Without a Team, Rick Peterson Stays Close to the Game

Rick Peterson is the epitome of a baseball lifer. Every spring since he was 2 years old, the New Jersey resident has followed the rituals of the game, donning a baseball uniform for the trip to spring training and back north. 

Whether it was following his father—former player and MLB Executive Peter Peterson, who crafted his own career—Peterson followed the traditions and the rhythms as teams got ready and then played through the games of spring, summer and fall. The only exceptions to those years have come recently, in 2009 and now 2011, when one of baseball’s most innovative minds has found himself without a team to work with. 

The 2009 season was a transition from the Mets, where he had helped build one of baseball’s most versatile staffs; to Milwaukee, where he spent 2010 helping resurrect the careers of several players, including closer John Axford. However, another ritual of the game, a change in on-field management, found Peterson without a spot as the spring arose this year.

The lack of a coaching job has not slowed Peterson this spring and summer, though. It has kept him attached to the game on all levels, perhaps more than ever before, and has also given him non-baseball experiences that a lifer sometimes misses. 

A wedding and extended honeymoon in Italy, a spring trip to the Caribbean and baseball-related business trips to San Francisco, Boston, Washington, Philadelphia and Chicago, as well as building a growing player development business on The Jersey Shore, have given him a new perspective, a new outlook, and a new drive to help grow the game of baseball and help whatever team lands him next be have the best, most technologically advanced and conditioned staff possible.  How?

“This time off has given me access to tools and technology and training methods that I had heard about but never had the chance to fully embrace,” he said recently. 

“I have had a chance as a media member to talk to pitchers like Roy Halladay and understand even more what makes them successful, and then watch them closely develop and exploit the tools they have, it’s a perspective that you don’t get when you are in the grind every day, and I think it will help me when I land next with a team.”

That immersion into the tech world of analytics came through his work with Bloomberg Sports, where he has been working as a consultant since spring training on their professional analytic tools. Bloomberg’s head of sports, Bill Squadron, had crossed paths in a previous job at Sportvision, and when the time came to work with Peterson again to refine Bloomberg’s products for teams and players, Squadron jumped at the opportunity.

“Rick is a unique baseball mind, he understands the player/coach relationship and his input not just into our professional tools but in our fantasy tools, has been invaluable to us,” Squadron said.

Using technology and data to improve performance is not foreign to Peterson. His work with the Oakland A’s of “Moneyball” fame was the stuff of legend, and he took that success to the rebuilding Mets, and helped fashion their pitchers to levels of success beyond what most people thought.

He also started a parallel path helping develop young players, co-founding 3P Sports with a group that includes former MLB’er Al Leiter and others. The 3P system develops the player across all stages and helps achieve high quality results by making critical adjustments during a players development, avoiding injury due to wear and tear of overexertion.

It uses biomechanics, video technology and plain old common sense, and has assisted young players as well as MLB pitchers to develop and overcome old problems in performance on the field.

“I miss being on the field every day and putting that uniform on, I really do,” he said. “Having that opportunity for my entire adult life is something that I cherish, but at the same time this summer has given me the opportunity to see things from a different perspective, and to do things away from the game I never had a chance to do, so it is all good for now.”

Did he ever totally let the game out of his mind, even while traveling throughout Europe?

“No way, we always were able to get updates online, you are never that far away with technology,” he joked.  “Baseball is my life and my passion, and I was always watching and thinking and seeing what is going on with the game.  Now taking a stroll on a beach is nice in the middle of the summer, but my life is baseball and that where I want to be.”

Some of his recent pupils continue to do well. Axford in Milwaukee and Chris Capuano (now with the Mets) listened to and learned from Peterson’s techniques, and as a result have had resurrected careers.  It is that possibility of rebirth that Peterson feels will lead him back to the bigs after this hiatus.

With the trading deadline this weekend, teams out of the pennant race will start looking to the future, and with that look comes change in the game.  It is that change which can create opportunity, especially for a club who is looking to retool a pitching staff, something which Peterson has excelled at in his career.

“I’m happy with all I have done this year, it has been all about learning and improving personally and professionally,” he added.  “You never wish ill will on anyone, but if the right opportunity arises, I think I can take what I have done in the past and add on what I have seen this year to contribute to success even more than ever before.  I’m excited about the future and where it will lead.” 

For a baseball lifer, that usually means back to the diamond more than the Amalfi Coast next year.