I don't recall anyone playing Terry in the definitive movie about the early '60s Yankees: "61*". The reference is not to the year 1961 but to the Roger Maris home run total. (And the asterisk is intended.)
Anthony Michael Hall plays pitcher Whitey Ford in a high-profile role. That's deserved because Ford was a defining player. Ralph Terry by contrast was one of those pitchers who had a too-limited prime. Pitching is an unusual sports task in how it demands so much from one appendage. Many pitchers in a bygone time would rise and fall pretty quickly because of the demands. As players became more expensive to compensate, baseball came up with the "pitch count" to protect its investments more. We could not have foreseen a time when a pitcher would get pulled from a game, say in the seventh inning, with a no-hitter going!
Terry had an impressive prime with the Yankees but it seemed rather meteoric. It's not as if he disappeared abruptly from the bigs, it's just that after 1962 he descended to a more "common" level. (Non-stars are called "commons" in baseball card lingo.)
We kept seeing Terry's smiling countenance on baseball cards, including cards where he wasn't wearing a cap which meant he had been traded. Reading the backs of those cards would remind us of his heyday with the Yanks' distinctive salad days of the early '60s. It was a time when my generation of boomer-age boys got captivated by the Bronx crew. Billy Crystal was watching as a boy. His first time in Yankee Stadium was in 1956.
We have Crystal to thank for "61*" in which he appeared to go above and beyond the call of duty to make a really good movie.
Terry's first really impressive season was 1961. Prior to that he did make a mark with some infamy though. No retrospective on his life would be complete, alas, without mention of the Bill Mazeroski home run he gave up at the end of the 1960 World Series. Fortunately Terry didn't end up like Ralph Branca whose name is permanently associated with infamy. It was Branca who gave up the Bobby Thomson home run in 1951. If anything has overshadowed Branca's personal infamy, it's the revelations that came out about the sign-stealing by the New York Giants in the pennant drive. Forget about the "good old days," eh?
Sticking to his goal
Ralph Terry had a resume of working his way up before 1961. It all started in '56 when he pitched 13 innings and fashioned one win with the Bronx crew. He was 20 years old. The native of Big Cabin OK split time in 1957 with the Yankees and the Kansas City Athletics, the latter often seen at the time as the Yanks' "farm club." But K.C. was a card-carrying American League team. Let's say certain "relationships" existed. Maris spent time there.
Today the K.C. Royals are no one's caddy!
They say that professional athletes have "no fear of failure." Terry might have gotten discouraged as he went 1-1 with the Yankees and 4-11 with Kansas City. But his ERA was an encouraging 3.33. He slipped to 4.24 in '58, still with the Athletics, and his W/L was a lukewarm 11-13.
Little encouragement was offered in '59, based on the numbers, as he carved out less than luminous stats with both the Athletics and Yankees: 2-4 with the Athletics (not the "A's" then), 3-7 with the Bombers. But Casey Stengel and the Yankees saw qualities they liked in the smiling young man. So in '60 he pulled on the pinstripes for the whole summer and held his own with a 10-8 record, 3.40 ERA.
Boomers like me have an image of Casey etched with the '62 Mets team and the powder blue. We had to be reminded that Casey had a long background prior to that of quite legitimate success.
Bruce McGill as Ralph Houk in "61*" says to Mickey Mantle in a private meeting: "I know Casey could be hard on you, but I'm the manager now." So Casey could be a quite serious man and baseball professional. He just came off like rather a clown in New York's new baseball incarnation in 1962. The Mets played at the Polo Grounds, former home of the Giants who had gone west.
Like water off duck's back?
Ah, "no fear of failure." The Mazeroski home run had to hurt Ralph Terry's psyche a little. But never mind, bring on 1961! Maris was poised to hit his 61 home runs. Mantle was in his prime and battled Maris in the homer race, was in fact the sentimental favorite. Whitey Ford was smooth. These were the Yankees that endeared themselves to boomer-age fans who collected baseball cards in mountains. Post-WWII prosperity had been good to us. Our numbers were massive.
I was six years old in '61, too young to pay much attention, but in the next few years I really came to appreciate. I caught up on my background from baseball cards and sports magazines. Ralph Terry had a phenomenal winning pct. in '61, as his W/L numbers were 16-3. His ERA: 3.15. He was not scintillating in the World Series but the Yanks won it, over Cincinnati.
Maris made a throw from the outfield in Game 7 that may have been essential to the Yankees winning. Fans can overlook such things.
The final play of the Series has distinction in baseball annals: the Giants' Willie McCovey, a towering presence at the plate, ripped a searing liner, nabbed by second baseman Richardson. Terry was mobbed and his place in baseball history reinforced. No, not a Hall of Famer. His prime was too brief, a fate that befell many players especially pitchers whose arms were so delicate.
Terry remained busy on the mound in '63 but descended to .500. His ERA was a still-sterling 3.22, so it's hard to know why he lost 15 games. After '63 he became more pedestrian. Wearing the Indians' uniform in '65, he had a respectable 11-6 mark. Otherwise he became rather like a "common," to use the baseball card talk. I'd get the new Ralph Terry card, be impressed by his smile, and be reminded on the back about his past heyday. He belongs in the pantheon of fine players of the early '60s Yankees, a guaranteed-not-to-tarnish member.
Whitey Ford was "the chairman of the board" but Terry was in the boardroom too. I would have liked to hear his name in Crystal's movie.
Terry made Big Cabin, Oklahoma, proud with his 107-99 career big league record over 12 years. His career ERA was 3.62 and he struck out the exact total of 1000 batters! How about that? He had no decisions in the '63 and '64 World Series. How many retired players can say they played in five World Series? It doesn't get any better than that, and to be an MVP to boot.
Sigh, he's no Hall of Fame candidate. I have long thought the Hall overvalues longevity. I'm biased because I'm an old fan of Tony Oliva, not in the Hall. Ditto with Rocky Colavito.
Terry has been happy to return to the Big Apple for Old Timers games. I don't remember his name being in Jim Bouton's famous book "Ball Four," do you? A player might be relieved not to be in there. I guess either Bouton liked him or he had a dull personality (LOL). Seriously, there's a good question: why were certain players conspicuously absent from Bouton's book or barely mentioned? A sports scribe should look into it.
Sports life after baseball!
You might suggest that Terry's big league prime could have lasted longer. Agreed. But his athletic fortunes went well beyond baseball. Terry became a very successful pro golfer! No more worry about "throwing out your arm." He won the 1980 Midwest PGA championship. He qualified for and played in four PGA Tournament events in '81 and '82. In '86 he started playing on the Senior PGA Tour.
He has a bio published: "Right Down the Middle."
Congratulations to Ralph Terry, maybe not in the Billy Crystal movie but still close to our hearts, us boomers! His smile makes me feel younger. Let's remember that his peak year of 1962 coincided with the panic of the Cuban missile crisis. Trying times, yes. . . But we always need a release.
"No fear of failure," yes - he lived up to the pro athletes' credo, so that even after giving up the Mazeroski homer in '60, the best was yet to come in his career. No Ralph Branca!
Addendum: The Maris outfield throw in Game 7 of the '62 Series was significant. Here's how all that developed: Matty Alou bunted for a single for the Giants. It was the bottom of the ninth. Then Terry bore down to strike out Felipe Alou and Chuck Hiller. And this brings to the plate none other than Willie Mays. Mays was not to be denied: the "Say Hey Kid" doubled to right where Maris was positioned. Maris' strong and precise throw held the fleet-of-foot Alou at third. Here comes McCovey. And the gentleman on deck: Orlando Cepeda!
Side note: Both Alou and Cepeda played for the St. Cloud MN "Rox" on their way to the majors. McCovey made solid contact for sure. His line drive was snagged by Bobby Richardson, the guy who I noted looked almost sullen on baseball cards. He's really a terrific guy about whom I have had the privilege to write. Just like for Ralph Terry. Golden memories for a 65-year-old like me. What a godsend that it's all on YouTube.
- Brian Williams - morris mn minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com
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