Pete Peterson (baseball)

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Harding William "Pete" Peterson (born October 17, 1929 in Perth Amboy, New Jersey) is an American retired catcher and general manager in Major League Baseball. He is the father of New York Mets pitching coach Rick Peterson.

A graduate of Rutgers University, Peterson spent the first three-plus decades of his career with the Pittsburgh Pirates as a minor and MLB player, minor league manager, farm system director and general 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. 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 the International 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. On his watch, the 1979 Pirates won the National League pennant and defeated the favored Baltimore Orioles in a seven-game World Series. That Bucs' team, led by Hall of Fame slugger Willie Stargell, was one of the most colorful clubs of its era, taking as its theme song the disco anthem We Are Family by Sister Sledge.

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 left for the New York Yankees, where he worked in their front office and served one season (1990) as the club's general manager.

He was inducted in the Kinston Professional Baseball Hall of Fame in 1984.

Preceded by Joe L. Brown	Pittsburgh Pirates General Manager 1976–1985	Succeeded by Joe L. Brown
Preceded by Bob Quinn	New York Yankees General Manager 1990	Succeeded by Gene Michael