Pete Richert – Oh What a Night

I have been thinking of several current articles I want to write on Rob Manfred or the most recent agreement among the Players Union and the owners, but time just won’t allow, as I’m navigating through uncharted waters with my law practice and getting myself set up with more of a virtual office that will allow me to conduct depositions and mediations remotely.    A lot more involved with that than I could ever imagine.   As a result, I have been short on time and will save those articles for another day, if someone else doesn’t tackle them first.  Instead, I’m providing this post on Pete Richert, who had, arguably, one of the most electric debuts of any pitcher in Dodger history (there are many who would argue in favor of Karl Spooner).   I will confess to the fact that most of this post has come from other sources, as my research time has been limited.  

On April 12, 1962, one week prior to my 11th birthday, Pete Richert made his major league debut against the Cincinnati Reds.   I was listening to the game on my transistor radio.   Richert entered the game in the top of the bottom of the second inning, with two outs and a runner on second.   The Reds had already scored four runs in the inning.   Stan Williams started for the Dodgers and couldn’t find the plate.   In his 1.2 innings, Williams had surrendered 2 hits and 4 walks, including a 3 run double by Eddie Kasko.    The batter was Vada Pinson, the Cincinnati Reds center fielder who would bat .292 with 100 RBIs on the season after having hit .343 in 1961.    Richert ended the inning, by getting Pinson to strike out swinging.    The first batter faced the first strikeout of his career.  But Richert wasn’t done.   In the third inning, Richert struck out four consecutive Reds: Frank Robinson, Gordy Coleman (who reached first base on a passed ball by catcher Johnny Roseboro), Wally Post and Johnny Edwards.   In the top of the fourth, Richert struck out the first hitter, outfielder Tommy Harper, for his sixth consecutive strikeout.   No one before Pete Richert had opened his pitching career by striking out the first six major league batters he faced.   And no one else has done it since.   On that day, Richert pitched a total of 3.1 hitless, scoreless innings, striking out seven Reds batters. He held the Reds hitless in his 3_ innings of relief and became the winning pitcher after the Dodgers scored seven runs in the fifth inning.  He threw 40 pitches to the 12 batters he faced and only seven were called balls, as he retired all 12 in a row.   His brilliant debut did not go to waste. The Dodgers scored seven runs in the bottom of the sixth, taking a 7‑4 lead in a game Los Angeles would eventually win by a score of 11‑7.   As an aside, the relief pitcher that finished the game for the Reds was Johnny Klippstein, who had pitched for the Dodgers in 1958-59, after being acquired by the Dodgers in a trade with the Reds for Don Newcombe.   The Dodgers also received Steve Bilko (who was an earlier version of Greg Brock) in the trade.  The Dodgers sold Klippstein to the Indians in 1960 and a few years later, he made his way back to the Reds.    The only reason I mention this is because I liked Klippstein when he pitched for the Dodgers in 1959.   

Richert is the only pitcher to record a four‑strikeout inning in his Major League debut. He also set a Major League record by retiring 12 consecutive batters, the most by a pitcher making his MLB debut as a reliever; Max Scherzer would break this record in 2008 by retiring 13 consecutive batters.

Peter Gerard Richert was born on October 29, 1939, in Floral Park, New York.   His father, Edward, had been a catcher on the Columbia University varsity and played semipro ball on Long Island. Edward died when the young pitcher was 15.   There had been a close relationship between the two. “He was a Yankee fan and so was I,” Richert said. “He used to take me to Yankee Stadium when I was a kid.   Like millions of kids who go to Yankee Stadium through the years, I imagined myself out there pitching. You know how kids are. My father actually believed I’d make it someday to the big leagues and that I would be pitching in Yankee Stadium. Life does some funny tricks.

In high school Richert was rather short, standing 5‑feet‑7 and weighing 150 pounds.   By the time he reached the major leagues, he was 5′ 11″ and weighed 165 pounds.   Despite his stature, he was very tough.   Richart helped lead Sewanhaka High in Floral Park to the Long Island championship in his senior year.     He also pitched in the Babe Ruth League and the Connie Mack division, for older teenagers, where he was scouted by Los Angeles Dodgers, the New York Yankees, and the Milwaukee Braves.    Ultimately, it was the Dodgers’ Al Campanis and Charlie Russo signed Richert for a$2,000 bonus.   After graduating from high school it was onto the minor leagues.   Richert first pitched for the Reno Silver Sox of the California League.   As an 18-year-old, he handled himself pretty well, starting 27 games and going 10‑13 with a 4.59 earned‑run average along with 215 strikeouts in 200 innings.    As most young lefties, he was also a bit wild, as he walked 143 batters.

In 1959, Richert pitched for the Green Bay Bluejays of the Class B Three‑I League.   He was 10-8, with 173 Ks in 156 innings.  He also cut his walks down to 99 and lowered his ERA to 3.29. At Double‑A Atlanta in 1960, he had a breakout season, leading the Southern Association in victories (19), shutouts (6), complete games (18), and strikeouts (a league‑record 251). He lost nine games. He added a 20th victory in the playoffs. He was named to the Southern Association All‑Star team and the National Association’s Double‑A All‑Star team. He was selected as the minor leaguer showing the greatest improvement during the 1960 season.

In 1961, Richert was moved up to the Triple‑A Spokane Indians.  Unfortunately, he was sidelined the first six weeks of the season with arm troubles.    He did come back to finish 5‑10 with a 4.50 ERA in 21 starts.

He stuck with the Dodgers after spring training in 1962 but despite his record‑breaking April 12 debut, Richert could not crack the Dodgers’ starting rotation of Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, Johnny Podres, and Stan Williams and two months into the season he was demoted to Omaha, where he experienced a career‑threatening crisis.  While pitching for Omaha, “My arm snapped,” Richert told The Sporting News. “I threw a pitch and the arm felt like it was broken. I was afraid to throw after that. I babied the arm. One day, [manager Danny Ozark] handed me the ball. ‘Pete, he said, this is it. If you’re going to pitch big‑league ball, let’s find out right now. Throw as hard as you can. If the arm snaps, goodbye. If it doesn’t, you’re free of this fear. Now throw as hard as you can.’ I guess it was like a drowning man reviewing his life. I was 22 years old. All my life I wanted to be a major‑league pitcher. My dad did too. It was his dream, his great ambition for me. He died before I made it to the big leagues. It was his faith that got me started in the first place. All this went through my mind. I told Danny I was ready. I fired as hard as I could. Nothing happened. I felt great. I risked my baseball life on that one pitch. I won.”   Eventually recalled by the Dodgers, Richert wound up getting 12 starts and had a decent rookie season going 5‑4 record with a 3.87 ERA. He struck out 75 batters in 81.1 innings.  The Dodgers blew a first‑place lead and were tied by the San Francisco Giants. Then the Giants won the pennant in a three‑game playoff.

Richert would win only seven more games for the Dodgers over the next two seasons.   Following the 1964 season, he was traded with Frank Howard, Ken McMullen and Phil Ortega to the Washington Senators for John Kennedy, Claude Osteen and $100,000.  With Washington, Richert became the team’s ace starter, going 15‑12 (with a 2.60 ERA) in 1965.   He also had a game wherein he struck out 7 batters in a row.  

Washington traded Richert to the Orioles in 1967.   During his five‑year stay in Baltimore, Richert became one of the American League’s best left‑handed relievers.   In 1969 and 1970, pitching for a Baltimore Orioles team that won back‑to‑back American League pennants, Pete Richert was outstanding out of the Orioles’ bullpen, going 14‑6 with 25 saves and a 2.09 ERA.   The Orioles also won the American League pennant in 1971.  During those 3 years, Richert was a prominent member of their strong and flexible bullpen.   The 1970 season was Richert’s best as a reliever. Throwing his fastball 90 percent of the time, he was 7-2, saved 13, and had a 1.98 ERA.   He recorded the save for Jim Palmer in Game 1 of the World Series and the Orioles went on to defeat Cincinnati in five games.  Richert’s numbers slipped in 1971: 3‑5 with a 3.47 ERA and four saves.   In 1972 he was back in Los Angeles, having been traded to the Dodgers with Frank Robinson in a six‑player deal. In the following two seasons with the Dodgers, he had 13 saves.   Before the 1974 season, the Dodgers traded Richert to the St. Louis Cardinals for Tommy Agee. In June the Cardinals sent him along to the Philadelphia Phillies. He pitched sparingly for both teams. After the season Richert was found to have a blood clot in his pitching arm, and his career ended. He was 35 years old.

After he retired, Richert Pete started an organization called Athletes for Youth, which sought to educate young athletes about the dangers of drugs.   Richert would also visit methadone treatment centers and speak with addicts.

Richert also served as a pitching coach and assistant GM for many teams in the Pacific Coast League and the California League from 1989 to 2001. He and his wife, Adele, raised three children and as near as I can tell he lives in Rancho Mirage, California.

•      I also want to make a plea to Bear for him to write a post wherein he chronicles his life in music combined with his love for the Dodgers.   What say ye all? 

•      My song for the day, with apologies to The Four Seasons (particularly Bob Gaudio and his wife Judy Parker, who wrote the song together):

Oh, what a night

Early April back in sixty‑two

What a very special time for me

As I remember what a night.

Oh, what a night

You know the fans didn’t even know my name

But I was never gonna be the same

What a game, what a night.

Oh, I got a special feelin’ when I walked to the mound

Yeah as I recall it ended much too soon.

Oh, what a night

Hypnotizin’, mesmerizing the hitters

It was everything that I dreamed it would be

the Reds laid down their bats down for me, oh what a night.

I felt a rush like the ball was quicker than thunder

Spinnin’ their bats around ‘n’ keeping their heads a shaking

Oh what a night.

Oh I got a special feelin’ when I walked to the mound

Yeah as I recall it ended much too soon.

Oh what a night, why’d it take so long for Alston to see the light

Williams was so wrong, I quickly made it right

What a game, and what a night.

Oh, I felt a rush like my ball was quicker than thunder

Spinnin’ their bats around ‘n’ keeping their heads a shaking

Oh what a night (do do do do do, do do do do do)

Oh what a night (do do do do do, do do do do do)

Oh what a night (do do do do do, do do do do do)

Oh what a night (do do do do do, do do do do do

This article has 42 Comments

  1. VG column 2D2. I remember Pete Richert and Phil Ortega. Somehow always thought of them as twins, much like Roger Craig and Don Bessent . Craig and Bessent debuted on the same date in 1955 starting both ends of a double header each earning a win over Cincinnati. Craig’s was a complete game.

    I can recall thinking the five-player trade to Washington for two was not a very good trade. Although I really missed Howard I really liked Claude Osteen.

    1. Hey DC,, and 2D2. Good to see you guys up and functioning at a high level. Richert’s debut came about 2 months before my 14th birthday. I was also listening to that game. I was never a huge Stan Williams fan. So when Alston pulled him, I thought it was too late. But they did come back and win. Williams of course was the pitcher who blew the lead in game 3 of the playoffs. At first I hated that trade. I was a huge Howard fan, but they needed starting pitching, and Osteen turned into one of the best they had over the next few years. Richert was not the only player in that trade who later returned to LA. Ken McMullen was traded back to the Dodgers after the 72 season from the Angels with Andy Messersmith for Robinson, Grabarkewitz, Strahler, Singer and a kid named Valentine. He was part of the 1974 NL Champs. Ya missed a piece of that trade there 2D2….the Dodgers also sent Dick Nen, who hit a game winning homer in St Louis in 63 that helped the Dodgers sweep a critical series, to the Senators in Dec of 64. Happened about 8 days after the trade was made. Talking of twins, I always thought of Roebuck and Labine like that. Only Dodger who pitched on the 59 team that I never was able to get a baseball card of was Chuck Churn. Churn went 3-2 on the year in 14 games, all as a reliever. He pitched 2/3 of an inning in game 1 of the World Series and gave up 5 runs. His ERA for the series was 27.00. He was in the minors the following season and pitched until 1967. Had a 18 year career in the minors. Won 99 games. I will think about that post you have suggested 2D2. DC, are you still considering collecting cards after you retire? If so, send me an email with your address to my email, azdodgerfan@yahoo.com. I have some Dodger doubles I will send to you…..

      1. I think Nen was a player to be named later in that trade.

        Bear – I have been retired for 21 years. My birthday was two weeks ago and I am now starting to work on my 80th year.

        I have pretty much given up collecting mostly because of free agency. I would start a nice collection of a player and before I knew it he was gone to another team.

        My biggest collection for a single player is not a Dodger. He is my favorite non-Dodger. Tony Gywnn is first followed by Al Kaline. I have 306 Gywnn cards.

        1. wow…….I totally get that. I love my Brooklyn cards, and I get reprints because the real thing cost a mint. I just found a 1960 Fleer HOF card of Ducky Medwick. And the other cards I really like are the Topps heritage cards. They put today’s players on the older designs. Have a lot of cards with players in the 59 version, which was my favorite. Have a Kemp card that is in the design of the 1954 Topps. Yeah, Nen was named later. I remember listening to that game in St Louis in 63. Dodgers and Cards trailing 5-4 in the ninth., and Nen comes up and boom, hits that homer. I almost fell out of bed. If I remember right they won in the 13th inning. That was Nen’s only hit in a Dodger uni. His kid was a relief pitcher if memory serves.

        2. My current favorite non-Dodgers are Buster Posey and Paul Goldsmith, (ducking). 2D2….very good write-up, thank you. Learned some interesting facts about Pete Richert. Looking forward to your article on Ron Manfred.

        1. Willie Stargell is the only player to hit a HR out of Dodger Stadium twice. I was at both of those games. He hit the first one off of Alan Foster. It landed on the RF Pavilion roof and went out of the park. The other? He hit if off of Messersmith. Pretty much the same result. I had gotten his autograph on my program before the game, Willies, not Andy’s. He and Dave McNally are pretty much the reason we now have free agency. Left the Dodgers and went to the Braves.

      2. Bear – I did forget the McMullen return. That completed the full circle of that trade. I was ticked when Howard was traded. Power wise, he was Giancarlo Stanton, before there was a Giancarlo Stanton. But Osteen soon made us forget he was gone.

        So if we follow that trade – Richert, Howard and McMullen go to the Nationals. Later Richert and Frank Robinson are traded from the Orioles to the Dodgers, for Doyle Alexander and others. McMullen then comes back to the Dodgers for Robinson. We go full circle and end up where we started. Nice!!

        1. I remember listening to a game on the radio, think it was 1960. Dodgers were at old Shibe Park in Philly. I forget who was pitching for the Phils, but Howard comes up, about the middle of the game. He hits a ball that clears the light tower in left field and leaves the stadium. Vinny said the ball was still going up when it went out of sight. No way you could measure how far that thing went, It was about 340 down the line, and 415 to left center. But if you figure in the height of the stadium and the tower, that ball easily had to travel 500 feet plus. Shibe had been renamed Connie Mack Stadium by that time. Last game was played there in 1968 and the Phillies moved into Veterans Stadium. One of the cookie cutter parks they built in the late 60’s and early 70’s as multipurpose fields.

        2. McMullen hit some clutch pinch homers in ’73 and ’74 I believe. One I’ll never forget because there were a number of kids from my Boy Scout troop gathered around a crackly transistor radio in the High Sierras listening to him hit a walk-off homer. We all went bonkers. (Just looked it up on baseball- reference.com – August 14, 1973, two outs bottom of the 9th off Bailer Moore of the Expos).

          If you look at the Dodger uniforms in ’74 on the day that Henry Aaron hit #715, you’ll see the Dodgers wearing black arm bands on their jerseys. It was because McMullen’s wife had passed away from cancer that same week.

      3. This is a great article, especially since I listened to this game on the Cincinnati Reds Radio Station from my parent’s home in McNairy County, TN. I was using my older brother John’s transistor radio. I’m now 76 years old and remember this game like it was today. Thank you for writing this article. Dan

  2. Two things that may help during this lock down. 15 of us old farts play golf and bridge. We are now playing bridge with each other on line. We stay at home. Really helps pass the time. My 3 children and 10 grandchildren live in the Boise area. We see each other often. Last Saturday we used “zoom” during cocktail hour. We could see each other and talk to each other from our homes. Another good thing. 3 of our grocery stores have apps. You can order on line. They shop for you. Then they will deliver for a small price or you can drive to their store and pick it up from the curb. A lot of good things are happening.

  3. Bluto,

    I asked my son and here’s his list:

    Divergent
    Divergent Series: Insurget
    Divergent Series: Allegiant

    The Hunger Games Series

    Iron Man Series

    StarWars Trilogy

    Aquaman

    Avengers

    Just a partial list of moves he liked.

    1. My son turns 39 next month, his movie taste leans towards action films. My oldest daughter is a mirror image of dad..Big John Wayne fan, and of course, Disney stuff. My other daughter likes the kid movies because she has a teen at home. I also like a lot of the stuff your boy does. I have all of the Star Wars and Star Trek movies on blue ray except the one that came out this December. Same with the Marvel Movies, most are very entertaining.

  4. I recommend reading the Julian Johnson series:

    With a Great Master in India

    Call of The East

    The Unquenchable Flame

    And his magnum opus –

    The Path of the Masters

    1. You are a lot more eclectic than I am. Tom Clancy, Jeffery Deaver, and Herman Wouk more my taste……

      1. I read his book in 1970. Bum. Visited the SRF Center with friends just a few years ago. A friend of mine in Sedona is a member.

  5. One other odd thing about Churn. If you find a photo of the 1959 Dodger championship team, you will notice one of the heads in the photo at an odd angle. Churn was not at the photo shoot, so they superimposed his head on someone else’s body for the pic.

  6. Actually found a replica Chuck Churn 1959 Topps on EBAY today. Must have for my 59 collection to be complete…..FYI, I have a 59 Essegian, but he is in a Cardinal uni. So, I have the 60 to make sure I have him as a Dodger.

  7. Am I a Giants or Cardinals fan? Absolutely 1000% not. I just think Posey and Goldsmith are good players and seem like nice guys, regarding my post up above about my favorite current Non-Dodgers. Between them and Messersmith, guess I am batting .028.

    1. It is ok to recognize the skills of the opponents players. I respect them and they are what makes the game great. Willie McCovey, who most Dodger fans hated, owned Drysdale. Career avg against Big D was way up there. Hit a lot of HR’s off of him too. The best player I ever saw play IMHO, was Willie Mays. Hands down, no contest. 5 tool player and just a joy to watch. He was the one who pulled Roseboro away from Marichal during that terrible incident in 65, and told Rosey, John, your hurt. lets get you some help. What does he do after the game resumes? Hits a go ahead homer off of a visibly shaken Koufax. Marichal got an 8 day suspension which turned into 10 because of doubleheaders. And he was fined 1.750 dollars. Since the attack was so brutal with Marichal swinging a bat and connecting with Rosey’s head, he needed 14 stitches, if that happened today, the resulting fine and suspension would have been much longer. Dodgers ended up winning the pennant and the World Series, but that one incident stood out more than most. With that loss, and 2 more after it, Koufax had his only losing streak in a Cy Young year. Players on both teams credited Mays with being the guy who kept it from getting a whole lot worse than it was. 2 other players, Howie Reed and Lou Johnson were cut by kicks from Marichal.

  8. Since Osteen’s name came up. I’ve got a story to tell.

    I was assigned to our Headquarters in D.C. and this guy named Erick Osteen flew in from one of our Attache posts in the Middle East, (the U.A.E.,I believe it was). I was working on a Middle East project where we were training their Border enforcement agency counterparts and had a meeting set up with him. The time arrived and I swear to you, in walks a 30 year old Claude Osteen in a three piece suit.

    I said, “well there’s no doubt that you walked in from a time machine from 1971 because you are the spitting image of Claude Osteen.”

    “Yeah, that’s my dad,” he said.

    Great guy. He didn’t mind talking baseball either. He had a brother that was in the Dodger org and got as high as Albuquerque, but never made it to the bigs. Erick saw that and said he decided to take a career path outside of baseball.

      1. Life surprises you now and then. I met George Patton’s son, also a General, at our base in Germany. I was driving our company commander around and we happened upon Patton chewing out some of his officers because they were in the officer’s club while their men were on maneuvers. He was reading them the riot act. When they all scattered to head for their respective commands, he winked at me and smiled. I thought it was pretty funny. Be

  9. looking at that picture of Richert. It looks like, and I am pretty sure of this, one of the 5X7 photos they used to sell at the Stadium for 50 cents and you got 20 pictures. I still have some of those somewhere in this apt.

  10. In our business, we do a lot of water treatment in the mansions of the rich and the famous… all over the country. We sign confidentiality agreements so I can’t say who, but someday in the future we may be able to say.

    I once met a famous athlete who had a “reputation.” We were just sitting talking about sports and particularly his. I then said said “Can I ask you a question?” He said OK and I said “I heard you used to be an A-Hole.”

    He laughed and said “Yes I was when I was younger.” He then went on to elaborate. I can’t tell you who it is but I would love to. 😉

    He’s actually a great guy now.

  11. When I was younger I went to a game at Anaheim Stadium with some lady friends. We went early to see batting practice. During the practice one of my friends went up to the snack bar to get a hot dog. There was not a whole lot of people around ordering, but she noticed one man off to the side fixing his hotdog. It was Billy Crystal and she went up to him quietly and said, “if you give me a kiss on the cheek, I will not tell anyone you are here”. He did and she came back to her seat in the stadium. Of course, we did not believe her and later were surprised to find out he really was at the game. I vaguely remember that Don Drysdale was there at that game also, announcing for the Angels.

    I also went to a Dodger game April 14th, 1966, at which Don Sutton made his debut pitching. He gave up 3 runs, 7 hits and struck out 7. The Dodgers lost 4-2 to the Astros, but had some terrific players on the team including: Wes Parker, Maury Wills, Jim Lefebvre who hit 2 hrs, Ron Fairly, Willie Davis, Johnny Roseboro and Perranoski.

  12. I just heard from Brooklyn Dodger (he is OK):

    Mark,

    All is OK. I have been reading the blog, although not everyday, and mostly scanning, so I guess I missed the expressions of concern.

    Express my gratitude to everyone, and I especially want to express how grateful I am at your thoughtfulness in sending this email. I may disagree with you about some things, but I also recognize that you are a decent human being at heart. And that is really what counts.

    All my best to you and your family,

  13. Just got the book, Lost in the Sun, about Roy Gleason in the mail. Plan on reading it tonight. It is a hardcover book, and cost me 7 bucks if I remember right. Also watched a few episodes of Operation: Blue Book about UFO’s. Pretty cool stuff.

    1. Professor Hynek’s personal secretary at that agency is a personal friend of ours. She’s still alive and well in a Sedona.

      Also, for a while I knew Andy Messersmith. He grew up in the same area I did, and we attended the same high school. He wasn’t a real friendly guy. I’ll leave it at that.

Comments are closed.