Walt Terrell

Charles Walter Terrell (born May 11, 1958) is an American former Major League Baseball player. A starting pitcher, Terrell pitched from 1982 to 1992 for the New York Mets (1982–1984), Detroit Tigers (1985–1988), San Diego Padres, New York Yankees (1989), Pittsburgh Pirates (1990), and the Tigers again (1990–1992).

Career In 1979, Terrell played collegiate summer baseball for the Chatham A's of the Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL). He posted a 9–4 record with a 2.20 ERA and 13 complete games. Terrell set the league record for innings pitched in a season, and was named the league's outstanding pitcher. Terrell was inducted into the CCBL Hall of Fame in 2007.

Terrell attended college at Morehead State University in Morehead, Kentucky. He was initially drafted by the Mets in the 15th round of the 1979 Major League Baseball draft, but did not sign the $12,000 offer, choosing instead to return to Morehead for his senior year. The team sent both pitchers to their AAA squad, the Tidewater Tides. Pitching for a team which would finish in last place, Terrell overall pitched effectively. His major league debut came against the St. Louis Cardinals, who were on their way to winning that year's World Series. They roughed him up for six runs in six innings, handing him his first major league loss. Despite that inauspicious debut, he averaged seven innings per start in his three major league appearances, all starts, posting an overall ERA of 3.43, albeit while receiving the loss in all three games. Later that month, Terrell had another three hits, including a three-run home run. In five years as a hitter (the rest of his career was spent in the American League, which employed a designated hitter), he logged only three home runs and ten runs batted in, but all three home runs, as well as seven of the ten RBI, came in a seventeen-day span in August 1983, his rookie year. Terrell established himself as a major league starter. He remained in the big leagues all season, making 33 starts, and finishing with numbers substantially similar to his 1983 results: 11–12 record, 3.52 ERA. Over the next three years, Terrell established himself as one of the better and more reliable starting pitchers in the American League. He averaged 34 starts per year, finishing with records of 15–10, 15–12, and 17–10 respectively, to go with ERAs of 3.85, 4.56, and 4.05. Although his ERA was higher than it was with the Mets, he was now pitching in a bandbox on the opposite end of spacious Shea Stadium, a known pitcher's venue, while facing the designated hitter instead of the opposing pitcher in the lineup, and while often pitching against some of the better lineups in all of baseball in the talented American League East. Terrell was able to withstand the travails of pitching his home games in a hitter's park, relying heavily on his sinker, while benefitting from the excellent defense played by the Tigers' legendary middle infield duo of Alan Trammell and Lou Whitaker.

In his next start, on August 25, 1986, Terrell surrendered the first of what would turn out to be 583 home runs by the A's Mark McGwire, as Terrell was the losing pitcher of record in an 8–4 defeat, having been charged with giving up 7 earned runs in just 4.2 innings.

Terrell had a career-best 17 wins during the Tigers 98-win season in which the team captured the 1987 American League Eastern Division title. Terrell experienced his only major league postseason play that year when the Tigers faced off with the Minnesota Twins in 1987 American League Championship Series. The Tigers, with their MLB-leading 98 victories, came in heavily favored over the 85-win Twins, but Detroit faltered badly in series, and lost the best-of-seven in five games. Like his fellow Tiger starting pitchers Jack Morris and Doyle Alexander, Terrell badly underperformed in the playoffs as compared to his regular season accomplishments. Terrell's one start came in Game 3. Handed a 5–0 lead, Terrell gave up six runs to give the lead back to Minnesota, while pitching into the seventh inning, earning him a 6.00 ERA. The Tigers rebounded to win the game, the only victory the team secured that postseason, as the Twins not only bounced Detroit but pulled a similar upset to capture the World Series, defeating the heavily favored St. Louis Cardinals in seven games. The Tigers' team as a whole was stocked with veteran players; age presumably played a factor as they crumbled at the end of the season, as the team suffered through slumps and injuries, losing the division to the Boston Red Sox. Terrell was no exception, as he lost six of his last seven starts. The Tigers and their veteran lineup struggled mightily on offense in 1988, which led to Terrell's finishing with a 7–16 record despite improving his ERA from the prior season, posting a 3.97 mark that year. Immediately after the season ended, the Tigers traded Terrell to the San Diego Padres, in exchange for veteran infielders Keith Moreland and Chris Brown.

Terrell finished with a career mark of 111–124 in 321 games, to go with a 4.22 ERA. He struck out 929 batters in 1,986.2 innings pitched.

Although a weak hitting pitcher, posting a .120 batting average (23-for-192) with 3 home runs and 10 RBI, Terrell was an above average fielding pitcher. He recorded a .980 fielding percentage with only 10 errors in 489 total chances, and started 38 double plays.

Personal life Terrell was born in Jeffersonville, Indiana, and attended Morehead State University, where he was a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. He batted left-handed and threw right-handed. He has three children, Ryan, Michael, and Erin.