Peterson has connection to soccer star
PHOENIX – To soccer fans, Mallory Pugh is a rising star of the U.S. national team, but to Milwaukee Brewers nonroster invitee Jace Peterson, she's a sister-in-law.
Or just “Mal.”
“To a lot of people, she's a soccer star, and to me she's a soccer star as well,” Peterson said. “But first and foremost, she's a great person.”
Peterson met Pugh's sister, Brianna, nine years ago in Oregon. He was a firstround draft pick of the San Diego Padres playing for the Class A short-season Eugene Emeralds. She played soccer for the Oregon Ducks, and the Emeralds used the same facilities as the Oregon soccer team.
“We actually saw each other at an event and then stayed in touch and talked and hung out,” Peterson said. “Then next thing you know, we got married.”
The couple wed in 2017, and that's when Mallory Pugh met Peterson's former Atlanta Braves teammate Dansby
Swanson. Then the next thing you know ...
“There's no doubt that it definitely sparked some romance between Dansby and Mal,” Peterson said. “We'll always be able to be considered the matchmakers for that whole thing. All we really did was have a party and they met, and I guess them hanging out took over the reins.”
Peterson thinks of Swanson like a “brother” and said that Swanson would never do anything to hurt his sister-inlaw.
“Dansby don't want no smoke,” Peterson said. “Dansby knows what the deal is.”
Peterson, a utility player who has seen most of his time at second base, signed a minor-league contract with the Brewers in December. He has played for five organizations in the past six seasons.
He split last season between the Baltimore Orioles and their Triple-A affiliate Norfolk Tides. In 90 games with the Tides, he hit .313 with 58 runs. He batted .220 in his 29 games with the Orioles.
His longest major-league stint was 2015-17 with the Braves when he hit .240 in 1,064 at-bats over parts of three seasons.
The demands of a long baseball season aren't exactly compatible with seeing a lot of world-class soccer events.
Peterson has attended only two of Pugh's games, but he followed her Olympic debut in 2016 and the exploits of the U.S. women's World Cup-winning team in France last summer. As a young player, Pugh didn't see action in the World Cup, but she was with the team and the forward/midfielder started one game and played in three others during World Cup qualifying.
Pugh is only 21, so Peterson knows there are many tournaments ahead for him and his wife to attend.
“That's something that once baseball's done, hopefully, I look forward to doing,” he said.
Pugh's young career with the national team includes 16 goals in 56 appearances and she became the youngest player in U.S. history to score at the Olympics as an 18-year-old. Outside of the national team, Pugh has played professionally since age 19 when she joined the Washington Spirit of the National Women's Soccer League. She was among a handful of women in the U.S. Soccer program allocated to the NWSL. She turned pro before playing as a freshman at UCLA.
“The things that she's been able to do at such a young age and the maturity that she displays on and off the soccer field, it's pretty special,” Peterson said.
He said it's not easy for an athlete to be thrust into that role at her age, but she has handled it all like a seasoned professional.
“I think everything she represents and the way she goes about the game is amazing,” he said.
Outside of the game, he said he enjoys Pugh's personality, whether it's while frying a turkey at Thanksgiving or playing board games on Christmas.
“She's just a fun, genuine person to be around,” he said.
Jenna Ortiz is a senior majoring in sports journalism at Arizona State University. This story is a part of a partnership between the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.