When it came time to select a team to sign with, the Cardinals were the first choice of teen pitching prospect Ralph Terry. Instead of beginning his baseball career with them, though, Terry ended up with the Yankees.
Terry’s heart may have been with the Cardinals, but he went on to pitch in five World Series with the Yankees and was involved in two of the most dramatic Game 7 finishes.
He also pitched against the Cardinals in the 1964 World Series and narrowly missed having a pivotal role in the crucial Game 4.
A right-hander who pitched 12 seasons in the majors, Terry achieved a 107-99 record, including 78-59 with the Yankees.
Deadly arm
Terry was born in Big Cabin, Okla., and raised in the nearby town of Chelsea in the northeastern section of the state.
According to the New York Times, “As the story goes, Terry first tested his pitching arm on his grandmother’s farm. He started throwing corncobs, then switched to rocks. One day, he killed grandma’s pet rooster with a rock. The next day, she gave him a baseball. After that, he terrorized only schoolboy batters.”
Terry excelled in sports for the Chelsea High School Green Dragons and in amateur baseball leagues.
In November 1953, when he was 17, Terry said he decided to accept an offer from Cardinals scout Fred Hawn, The Sporting News reported. The Yankees continued their pursuit, prompting a series of arguments between Hawn and Yankees scout Tom Greenwade. according to the New York Times.
On Nov. 19, 1953, Greenwade persuaded Terry to choose the Yankees. Greenwade prepared a telegram of acceptance to send to Yankees general manager George Weiss in New York. Terry signed it, but because he was younger than 18, the agreement needed the signature of a parent to be official.
According to J. Roy Stockton of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Terry said Greenwade had him sign his mother’s name to the telegram.
Weiss said he received the telegram, saw the signatures of Terry and his mother, and immediately sent back a confirmation of the acceptance, the New York Daily News reported.
“Confirmation by telegraph is an accepted way of doing business,” Weiss told United Press.
Dazed and confused
That night, Terry said, he changed his mind about joining the Yankees. He met with Hawn and Cardinals minor-league manager Ferrell Anderson in Joplin, Mo., and signed a Cardinals contract. Accompanied by Hawn, Terry went home to Chelsea, where his mother also signed the agreement, The Sporting News reported.
According to United Press, Terry’s mother denied she or her son had come to terms with the Yankees.
Terry told the wire service, “I definitely want to play with the Cardinals. I was confused for a time. There was a lot of fast talk on both sides, but I feel I’d be better off with the Cardinals.”
With both the Yankees and Cardinals claiming Terry, baseball commissioner Ford Frick was asked to settle the dispute.
“We’ll welcome any investigation,” Cardinals vice-president Bill Walsingham told the St. Louis Globe-Democrat. “We signed him first.”
To the Post-Dispatch, Walsingham said, “We are sure we are not only within our rights signing Terry, but also that the actions of our scout (Hawn) were entirely honest and above board.”
After meeting with Yankees and Cardinals officials, Frick ruled in favor of the Yankees, saying Terry accepted their terms before signing with the Cardinals.
Referring to Terry apparently forging his mother’s signature on the Yankees telegram at the suggestion of Greenwade, the Post-Dispatch dryly noted Frick’s ruling “surprised some observers,” but Cardinals vice-president John Wilson said, “Although we’re sorry and disappointed to lose Terry, there’s nothing to be done about it.”
Hype and hope
Noting that Greenwade was the scout who signed another prized prospect from Oklahoma, Mickey Mantle, the New York Daily News headline announcing Terry’s arrival with the Yankees declared, “Second Mickey?”
Terry, who turned 18 in January 1954, came to Yankees spring training camp a month later and dazzled manager Casey Stengel.
“I think he’s the greatest pitching prospect I’ve laid eyes on since I’ve been in baseball,” Stengel, 63, said to Dan Parker of the New York Daily Mirror.
Terry, 20, got to the majors with the Yankees in August 1956. They traded him to the Athletics in June 1957 and reacquired him in May 1959.
Goat and hero
In Game 7 of the 1960 World Series at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, the score was tied at 9-9 when Bill Mazeroski led off for the Pirates in the bottom of the ninth against Terry, working in relief.
After the first pitch, catcher Johnny Blanchard went to the mound and said, “This guy is a high-ball hitter. Get the ball down,” Terry said to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Mazeroski walloped the next pitch, a slider, for a home run, clinching the championship.
“I knew it was high when I let it go,” Terry told the Post-Gazette. “I thought it might be hit off the wall for a double.” Boxscore and Video
Two years later, Terry again was pitching for the Yankees in the bottom of the ninth in Game 7 of the World Series. With the Yankees ahead, 1-0, at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, Terry, a 23-game winner during the season, faced Willie McCovey with two outs and runners on second and third.
“The first pitch was down the middle and it surprised me and I pulled it foul,” McCovey told the New York Times. “I figured it was a mistake, but the second was another strike.”
McCovey scorched a line drive at second baseman Bobby Richardson. If the ball rose, Richardson said, he would have been in trouble, but instead it started to sink and it landed with a thud into his mitt for the final out. Boxscore and Video.
Terry, who started and won Games 5 and 7 after losing Game 2, was named most valuable player of the 1962 World Series.
“I am a very lucky fellow,” Terry told the New York Times. “You don’t often get another chance to prove yourself in baseball or in life.”
Different story
The Cardinals were desperate for a win in Game 4 of the 1964 World Series at Yankee Stadium. The Yankees won two of the first three games, and a win in Game 4 would put them in a commanding position.
With the Yankees ahead, 3-0, in the sixth inning, the Cardinals had runners on first and second, one out, against starter Al Downing. Dick Groat hit a grounder that had the look of an inning-ending double play. Bobby Richardson gloved the ball, but his toss to shortstop Phil Linz, who was moving toward the bag at second, was late and off target. All runners were safe, loading the bases, and Richardson was charged with an error.
“If Groat gets a clean hit, then I’d have to pull Al Downing and go with Ralph Terry,” Yankees manager Yogi Berra told the Post-Dispatch.
Because Downing had induced a grounder that should have produced an out, Berra felt compelled to let Downing, a left-hander, pitch to Cardinals cleanup hitter Ken Boyer, who batted right-handed.
“Terry still was in the bullpen when Downing threw a waist-high changeup to Boyer,” the Post-Dispatch noted.
Boyer hit it over the fence in left for a grand slam and the Cardinals went on to a 4-3 victory, evening the Series. Boxscore and Video.
If Berra had brought in Terry to face Boyer, it’s impossible to say whether the result would have been different, but Terry did pitch two scoreless innings in the eighth (when he got Boyer to ground into a double play) and ninth.
National Leaguer
That was the last game Terry pitched for the Yankees. He went to the Indians and Athletics before finishing his career with the Mets.
Terry’s first appearance in the National League was a start against the Pirates at Forbes Field on Aug. 11, 1966. Facing Terry for the first time since the World Series home run, Mazeroski flied out in the first, singled in the third and popped out in the fifth. Boxscore
According to Dick Young of the New York Daily News, a month later, when Terry saw his 1960 Yankees manager, Casey Stengel, now retired, in Los Angeles, he said, “Hey, Casey, I got Mazeroski out. I pitched him low.”
Stengel replied, “It’s about time.”
During his stint with the Mets, Terry faced the Cardinals once and it didn’t go well for him.
On Aug. 14, 1966, the Mets led the Cardinals, 3-1, in the bottom of the ninth at St. Louis. With two outs and none on, reliever Jack Hamilton walked Curt Flood and yielded a single to Tim McCarver.
Orlando Cepeda hit a pop foul near the Cardinals’ dugout. The ball tipped off the mitt of Mets catcher Jerry Grote. Instead of a game-ending out, Cepeda got to continue the plate appearance and walked, loading the bases.
Mets manager Wes Westrum brought in Terry to face Mike Shannon. With the count 2-and-2, Terry threw a pitch low and away. Shannon reached out and stroked a two-run single, tying the score at 3-3.
“The ball I hit was a hell of a pitch,” Shannon said. “I don’t know whether the pitch would have been a strike or not, but I couldn’t take the chance.”
The next batter, Charlie Smith, stroked Terry’s first pitch for a single, driving in pinch-runner Bob Gibson with the winning run. Boxscore
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