News

By Emily J. Minor

    HIGHLAND BEACH — Hank Peters, a longtime Major League Baseball executive whose gut instincts about young talent helped the long-deprived Cleveland Indians reach the World Series in 1995, died Jan. 4 in hospice care near his Highland Beach home. He was 90.
    Mr. Peters’ daughter, Sharon, of Delray Beach, said her father had suffered a stroke about two weeks prior, and could just not recuperate.
    Dorothy Peters, Mr. Peters’ wife of 60 years, had died in 2010.
    Mr. Peters was born Henry John Peters in St. Louis on Sept. 16, 1924. He and his sister, Virginia, were raised by their mother, Estelle, who cleaned houses to support the family. Mr. Peters joined the U.S. Army after high school, served in Europe during World War II, then briefly attended business school until answering a newspaper ad for a job with the St. Louis Browns’ minor league baseball system. After that, baseball was his life.
    For 47 years, until his retirement in 1991, Mr. Peters lived the often nomadic life of a front-office executive, spending time with the now-defunct Browns and Kansas City Athletics, before landing with the Baltimore Orioles and, finally, the Cleveland Indians.
    Mr. Peters had a knack, it seemed, for trusting his instincts when he saw a young, green player try out. And when the Indians went to the World Series in 1995, they went there with players Mr. Peters had recruited — baseball greats like Jim Thome, Manny Ramirez, Charles Nagy, Sandy Alomar Jr. and Carlos Baerga.
    Mr. Peters also drafted a guy named Cal Ripkin Jr. while with the Orioles front office.
    His daughter remembers her father’s baseball career with fondness, but admits they missed him growing up. There were no cell phones. No text messages. No emails. Just pay phones. If they were lucky, her dad would find one that worked.
    “It could be a little rough on the family,” she said. “Two weeks would go by, and we wouldn’t talk to him.”
    Still, her father often folded family vacations into Florida business trips, said Sharon Peters, who said the family began coming to spring training in Florida back in the 1950s.
    “And when he was home, he never took up tennis or golf or anything,” she said. “When he was home, he was home.”
    Hank and Dorothy Peters began coming to Highland Beach as part-time residents after his retirement, soon buying an oceanfront place. But they continued to return to their home in Baltimore each summer.
    After his wife’s death in 2010, Mr Peters began living in Highland Beach full-time.
    Sharon Peters said her father loved the ocean, and enjoyed sitting on his condo balcony, reading. He always kept up with sports, often complaining about too much football news in the sports section.
    Mr. Peters is also survived by his son Steven, of Boynton Beach, and two grandchildren. His funeral was Jan. 7.