About Fritz Peterson

Fritz Peterson is a former Major League Baseball player for the New York Yankees, Cleveland Indians and Texas Rangers from 1966 to 1976.  He was a southpaw starting pitcher and was an American League All-Star in 1970 when he went 20-11 for the Yankees.

During his eleven seasons in the MLB, Fritz compiled a 133-131 record, with a 3.30 ERA and 1,015 strikeouts.  He pitched in 355 games — starting 330 of them.  Peterson had the all-time lowest earned run average at the original Yankee Stadium, with a 2.52 ERA (Whitey Ford (2.55) was second — a record that can never be broken.

In his nine years as a Yankees pitcher, Peterson had a 109-106 record, with a 3.10 ERA and 893 strikeouts. Between 1969 and 1972, Peterson was one of the most successful left handed pitchers in baseball; only Mickey Lolich, Mike Cuellar and Dave McNally won more games in the American League than Peterson did during those four years. He is ninth on the Yankees All-Time Games Started list, and tenth on the All-Time Yankees Innings Pitched list.

He is the author of three books, including  When the Yankees Were on the Fritz: Revisiting the Horace Clarke Era,  which was published in 2015. His other books were well received: Mickey Mantle Is Going to Heaven (2009) and The Art of De-Conditioning: Eating Your Way to Heaven (2012).