-Don Schiffer, 1963 Major League Baseball Handbook
"It is almost 10 years since Ralph Terry first signed a Yankee contract at the ripe old age of 17. It takes time to learn how to pitch and, though lanky Ralph gave promise, delivery seemed some time away. So Ralph was traded to Kansas City in 1957. He was a losing pitcher, with promise.
But the Yankees still had high hopes for him and reacquired Ralph in a big trade with the A's. Gradually, the promise was fulfilled. In 1961, the native Oklahoman (he now lives in Kansas) suddenly made it, posting a 16-3 record. Last season, Terry moved up to the 20-game class with a 23-12 record and finally was over the .500 mark for his career. Last year he led the league in starts (39), innings (299) and victories.
With 39 wins and only 15 defeats in the last two seasons, Ralph today is a genuine star. And his most productive years should be ahead of him.
Last fall was particularly rewarding for the 6'3" right-hander. After losing his first '62 World Series start, his fourth career Series start without a victory, the tide turned. Terry won his last two starts including the seventh and final game, a brilliant 1-0 shutout win over San Francisco, that brought acclaim to Terry and designation as winner of the Babe Ruth Award and the Sport Magazine Corvette as the outstanding performer of the 1962 World Series."
-The New York Yankees Official 1963 Yearbook
Signed by Yankees organization, December 12, 1953.
Traded by Yankees to Kansas City Athletics along with infielders Billy Martin and Woodie Held and outfielder Bob Martyn in exchange for pitcher Ryne Duren and outfielders Jim Pisoni and Harry Simpson, June 15, 1957.
Acquired by Yankees from Kansas City Athletics along with infielder Hector Lopez in exchange for pitchers Johnny Kucks and Tom Sturdivant and infielder Jerry Lumpe, May 26, 1959.
Winner of Sport Magazine's Corvette as outstanding World Series performer [Babe Ruth Award], 1962.
-1963 New York Yankees Press-TV-Radio Guide
"Ralph Terry really came into his own in 1962. Not only did he win 23 games for the Bombers, the most victories scored by a Yankee righthander since 1928, but for his two brilliant World Series triumphs, he was awarded a Corvette by Sport Magazine as the outstanding performer of the Fall Classic.
Terry, whose ERA was 3.19, also led the A.L. in innings pitched with 299, besides topping the circuit's hurlers with his 23 wins.
In 1961, Ralph's record was 16-3 with an ERA of 3.16.
Signed to a contract by the Bomber organization in December 1953, Ralph made stops at Binghamton, Denver and Birmingham before arriving at the Stadium at the end of the 1956 campaign.
Terry was traded to the Kansas City A's on June 15, 1957, along with infielders Billy Martin and Woody Held and outfielder Bob Martyn in exchange for pitcher Ryne Duren and outfielders Harry Simpson and Jim Pisoni.
On May 26, 1959, Ralph was reacquired by the Bombers, along with utility man Hector Lopez in a trade for infielder Jerry Lumpe and hurlers Johnny Kucks and Tom Sturdivant.
Since he's been back with the Yanks, Terry has improved every season. It's mighty hard to improve on 23 victories though. He (and Ralph Houk) will settle for that any time."
-1963 Jay Publishing New York Yankees Yearbook
"The Yankees' right-handed ace - Ralph Terry - last year climbed over the .500 mark in winning percentage for the first time in his career. His league-leading record of 23 wins against 12 losses put the tall Kansan at 71-61, lifetime. Ralph's big year was climaxed by his clutch World Series performances which won him the Babe Ruth Award and the Sport Magazine Corvette as the top Series performer."
-1963 New York Yankees Official Program and Scorecard
"Ralph Terry, an emotional right-handed pitcher for the New York Yankees, was drinking less and enjoying more last fall. After throwing the hanging curve ball that Pittsburgh's Bill Mazeroski hit for the home run that won the 1960 World Series, Terry gulped five martinis and didn't taste anything. 'I was in a state of shock,' he says. After throwing that flitting fastball that San Francisco's Willie McCovey hit for the out that ended the 1960 World Series, Terry sipped a glass of victory champagne and enjoyed every drop. 'It was a tremendous relief,' he says. 'I felt like I was going to pass out.'
Nursing a 1-0 lead in the seventh and deciding game, Terry took a two-hitter into the last of the ninth. Then pinch hitter Matty Alou beat out a drag bunt and, after two men struck out, Willie Mays lined a double down the right field line. Giant batter Willie McCovey walked to the plate and Yankee manager Ralph Houk walked to the mound. 'Do you want to walk McCovey and load the bases for a play at any base?' asked Houk.
'I'd just as soon pitch to him,' said Terry, who had yielded a home run to McCovey in the second game and a triple in the seventh game. McCovey lined the second pitch into second baseman Bobby Richardson's glove. Terry danced off the mound, tossed his cap and glove in the air, and found himself being carried on the shoulders of teammates Cletis Boyer and Bill Stafford.
A 23-game winner in the regular season and a new father, Terry two days later puffed on a cigar and smiled. He had forgotten the 40 home run balls he had thrown in 1962, and the cruel whispers that he couldn't win the crucial games.
'The difference between 1960 and 1962,' he says, 'is like night and day. I had no doubt at the time that I could get McCovey out. Now when I think about it, that light flashes on. McCovey can hit. Three feet either way, McCovey would be the hero and I'd be a bum again.'"
-Bill Wise, 1963 Official Baseball Almanac
"Ralph Terry, the starting pitcher [Sports All-Stars 1963 Baseball all-star lineup], won two '62 World Series games in the span of a week, including the seventh game wrap-up in a tremendous shutout. The big right-hander from Oklahoma is as courteous and mild-mannered as the most unbelievable of movie or TV cowboy heroes. The Yankees needed his calm strength in a season when Whitey Ford didn't match his previous year's effort and when Ralph Houk spent a good deal of time worrying about a fourth pitcher and the thinness of his bullpen relief corps.
He didn't do any worrying about Terry, despite Ralph's penchant for throwing the home run ball- he gave up 40, a Yankee record, and twice was nailed for four in a game, including three in a row by a trio of surprised Kansas City swatters.
Terry got off slowly in what was to prove his biggest year in the majors. By mid-June he had only a modest 7-7 record, but then something happened. Terry finds it as difficult to explain as the rankest outsider. 'I became a different kind of pitcher,' he declares. 'Suddenly pitching became more of a science to me. I became more conscious of control and how important it was.'
What happened to Terry has happened to dozens of other stars. After years of struggling they suddenly achieved pitching maturity, literally overnight. Pitching coaches are leery of the 20-year-old stars; they're happy if a top prospect delivers at 27.
Terry delivered at 27. And as a Series hero he's in the company of such Yankee immortals as Red Ruffing, Allie Reynolds, Lefty Gomez, Vic Raschi, Eddie Lopat, Spud Chandler and teammate Ford.
In 1962, he was the first pitcher in the majors to win 20, and the biggest Yankee right-handed winner since Waite Hoyt took 23 three decades back.
For Terry to become a Yankee star he had to come back not once but twice. In both instances Casey Stengel was the man who sent him away and brought him back.
Stengel made no mistake when he brought Ralph back from the minors in '57 and when he dealt for him to rescue him from a life with the Kansas City Athletics in '59. Originally Terry had gone along in the deal which had been essentially Billy Martin and Woodie Held to K.C. for Harry Simpson. (Ryne Duren and Terry had been the pitchers on each side of the swap.)
Simpson proved a Series bust with the 1958 Yankees and Terry had been unable to crack .500 in the won-lost department with the A's, but Stengel still wanted him. Again there was a massive trade- Johnny Kucks, Tom Sturdivant and Jerry Lumpe to the midlands for Hector Lopez and Ralph. It was an important deal for the Yankees.
The Yankee big bats in the 1962 Series were wrapped in cellophane [except those of Tom Tresh and Clete Boyer]. Pitching had to do it for the champs, and pitching did it, Terry's especially. When he won the big seventh game his teammates raised him to their shoulders in a spontaneous demonstration and paraded him off the field in triumph. It's been years since the conservative Yankees acted in this fashion."
-Harold Rosenthal, Sports All-Stars 1963 Baseball
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