Those kind of numbers in AAA won’t typically get you back to the majors, and that proved true with John. In fact, I couldn’t find any record of John pitching anywhere after ’82, not even in Japan. He just disapppears for a few years until he became the pitching coach for the Cal State Dominguez Hills Toros in the early 1990′s

During his time in the majors though, he was a middle reliever for the Angels and Twins with a brief stop on the southside of Chicago (6 appearances). He never started a game, but the back of his card notes that on July 21, 1980, he tossed the final 8 2/3 innings of a game against the Orioles.

What the card doesn’t say, is that it was John’s 1st big league victory. Oddly, all 3 career of his career wins came in 2 month period, and almost exactly a month apart from each other—July 21, August 28, and September 21.

Having spent a little time in the majors in ’76 and ’77, 1980 was John’s first full season in The Show. Apparently he was enjoying his time, judging by the prank he pulled on Dan Quisenberry that summer by telling him Dan had been selected to the All-Star team. Here’s how Quiz described it—

“He (Verhoeven) called me — the Twins were in town — and said he was a radio guy named Josh McDowell or something, and he said I’d been picked. I got real excited and I was telling him how great it was and then he couldn’t take it anymore and he started breaking up.

Either he was a prankster, or maybe some of the veterans on the team put the young guy up to it.

The next season, 1981, John’s ERA rose very slightly (from 3.97 to 3.98) but his ERA+ dropped 11 (from 110 to 99). September 30, 1981, he threw the final 2 outs of the top of the 9th, making him the last Twins pitcher to throw outdoors in a home game…’til 2010. That’s a little over 28 years. In the world of cool coincidences, he was 28 years old at the time.

John’s final moments on a major league mound, like Rickey Keeton‘s earlier in the season, would come against the White Sox.

It was about 6 weeks after the ChiSox knocked Rickey out of the majors, when they faced John, October 4, 1981. Last game of the season, and last inning of a slugfest that wasn’t as over as the Twins manager Billy Gardner wanted it to be.

Minnesota was up 12-9, when John took the mound. He gets Wayne Nordhagen to fly out in foul territory by first base. Then he gets Marc Hill to line out to short. Everything was going fine, but that would prove to be the final out he’d ever record in the majors.

The next batter, Mike Squires, singled. He moved to 3rd on another single, by pinch hitter Bob Molinaro. After that, John was replaced by Twins closer Doug Corbett. Corbett gave up 4 runs without getting anybody out. One’s got to think John could’ve gotten 1 more out…

He just wasn’t pulling off the Oscar Gamble or the Rollie Fingers look very well. His gaze looks sad, like he lost something and knows he’ll never get it back.

Pete Redfern was drafted in the 1st round in 1976 and began playing in the majors that same spring. 1979 proved to be his best season, putting together a 7-3 record and 3.49 ERA represent career highs in winning percentage and ERA. He was 26% better than the average pitcher that season for an 82-80 Twins club. The key to his season seems to be in the 7.1 K’s per 9 IP and 2.9 BB’s per 9 IP.

He couldn’t seem to build on that though. In ’80, his ERA rose over a full run. While his walk rate stayed about the same, his strikeout rate slipped a little. Then in ’81 his walks grew and strikeouts slipped a little more. His ERA went down to 4.07 that year, but…he definitely lost something.

On opening day of the Twins ’82 season, he was pegged to start the first game in the Twins new stadium against the lowly Seattle Mariners. By the 5th inning, Pete had faced 21 batters, given up 5 ER, and only struck out 2 batters.

What most people don’t know about though, is what happens next. His next two starts in the Metrodome were against the powerful California Angels and Detroit Tigers lineups.

He beats California by tossing a complete game and allowing just 1 run. Only 3 Angels even made it to 2nd base, and he finished that game by striking out Doug DeCinces confidently. He went down looking.

Then beats Detroit by allowing just 1 ER over 6 IP. He even struck out 6 Tigers and only walked 1. Only 2 Tigers made it at least to 2nd Base while Redfern pitched.

That was the old Pete on the mound there. He found whatever it was he lost & gave us one more glimpse of what he had.

The rest of his season was downhill from there though. He ended up with an ERA over 6, and released the following spring before the ’83 season began. His final appearance in the majors was in Baltimore on September 5, 1982. He’d only ever played for one organization in baseball, the Minnesota Twins.

By 1982, the Minnesota Twins had to look to the future. The previous season was their worst since 1957, when they were the Washington Senators. If that wasn’t worrisome enough, they started ’82 going 15-52 (.224 Winning %). The franchise had been crumbling slowly since 1975, when stars Tony Oliva retired and Harmon Killebrew was released. The Twins tried to hang on, only to remain a mediocre team for the remainder of the 1970′s, trying to keep their head above water (also known as .500).

Behind the scenes, while they were trying to stave off losing seasons, they were busy selecting their future Championship team in the amateur drafts. In 1978 they selected both Lenny Faedo and homegrown Minnesotoan Kent Hrbek. The next year, they signed Randy Bush, Gary Gaetti, & Tim Laudner. In 1980, they’d select Jim Reed and Jim Eisenreich. 1981 saw the Twins grab Frank Viola & Steve Lombardozzi. In ’82, the Twinkies found Kirby Puckett.

Most of these draft picks played an important part in the Twins 1987 championship season. Even Jim Reed, who wasn’t a Twin for the ’87 season, was part of a trade for Jeff Reardon in February ’87.

But in 1982, the first season in the Metrodome, that championship season didn’t happen yet and nobody knew if it would ever happen. They had to look at their young future stars as their hope for the future, and their biggest hopes at the time were the three players on this card—Lenny Faedo, Kent Hrbek, and Tim Laudner. They’d all played a little before 1981 but it wasn’t until May 29, 1982 that they would all play together in the same major league game.

Shortstop Lenny Faedo turned out to be the least talented of the three. He only played ’til April 22, 1984 in Minnesota, before wandering 2 more years in the minors for 5 different organizations. 1982 was the only season he didn’t spend any time in the minor leagues. Defensively he was a -7.3 total fielding runs above average. I’m not too familiar with that stat, but that does not sound good at all. On September 19 in the Metrodome against the Royals, he had a fine 3 for 4 day, scoring a run in a Twins victory.

First Baseman Kent Hrbek is the star of this card. Not just because his last name starts off with the abbreviation for “home run” (HR), but because he was one of the best Twins ever to play the game. This card is actually known as his rookie card because of that. He had a career OPS+ of 128 over 14 seasons, playing a key role for 2 Championship teams, and produced a career batting line of .282/.367/.481/.848. He was a star from day one, being 2nd to Cal Ripken Jr in the 1982 Rookie of The Year voting but could’ve easily won it. Hrbek’s numbers were significantly better than Ripken’s in AVG, OBP, SLG, OPS, and BB’s. Cal held a slight edge in R’s (+8), HR’s (+5), and RBI’s (+1), while playing a full 20 games more for a team with a lot better offense around him. What was probably most important to Hrbek after all was said and done though, was that he helped his hometown team win championships.

As for Tim Laudner, he was one of the Twins main catchers for almost a decade. He played in all 7 games of the 1987 World Series and hit great off the Cardinals pitching. He smacked a HR, drove in 4 runs, and got on base at a .444 pace. The highlight of his 1982 season would probably be a trip to Boston just before the All-Star break. On July 10-11, he went 6 for 8 and scored 4 runs.

The back of the card isn’t all that interesting—