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Peter Frank Falcone (born October 1, 1953) is an American former professional baseball pitcher for the San Francisco Giants, St. Louis Cardinals, New York Mets, and Atlanta Braves.
Falcone impressed immediately, going 8–1 with a 1.50 earned run average and 102 in 72 innings pitched for the Pioneer League's Great Falls Giants in his first professional season. He followed that up with 207 strikeouts in pitching in the California League and Texas League.
Fellow rookie John Montefusco was masterful in the first game, pitching a complete game shutout. The second game began with Ralph Garr lining a triple to left field. Falcone managed to settle down afterwards, and strand Garr at third. Aside from a two-run home run by catcher Vic Correll, Falcone also held the Braves' batters at bay for eight innings. With the score tied 2–2 in the eighth, Garry Maddox, Derrel Thomas and Bobby Murcer hit consecutive singles to give the Giants a 4–2 lead. Randy Moffitt pitched the ninth to record the save, and give Falcone the win in his major league debut.
The most memorable start of his rookie season also came in the second game of a doubleheader with the Braves. Falcone held the Braves hitless through seven innings, and struck out Cito Gaston to lead off the eighth. Larvell Blanks followed with a ground out to short to put Falcone four outs away from being the first National League rookie to pitch a no-hitter since Burt Hooton in . The next batter, Vic Correll, drew a walk. Words were exchanged between Correll and Giants first baseman Willie Montañez at first base, culminating with Correll taking a swing at Montañez. Both benches emptied, and Montañez was ejected from the game. When order was finally restored, the first batter, Rod Gilbreath, singled to center, breaking up the no-hitter.
On May 6, he again held the Braves hitless through the first six innings. Overall, he compiled a 12–11 record, 4.17 ERA and 131 strikeouts as a rookie.
He recorded his first shutout of the season in his next start, also against the Pirates, and drove in one of four Cardinal runs. He followed that up with a 4–1 win over the Philadelphia Phillies, and his second shutout of the season against the Atlanta Braves. He ended the season at 12–16 with a 3.23 ERA. The .222 batting average he held opposing batters to was fifth best in the league.
Under new manager Vern Rapp, the Cards improved to 83–79 in to finish third in the National League East. Falcone, however, suffered through one of his more difficult seasons. His record was 4–6 with a 5.40 ERA when he was demoted to the bullpen in late July. He made just one relief pitcher appearance before he was demoted to the triple A New Orleans Pelicans. He went 2–5 with a 4.91 ERA at New Orleans before returning to the Cardinals in September. He went 0–2 with a 5.87 ERA and recorded his first career save over the rest of the season.
Falcone began the season in the Cardinals' starting rotation, however, after going 0–5 with a 6.46 ERA, was reduced to a reliever and spot starter.
Falcone went 6–14 with a 4.16 ERA for a Mets team that lost 99 games in . The strangest of those six wins came on August 21 against the Houston Astros. With two outs in the ninth, Falcone induced a lazy fly ball off the bat of Jeff Leonard. Mets center fielder Lee Mazzilli caught the ball for the final out of the game. Meanwhile, Mets shortstop Frank Taveras had sought and received time out from third base umpire Doug Harvey. Harvey ordered Leonard back into the batters box, and the Mets back onto the field. Given new life, Leonard slapped a single to center, however, the play was ruled dead for a second time, as New York first baseman Ed Kranepool was not yet in position when the pitch was delivered. Finally, Leonard hit a fly to left field Joel Youngblood caught for the final out of the game.
On May 1, , Falcone tied a Major League record by striking out the first six batters of the game versus the Philadelphia Phillies. The feat had only been accomplished four other times in the majors. Falcone pitched seven innings, giving up two earned runs with eight strikeouts, however, Steve Carlton held the Mets to just one run to hang the L on Falcone. Though used primarily as a starter in 1980, Falcone began seeing more work in relief, and actually pitched better out of the bullpen. Falcone was 6–9 with a 5.25 ERA in his 23 starts. In fourteen relief appearances, Falcone was 1–1 with a 2.02 ERA.
As a result, Falcone was used more in relief in . He made just one start in the first half of the strike shortened season, a loss to the Cardinals. As a reliever, he was 1–2 with one save and a 2.23 ERA. Injuries to Randy Jones and Tom Hausman forced manager Joe Torre to add Falcone back to the starting rotation in the second half of the season. He responded by going 4–0 with a 2.20 ERA.
Falcone went 8–10 with a 3.84 ERA for the George Bamberger led Mets in . The biggest of those eight wins was a complete game against the Houston Astros on September 1 to snap a fifteen-game losing streak, the longest in the majors that season. After the season, he signed as a free agent with the Atlanta Braves.
Falcone went 26–37 with a 3.91 ERA as a Met. He was especially good at not allowing hits when runners were in scoring position, keeping batters in such circumstances to a .210 batting average in 1979, a .220 batting average in 1981, and a .211 batting average in 1982.
Likewise, the Braves finished in second in , this time to the San Diego Padres. Regardless, in September of his tenth major league season, Falcone announced that he planned to retire after the season. "I’m just tired of baseball", Falcone said in an interview with The Atlanta Journal. "I’m tired of the life style, and I can’t see any reason to go on doing it. The game is a game, and a certain part of it is enjoyable, but everything else, forget it."
Braves’ general manager John Mullen expressed surprise at Falcone's statement. "I hate to see a guy that young with that kind of arm retire", Mullen said.
| Seasons | W | L | Pct. | ERA | Games played | Games started | Complete games | Shutout | SV | Innings pitched | H | Earned run | R | Home run | BB | Strikeout | Wild pitch | HBP | BAA | Fld% | Avg. | SH |
| 10 | 70 | 90 | .438 | 4.07 | 325 | 217 | 25 | 7 | 7 | 1435.1 | 1385 | 649 | 717 | 152 | 671 | 865 | 70 | 16 | .257 | .959 | .149 | 43 |
In his career, Falcone kept batters to a .234 Batting Average with Runners in Scoring Position. He hit his only career home run off the Phillies' Mark Davis on September 29, 1981. He had 21 career runs batted in.
While playing with the Mets, Falcone was reunited with his cousin, Joe Pignatano, who was a coach with the club at the time.
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