Alejandro Pena

“In a year that has been so improbable, the impossible has happened!” — Vin Scully, October 15, 19881

Alejandro Peña appeared in three World Series during his 15-season major-league career, but his first appearance was the kind of thing that you can only dream about. He was called in from the Los Angeles Dodgers bullpen in Game One of the 1988 World Series. His team was trailing the Oakland A’s 4-3 at the Dodgers’ ballpark. He pitched two scoreless innings, striking out three and allowing one hit, a harmless infield single with two outs in the ninth inning by Stan Javier.

Peña was due up fourth in the ninth inning and it was determined that he would be removed for a pinch-hitter. With two outs, A’s reliever Dennis Eckersley walked pinch-hitter Mike Davis as Dave Anderson, the apparent pinch-hitter for Peña, looked on from the on-deck circle.2 But as Davis headed to first base, Kirk Gibson grabbed a bat and Anderson returned to the dugout. “Gibson, half man, half beast, whose arrival as a free agent in February had so dramatically transformed the Dodgers, now limped toward the plate to face Eckersley,” an eyewitness wrote.3 Peña was in the clubhouse when Gibson’s iconic two-run pinch-hit homer on a 3-and-2 slider gave the Dodgers the lead in the World Series and Alejandro Peña had his first and only World Series win.

Alejandro Peña Vasquez was born on June 25, 1959, in the peasant village of Cambioso, Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic. As a boy, he worked with his father, also Alejandro, building dirt ovens near their home. It was hard work, and on Sunday, when they paused from work, young Alejandro would play baseball. One of seven children (five boys and two girls), he played third base as a youngster, and it wasn’t until he was 15 that he played in any semblance of an organized league.

The timeline is unclear as to how Peña evolved from a scrawny third baseman to a hard-throwing pitcher, but Antonio Taveras, Alex Taveras, and Ralph Avila were involved in changing the direction of Peña’s life. The first time he showed up for a Dodgers tryout on the island, he showed a strong arm and Avila told him that “his only chance, in my opinion, to sign a contract was to become a pitcher.”4 Alex Taveras, a Dodgers infielder who lived in the Dominican Republic, concurred that Peña would not make it as a third baseman.

Five months later, Peña had established himself as a pitcher and was playing semipro ball on Hispaniola, the island that the Dominican Republic shares with Haiti. Antonio Taveras, Alex’s father, was a scout for the Dodgers, and he advised Avila that it was time to take another look at Peña. Avila picks up the story at this point: “The next night the son of a gun struck out 15 batters, strictly with fastballs. I knew if I didn’t sign him, someone else would do it.”5 Peña signed with Avila as a free agent in 1978 for $4,000 and a $500 monthly stipend.

Peña was with Clinton in the Midwest League in 1979, going 3-3 with a 4.18 ERA. In 1980 he went 10-3 for Vero Beach in the Florida State League. He was promoted to Triple A during the 1981 season. At the time he was called up, he had a league-leading 22 saves with a 1.61 ERA for Albuquerque. His presence had positioned them to win the Pacific Coast League championship at the end of the season. They won the Southern Division by 25 games and defeated Tacoma in the postseason series for the league championship.

Peña was called up by the Dodgers on August 12, 1981, shortly after the end of the players strike. The 6-foot-1, 205-pound right-hander traveled to Atlanta and made his major-league debut the following evening, pitching a scoreless ninth inning against the Braves in a game the Dodgers lost 9-1. The following day, he picked up his first major-league save, pitching the final four innings against the Braves in a 5-0 Dodgers win. It was his longest outing of the 1981 season to date. (His longest outing with Albuquerque had been 2⅓ innings.)6 At Pittsburgh on August 25, Peña entered the game after the Pirates had tied the score in the bottom of the ninth inning. There were two outs and the winning run was on second base. He induced Tony Peña to hit a comebacker for the inning’s third out and the game went into extra innings. There was no scoring in the 10th inning as Peña retired the side in order. He picked up his first career win when the Dodgers broke through for two 11th-inning runs and Tom Niedenfuer came on for the save, pitching the bottom of the 11th inning.

Peña appeared in 14 games in 1981, had a 1-1 record, and was credited with two saves. His ERA was 2.84. The Dodgers advanced to the World Series, defeating the Expos in the League Championship Series. Peña appeared twice during the five games against Montreal, pitching 2⅓ scoreless innings. He did not play in the World Series win over the Yankees after being diagnosed early in the Series with a bleeding ulcer. He had collapsed after the second game and was admitted to a Los Angeles area hospital for observation.

Tellie (short for Telesila) Ceballos was a telephone operator in Los Angeles in 1981. She had been born on August 13, 1958 and came to the United States when she was 12 years old. She met Peña shortly after the World Series, and the two went out on a dinner date. They married in 1983. They have two children, Alejandro Jr. (born June 16, 1984) and Arianna Cristina (born October 19, 1989). As of 2015 their son was a doctor in Phoenix and their daughter, lived in Georgia and was an aspiring musician.7

Even with love in his life, Peña was the quiet man in the clubhouse because he had trouble leaning English. Although there were several Spanish-speaking players on the team. Peña, coming from a peasant village, had far less sophistication than his Latin comrades.

In 1982 Peña was off to a good start with the Dodgers, with a 1.29 ERA in his first 13 appearances, but then ran into some difficulties. By July 15 he was 0-2, and his ERA had soared to 4.54. He was sent back to Albuquerque, where he did not fare much better, for the balance of the season.

In the offseason between 1982 and 1983, Peña pitched for Licey in the Dominican Winter League, and was managed by Dodgers coach Manny Mota. Peña sought the opportunity to pitch as a starter and Mota gave him the chance. Peña recorded four shutouts and found his way into the Dodgers rotation in 1983.

Peña spent two years in the rotation. In 1983 he pitched in 34 games, 26 as a starter. Most of his eight relief appearances came early in the season. Through June 12, despite missing two weeks with migraine headaches, he had relieved on eight occasions and started five times. At the time, he sported a 5-1 record and a 2.32 ERA. Three of those first five wins had been as a starter, including his first shutout, on May 24 at Philadelphia. That shutout came on the heels of shutouts by Bob Welch and Fernando Valenzuela, and represented the first time that the Dodger staff had pitched three consecutive shutouts since 1966 when Claude Osteen, Don Drysdale (with relief help from Phil Regan), and Sandy Koufax pitched successive shutouts from September 9 through September 11 while leading the Dodgers to the pennant. For the season, Peña went 12-9 with a 2.75 ERA. The Dodgers won the NL West and Peña pitched once in the League Championship Series against the Phillies, an ineffective relief stint in which he allowed two runs in 2⅔ innings. The Dodgers lost the best-of-five series in four games.

In 1984 Peña had his best season and narrowly missed being selected for the All-Star team, as teammate Fernando Valenzuela was chosen by manager Paul Owens. At the break, he was 10-4 with a 2.40 ERA and three shutouts. But the impact of a career-high 199⅓ innings took a toll and in early August he began to experience pain in his throwing shoulder. The pain subsided and on August 12 he defeated the Giants, 5-4, in 10 innings. However, the pain returned, and he pitched only three times the rest of the season. His season ended with a 12-6 record and a league-leading 2.48 ERA. He had hurled eight complete games and led the league with four shutouts.

The situation was made worse by Peña’s language issues. In interviews with the media, he had to use the services of interpreter Jaime Jarrin. He was unable to properly communicate his condition to the Dodgers’ medical personnel, and surgery was delayed. Peña would be essentially on the shelf for two seasons. It was hoped that rest during the offseason would help with the shoulder pain, but surgery proved necessary. Dr. Frank Jobe performed shoulder surgery (an arthroscopy) the following February.8 Peña was on the DL for virtually the entire 1985 season, making only two late-season relief appearances.

Peña was restricted to bullpen activity early in 1986, making nine unproductive appearances. In July he returned to the starting rotation. He picked up his first victory since 1984 on July 7, when he allowed two hits in five innings as the Dodgers defeated the Cardinals, 1-0. It was his only win of the season. He pitched in 24 games in 1986 (10 as a starter) and went 1-2 with one save and a 4.89 ERA.

The man who started each of his 28 appearances in 1984 would evolve into a relief pitcher over the next three seasons and would be relieving exclusively starting in 1988, when he appeared in a career-high 60 games. Speaking of his new role, he said, “I like this role. I like the pressure and the close situations of this game. It looks like this motivates me more than starting did. I believe I’ve become a good short man. I hope other people believe it too.”9 Although his won-lost record was only 6-7, he had 12 saves and struck out 83 batters in 94⅓ innings. The Dodgers won the NL West and Peña returned to the postseason for his third appearance. He had a win and a save against the Mets in the NLCS.

In Game Two, the Mets rallied in the ninth inning, had reduced the deficit to three runs and had two runners on base with one out when Peña was summoned. He secured the victory by getting Gary Carter on a fly ball to right field. In Game Three he was part of an eighth-inning bullpen implosion, yielding a double to Wally Backman as New York scored five runs against four Dodgers relievers and took a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series. In Game Four at New York, Peña entered the game in the ninth inning with the score tied 4-4. He pitched three scoreless innings, not allowing a hit, before being removed for a pinch-hitter. He wound up getting the win when Kirk Gibson homered in the top of the 12th inning.

After Kirk Gibson launched his game-winning homer in Game One of the World Series, the Dodgers defeated the A’s in five games.

Peña was in peak form and his fastball was being clocked in the mid-90s. However, the speed of his fastball was in stark contrast to his pace of play. He was slow, methodical, patient, and deliberate on the mound for his entire career and was not about to change. “I’ve been that way my whole career. Why change it now?” he said. “I’ve been successful, so why would I want to make a change? If I can get a hitter out with this style, why would I want to pitch fast?”10

The Dodgers failed to repeat in 1989. Peña was 4-3 with a 2.13 ERA in 53 games, but only five saves as the Dodgers handed the closer role to Jay Howell. Los Angeles finished in fourth place with a 77-83 record and there were changes to be made. At the end of the season, Peña was traded to the Mets along with outfielder/first baseman Mike Marshall for infielder Juan Samuel. In his nine years with the Dodgers, Peña had gone 38-38 with 32 saves and a 2.92 ERA.

He arrived in New York as the Mets were beginning to look less like the championship squad they had been when they won the World Series in 1986 and a divisional championship in 1988 before falling to the Dodgers in the NLCS.

During the 1990 season, Peña went 3-3 with five saves and a 3.20 ERA. The Mets were treading water in the early part of the season. Bud Harrelson had replaced Davey Johnson as manager on May 29, and on June 4, after they lost five of six, the Mets’ record stood at 21-26. Then they turned their season around. Between June 5 and August 3, they won 40 of 55 games to take over the division lead. During that stretch Peña was credited with a win, a save, and four holds. But after Labor Day, the Mets could not maintain their momentum and finished in second place, four games behind the Pirates.

Peña started the 1991 season with the Mets but was dealt to the Atlanta Braves on August 28. By then the Mets had fallen from contention and were in fourth place, 13½ games behind the division leaders. Peña had an excellent season with the Mets, going 6-1 with four saves and a 2.71 ERA. However, they realized that their chances at re-signing Peña, who was to become a free agent at season’s end, were nominal and they obtained Joe Roa and Tony Castillo from Atlanta. The Braves, meanwhile, needed bullpen assistance, as their ace reliever, Juan Berenguer, had been injured. As Atlanta sportswriter Mark Bradley noted, Peña went from a capsized ship to a luxury liner.11 He had a phenomenal five-week stretch run with the Braves, going 2-0 and saving 11 games in 15 appearances. From September 3 through October 4, he appeared in 14 games, all of which were won by Atlanta.

One of those saves was against the Padres on September 11. In that game, he came on in the ninth inning with the Braves leading 1-0. The Padres had gone hitless in eight innings against Kent Mercker and Mark Wohlers. Peña quickly got the first two batters, but Darrin Jackson hit a Baltimore chop to the left side of the infield that third baseman Terry Pendleton lost in the lights. The ball bounded off shortstop Rafael Belliard’s glove and Jackson reached safely. The official scorer Mark Frederickson ruled the play an error by Pendleton. The no-hitter remained intact, and when the next batter, Tony Gwynn, skied to left fielder Otis Nixon, Peña had completed the combined no-hitter.12

The Braves, who had finished in last place the prior season, went 21-8 during Peña’s hot streak and won the NL West by one game. On October 5, the day after Peña’s last save of the season (and third in as many days), his services weren’t needed as John Smoltz pitched a complete-game win over Houston, clinching the division title for the Braves. In the League Championship Series, they defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates in seven games. Peña recorded saves in three of the wins. He appeared in four games, was not scored upon, didn’t allow any inherited runners to score, and yielded only one hit in 4⅓ innings. In Game Three, he entered the game in the bottom of the eighth inning. The Braves led 7-3, but the Bucs had loaded the bases with one out off Mike Stanton and Wohlers. Orlando Merced fouled out on a 3-and-1 fastball and got Jay Bell struck out looking. Peña had a 1-2-3 ninth for the save and Atlanta moved ahead in the series, two games to one.

In Game Six, with the Braves down 3-2 in the series, Peña came on to pitch the ninth inning at Pittsburgh with Atlanta leading 1-0. The Bucs’ Gary Varsho opened the bottom of the ninth with a single to center field. He was bunted to second. With two out and Andy Van Slyke at the plate, Peña hurled a wild pitch and the potential tying run was at third base. The count went to 1-and-2 on Van Slyke and a classic pitcher-batter duel followed. The Pirates center fielder fouled off four consecutive pitches, the last three of which were hard-hit balls. During the first seven pitches of the at-bat, Peña had thrown a variety of pitches. Van Slyke said, “He threw a slider, a fastball, a forkball.”13 Braves catcher Greg Olson, who had driven in the only run of the game with a double in the top of the ninth, thought it was time for something different and called for a changeup. Van Slyke was frozen at the plate and looked at strike three. After the game, Van Slyke said, “I didn’t even know he had that pitch.”14 The changeup had been in Peña’s arsenal since early in 1984 when he had learned the pitch from coach Silvano Quesada while pitching for Licey in the Dominican Winter League, and perfected the pitch under the tutelage of Dodgers pitching coach Ron Perranoski.15

The Braves lost the World Series to the Twins in seven games. In Game Seven at the noisy Metrodome, Peña entered the scoreless battle in the bottom of the ninth inning. The first two batters in the inning had singled off Mike Stanton. Peña came in and put out the fire. The game advanced to extra innings. In the bottom of the 10th, the Twins loaded the bases on a double, a sacrifice, and two intentional walks. As reported by Sports Illustrated’s Steve Rushin, pinch-hitter Gene Larkin “slapped the first pitch he got from Alejandro Peña to left center, over the head of Brian Hunter, who, like the rest of the Atlanta outfield, was playing only 30 yards in back of the infield in an effort to prevent Minnesota’s Dan Gladden from doing precisely what he did: bound home from third base in the bottom of the 10th, through a cross-current of crazed, dazed teammates, who were leaping from the third base dugout and onto the field.”16

Peña re-signed with the Braves after the season for $2.65 million, a substantial increase over the $1 million he was paid in 1991. Although Cleveland had made a two-year offer, Peña chose to sign a one-year deal with the Braves “because it’s the most fun he ever had,” according to his agent, Tom Reich.17

But the promise of the last five weeks of 1991 did not extend into 1992. Not right away, anyway. Although Peña had three saves in April, his May performance was horrific. In seven appearances that month, his 0-3 record included a blown save, and his ERA was 9.72. On May 16, after a poor performance, the crowd turned angry as Peña left the mound, and when he returned to the parking lot, he found that his car had been vandalized by someone using a key to scratch off some of the paint. He was no longer his team’s closer. He was placed on the DL (eventually it was determined that his problems were in part due to bronchitis, strep throat, and a sinus infection). Once Peña returned from the DL, pitching coach Leo Mazzone detected a flaw in his delivery having to do with the release point.18 And slowly Peña turned things around.

Healthy and delivering the ball like the Peña of old, Alexandro returned to form, and on July 8, with the Braves in danger of losing their fourth consecutive game, was given the ball in the ninth inning against the Mets in Atlanta. The “forgotten closer” entered the game with the bases loaded and none out. The Braves were leading 2-1. Peña got Howard Johnson on a popup and induced Willie Randolph to hit into a double play.19 The save was his fourth of the season and first since April 28. From June 18, when he returned from the DL, through the end of the season, Peña saved 12 games and had a 2.30 ERA. From July 8 success through July 25, the Braves went on a tear. They won 13 games in a row to surge from six games behind the division lead to two games in front of the pack. Peña’s only win of the season and eight of his saves came during the first 12 games of the streak, and he was credited with a hold in the Braves’ 13th consecutive win.

The Braves once again finished first and faced the Pirates in the NLCS. But Peña’s season was over. Experiencing elbow pain (tendinitis), he had spent time in late August and early September on the DL. The pain reached its threshold, surprisingly enough, after one of his best efforts. At Pittsburgh on August 17, he pitched the bottom of the 10th inning to save a 5-4 win. The last batter was Barry Bonds. As manager Bobby Cox recalled, “First pitch: fastball, whoosh! Second pitch: another fastball — and it was harder than the first. Third pitch: fastball again, and I swear it had more velocity than either of the first two. I’m just gaping at Peña. As for Bonds (who took the pitch for strike three), his eyes were bulging out; they were bigger than billiard balls. So, we all run out to the mound to shake Alejandro’s hand, and just as I’m reaching for him, he says, ‘Don’t do it. My arm is killing me.’”20 Peña was placed on the DL, and his September work had been limited to three nonsave appearances.

Toward the end of the season, Peña’s wife, Tellie, organized an auction event where the wives of the Braves players raised money for victims of Hurricane Andrew by auctioning off broken bats, autographed jerseys and other items.21 For Peña, the season would end on a sour note. On September 30, with the division championship already clinched, the Braves asked Peña to pitch the eighth inning against the Giants with the Braves trailing 1-0. Although he completed the inning, retiring three of the four batters he faced, he was in pain.22 Peña was not used in the NLCS and was left off the roster when the Braves lost to the Blue Jays in the World Series.

A free agent once again, Peña signed with the Pirates during the offseason, but did not play in 1993. On March 26 he underwent surgery to rebuild a ligament in his pitching elbow. The procedure involved removing a ligament from his right wrist and reattaching it in his elbow. His contract with the Pirates was restructured into a two-year deal, and he returned to the mound in 1994. When his contract was restructured, Peña showed great class. He could have just made his salary, more than $1 million, for 1993 and moved on. He chose to return his signing bonus of $500,000 and signed a two-year deal calling for $175,000 in 1993 and $1.35 million in 1994. In describing the contract, he said, “I could live with myself better. I didn’t feel right taking the money and not doing anything for the team. I didn’t want to take the money and then go play for somebody else.”23

Sidelined by bleeding ulcers at the beginning of the 1994 season, Peña started the season on the DL. He returned to the mound in May and was named the Pirates closer in June, after a great four-inning stint on May 26 when he came on the 10th inning and allowed no hits as the Pirates won in 13 innings. He had a brilliant month with seven saves, but his season ended on June 28. He was in immense pain after throwing the final pitch in his seventh save of the season, and an examination indicated that he had ligament damage in his elbow. He was finished for the season and the Pirates released him on June 30.24

Peña pitched for three major-league teams in 1995. He started the season with the Red Sox and was pitching well in his first 10 appearances with a save, a hold, and a 2.70 ERA. But then he hit a bad spell. He was scored on in six of his last seven appearances with Boston and his ERA ballooned to 7.40. The Red Sox released him on June 13. Two weeks later, he signed with the Charlotte Knights, the Triple-A affiliate of the Florida Marlins and pitched in nine games, saving five and posting a 0.96 ERA. The Marlins called him up on July 29.

With the help of a sinker developed under the tutelage of Marlins pitching coach Larry Rothschild during August was credited with six holds and two wins in 13 games. His ERA was 1.50 and he struck out 21 batters in 18 innings. At month’s end he was traded back to the Braves for Chris Seelbach.

The Braves were a virtual cinch for a playoff berth, leading the NL East by 14½ games when Peña arrived. He was given the number 26 that he had worn in 1991 and became the set-up man for closer Mark Wohlers. He shored up the pitching-rich Braves, getting into 14 games. He was credited with three holds and struck out 18 batters in 13 innings.

In the best-of-five Division Series against Colorado, Peña was credited with wins in the first two games. In each instance, he gave up a run-scoring double after entering the game, only to see his teammates rally to win after he became the pitcher of record. In Game Four, he took over for Greg Maddux in the eighth inning with the Braves leading by six runs. Dante Bichette greeted him with a single and then Peña retired the next six batters and was mobbed at the mound after he struck out John Vander Wal for the final out of the game and series. In the NLCS against Cincinnati, Peña pitched in three of the four games as the Braves swept the Reds. He pitched the eighth inning in Games One, Two, and Four and was not scored upon.

“Oh yeah, I thought I’d be here again. I never give up on myself. I thought I had a couple of good years left even after Boston let me go this year.” — Alejandro Peña, October 22, 1995 on the eve of Game Seven of the 1995 World Series.25

In the World Series against Cleveland, Peña entered Game Two in the seventh inning. The Braves led 4-3 and there were runners at the corners with two outs. Albert Belle came to the plate. Eddie Murray lurked in the on-deck circle. Peña remarked about facing Belle. “Early this season, when I was with Boston, he hit a homer off me (on a fastball). This was revenge. I started him with a slider and then got him with three straight fastballs.”26 He got Belle out on a popup that catcher Javy Lopez caught behind home plate.

In the eighth inning Peña got two outs before walking Jim Thome, and Bobby Cox brought in Mark Wohlers, who got credit for the save. Peña was credited with a hold, and the Braves led the series, 2 games to none. The third game of the Series went into extra innings, and Peña came in to pitch the 11th. After successes in each of his first seven postseason appearances in 1995, Peña had a bad outing, yielding a leadoff double to Carlos Baerga and a game-winning single to Eddie Murray. He wasn’t expecting to pitch that night as he had strained his lower back in pregame warmups. After the game, he admitted, “I couldn’t follow through, but I had to pitch.” (The Braves had already gone through four relievers).”27 It was Peña’s last appearance in the Series. The Braves won in six games, and Peña had gone 2-1 with a 1.29 ERA in eight 1995 postseason outings.

Peña was once again a free agent after the 1995 season. After signing a minor-league contract with the Marlins in December 1995, he had an excellent spring training and made the major-league roster. But after pitching in four April games, he was placed on the disabled list on the 17th with a strained rotator cuff. Dr. James Andrews performed surgery on June 18, but Peña never pitched again professionally.

For his 15-year major-league career, Peña was 56-52 with a 3.11 ERA. As a starter he had seven shutouts, and as a reliever he had 74 saves.

After he retired from baseball Peña paid serious attention to his golf game at his home in Georgia and stayed out of the game for more than 10 years. He was the pitching coach for the Dominican Summer League Dodgers from 2010 through 2013.

Last revised: February 27, 2021

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author used Baseball-Reference.com. and Peña’s file at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

Notes

1 Orel Hershiser (with Jerry B. Jenkins), Out of the Blue (Brentwood, Tennessee: Wolgemuth and Hyatt Publishers, 1989), 188.

2 Larry Schwartz, “Hollywood Ending for L.A., Gibson’s HR Wins in Ninth,” Bergen Record (Hackensack, New Jersey), October 16, 1988: S01.

3 Peter Gammons, “The Home Run,” Sports Illustrated, October 24, 1988.

4 Gordon Edes, “Alejandro’s Pain Is Real,” Los Angeles Times, March 5, 1986: Sports-1.

5 Ibid.

6 Gordon Verrell, “Dodgers: Kiddies in Pen,” The Sporting News, September 5, 1981: 47.

7 I.J. Rosenberg, “Whatever Happened to Alejandro Peña?” Atlanta Journal Constitution, May 2, 2015.

8 Verrell, “Fastball No Longer in Peña’s Arsenal,” The Sporting News, March 11, 1985: 32.

9 Terry Johnson, “No Stopping Him: To Dodgers’ Relief, Peña Back in Form,” Daily Breeze (Torrance, California), April 25, 1989: D3.

10 Ibid.

11 Mark Bradley, “Peña Feels Lucky to Be a Brave,” Atlanta Journal, August 30, 1991: H2.

12 Bob Nightingale, “A No-Hitter by Decision in Baseball: Mercker, Wohlers, Peña get Help from Scorer’s Controversial Ruling as the Braves Beat the Padres, 1-0,” Los Angeles Times, September 12, 1991: 1.

13 Joe Sexton, “Baseball: Peña Strikes a Big Blow,” New York Times, October 17, 1991: B15.

14 Murray Chass, “Baseball: No Runs, No Pennant: Braves Force Game Seven,” New York Times, October 17, 1991: B13.

15 Terry Johnson, “Peña Gets Results with New Pitch,” Daily Breeze (Torrance, California), April 30, 1984: D1.

16 Steve Rushin, “A Series to Savor,” Sports Illustrated, November 4, 1991.

17 Associated Press, “Atlanta Keeps Peña,” Augusta (Georgia) Chronicle, December 20, 1991: 1B.

18 I.J. Rosenberg, “The Fire Burns Again: To Braves’ Relief, Alejandro Peña has Regained His Health and Fastball to Fuel 11-Game Win Streak,” Atlanta Constitution, July 24, 1992: E1.

19 Rosenberg, “Mets Fall 2-1, as Peña Saves Glavine’s 13th,” Atlanta Constitution, July 9, 1992: D1.

20 Dave Nightingale, “Hurtin’ and Uncertain,” The Sporting News, October 5, 1992: 10.

21 Susannah Vesey, “What Am I Bid?” Atlanta Constitution, September 25,1992: G2.

22 Aileen Voisin, “Baseball: The Braves 1992 NL West Division Champions: Peña Feels Pain in His Elbow While Pitching Scoreless 8th,” Atlanta Constitution, October 1, 1992: E8.

23 John Mehno, “Giving Something Back,” The Sporting News, March 21, 1994: 16.

24 Ron Cook, “Peña’s Release a Sad Farewell,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, July 1, 1994: C1.

25 Lyle Spencer, “Peña Still has Shades of ’88 Series in Him,” Riverside (California) Press-Enterprise, October 23, 1995: D01.

26 Scott Tolley, “Indians Get Home Cooking,” Palm Beach (Florida) Post, October 23, 1955: 3C.

27 Mike Berardino, “’Hired Guns’ Shine at Just the Right Time in Braves Title Run,” Augusta (Georgia) Chronicle, October 30, 1995: 4C.