View Full Version : Anyone here remember RHP Ralph Terry?
I'm sure some of you will remember his name, which came up a lot with Bill Maserowski's HOF induction. Terry was the Yankee pitcher who gave up Maserowski's WS winning home run in game 7 of the 1960 series, one in which the Yankees outscored the Pirates by a wide margin, but still managed to lose four in the best of seven ... it would appear the experience was far from a crushing one for Terry and the Yankees (the Mantle/Maris Yankees) as Terry came back to win 16 games in '61 and 23 in '62 when he was World Series MVP and pitched a four hit shut out in Game Seven of that series.
I'm working on a retrospective article about him and am wondering if there are fans here who remember Mr. Terry as a player, what he was like, what he was like on the mound, etc... There's only so much to be gleaned from old newspaper reports!
-ctan
Sixty one
12-06-01, 04:23 PM
Ralph Terry was an excellent right hand pitcher for the yanks who had his best years with them from 1960 to 1964. he played longer for them and other teams but they were his best years. I also believe that he became a golf pro after his major league career came to an end in 1967!:NY: :NY: :NY: :NY:
Yes, he was on the Senior PGA Tour at one point, and he still does Celebrity golf tournaments from time to time.
Sixtyone -- is there a modern Yankee pitcher Terry compares to? Whether in pitching style, attitude, or role on the staff?
-ctan
Michaels07
12-06-01, 06:28 PM
Mike Mussina reminds me of Ralph Terry, on their wind up and approach to the game.
Sixty one
12-06-01, 08:06 PM
ctan
Ralph Terry was from Oklahoma and was alot taller than Mussina. I think he was at least 6'3" and I believe Mussina is alot shorter. However, Terry had good control and a respectable ERA similar to Mussina. I also don't think his personality as a Yank was like Mussina. I think Terry was more out going with the press. Terry was a good control pitcher who didn't have a reputation as a strikeout artist. I really can't think of anyone on this current staff that was quite like him!:confused: :confused: :NY: :NY: :NY: :NY:
kgblues
12-06-01, 09:01 PM
I was only 10 years old. But I remember Ralph Terry pitching the 7th game of the 62 series against the Giants. He threw a 1-0 gem. That was the game that McCovey hit a 9th missle with 2 out, 2 men on, right to Bobby Richardson (the most under rated Yankeee of all time by the way) to end the Series. Terry was a very, very good chucker.
Anybody remember Marshall Bridges?
Sixty one, would you compare him to someone like Kevin Brown, maybe? I feel like there's probably a modern pitcher (non-Yankee, perhaps) out there who compares.
Jim Roche
12-07-01, 02:48 AM
Ctan......Taking a stab at a pitcher today who would remind you of Ralph Terry...... Aaron Sele comes to mind....
One thing that you have to be aware of....that when Jim Turner was the Yankee pitching coach (1949-1959 then 1966 thru 1974), the Yanks had defensive pitchers........Meaning that they would work the batter to get you out on 1 pitch....Get you off balance to hit a weak ground ball or flyball.. Up until Al Downing, the Yanks didn't have any "Power Pitchers" to speak of.... They just didn't go for a whole lot of K's from their pitchers......... When Downing led the AL in strikeouts with 217? in '64, Jim wasn't the pitching coach then, it was Whitey Ford.....(but Downing had been groomed as a power pitcher by Johnny Sain who was the Yankee pitching coach from '61 thru '63.......):NY:
And a word of warning. NEVER attempt to have Ralph sign a ball that already has Mazeroski's signature on it...
Sixty one
12-07-01, 09:11 AM
Good answer Gehrig! I can still picture that homerun by Maz. I was in college and was crushed by it! Kevin Brown is more of a power pitcher than Ralph Terry. Aaron Sele is a better comparison but still not like him. How about a comparison with Freddie Garcia and Ralph Terry....similar delivery, good control good won/lost record. Maybe some other posters out there who remember Terry may want to comment on this comparison.:NY: :NY: :NY: :NY:
Ill never forget Ralph Terry! I was 12 myself at the time! And Deep Into Becoming A Great Yankee Fan with the likes of Mantle & Maris! Terry just seemed to ring a bell when you mention great players as these two!
Theres A Picture of Ralph (I believe this is for the 1959 season) in the book "The Yankees An Illustrated History"
authored by George Sullivan & John Powers on Page135 & under the picture the caption reads...
"Ralph Terry (right) was reacquired from Kansas City in a May deal that also brought third baseman-outfielder Hector Lopez to the Yankees. Lopez stepped in, hitting a solid .283, and finished among team leaders in a variety of categories. Terry would begin paying dividends the next season. He won 66 regular-season games from 1960 to 1963, including 23 in 1962, plus two world series victories that year."
Wow going on to read 1960 section it says Stengel had asked Terry how he was trying to pitch him and Terry had answered low and that was okay with Stengel but not with the Yankees Front office that ball & that game forced Stengel into Yankee Retirement !
Ill print more about Terry if I can find more in another Yankees Encyclopedia that I have!
That 60's Decade was the best I hold dear to my heart next to this last 4 out of 5 seasons of Yankees Great Destiny starting with 96 and the best 98 Season with 99 & 2000 followup!!!!
:D
Thanks all! I'm going to the library to try to learn more about him tomorrow, but I'm not 100% sure how much I'll find in a library in Boston... any pointers to books I can get I'd appreciate.
-ctan
Wow I found more for you in another New York Encyclopedia this one is authored by Harvey Frommer.
And this book has an index!!!!
The different pages I found
Terry had a 16-3 record in 1961
He later became a professional golfer
Terry was voted WS MVP in 62 as he pitched the winning game against the Giants.
Ralph Houk was manager of the Denver team in the American Asscociation in 1957 he groomed Yankee Baseball Players including Ralph Terry.
In 1963 the Yankees were pitching rich one of the pitchers included 17 game winner Ralph Terry.
Tom Greenwade was the legendary scout that discovered Ralph Terry.
In the Farm System Ralph Terry was the Star Pitcher in the 1956 Denver Team.
Ok then I have another NY Yankees Encyclopedia this one is authored by Mark Gallagher. This one has no Index lets see what I can find about Terry in this one if anything different...Ok this one they have players in alpabetical order with a synopsis of each.
Terry, Ralph (page 204)
Yankee: 1956-57, '59-64
Pitcher
Born January 9, 1936
Birthplace: Big Cabin, OK
Bat:R; Throw: R
Ht: 6'3" Wt: 195
It goes on to say that in 62 he was honored by Sporting News as one of 2 pitchers to its AL Allstar team. Also in 1962 he was named to the AL team for the All-Star Game.
in June of 57 the Yankees traded Ralph to the Kansas City "A"s Then reaquired him in 1959 then traded him to the Indians in Sept. 1964.
Ralph Terry had excellent stuff.
In 59 he was the Yankees 6th starter.
In 60 he was the Yankees 4th starter. winning the AL Pennant Clincher at Boston.
61 he was 3rd starter behind Yankees Pitching Ace Whitey Ford
"In 1962 Ralph had his most sensational year and he became the ace of the Yankee pitching staff. Including his two world series wins, Ralph had 25 victories in the 1962 season, which happened to be the most wins by a Yankee righthander since Pipgras won 24 in 1928."
In 63 Whitey & Ralph were the workhorses of the Yankees Pitching Squad.
He was taught the slider (which became his bread & butter pitch enabling him to become one of the best Rh pitchers in Yankee History) that year by the Yankee Pitching coach Johnny Sain .
1964 Terry was dropped down to 4th starter.
He was a league leader in 62 & 63.
He was a Yankee Club leader in 62.
Then it tells about his world series games which have already been discussed.
Okay ctan thats about all I found in my "Yankee Books" !!!!!
Hope this helps & Hope you can something in the Boston Libraries...
:D
Wow, thank you so much Jean. That's especially interesting about Houk being his minor league manager and Sain teaching him the slider!
-ctan
JARHEAD
03-31-05, 10:02 AM
I just found your forum and am now a member. Ralph Terry has a special place in my heart. From the time I can remember until now I remember my dad telling me about catching for Ralph Terry in high school. Dad said " I would put 3-4 handkercheifs in my glove and it would still burn" My dad's brother married Ralph's sister so in a way Ralph is my uncle. I have the autographed ball he gave to me in 1963 when he was in Tulsa at a signing. I spoke to him a few weeks ago and he is living large by living low keyed. He says he plays golf whenever the urge strikes him. He does a few charity golf events and also does speaking engagements. My son is going to a U.S.S.S.A. World Series in July and I hope to have Ralph come over and watch. He wrote my son a nice letter of encouragement and also sent an autographed card. A real nice guy who's remembered more for the "Shot heard 'round the world" pitch and not for coming back from that to go on to earning World Series MVP honors 2 years later. He is more than a great pitcher to me.. to me he is a legend.
thecaptain
03-31-05, 10:59 AM
And a word of warning. NEVER attempt to have Ralph sign a ball that already has Mazeroski's signature on it... :lol: :lol:
Ralph should never be compared to Keven Brown. No offense to Keven but Ralph was steady ans always, to my knowledge in control of his emotions.
Ralph was a 12 year veteran with most of his time spent with the Yankees. As Al said his best years were in the early 60's. He was a good #3 or #4 for us modt of the time
Andy
I just found your forum and am now a member. Ralph Terry has a special place in my heart. From the time I can remember until now I remember my dad telling me about catching for Ralph Terry in high school. Dad said " I would put 3-4 handkercheifs in my glove and it would still burn" My dad's brother married Ralph's sister so in a way Ralph is my uncle.
welcome, Jar! wow, I didn't even realize people could still find these old threads!
At the time I posted the original thread here, I was very much thinking about how Terry was put in a unique situation. In 1960, he gives up the HR to Maz in game seven. Did he fold up? Did it wreck his career? Not at all. He pitched great in '61, and in '62 he got the chance to be on the mound in game seven again -- and this time to shut the door AND win MVP honors for the WS!
The reason I was thinking about it so much in Dec. 2001 was, of course, that in november 2001, Mariano had finally been beaten in a world series, and I was trying to feel optimistic that he too would some day get that shot at redemption. As we now know, in 2005, Mariano has continued to be great, and like in 2001, to beat him usually takes a lot of luck and a lot of persistence (Red Sox in 2004...).
I just mailed Ralph Terry a copy of my new book, since the interview I did with him back in 2001 for Yankees Magazine was relevant to the 50 Greatest Yankee Games, too. Both the 1960 and the 1962 game sevens are in there...
-ctan
JoeSeadog
04-01-05, 03:45 AM
I would compare Terry more to Andy Pettitte than Mike Mussina, especially in temperment. I remember Ralph pitching In Denver when I was a kid (I was just 10 or so, but understand that my 3 older brothers and I went to ballgames together a couple times a week when the Bears were in town) Later my Mom, who was a big ball fan, called him "bulldog" for his attitude. I thought the same as that for Pettitte.
He was known from pretty good stuff but had a habit of changing his motion for each of them when he got deliberate in tight situations. Jim Turner called him "telegraph" and eventually helped him break that as he emerged as one of the leagues best pitchers.
Terry gave a lot of credit to his coaches when I interviewed him. Here's an excerpt of the interview we did in the offseason after the 2001 World Series:
SO WE WERE TALKING ABOUT THE 1962 TEAM...
I'll tell you who deserves a lot of credit: the coaching staff. Sain, Moses. Jim Egan, our bullpen coach, we got him from Cleveland. They were totally left out. Johnny Sain was the greatest pitching coach who ever lived.
DID SAIN TEACH YOU THE SLIDER?
I went to the cutter. I hurt my arm trying to throw the slurve. I had an overhand curve that was pretty slow already. So now I had two different speeds on breaking pitches, the curve and what they call the cutter now.
DO YOU FEEL LIKE YOU GOT A SECOND CHANCE?
How many times do you get a chance to pitch in a game seven? I'm the only guy [on the Yankees] who ever threw the final pitch of TWO game sevens. [up to that point]
ON THE 2001 WORLD SERIES:
It was a great series and it was great for baseball. I didn't feel bad rooting for the Yankees. Both teams played with a lot of heart. I felt bad for Oakland in football this year!
WHAT WOULD YOU SAY TO Byung-hyun Kim?
I would just say "next year." I'd say something that Casey said to me. Stengel said to me, in the office right after the game [G7 of the 1960 World Series, after the Mazeroski homer]-- I felt worse for him than for me because everyone knew it was his last year--he said 'how were you trying to pitch him?' As long as you pitch, you're not always going to get the ball where you want. I said I was trying to get the ball down and it hung up. He said 'if you were trying to blow away a high ball hitter with high fast balls, I wouldn't sleep too good at night. But when you follow the scouting report? Just forget it, come out and get 'em next year.'
ON MANAGERS:
Houk inherited one of the greatest teams ever, but he didn't screw it up. He really knew how to handle his pitchers. He was an old catcher and he was a scrapper, boy.
But Stengel was something special. Playing for Casey and watching Maris and Mantle hit all those homers were two things I'll never forget.
ABOUT GROWING UP IN OKLAHOMA:
I was a bat boy or a water boy or whatever, in eighth grade, when Mickey [Mantle] was a senior and we played Commerce [Mickey's school].
I was a catcher in high school but I always wanted to pitch. I knew I could throw the ball back to the mound harder that they could throw it to me. One day our top three pitchers were seniors and it was "Senior Day" and they didn't show up. So coach let me pitch. I gave up one infield single and struck out 21 men. And hit a grand slam! Off the agriculture building. That was probably the greatest game I ever had in baseball.
I was sidearming then. I had read a book on it. Coach was like, well, okay, I guess you can pitch.
-ctan
scotian1
04-11-05, 07:17 PM
Yes as then a Yankee fan and a young boy he broke my heart in 1960 but he redeemed himself in my eyes with a complete game in game 7 of the 62 World Series. The ninth inning was tough to watch but thank God Bobby Richardson was in the right place on the field when McCovey hit his screaming liner to end the game and give the Yanks the Series.
And I remember growing up as a kid reading the collections of Charles Schulz PEANUTS, and loving the cartoon where Charlie Brown cries out "Why couldn't McCovey have hit the ball three feet higher??"
I interviewed Phil Linz about that game in '62, too. He was on the bench that day and he says when Richardson leapt to catch that liner, every guy on the bench leaped, too. He's seen a photo that ran in one of the newspapers of it, where they are all off the ground!
-ctan
hellonewman
04-13-05, 12:49 AM
And I remember growing up as a kid reading the collections of Charles Schulz PEANUTS, and loving the cartoon where Charlie Brown cries out "Why couldn't McCovey have hit the ball three feet higher??"IIRC, that cartoon had 2 sequels ... they're exactly like the first, except that Schulz substitutes "two feet higher" and then "one foot higher".
Funny stuff.
I remember Ralph Terry. He was one of my favorite Yankee pitchers, which is another reason why Mazaroski hurt so much. I was a kid then and kept score of a lot of Yankee games. It seemed that Terry had a lot of games where he didn't give up a hit until late in the game, and he was always good for a few shutouts each year. He gave up a lot of HRs, so when they started to catch up with him in the late innings, somebody would go deep. He came to the Yankees from Kansas City, which was then widely regarded as the Yankee farm team.
jimmyclark
04-15-05, 03:31 AM
There are several pages on Terry in Peter Golenbock's book "Dynasty". Terry's career started with a dispute as to who signed him first: the Yankees or Cardinals. Commissioner Ford Frick decided in favor of New York. Terry had a poor start to his career unlike bob Grim and Johnny Kucks, he was traded to Kansas City and reacquired 2 years later (there were a lot of New York-Kansas City deals done in late 1950s). One problem he had was he tended to experiment with offspeed pitches in key spots, often giving up big hits instead of going with his rising fastball. In 1961 Johnny Sain convinced him to use a slider instead of lollypop curve. Terry says when he was playing for Cleveland in 1965 they had an agreement to pay him $1500 for every win over 10 wins (an illegal incentive clause) and they stopped pitching him after he reached 11 wins. That ended his Cleveland career, he then went to Kansas City where Charlie Finley was in full-stage of offending people (and beginning to put the pieces together of a great team).
Asseveral people have remarked Terry was well known as a very good golfer. I remember a few years ago Mike Francessa on WFAN had a caller who said he caddied for a Yankee foursome in the early 60s. Francessa said "I'll bet Ralph Terry won" and the caller said yes, Terry was quite good. I do find it interesting that Terry got a chance for redemption..few of the famous goats in sports history do, maybe Earl Morrall in Super Bowl 5 is one ofthe few other ones. And it is interesting to wonder how Terry would have done if Yogi had started him in game 7 of 1964 world series instead of going with Stottlemyre on 2 days rest.
And it is interesting to wonder how Terry would have done if Yogi had started him in game 7 of 1964 world series instead of going with Stottlemyre on 2 days rest.
I'll have to ask him about that if I ever get the chance to talk with him again...
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