Pete Richert

Peter Gerard Richert (born October 29, 1939) is an American former professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a left-handed pitcher with the Los Angeles Dodgers (1962–64, 1972–73), Washington Senators (1965–67), Baltimore Orioles (1967–71), St. Louis Cardinals and Philadelphia Phillies (1974).

Early life Richert was born on October 29, 1939, in Floral Park, New York. He attended Sewanhaka High School,

Baseball career

Minor league In 1958, Richert was assigned to the Reno Silver Fox of the Class C California League, starting 27 of the 31 games in which he played. He played all or part of the following six years in the Dodgers' minor league system, as a starting pitcher for the most part. In 1959, he set the Class B Illinois-Indiana-Iowa League record with 18 strikeouts in a playoff game, playing for the Green Bay Blue Jays. He was the league's Rookie of the Year, and was named to a Double-A baseball All-Star Team. Richert came under the tutelage of player-manager Rube Walker in Atlanta, who greatly developed Richert's pitching skills in preparing him to pitch in the major leagues. As of 2010, Richert remains the only pitcher to record a four-strikeout inning in his Major League debut. Richert won the game in 3 innings of relief, giving up no hits or walks and striking out seven.

That year, he went 5–4 as a spot starter in a rotation led by the future Hall-of-Fame duo of Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax. In , he went 5–3 on a Dodgers team which won the World Series. Richert did not pitch in the Series, in which the Dodgers swept the New York Yankees.

Washington Senators After the season, Richert, Frank Howard, Ken McMullen, Dick Nen and Phil Ortega were traded to the Washington Senators for pitcher Claude Osteen, infielder John Kennedy and $100,000 cash. Richert's two full seasons with the Senators, and , were the two best seasons of his career as a starter. In the former he won a career-high 15 games with a 2.60 earned run average, also a career high. In the latter, Richert went 14–14 with a 3.37 ERA and set a career-high with 195 strikeouts.

Richert was also an All-Star during both seasons. In the 1965 All-Star Game, he pitched two scoreless innings, and struck out Willie Mays and Willie Stargell.

Baltimore Orioles He started ten of eleven games and was 2–6 with a 4.64 ERA before being acquired by the Baltimore Orioles from the Senators for Mike Epstein and Frank Bertaina on 29 May 1967. Richert went 7–10 with the Orioles in his final season as a starter.

In 1969, he went 7–4 with 12 saves and a 2.20 ERA, appearing in 44 games as a reliever. In 1971, Richert pitched his fewest games during the Orioles' three-year Word Series run (35), his ERA rose to 3.47 and he only had four saves.

Coaching and executive After retiring, Richert worked as a pitching coach and assistant general manager in the minor leagues for teams in the Pacific Coast League and California League. He originally became a minor league pitching coach through the recommendation of former Orioles teammate Merv Rettenmund, and did that for 14 years, 12 with the Oakland Athletics' farm system.

Post-baseball life After retiring, he worked at various jobs, including work in Palm Springs for the Winston Tire Company.

Richert created Athletes for Youth, an organization speaking to youth about the dangers of drug use; he also visited methadone treatment centers to speak with addicts.

He and his wife, Adele, have three children.