Monday, October 14, 2013

1981 Donruss, Pete Redfern


#548 Pete Redfern

Here is an interesting through the mail return that I got. As soon as I opened up the letter and looked at the signature on the card, I got online to find out more about Pete Redfern.

It turns out that Pete severely injured his neck in a diving accident in the early '80s. The accident officially ended his playing career and left him paralyzed. To this day, he is still wheelchair bound, yet an accommodating TTM replier.

Pete's Major League career lasted seven seasons and all were with the Twins. He was mostly a starter and posted a career record of 42-48 with 3 saves and a 4.54 ERA. His best season was probably the 1979 season. That was the one season where he pitched primarily out of the bullpen and he responded with career-bests in ERA (3.49), strikeouts (85), and winning percentage (.700). I wonder why the club bothered to move him back to the starting rotation after that season. Maybe they did not want their former number one overall pick to be pitching out of the 'pen.

It took Pete just eighteen days to get this card back to me.

Most of the time, I send out the cards from this set without knowing a single thing about the subject pictured on the card. It is returns like this that make me truly appreciate the time and effort that the guys go through to help out us autograph collectors.

Thank you, Pete!

'81 Donruss Tracker: 166/100

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