LARNED — Professional baseball player, pro golfer, bowler, lifelong friend and mentor to many, Ralph Willard Terry passed away peacefully Wednesday, March 16, 2022 at Country Living in Larned with Tanya, his wife of 60 years, by his side. He was 86.
Baseball historians note that Terry, who allowed one of the sport’s most famous World Series Game 7 home runs in history, redeemed himself in a historic Game 7 two years later to earn Most Valuable Player honors.
In 1960, Terry surrendered a deep home run to Pittsburgh infielder Bill Mazeroski that allowed the Pirates to take home the title. Terry went 16-3 for the Yankees in 1961 and, the following year, pitched all nine innings in two World Series games for Yankees’ wins over the San Francisco Giants.
Terry, a three-sport high school letter-winner from Big Cabin, Okla., pitched 12 years in the major leagues with the bulk of his 107 career wins with the Yankees. He also pitched for the New York Mets, Kansas City Athletics and for the Cleveland Indians.
After his playing career, Terry and his family moved to Larned, where his baseball career took a backseat to his approachable character. “I love those people,” Terry said in 2000. “They never made me feel losing that Series was my fault. They never treated me bad.”
Terry’s professional life changed to the golf links, where he continued to excel. After playing in four PGA Tour events in 1981-82, he moved to the Senior PGA Tour, where he finished 10th in the 1989 Showdown Classic. He also bowled; in 1979, he teamed with Larned’s Gary Meserve to win the Kansas State Doubles bowling title.
Most often, however, Terry in later life took on a mentorship role. At Larned’s Country Club, or as a featured speaker for community functions, Terry was ready to give out advice and lessons from his own personal experiences to younger generations.
Mike Tanner, who owns the local barber shop on Larned’s Broadway Street, has a space dedicated to Terry’s sports accomplishments as an honorarium to a longtime friend and mentor.
“Just visiting with Ralph is like a history lesson in sports,” Tanner noted. “Just the people he knows; all the famous people he’s rubbed shoulders with.
“Every time you would be with Ralph it was a memory,” Tanner said. “No matter what you were doing, or what subject you were talking about, Ralph would have some story to go with it.
“I just took it all in.”
For Terry, many life lessons were rooted in baseball. Some of his favorite stories included: beating Yogi Berra in poker; teaching Tug McGraw how to throw a screwball; and trying to one-up Ty Cobb on pitching prowess from the Yankees’ bench. Later on, the stories had crossover aspects, as he admitted to the Mazeroski pitch while playing on the Senior golf circuit. Still later, his stories contained a moral, as a means to instruct younger audiences.
Terry especially took time out to help a youngster. A favorite speaking opportunity of Terry’s was at the opening of the Gene Keady Basketball classic, when all the players would be gathered during a break in the week-long action.
“Ralph was a pretty good motivational speaker,” Tanner said. “He would help anybody that wanted help.
“It’s funny, people didn’t know how to approach Ralph, because he was thought of as a celebrity. In reality, he was probably the most approachable guy you’d ever meet,” Tanner noted.
Tanner recalled that in 2018, the Larned Chamber office was wanting to ask Ralph and his wife Tanya if they would consent to being co-Grand Marshals for a parade but didn’t know how to go about it.
Tanner told them that they could probably call them on the phone, or if that didn’t work, go knock on the front door of their house.
“They were sort of surprised at that, I guess they figured it couldn’t be that easy,” Tanner said. “I told them if you wanted me to, I could go and ask ‘em.”
Terry’s exploits were also the subject of a 2016 as-told-to autobiography he wrote with John Wooley. The book came out that October, and Terry wanted to do a book signing in Larned.
“He was worried that nobody would show up,” Tanner recalled. So Tanner offered a space in his barber shop, setting up a table in front of one of the barber chairs.
“There were people lining up down the street, old and young, of all ages,” Tanner said. “He was really tickled at that.
“That’s the way Ralph was, all the time,” Tanner said. “He loved people, and he loved the people of Larned, his adopted home town.”
Terry is survived by his wife Tanya, of the home; two sons, Raif and Gabe, both of Larned; two grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
