Peter Hartas

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 9", Weight 154 lb.

• High School Melrose High School

• Born April 16, 1964 in Hopetown, Queensland (?) Australia

Biographical Information

Peter Hartas stole the most bases in the Australian Baseball League's first incarnation.

Hartas was on the Australian squad in the 1988 Olympics. When the ABL formed in 1989-1990, he hit .262/.301/.310 for the Gold Coast Clippers and stole 10 bases in 16 tries. In 1990-1991, he went from 8 walks to 27 to produce at a .256/.388/.296 clip for the Daikyo Dolphins with 30 runs in 35 games and 10 swipes in 15 attempts. He was 4th in the ABL in steals and third in walks. He was only 2 for 20 in the postseason, though.

With Daikyo again in 1991-1992, he batted .352/.432/.407 with 39 runs in 47 games and 20 steals in 30 tries. He was 5th in the league in average, tied Richard Vagg for the hit lead (57), 5th in OBP, 5th in runs (39) and tied for 4th in stolen bases. He was named the league's All-Star second baseman for that season. This time, he excelled in the finals, going 5 for 14 with 5 runs and four RBI as Daikyo beat the Perth Heat.

In 1992-1993, he hit .243/.291/.270 for the Gold Coast Dolphins though he stole 21 bases while being caught only six times. He led in steals, one ahead of Vern Spearman. He was with the Australian national team for the 1993 Asian Championship. With the 1993-1994 East Coast Cougars, Hartas had a batting line of .233/.376/.273 with 32 walks in 51 games and 18 steals in 23 attempts. He was third in walks (behind Greg Jelks and Jason Marks and 4th in steals (after Curtis Goodwin, Homer Bush and Leon Glenn). In 1994-1995, he hit .233/.374/.247 for East Coast with 31 walks, 29 runs and 21 steals (in 27 tries) in 48 games. Despite matching his career high in steals, he failed to make the league's top 5, one behind #5 Adam Burton.

The Queensland native hit well (.337/.412/.360) in limited time (29 games) with the 1995-1996 Gold Coast Cougars. In 1996-1997, he transferred to the Brisbane Bandits and batted only .190/.282/.190 in a bench role and was caught in 5 of 12 steal tries. In 1997-1998, he was back with the Cougars and hit .260/.362/.320 with 10 steals in 13 tries, as well as his only career ABL home run. He ended the ABL's initial run as one of only 15 players to appear in all 10 seasons, going 9 for 21 with a double, two walks, 4 steals in 7 tries, 7 runs and two RBI for Gold Coast.

In 381 ABL games, he had hit .269 with 165 walks, 227 runs, 94 RBI and 122 steals in 172 tries. He was 13th in games played (between David Buckthorpe and Paul Gorman, 15th in at-bats (1,146), 20th in hits (308), 12th in runs (between Gary White and Michael Dunn), 9th in walks (between Dunn and Burton), 1st in steals (27 more than #2 Peter Vogler), first in caught stealing (16 ahead of Vogler) and 19th in steal percentage (between Scott Tunkin and Matthew Sheldon-Collins).

From 2000-2004, he was a Pacific Rim scout for the Chicago Cubs. He has also worked in sales and has coached baseball on the side. In 2007, he was inducted into the Queensland Baseball Hall of Fame.

Primary Source: Flintoff & Dunn Australian Baseball Almanac