He was retired… for two weeks. Fan favorite Peter Moylan will be playing again, though finding his new games will present a challenge.
Some people just can’t get it out of their blood. Australian native Peter Moylan thought he had given up baseball 2 weeks ago when the Atlanta Braves and others opted to pass on the 40-year-old this year. But there’s still places to play – even though it might take a while to find them.
Moylan announces he’s retiring; affable Aussie leaves a legacy as immensely popular teammate and fan favorite https://t.co/fTsHaSbC88
— David O'Brien (@DOBrienATL) February 28, 2019
That tweet didn’t age well.
The announcement above came on February 27th. But here on March 14, we see a quite different announcement:
Former #Braves, #Dodgers and #Royals RHP Peter Moylan has signed with Draci Brno in the Czech Republic to continue his career and prep for Australian National Team play. First reported by @jozefSlina, baseball journalist and friend, for @milujemeBaseball. MLB-dot-com story soon.
— Thomas Harding (@harding_at_mlb) March 14, 2019
Yes, Americans, baseball is played in the Czech Republic. Opening day is March 29, but as evidenced by other tweets, Moylan hadn’t really stopped pitching.
The Draci Brno club is located in the city of Brno of the Czech Republic – which is the 2nd-largest city in the country (around 800,000 population).
If you were to slice the country down the middle twice – once horizontally and once vertically, Brno would be more-or-less in the center of the southeastern quadrant. The capital of Prague is in the NW such quadrant.
The Draci team has been playing since 1972 with various affiliation, but is now a member of a 10-team Czech League – the Extraliga. The rest of the league is as follows:
- Ostrava (Arrows)
- Hroši Brno (Cardion)
- Brno (Technika)
- Praha (Eagles) [That’s ‘Prague’]
- Praha (Kotlářka)
- Blansko (Olympia)
- Olomouc (Skokani)
- Tempo Titans [also in Prague]
- Třebíč (Nuclears)
Reports suggest that Moylan is doing this – in part – as a means of keeping active in the hopes of playing in 2021 for Australia in the next World Baseball Classic. Yes, he’ll be 42 years old then, but still likely one of their best pitchers – as he’s been since the tournament was first competed in 2006.
That was the year Moylan was discovered. The Braves saw him and signed him as a 27-year-old, immediately putting him in AAA and bringing him to the majors for 15 innings that same year.
Heckuva Run
Since then he’s pitched in the majors nearly every season since, with stints as a Dodger and a Royal before finishing his MLB career (maybe) with the Braves in 2018. 12 seasons over 13 years.
The righty side-winder saw action in 499 MLB games and was credited with 418.2 innings, 4 saves and a record of 24-10.
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A career ERA of 3.10 doesn’t really do justice to tell us just how good he was early on in his career. From 2007 to 2012, he was excellent:
- 2007: 1.80 ERA
- 2008: 1.59
- 2009: 2.84
- 2010: 2.97
- 2011: 3.24
- 2012: 1.80
Pete battled some significant injuries – including two necessary Tommy John procedures that knocked him out for most of 2008 and all of 2014.
Still … he persevered, and that’s evident now as he’s going to try something unique… Euro Ball.
He’s a character (notice the smiles on the faces in the photo on that front page), he’s a gamer, and he’ll always be part of the legacy of the Atlanta Braves. So we like hearing this news and wish him all the success.
See you again in 2021, Pete!