I just learned that my pen pal, Ray Peters, died on May 4. He is survived by his wife of 49 years, Janis, and two sons.<\/p>\n
Ray, who once pitched in the big leagues, was a Harvard grad. He played for the Crimson in 1967 and 1968. His former coach, Norman Shepard, thought so well of him that, in an article published on February 12, 1969, he told Al Brenholts of the Harvard Crimson student newspaper that \u201ca pitcher like Ray comes along just once in a while. He was one that could throw the ball by the hitter,\u201d continued Shepard. \u201cYou don\u2019t get a real stopper like Ray every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
For that matter, you don\u2019t get a real nice guy like Ray entering your life every day. A smart guy who could turn a phrase, he told me that getting the suits who run Major League Baseball (MLB) and the Major League Baseball Players\u2019 Association (MLBPA) to change their minds on a topic was \u201clike herding cats.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ray, who only started two games, had a lifetime Earned Run Average over 31.50. But if he\u00a0was known for anything, it\u2019s that he\u2019s one of the 200 retired ballplayers who didn\u2019t accrue 43 game days of service in MLB.<\/p>\n
Why is that significant? Because effective April 2011, retired players who weren\u2019t vested \u2014 who didn\u2019t have four years of service but who had at least 43 game days of service \u2014 were awarded $625 for every 43 game days on an active MLB roster they did get credit for.<\/p>\n
Harvard\u2019s Pete Varney, a catcher who started for the Crimson team from 1968 to 1971, and who later played for the Chicago White Sox and Atlanta Braves, falls into the latter category. Varney would do okay for himself after his time in the Show—he retired as the winningest head baseball coach at Brandeis in 2015.<\/p>\n
But men like Ray and Roy Gleason, a Purple Heart winner who the Los Angeles Dodgers trotted out before Game 2 of the 2017 World Series \u2014 don\u2019t receive ANY monies for the time they played in the majors.<\/p>\n
Ray was selected by the Seattle Pilots with the 22nd pick in the first round of the 1969 amateur draft. He had previously been drafted four other times, but didn\u2019t sign with any of those teams. When the Pilots went bankrupt, former Commissioner Bud Selig formed the Milwaukee Brewers and the 6\u20195\u201d Peters found himself pitching in the big leagues in 1970.<\/p>\n
After he hung up his spikes, Ray went into real estate lending. But even though he made a comfortable living, Ray always felt the sport he loved didn\u2019t love him back.<\/p>\n