Harding Peterson
1929-2019
With Chuck Tanner at Three Rivers Stadium
The picture that I wanted to post of Pete Peterson, who died a few days ago at the age of 89, at the top of this entry is one that I could not find. Google Images gives you old pictures of Peterson from his playing days as a Pittsburgh Pirate and plenty of photos of his Pirates teams, most notably the 1979 team, but the photo that I really wanted was one of Peterson holding that 1979 World Series Trophy in that post-Game 7 locker room in Baltimore, or holding that same trophy at the celebration a few days later in Market Square (I was there!!). That is the picture I wanted, because it would have depicted something that we Pirates fans may well never see again: A Pirates General Manager who built a World Series Champion holding the tangible evidence of such a triumph.
Signed by the Pirates out of Rutgers University in 1950, Peterson had an injury curtailed and lackluster career as a player (only 66 games and 185 plate appearances over four seasons). He went on to become a scout and minor league manager for the Pirates, and worked has way up to being the Farm Director for the team. In that role, he was responsible for the development of many of the players who formed the core of the Pirates 1971 World Series Champs (Willie Stargell, Al Oliver, Richie Hebner, Dave Cash, Steve Blass). When Joe L. Brown retired as Pirates GM in 1976, Peterson became the GM.
An article in the Tribune-Review today by John Steigerwald noted that this might have been the last time in history when all teams competed on a level playing field. Free Agency was just about to become a fact of life in MLB, but as GM, Peterson was able to make deals, a trade with the A's for manager Chuck Tanner in 1976, and early season trades in 1979 for Tim Foli and Bill Madlock, that built teams that contended for division titles in 1977-78, and won a World Series in 1979.
Not long after that wonderful season, it became apparent that the Pirates were to become one of those teams on the wrong side of MLB's financial tracks. Peterson, grasped at straws with some signings of aging over-the-hill veterans (Amos Otis, Gene Tenace, George Hendrick), signings that didn't work out (and that were to become hallmark of the franchise for the next twenty years or so). When the Baseball Drug Trials bombshell landed in Pittsburgh in 1985, that spelled the end of the Peterson Era in Pirates history.
Peterson stayed in baseball, scouting for a couple of other teams, and even being GM of the Yankees for one season in 1990. The pinnacle of his career, though, was that 1979 We Are Fam-a-lee World Series winning Pirates team. Pete Peterson lived for forty more years and neither he nor the Pirates and their fans ever saw another Pirates GM achieve what he did.
RIP Harding Peterson.
Peterson as a player
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