterson eventually joined theNew York Yankees , where he worked in their front office and served one season (1990) as the club's general manager. His firing was the last official act ofGeorge Steinbrenner before Steinbrenner's suspension from baseball as a result of the "Dave Winfield scandal."He spent the remainder of his career as a consultant/major leauge scout for both the
San Diego Padres andToronto Blue Jays organizations, and fully retired from baseball in 1995.He was inducted in the Kinston Professional Baseball Hall of Fame in 1984, as well as the Rutgers University Athletic Hall of Fame in 1997.
As of July 2008, Pete is currently in good health, resides on the
Gulf Coast ofFlorida in the Tampa area, and is an avid and talented golfer.
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