Pete Burnside

Peter Willits Burnside (born July 2, 1930), is an American former professional baseball player and left-handed pitcher who appeared in 196 Major League Baseball games in 1955 and from 1957–1963 for the New York and San Francisco Giants, Detroit Tigers, Washington Senators and Baltimore Orioles. The Evanston, Illinois, native attended New Trier High School in Winnetka and graduated from Dartmouth College in 1952. He was listed as 6 feet 2 inches (1.88 m) tall and 180 pounds (82 kg).

Burnside's pro career began in 1949 (he attended Dartmouth during his offseasons) and was interrupted by United States Army service in 1953. A stellar 1955 season in the Double-A Texas League, where he posted an 18–11 record and 2.47 earned run average for the Dallas Eagles, earned him his first big-league call-up to the New York Giants. He started two late-season games. In his first, on September 20, he issued six bases on balls and allowed seven runs (only two of them earned) in 3​²⁄₃ innings against the cellar-dwelling Pittsburgh Pirates. While the Giants' offense bailed him out—Burnside departed the game with New York leading 11–7—his early exit kept him from claiming the victory in an eventual 14–8 Giants' triumph; that went to relief ace Hoyt Wilhelm.^[1] In his second start a week later, however, Burnside threw a complete game, seven-hit victory over the Philadelphia Phillies.^[2]

Burnside spent all of 1956 in Triple-A and then got into only 16 total games with the varsity in 1957 and 1958 (with 45 games pitched in minor league baseball). His only other victory in a Giant uniform happened April 23, 1957, when he threw a complete game, three-hit shutout to defeat the Pirates 1–0 at the Polo Grounds.^[3] The Giants sold his contract to the Detroit Tigers on October 5, 1958. Burnside then spent five full seasons (1959–1963) in the American League, setting a big-league personal best in victories (seven) with the 1960 Tigers, and throwing two more shutouts with the expansion 1961 Senators. Both of the blankings occurred in September against the Kansas City Athletics, a five-hitter on the 16th and a two-hitter on the 29th.^[4]

Burnside was a swing man for the 1962 Senators, starting in half his 40 games pitched (and throwing six more complete games). Traded to the Orioles in a December deal, Burnside put in five relief appearances for Baltimore through early May of 1963, then drew his unconditional release on May 9. Washington picked him up as a free agent two weeks later and used him in 38 games in relief. Burnside then played the 1964 and 1965 campaigns in Nippon Professional Baseball with the Hanshin Tigers. During his eight-season MLB career, Burnside lost 36 of 55 decisions (.345), and in 567​¹⁄₃ innings pitched he surrendered 607 hits and 230 bases on balls; he fanned 303. He threw 14 complete games and three shutouts and, as a reliever, registered seven saves.

After his MLB career, Burnside returned to his high school alma mater, New Trier, where he was a teacher and coach until his retirement.^[5]

References

External links

• Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube, or Baseball-Reference (Minors)