My Interview With Rick Peterson – Part 1

Last week I had the great pleasure of speaking with former Mets pitching coach, Rick Peterson. Since leaving the Mets, Rick has gone on to found and establish 3P Sports, a company that is dedicated to serving the amateur market and enable baseball players to avoid injury and improve their performance.

Rick Peterson is one of the most foremost experts in the country when it comes to peak performance coaching. He has dedicated a lifetime to developing a unique approach to coaching, and the results have been quite dramatic and speak for themselves.

While with Oakland, his staff led the American League in ERA for two years, posting a 3.63 in 2003 and 3.58 in 2002. Under his guidance, the A’s finished in the top three in ERA from 1999-2003. Tim Hudson, Barry Zito and Mark Mulder all flourished under his tutelage. Each became a 20-game winner and Zito captured the 2002 American League Cy Young Award. We watched Mike Pelfrey and John Maine emerge as Mets starters under his guidance, and even Oliver Perez delivered his best performance while Rick was the Mets pitching coach.

Rick was kind enough to answer several general questions about baseball, his time with the Mets, Scott Kazmir, the rise in pitching related injuries, his future, pitch counts, and the Peterson Effect which I know you will all get a kick out of.

Before I get to those other questions, I wanted to know more about 3P Sports and asked Rick to tell me how it all came about. I found his story to be quite compelling and it revealed a side about Rick that most Mets fans probably didn’t know.

Besides learning that he was a New Jersey native, had a degree in Psychology, and was an accomplished oil painter, what really stands out the most is how dedicated he is to genuinely wanting to help baseball players prolong their careers by minimizing injuries and enhancing their performance. His panel of experts at 3P Sports includes Al Leiter, Tom Glavine, Jim Duquette and even one of the most respected and well known orthopedic surgeons in the world, Dr. James Andrews. Interestingly enough is the fact that Rick Peterson was the first person to walk through the doors of Dr. Andrew’s American Sports Medicine Institute, so many years ago.

In this audio clip, Rick explains how 3P Sports evolved from just an idea into what it is today. He also explains the principles of the Peak, Performance, Pitching program. 

In the next part of my interview, we tackle a host of questions on baseball, the Mets and pitching in general. Here is a sneak preview where I asked Rick about pitch counts.

Check back tomorrow for Part 2 of my interview with former Mets pitching coach Rick Peterson. Listen to us discuss Rick’s favorite Mets moment, Scott Kazmir, innings pitched, and the Verducci Effect.