Updating Meet the Brewers #33: Ray Peters

My love of history compels me to write about Brewers history. As a kid and as I've mentioned in the past, one of my favorite "books" to read was the Milwaukee Brewers media guide. I pored over those guides, memorizing players' full names (like James Elmer Gantner, for example). 

The one section I especially loved was the Brewers all-time roster. In those days before I had access to a Baseball Encyclopedia -- you know, the old 8-pound behemoth that perhaps was last issued in 1996 by Simon & Schuster after first being published in 1969 by Macmillan -- I was left only with the name of a player and the notation of what year(s) he played for the Milwaukee franchise. Names like Bob Coluccio and Dave May jumped off the page, but even names like Dick Selma, Bruce Brubaker, and, yes, Ray Peters stuck with me.

It's what led me to my "Meet the Brewers" posts. When I started them, I guess I did not think that any of the players I was writing about would actually read the posts. Why would they? I mean, it's just some Brewers fanboy writing, right?

And then I wrote about Ray Peters. If you have not read that installment, the short story on Ray is that he was drafted five times before he finally signed a professional contract. That happened because Ray was finishing up his degree at Harvard. He debuted the very next season in the major leagues -- 1970 -- and made two starts. But after suffering injury problems and being traded to the Phillies organization, he called it quits after the 1971 season. 

Writing about Ray was a very fortuitous undertaking. It led to Ray and me exchanging multiple emails and my getting to hear great stories about walking Al Kaline, meeting Arnold Palmer when Arnie redesigned Ray's local golf course, and his dinner with Jorge Luis Borges, the famous Argentine writer, poet, and essayist.

Oh, and a few stories about his classmates at Harvard -- Al Gore, Tommy Lee Jones, Chris Wallace, and the late Gram Parsons.

And, did I mention his internship with G. H. Walker & Sons brokerage firm on Wall Street? G.H. Walker, Jr. -- a/k/a Herbie -- was the second generation leader of the firm at the time, and Herbie was the one who told Ray that the Mets had drafted him in 1968. That led to Ray going to Shea at the All-Star break and meeting Gil Hodges, Yogi Berra, and later teammate Greg Goossen, among others. Herbie's nephew ended up doing pretty well for himself, what with getting elected as Vice President in 1980 and President in 1988.

There's tons more that I've learned about Ray. He's an incredibly interesting guy to correspond with -- and one who even has ties to one of the guys who is a player collection for me. Indeed, one of Ray's roommates in Clinton is the Brewers all-time leader in victories: Jim Slaton.

But I'm rambling now.

Ray also was incredibly kind enough to indulge me a bit. He sent me some great custom cards of him.

Let's start, though, with the photo of Ray with Bob Lemon:

Next, in honor of his time in major league camp in 1969, Ray has this 1969 Topps-style card:

The back of this card is awesome. Rather than describe it, let me show it to you:

For whatever reason, I've always like those sleeve cuffs. Because they carried over to the early years of the Brewers -- along with the color scheme, which Bud Selig had wanted to change to red and black to mirror his old Braves -- many of the early Brewers photos show players with those same sleeves. After all, ole Bud wouldn't get rid of all those uniforms that the team had paid for already!

Like this one, on a 1970 Topps-style card:

I guess this card looks strange to me because it is literally the first 1970 Topps card of a 1970 Brewers player that I have ever seen in my life. Sure, the style was resurrected by people like Baseball Cards Magazine in the early 1990s and had Robin Yount and Paul Molitor on it, but having Ray is just better. 

Of course, the 1971 design -- with the bold black borders that are nearly impossible to find in perfect condition -- are still a big fan favorite. It appears that Ray agrees, having two different cards in that style:



The one on the right is especially cool, since that 1971 set featured the facsimile signatures on them. I think, though, that the card on the left is closer to the actual fonts used. Both of them are awesome.

They are not my favorites though. My two favorites are based on completely different card sets altogether:

The 1956 Topps cards were such a well-designed card. An action shot along with a portrait is just a great look. This one is particularly cool because the action shot featured on the card is from Ray's minor league season in Triple-A Portland in 1970, and it is the photo of his teammates congratulating him on hitting a grand slam (using Floyd Wicker's bat, in fact!). This is a Bobw card, of course.

But, my absolute favorite is this one:

This card is in the style of a set from which I actually still have most of the cards. In 1983, Renata Galasso issued a Seattle Pilots set. For a couple bucks extra, you could get card #1 autographed by "infamous" author, Jim Bouton. I had read Ball Four twice by the time this set came out, and I talked my mom into buying it for me along with the complete sets from Topps, Donruss, and Fleer from that year. It wasn't a cheap buy -- probably $50 or $60 for all of those together -- but considering how that year's rookies turned out, it was worth it. 

Still, because of that purchase, I love this set. It's weird, it's strange, and it's perfect for the 1969 Pilots. 

Ray is a great guy, and he is willing to sign cards or possibly send you a thing or two about him. He even said I could share his address -- he truly loves the game of baseball! Here's his address:

Ray Peters
11013 Southerland Drive
Denton, TX 76207

And, since no post would be complete without a little music, how about "Return of The Grievous Angel" by Ray's departed classmate, Gram Parsons:




Many thanks to Ray for indulging my curiosity about him, for sending me cards, and for being so giving of his time. 

Meet the Brewers #33: Ray Peters

Not everyone who plays major league baseball has a long career. Of the nearly 19,000 men who have been catalogued as playing major league baseball by Baseball-Reference.com, just over 1,000 players have clocked only one major league game. Now, it's very possible that that number will slip back under one thousand should a few of the 20 players who debuted in the past two years get another at bat, inning in the field, or one-third of an inning on the mound. 

One such player who did not qualify as a single-game wonder but who only got to pitch in two games is Brewers player #33, Ray Peters. Peters was called up to major league club from Triple-A Portland to make his debut start on June 4, 1970. He threw two innings and gave up 6 hits, 4 earned runs, 3 walks, and a strikeout in facing 15 batters before being pulled from the game after giving up a run-scoring single to Ray Fosse.

Four days later, Dave Bristol handed Peters the ball again against the Detroit Tigers. Peters's teammates handed him a 2-run lead in the top of the first inning as well. Peters had a very short leash, however. He gave up a single to Dick McAuliffe followed by walks to Elliott Maddox and Al Kaline. Bristol came out, took the ball and Skip Lockwood came in. Lockwood came in and struck out Norm Cash before giving up a grand slam to Willie Horton -- 1 run to Lockwood's ledger and 3 to Peters's. The walk to Kaline, though, was the last time that Peters would appear in a major-league game.

1994 Miller Commemorative Set

At the time, though, Raymond James Peters probably did not know that walking a Hall of Famer would be his last act as a major leaguer. Or, maybe he did. Peters is a very smart man -- a graduate of Harvard University, in fact -- but I don't think that being smart means one can foretell the future. But, being intelligent like Peters is may have led him to be more willing to give up more quickly on the dream of major league baseball. Of course, like most players whose career ended earlier than anticipated, he blamed injuries a lot for poor performance -- as he asked for being injury free as the one thing he would change about his career when interviewed in 2012 by the Baseball Historian blog.

Thanks to all the various draft phases that were in play in the late 1960s through the 1980s, Peters bears the distinction of having been drafted five times before finally signing a pro baseball contract. The Detroit Tigers drafted him in the 28th round of the 1965 June Draft. 

Then, the Kansas City Athletics picked him in the 5th round of the 1967 June Secondary Draft after his sophomore year at Harvard. The A's liked what they saw and wanted to sign Peters, but Peters wanted his degree and stayed in school. So, the A's picked him again in the 2nd round of the 1968 January Secondary draft. Peters still wasn't interested in signing for whatever money was on offer at that point, so he was available again in the 1968 June Secondary Draft and was selected in the 3rd round by the New York Mets.

Even then, Peters did not sign. Only after the Seattle Pilots selected him in the 1st round of the January Secondary Draft during Peters's senior year did Peters finally sign a professional contract. The Harvard Crimson newspaper lamented the loss of their ace pitcher to pro baseball. His former coach, Norm Shepard, was quoted as saying that Peters's signing was a "tremendous blow to Harvard baseball." 

For his part (from the February 22, 1969 The Sporting News), GM Marvin Milkes was very happy about signing Peters, noting that Peters would complete his senior year of college and get his degree in South American History before reporting. Not coincidentally, the Pilots had hired former A's director of personnel Ray Swallow -- who was responsible for the A's having selected Peters twice before. Peters rose quickly to the majors, yet he faded away just as fast.

After his major league debut, Peters went back to Triple-A Portland and finished out the 1970 season. He stayed in the Milwaukee organization until April of 1971, at which point he was traded along with C/1B Pete Koegel in exchange for a man who became a minor star in a Brewers uniform -- John Briggs.

Peters has embraced his time with the Pilots organization greatly. In 2015, he made a trip from his home in Texas to Cooperstown for his first visit to the Baseball Hall of Fame. For the trip, he was decked out in a Seattle Pilots polo shirt. 

The one thing I don't know is what Peters did with his life after baseball. In hobby circles, though, Peters may be known to you if you read Bobw's blog. Bobw has been friends with Peters for many years, and Peters has helped Bobw to get in touch with Peters's former teammates to get autographs. All Bobw does is make several custom cards for the player, some of which the player can keep and others that the former player will return autographed. Search for Ray Peters on Bobw's website and you'll see what I mean.

The thing about having a two-game career, though, is that you don't have many baseball cards of you issued. That was true for Ray Peters as well -- the 1994 Miller Brewers set featuring everyone ever to wear a Brewers uniform to that date is the only card of Peters that the Trading Card Database has. Bobw has made a number of custom cards, of course, but I don't have any of those of Peters.