Dan Petry faced 644 different batters in the 1979-1991 seasons, and while he doesn’t remember them all, his recall rate is impressive. Now 67, the former All-Star right-hander proved that when he became the latest broadcast analyst to take questions to answer my matchup-focused career questions. As did David Cone, Mark Grant, Mark Gubicza, and Jeff Montgomery – those pieces can be found here, here, here, and here – “Peaches” reached into his memory bank to participate in answering my questions, and provided interesting anecdotes while doing so. Our interview took place at Fenway Park this past weekend.
I started by asking him which hitter he faced the most times.
“It would have to be someone in the American League East,” answered Petry, who played most of his career with the Detroit Tigers and is now Dan Dickerson’s primary partner on the team’s radio station. “I’ll say Robin Yount.”
Indeed it was Yount, who pitched against Petry 89 times. I went on to ask which player has recorded the most popular songs for him.
“That might be a tricky question, because it’s probably Robin Yount,” Petry said, before going with a different answer. “But I think most of my answers are going to be George Brett, so I’m going to say George Brett.”
He had to trust his first instinct, because Yount was the answer again. The Hall of Famer had 24 hits in 83 at-bats against the right-hander, going 119-93 as a Tiger and 125-104 overall, while throwing 2,080 1/3 innings over 370 major league strikeouts.
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“He’s a guy I’ve always respected to this day,” Petry said of the Milwaukee Brewers icon. “I remember when he was young at that time [when Yount was in the majors at age 18]I was young again, and I wondered if I would ever get that chance to play, like he did. So, facing him was among my most competitive moments. “
What about the hitter to whom he has given up so many home runs?
“Also, I’m probably going to have to guess George Brett,” Petry replied, naming the player, who is tied with Greg Walker on the Gophers for the second most. “But Mark McGwire was a guy where it seemed like he hit and ran away from me, even if I took him.”
Big Mac, who had three home runs and three walks in 16 plate appearances, was not the right answer. Fred Lynn has that distinction, having taken Petry deep seven times.
“I remember some at Tiger Stadium, they had pitches in right field, but I wouldn’t have thought of that,” admitted the veteran pitcher. “I remember I stopped running at home here [at Fenway Park]but more to Dwight Evans and Jim Rice, not so much to Fred Lynn. Also, a couple at Tiger Stadium, not seven of them. “
Lynn didn’t go deep against Petry at Fenway Park, and he didn’t when he played with the Red Sox. Three of the home games came at Tiger Stadium, three more at Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium, and one at Anaheim Stadium.
The batter he walked most times?
“Hey boy. How’s Wade Boggs doing?” Petry replied, dialing the correct answer. “That crossed my mind. He didn’t mind hitting twice – he probably hit .400 with two strikeouts – and he caught a lot of pitches. I also walked a lot of guys.”
Boggs drew 21 walks, and Evans, with 16, had the next-highest total. I asked Petry about the latter, who slashed .368/.500/.649 with four home runs in 74 plate appearances against him.
“He had a great approach,” Petry said of the Hall-worthy outfielder. “He knew I was going to throw a lot of sliders, and I remember him not rushing a lot. He was very disciplined against me; he would spit a lot of good sliders that I was going to throw at him. He was one of those Red Sox players that, when you got to Fenway — and Fenway is a tough place to throw it, anyway — it was the Evacens’ challenge, what Lynn thought was the Evacens, Lynn thought it was the Red Sox lineup. Fisk… it was It’s a great program.”
Does the batter hit more times?
“The first name that pops into my head is Reggie Jackson, but I don’t think that’s right,” Petry replied. “Someone from the Texas Rangers. Oddibe McDowell?”
That represents a major miss for the broadcast analyst. Petry dominated McDowell to the tune of allowing just four hits in 21 at-bats, but walked him just four times. There were two correct answers, with twelve strikes each: Todd Cruz and the aforementioned Mr. October.
Why did Petry have so much success against Jackson, who simply went 8-for-46 (.174) against his contributions?
“I actually told Dan Dickerson the story about Reggie Jackson yesterday,” Petry said. “I went the longest in my career without giving up a home run to him, and he finally got me — late in his career, and late in my career. That would be a nice piece of pride, that I didn’t give up a home run to Reggie Jackson.”
Which hitter went 2-for-3 with a home run? I wasn’t sure if that would be easy to answer, or more difficult. It turns out to be a bit of both.
After initially mentioning Ken Phelps, then adding, “No, I’ve faced him more than three times,” Petry was more confident when he replied: “Oh, Kevin Maas.”
Maas’ guess was good — light on the pan Yankees slugger at 1-for-2 with a walk and a home run — but it wasn’t the right answer. The hint created a nail-biting of the correct word.
“Cecil Fielder,” Petry replied after being told one of the hits was a grand slam. “There was. I pitched for Boston for about six weeks. The Tigers came to town, I came out of the bullpen, and he hit one in the net, down the right field line. He was laughing all the way around the bases. This was in 1991, and I had played with the Tigers earlier in the year before the trade in Atlanta, so I knew Mycil and Price here well. [Fielder]. Prince would come to the house and run with my children.”
Which batter did he put down with a hit-by-pitch four times was an easy question.
“Brian Downing,” Petry answered quickly. “He stood at the plate and leaned his arms. I wasn’t afraid to jump in, because I needed to open the outside of the plate and do my slide, and he was leaning into it. This was before hitters had all the padding. I didn’t drill him; he’d just put his arms out there to get on base. And he had big arms, so I wasn’t there for two years playing with Angel. It was just part of the game.”
The question that proved to be difficult was the player with the highest batting average among those who had 15 or more hits.
“I mean, I always say George Brett in everything, because he was so good,” Petry said. “But… I don’t know if you got 15 hits from me, but what about Don Mattingly?”
Close, but no cigarettes. The New York Yankees legend went 21 for 47, for a .447 average, which was the second-highest mark. Petry then matched Cecil Cooper, who went 19-for-54, with a .352 average. The right answer was another left-handed hitter, whose .537 average came with 17 hits in 30 at-bats. Petry immediately cursed the name when I told him it was the Seattle Mariner.
“Oh, that’s right, Alvin Davis,” she said. “You know, the Mariners were one of those teams … and Phil Bradley (10-for-25) was one. He was a right-handed hitter. They were coming out hard. Alvin Davis was tough on all of us, so it wasn’t just me. But left-handed hitters gave me trouble, because I couldn’t always throw a good changeup, but I had a good changeup if I had a good money situation. If I was going to have a good changeup.”
Another question seemed in order. As he brings up Brett so many times, does Petry have a favorite story about the hitter with 20 hits in 58 at-bats?
“I don’t have a favorite, but there is something that bothers me a little bit,” Petry tells me. “I beat Willie Wilson [with a pitch] cheek at Royals stadium. I remember going in as he was down, too [Brett] and I was standing next to each other. I said, ‘I didn’t mean to do that.’ He didn’t say a word. I think those were the only words I ever spoke to him in my life. There was just that face-to-face meeting, which I remember to this day. It was a scary moment. But George Brett was very good. He was so, so beautiful.”
