Obituary: Jeff Peterek (1963-2023)

RIP to Jeff Peterek, a right-handed pitcher who spent the last two months of the 1989 season with the Milwaukee Brewers. He died on October 8 in Niles, MI, from natural causes. He was 60 years old.

Jeffrey Allen Peterek was born in Michigan City, IN, on September 22, 1963 — his family-placed obituary states 1962 as his birth year, but all of his baseball-related information uses the 1963 date. He was known for a strong arm at River Valley High School of Three Oaks, MI, where he was the quarterback of the football team and a pitcher on the baseball team. When he was a senior in 1980, he no-hit New Buffalo 11-0, with 12 of the 15 outs coming via the strikeout. He also was one of the top pitchers on an American Legion Post 163 team that went 49-13 in 1980 and won the state championship.

After high school, Peterek attended Lake Michigan College in 1982 and Western Kentucky University in 1983. That summer, he joined the Twin City Collegians, a team in the Michiana Amateur Baseball League. The team won the district title, and Peterek set a team record with 129 strikeouts in 109 innings while turning in a 12-3 record. He spent 1984 at Mary Hardin-Baylor College in Belton, TX, and ended up leading the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics in strikeouts with 134. Peterek later explained that his movement from one college to the next was due in part to try and catch the eye of scouts. Michigan’s spring weather just wasn’t conducive to playing baseball. Peterek noted that his LMC team had seven doubleheaders that were snowed out. “I just kept moving south for the weather, trying to get more games,” he said in a 1988 interview. “A lot of good players never get seen in the north unless they play at a big school. The scouts have to go where there are a lot of games.”

Peterek failed to attract any attention from pro teams after pitching in Texas and headed back to the Collegians in the summer of 1985. He was there just a short time before he was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Milwaukee Brewers, thanks to minor-league manager Dave Machemer. Machemer was a former major-leaguer and played on a semipro team with Peterek. When he heard that the pitcher went undrafted, he signed Peterek for his own team, the Beloit Brewers of the Midwest League.

“He led the NAIA in strikeouts and nobody drafted him. Crazy,” Machemer said. Peterek immediately went about making his manager look like a genius. In 14 games, which included 11 starts, the pitcher won 6 of 8 decisions and sported a 2.88 ERA. He struck out 64 batters in 75 innings and picked up a couple of saves, too. Both pitcher and manager moved up to the Stockton Ports of the Class-A California League in 1986, and they continued to be very successful. Peterek led the league with 15 wins and was named the California League Pitcher of the Year. The Ports won the league championship, and Machemer gave plenty of credit to his find. “The guy was just outstanding,” he said of Peterek. “He just had a phenomenal year and I’m real happy for him. At one point he won nine straight games for us. I’m sure he’ll be promoted.”

Machemer was right. Peterek started 1987 with El Paso in Double-A, but he struggled and was returned to Stockton. He recovered to win 11 games for the Ports and returned to El Paso in 1988. This time, Peterek went 7-1 for the Diablos and was promoted to Triple-A Denver. Peterek had a fastball that sat in the mid-80s, but he had good control and an array of offspeed pitches that included a forkball and slider. He won 7 more games for Denver, including shutouts in his first two Triple-A starts. He continued to pitch well in Denver in 1989, and when the Brewers sent struggling pitcher Don August to the minors in August, Peterek was promoted to the major leagues.

Peterek’s first career appearance was a start against the New York Yankees on August 14, 1989. It was a thrilling game that the Brewers won 5-4 by scoring 3 runs off closer Dave Righetti in the ninth inning. Peterek’s performance was lost in the excitement of the come-from-behind victory, but he pitched a great game. He gave up a run in the first inning on a RBI groundout by Don Mattingly, but retired 16 of 17 batters in one stretch and used his offspeed pitches to record 12 groundball outs. He allowed 2 hits over 7 innings and walked 3 batters while striking out 4. He was removed in the eighth inning after walking leadoff batter Roberto Kelly, who later scored. Peterek walked off the mound to a standing ovation from the Brewers fans, including two dozen members of his family who came from Michigan to watch the debut.

“I’m just glad I got the opportunity to come up here,” Peterek said. “I’m the type of pitcher who has to change speeds, mix things up, and try to keep hitters off balance to take the sting out of their at-bats and get the groundball outs. I’m not the kind of guy who’s going to blow to ball past hitters and get a lot of strikeouts.”

This 1990 Brewers team card may be for Tom Filer, but that’s Jeff Peterek on the front.

(Peterek’s debut was a bright spot for a thoroughly mediocre Brewers team that finished the year with an 81-81 record. It was a memorable game for the Yankees and manager Dallas Green, too. When Green was interviewed after the loss, he cracked, “What do you expect when you don’t have scouts on the road?” The Yankees, under owner George Steinbrenner, had pulled the team’s advance scouts in a cost-saving measure, much to the manager’s displeasure. Green was fired days later after he and Steinbrenner engaged in a war of words in the New York papers.)

Peterek’s stuff was good enough to baffle the Boston Red Sox in his next start. He worked 6-1/3 innings, and his only mistake was a solo homer to Nick Esasky. He left with a no-decision, and Boston went on to win 3-1 in 14 innings. Peterek was roughed up by Toronto and Seattle in his next starts and was saddled with the loss in both games. When August gave way to September, he was moved to the bullpen, where he had an additional 3 appearances. He pitched 11-2/3 innings and had a 2.53 ERA out of the pen. In his last appearance on September 22, he threw 4-2/3 innings in a 7-3 loss to Toronto and gave up a run on 6 hits. It was Peterek’s 26th birthday. He finished the season with an 0-2 record and a 4.02 ERA in 7 games, four of which were starts. In 31-1/3 innings, he walked 14 and struck out 16, and he had a 97 ERA+ and a 1.436 WHIP.

Peterek returned to Denver in 1990 and made just 6 starts and 3 bullpen appearances. He was 2-3 with a 6.82 ERA before being released by the Brewers in August. He pitched in a handful of games as a reliever for the Atlanta Braves’ Triple-A affiliate in Richmond and also played in Mexico in 1991. He became a free agent at the end of the season and retired at the age of 27.

After baseball, Peterek returned to Michigan and operated Field of Dreams Real Estate for several years. He is survived by his mother, sister, and a large extended family.