Peter Vogler

Peter Vogler
(Yowie)

• Bats Left, Throws Right
• Height 6' 1", Weight 181 lb.

• Born September 10, 1964 in Ipswich, Queensland Australia

Biographical information

Peter Vogler spent a decade playing regularly for the Australian national team, including appearances in the Olympics twice.

Vogler was on teams that won the Claxton Shield in 1983 and 1988; he was Shield Finals MVP in 1987. He played for Australia in the 1988 Olympics. When the Australian Baseball League began play in 1989-1990, Peter hit .292/.344/.438 for the Brisbane Bandits. He batted .242/.296/.318 for Brisbane in 1990-1991 then was with Australia for the 1991 Asian Championship. In 1991-1992, he hit .255/.341/.386. He improved to .276/.400/.338 in the 1992-1993 ABL with 30 walks and 39 runs in 46 games; he also stole 16 bases in 21 attempts. He led the league in walks, was 5th in steals and was second in runs, 3 behind former major leaguer Greg Jelks. He was a second-team All-Star outfielder. In the 1993 Intercontinental Cup, he hit .276/.344/.276 but made 3 errors in 8 games in center field. He also did a fine job in the 1993 Asian Championship, becoming the lone Australian to make the All-Star team, joining Jae-hak Shim and Takayuki Takabayashi in the outfield. As Australia withdrew from the Asian Championship for the Oceania Championship following 1993, Vogler was the last Aussie to make an Asian Championship All-Star team.

During the 1993-1994 Australian Baseball League season, Vogler batted .267/.353/.343 for his new club, the East Coast Cougars. He went 0 for 2 with a walk and a time hit by pitch in the 1994 Baseball World Cup as the third-string center fielder for Australia, with Grant McDonald taking over the starting role.

In 1994-1995, the Ipswich native produced at a .252/.405/.387 rate for East Coast. He stole 14 bases in 19 tries and fielded .991, with one error in 61 games. He was second to Michael Dunn in the ABL in walks (45 to 41) and was again a second-team All-Star outfielder in the circuit.

Vogler hit .289/.401/.408 in the 1995-1996 ABL. His 28 walks tied two others for the league lead. He batted .333/.417/.429 for Australia in the 1996 Olympics and was used as their primary right fielder (McDonald still was in center).

"Yowie" batted .257/.413/.389 for the Cougars in 1996-1997. He drew 42 walks and scored 45 runs in 59 games and also was 16-for-17 in base stealing. He led the league in walks for the third time, tied for 5th in runs, was 4th in steals and second in steal percentage behind Rich Butler.

Vogler hit .301/.421/.473 in the 1997-1998 ABL season, with a career-high 7 home runs. He drew 37 walks while only striking out 17 times and scored 43 runs in 53 games, stealing 15 bases in 19 tries. He played error-free defense. He was a second-team All-Star outfielder again. He tied Trent Durrington for third in the league in bases on balls.

In 9 seasons in the ABL, Vogler had batted .270/.396/.388, stolen 95 bases in 129 tries and scored 262 runs in 417 games. He had drawn 234 walks while striking out 129 times. He was 7th in ABL history in games, 5th in at-bats (1,360), 6th in runs, 9th in hits (367), tied with Brendan Kingman for 10th in doubles (70), 18th in total bases (527) and 15th in OBP. Most impressively, he was second in both walks (13 behind Ronny Johnson) and steals (27 behind Peter Hartas).

Vogler was a coach in the 1998-1999 season after retiring as a player. He came out of retirement to represent Australia in the 1999 Intercontinental Cup, backing up McDonald in center and Paul Gonzalez in left. He went 1 for 11 with 3 walks, a triple and a steal. He came up big though in the Gold Medal game when Australia won its first major international tournament. He pinch-ran for Johnson in the 11th inning of a 3-3 game against the Cuban national team and scored on a hit by Gary White to give Australia the historic win.

Starting in 2010, he coached youth baseball in the Gold Coast.

In 2016, he was inducted into the Baseball Australia Hall of Fame.

Sources

• Flintoff & Dunn Australian Baseball Almanac
• Defunct IBAF site
• Baseball Australia Hall of Fame