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Ray Peters
Harvard Ace Ray Peters Signed by New AL Club - By Al Brenholts - February 12, 1969
Ray Peters, Harvard baseball's skillful right-hander, is no longer an amateur. For three years Peters spurned professional offers from such teams as the Tigers, Mets, and Athletics because Harvard and his education were more important. But Ray Peters is a senior now, and when he was drafted February 1 by the American League, expansion club, the Seattle Pilots, he signed.
Harvard's former baseball coach, Norm Shepard, labeled Peters' professional status "a tremendous blow to Harvard baseball." When pressed further, Shepard elaborated: "A pitcher like Ray comes along just once in a while. He was one that could throw the ball by the hitter. You don't get a real stopper like Ray every day."
There can be few doubts about his being what Shepard said. Last year he pushed Harvard to the top of the Eastern Intercollegiate Baseball League with an 8-1 record, accounting for 7 of those wins himself. He guided Harvard through the NCAA Eastern Regionals, beating B.U. in the first round, then squelching Connecticut the next day in ninth-inning relief. With that kind of pitching Harvard traveled to the NCAA finals in Omaha as a respected challenger. Though Harvard failed to win the NCAA's, the team compiled an outstanding 19-9 record. Every player had a fine season, especially Peters. He garnered EIBL and NCAA district All-Star honors, as well as an election to the national All-American
He owns all the right "junk" too, throwing a strong fastball, a sweeping curve, a quick-breaking slider, and a confusing change-up. He has endurance, as evidenced by his 16-strikeout performance against Yale in '67. Those major league scouts watching that game must have been considerably impressed, for Peters was the only right-handed pitcher selected by the major league scouting directors to the Sporting News All-American Team last summer.
The pros think that Ray can make it; so does Norm Shepard, who said, "If Ray doesn't have a fine chance, I don't know who does." With a new club Peters certainly has every chance to make it his first year.
I don't know if it's any better, but I gave him a shot, AESP. He's better than the one that was mislabeled in the CUF pack though. Looks like the old one was made from a sunglasses picture then was smoothed to compensate.
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