Still Haunted by Bill Mazeroski, Ralph Terry Earns His World Series Redemption

Today, I’m taking you back to the 1962 World Series when Ralph Terry, coming off the season of his life, faced his World Series demons and delivered an epic Game 7 performance as the Yankees defeated the San Francisco Giants. Let’s get to it.

SAN FRANCISCO (Oct. 16, 1962) - You might say pitcher Ralph Terry was under a bit of pressure when the Yankees began the 1962 World Series against the San Francisco Giants.

“I never wanted to do a good job more than I wanted to in this World Series,” Terry said. “I had to prove something to myself that nobody else could prove. I wanted to prove I was as good a pitcher in October as I was from April through September.”

Terry began his big league career in 1956 with the Yankees but pitched sparingly and was traded to the Kansas City A’s in June 1957, the famous deal that also included Billy Martin shortly after the brawl at the Copacabana nightclub which Yankees GM George Weiss blamed him for starting.

This was at a time when it was almost as if the A’s were the Yankees’ Triple-A farm club. The teams made several deals and it was usually the Yankees getting the best of them. In the case of Terry, that happened twice - first on the trade that sent him away as part of the return package was reliever Ryne Duren. And then when the Yankees re-acquired Terry in May 1959, they also received outfielder Hector Lopez.

When he returned to the Yankees, Terry began to find himself and became a rotation regular in 1960, but when it came to the Yankees’ inevitable advancement to the World Series, the right-hander had not fared well. He made two appearances in 1960 against the Pirates and was tagged for two losses including the historic Game 7 defeat as it was Terry’s fastball that Bill Mazeroski hit over the left-field wall for the walk-off Series-winning home run.

In 1961 against the Reds he took the Game 2 loss, the only victory Cincinnati managed against the 109-win juggernaut Yankees, and he pitched poorly in the decisive fifth game and had to be relieved in the third inning.

However, it seemed like things would be different in 1962 as Terry put together the best season of his career. He led the American League with 23 victories, the highest total for a Yankee righty since 1928 when both Waite Hoyt (24) and George Pipgras (23) reached that level. On his way to the only All-Star appearance of his career Terry also led the league in starts (39) and innings (298.2) which was partly responsible for why he also yielded a league-high 40 home runs.

With their third straight AL pennant clinched, the Yankees went into the World Series against the Giants feeling as if they were armed and ready with Terry, Whitey Ford and Bill Stafford at the top of their rotation.

However, after Ford won the opener, Terry, though he pitched well, took the Game 2 loss as he was outdueled by Jack Sanford’s brilliant three-hit shutout, dropping Terry’s career postseason record to 0-4 with a 4.30 ERA. That day he said, “I pitched as well as I ever have in a Series game so I don’t feel badly; the other guy was better. The only Series job I really feel bad about is that relief business in Pittsburgh two years ago when I was clobbered.”

Game 2 may have been the turning point for Terry because Ralph Houk gave him the ball for the pivotal fifth game at Yankee Stadium with the Series tied at 2-2 and Terry finally delivered a victory, a complete game eight-hitter as New York won 5-3.

“That was the key to the whole thing for me,” he said of what was to come later. “I knew I was pitching the way I did during the regular season.”

After three days of rain, Ford lost Game 6, so Terry was given the opportunity to pitch Game 7, once again against Sanford, and both pitchers were magnificent. The only run came in the fifth when Sanford loaded the bases with none out, then got Tony Kubek to ground into a run-scoring 6-4-3 double play.

Meanwhile, Terry kept putting up zeroes and the game went into the bottom of the ninth at Candlestick Park with the Yankees clinging to that one-run lead. And then, oh, the drama. Matty Alou led off with a bunt single, and after Terry struck out Felipe Alou and Chuck Hiller, Willie Mays lashed a double to right and Alou was somewhat controversially held at third.

“I didn’t think he could make it home,” Giants third base coach Whitey Lockman said. “Maris is a good fielder with a strong arm. If he had bobbled the ball even for a second, I would have sent Matty home, but Maris handled the ball cleanly.”

Catcher Elston Howard agreed, saying, “I was hoping he’d come in. I wanted to get the game over with. I was actually disappointed when he didn’t try to score. If he had the game would have been over two minutes earlier.”

And with far less tension.

Now the game came down to Terry vs. fearsome home run hitter Willie McCovey, so Houk visited the mound - not to take Terry out because in those days starting pitchers usually finished what they started - but to ask if he wanted to walk the lefty-swinging McCovey and face righty-swinging Orlando Cepeda instead.

Some choice. In 1961 Cepeda had led the National League with 46 homers and 142 RBI and in 1962 he’d hit 35 with 114 RBI. McCovey would go on to hit 521 home runs in his Hall of Fame career, but due to missed time in 1962 he’d hit only 20. Terry told Houk that McCovey was his man.

On his first pitch, McCovey swung from his heels and hit a long foul ball to right. On the second pitch, he took another massive cut and smoked a line drive to second base and, fortunately for Terry and the Yankees, it was hit right at Bobby Richardson who gloved it for the final out.

“An inch or two higher or to either side and the Giants would be world’s champion and not us,” Richardson admitted, knowing how fortunate they were that he didn’t have to move to make the play.

For Houk, who had taken over as Yankees manager in 1961 when Casey Stengel had been surprisingly fired following the 1960 Series loss to Pittsburgh, this was a special victory. Filling the shoes of a man who had led the Yankees to 10 AL pennants and seven World Series victories was a gargantuan task, but Houk was now a back-to-back World Series-winning manager.

His first Yankee team had won the championship behind the M&M boys, Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle, and it was all too easy. But in 1962, the Yankees had to work harder to defend their championship, and they certainly were tested far more mightily in the World Series.

“This one had to be better by comparison,” Houk said. “It went right down to the final out. It was more gratifying because we had to get the last man out.”

For Terry, it was sweet redemption given his past World Series struggles.

“It has to be the craziest game I have ever pitched,” Terry said. “More than that, this is a personal triumph for me. It wipes away two years of worry, two years of doubt.”

That’s because he admitted he had never really gotten over the Mazeroski home run. “I had that to forget, and the only way I could put it completely out of my mind was to do a good job in this World Series.”

This was quite a triumph for the Yankees because unlike so many years past when their thunderous bats keyed their championships, this time they batted an anemic .199 as a team and hit only three home runs in the seven games. And no one struggled more than Mantle who went 3-for-25 with no RBI, and Maris who was 4-for-23 though he did have five RBI.

It was a Series won with pitching, and no one did that better than Terry as he had a 1.80 ERA with 16 strikeouts and two walks in 25 innings. “All I want to do is get some sleep,” said Terry.