Mark Joseph Petkovsek was a major league baseball pitcher.

His parents were Mary Claire Brocato Petkovsek and Lucas Petkovsek. Mark is the Youngest of 8 Children and grew up in Beaumont, TX. Both sets of grandparents (Brocato and Fertitta) were immigrants from Cefalu, Sicily, and his great paternal grandfather (Petkovsek) immigrated from Ljubljana, Yugoslavia *(now Slovenia after their 1991 independence.)

Mark was the youngest, and there was Luke, Tom, Scott, Mary, Joan, Jim, Crissy, and Mark. With such a large family, Mark has been blessed to have multiple parents in his life. The Guidance, Love, and encouragement allowed him to pursue his love of sports freely.

 

Growing up, he attended Saint Anne Catholic School from 1-8th grade. Monsignor Kelly Catholic High School for four years, graduating in 1984. He attended UT for three years, 1985-87, and returned to graduate with a BS in Communication Studies in 2008.

 

Mark grew- up enjoying all sports. After his sophomore football season, Mark decided that basketball and baseball would be his two sports in high school.

 

He attended the University of Texas and threw a seven-inning no-hitter in March 1987. In 1985 and 1986, Petkovsek played collegiate summer baseball for the Chatham A's of the Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL). He compiled a 14-4 mark in the two seasons with Chatham, and in 2016 was inducted into the CCBL Hall of Fame.

He threw summer collegiate ball for two summers for Chatham in the Cape Cod League and was inducted into the Cape Cod Hall of Fame.

Mark threw no-hitters at the NCAA and AAA pro levels. From 2014-2019, Mark was the head coach and pitching coach at Monsignor Kelly Catholic High School in Beaumont. 

In 2020, he joined the Victoria Harbour Cats team in British Columbia as their 2020 season pitching coach.

He is now an American former Major League Baseball pitcher. He played for the Texas Rangers (1991 and 2001), Pittsburgh Pirates (1993), St. Louis Cardinals (1995–98), and Anaheim Angels (1999–2000).

 

Petkovsek was a first-round pick of the Rangers in 1987, and in 1991, he made his major-league debut with the club, pitching 42⁄3 and taking the loss against the New York Yankees.

He helped the Cardinals win the 1996 National League Central Division, winning 11 times against only two defeats as a swingman. Mark also pitched in seven games in the post-season for the Cardinals in 1996. In the Playoff Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers, coached by Tommy Lasorda, Mark pitched an entire 9-inning shutout by himself. In this past season, you hear someone credited with a "Shutout," but it is a footnote that maybe two other pitchers participated during the game. At that moment after that last pitch of the game, Mark and his team celebrate that amazing accomplishment. The 11 wins he had for St. Louis were a career-high, regardless of professional level.