My First Cards

Curly hair puffing out of the cap with a droopy mustache.

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.