Former Yankee Ralph Terry: right-hander revives world series memories from 1960 loss against the pirates and 1962 victory over the giants

Baseball Digest, Oct, 2005 by Ed Lucas, Paul Post

RALPH TERRY WAS THE LAST person to see Casey Stengel in a New York Yankees uniform.

After Game 7 of the 1960 World Series, the young right-hander walked into Stengel's office to explain how bad he felt about having just allowed Bill Mazeroski's home run that cost the Yankees a world championship.

It was a forlorn scene, while the opposite clubhouse at Pittsburgh's Forbes Field was absolute bedlam as the Bucs celebrated their improbable and incredible victory.

"I went in the office and there was Casey taking off his uniform," Terry recalled. "His pants were down around his shoes, his shirt was unbuttoned.

"I felt bad for him, because he gave me my chance as a pitcher. I would have run through fire for him."

The conversation unfolded slowly.

"How were you trying to pitch him?" Stengel asked. "Breaking stuff, low and outside, but I couldn't get the ball down," Terry said.

Mazeroski, unfortunately, was a high fastball hitter. Terry had warmed up five times in the bullpen, pitching off a steep, little mound. When finally called into the game, the hill had very little slope and his foot kept hitting early, making everything go high.

"I just couldn't get it where I wanted to," Terry said. "As long as you pitch you're not always going to get the ball where you want it to," Stengel told him. "That's a physical mistake. As long as you weren't going against the scouting report, that's OK. Otherwise I wouldn't sleep good at night."

Then Stengel uttered a dozen words that probably saved Terry's career.

"Forget it kid. Come back and have a good year next year."

Terry did just that by registering a 16-3 record, and a league-high 23 victories in 1962 when he was named World Series MVP by defeating the Giants twice, including a Game 7 nail-biter that ended on Willie McCovey's two out smash to second baseman Bobby Richardson with the tying and winning runs aboard.

"To me, it was the greatest counseling I ever could have gotten, because I loved Stengel," Terry said. "Then when I finally did get to pitch another seventh game I got a second chance. I was just thankful for the opportunity. That's all I could ask for."

This time, fate was on his side.

Terry took a two-hitter into the ninth when the Giants' Matty Alou led off with a beautiful drag bunt and wound up on first. Felipe Alou and Chuck Hiller tried unsuccessfully to move the runner over, bringing Willie Mays to the plate as San Francisco's last hope.

"You've got to crowd him," the Yankee hurler said. "That wind was blowing across from left to right in Candlestick. If you got it out over the plate, he could hit one out into a hurricane."

Terry came inside twice, then decided to work the low outside corner, away from Mays' power.

"It was a good pitch, right on the black about knee high," Terry said. "He threw the bat at it and hit a shot to right field. It was a great piece of hitting."

Matty Alou sprinted to third where coach Whitey Lockman held him up, and Mays stopped at second. Many fans second-guessed Lockman, saying he should have sent Alou home.

Terry was in foul territory behind home plate and third base, where he'd-gone to back up a throw to either place.

"He'd (Alou) have been out by 15 to 20 feet, I thought," Terry said.

Right fielder Roger Maris had saved the day by getting to the ball quickly and getting it back to the infield with a strong, accurate throw.

"He could outrun any right fielder or left fielder in the game," Terry said. "He's got track records in North Dakota. He had great speed."

On Yankee teams of the late '70s or '90s, a starting pitcher wouldn't have stayed in the game. Sparky Lyle, Goose Gossage or Mariano Rivera would be called in to finish things off. But relief pitching wasn't as specialized in 1962, so Terry had a tough choice to make.

First base was open with McCovey coming up, followed by the dangerous Orlando Cepeda. Today, both sluggers are enshrined in Cooperstown.

"It was a matter of picking your poison," Terry said.

Yankee skipper Ralph Houk asked what he wanted to do. "I said: Let me go after him with good stuff, high and tight, low and away. If we fall behind in the count, then we'll put him on and work on the next guy," Terry said.

His reasoning was sound, even if unusual, with a left-handed bitter facing a right-handed pitcher.

"If you have the bases loaded you don't have much breathing room out there," Terry explained. "You're in the seventh game, National League ballpark and a National League umpire. There's a lot of pressure on the umpire. Anything close, I know which way the call's going to go."

At that point in their careers, Cepeda was a bit more feared than McCovey so Houk went along with the plan.

"McCovey was a great hitter," Terry said. "The best way to get him out was in tight from the waist up, crowd him. You couldn't jam him low, because he'd get his hands free.

"Richardson was playing McCovey way over in the hole. The only guy we played that much to pull the ball was Ted Williams. I threw it inside, and smack! Willie hit it."

Before Terry could turn, Richardson had snared the wicked line drive that would have scored Alou and Mays easily. Afterward, a reporter asked Terry if McCovey's drive had scared him.