1962 Profile: Bob Turley

TURLEY BECAME FORGOTTEN MAN SO QUICKLY

But He Hopes Operation Brings '62 Comeback

"Always, Bob Turley knew it would be this way. But it's still a jarring emotional experience suddenly that the glad-handers aren't coming around any more and that the applause has diminished.

The sudden change in Bob Turley's baseball life was dictated by the fact that he won three games and lost five for the world champion New York Yankees in their otherwise all-victorious season of 1961.

In other years the Turley name was up in lights with Mickey Mantle ... Whitey Ford ... Yogi Berra. He made the mistake of winning only three games and it's strange the way his popularity suffered.

The advertising whiz kids, who pay fees for saying you wear a certain brand of underwear or eat Brand X breakfast food, don't come around much any more. They see Bob Turley and keep going.

At the World Series victory celebration in the dressing room at Cincinnati, Turley, who had been a focal point of such festivities in the past, climbed on a top row of lockers and- of all things- took pictures.

In other settings of this type it would have been Turley being photographed as the sports writers crowded around to ask questions and the rich offers for commercial endorsements awaited his approval.

At the latest World Series, Bob Turley, a leading contributor to Yankee success in the past, was a forgotten man. 'I feel kind of useless around here,' he said as he picked up a fungo stick and lofted flies to the outfield.

Turley was knocked out of the box by a sore arm this season. He pitched only 72 innings, the lightest load he has carried since entering the American League as a rookie with the Baltimore Orioles in 1954.

Five straight times in May and early June he tried to pitch but couldn't last. The Yanks dropped him from the starting rotation.

Finally, Turley admitted his arm hurt, but X-rays failed to show any trouble. 'The pain was in my forearm and I couldn't twist my wrist to break off a curve,' he says.

Turley wanted to be operated on in midseason but the Yankees decided to wait and give the arm every chance to come back with rest and treatment. It didn't work.

So the resident of Lutherville, Maryland, which once had been known as Turleyville, underwent surgery on his elbow as soon as the World Series was over. The arm problem was there, all right, as the doctors located bone chips which had inflamed the ligament.

'They tell me I should be the same,' says Bob hopefully. 'In fact, they give me five or six years of pitching. Once they started the operation, they certainly found out why I was in so much pain. There was definitely trouble in the elbow.'

Manager Ralph Houk isn't so sure about Turley's future. 'He'll have to make the team in spring training,' he says.

'That's how it should be,' answers Bob. 'I wouldn't expect it to be any other way. I made the Yankees in spring training in 1955, and I'll be back ready to prove I still belong.'

Turley can't recall when he injured the arm, but he came up with the 'bad hose,' as the players say, in training camp.

Five years ago Turley was an overhand fastballer. But gradually he dropped down and was throwing almost exclusively from the side in the 1960 World Series when the Pirates defeated the Yankees.

The side-arm pitching, Turley feels, put more strain on his shoulder. He'd now prefer to get back on top and come overhand again.

'It hurt almost as much mentally to sit around and not do anything last season,' says Bob. 'We probably had our best club in all the time I have been there.

'We had our finest defense and the runs were plentiful. Ralph Houk is an outstanding manager. I have no complaint and there was a closeness among the players we never seemed to have before.'

After the operation, Turley's arm was put in a sling and he wore a partial cast. He insists that he didn't hurt his arm pitching underhand at the Bob Turley Bowling Emporium in Bel Air, Maryland. As soon as possible, he planned to go back to running the business and, in fact, rolling the ten-pin balls to keep in shape.

As for physical condition, Turley never lets himself get over 215 pounds but now he has the arm to bring around.

Bob Turley never figured himself as being part of a comeback story but that's precisely what faced him as he left the hospital with his arm in a sling.

He doesn't honestly know if the fastball is there any more. But as long as he's in baseball, and still wearing the uniform, he knows that he wants to pitch, to be part of the game and figure that he's making a contribution to what has to be done.

This being a paid spectator doesn't have it when you have once been the greatest pitcher in the major leagues."

-John F. Steadman, Baltimore News-Post (Baseball Digest, February 1962)

"Perhaps the recent Yankee spring training session in Fort Lauderdale was the most important training camp in Bob Turley's career. The veteran fireballer had dropped off markedly since winning 21 games and capturing the Cy Young pitching award after the 1958 season. Bob suffered from arm miseries last summer for the first time in his career. He was placed on the disabled list in July and submitted to surgery for the removal of bone chips in his right elbow, after the last World Series.

After carefully testing his once trusty right arm in spring drills, Bob indicated he was ready to help Ralph Houk's pitching staff with some degree of his old mastery. It will take time for  Bob to develop pin-point control, but his arm is coming back strong and he is confident that he can help the Yankees.

In 1958, when he sparked the Yanks to their pennant drive and pitched the club to a World Series victory from a 3-1 deficit to the Braves, Bullet Bob was named winner of the Hickok Belt as Professional Athlete of the Year and was Sporting News Player of the Year. In 1,513 innings of big-league pitching up to this season, Bob has yielded a scanty total of 1,185 base hits or a per game average of only seven base hits.

Bob has not set any personal goals for 1962. 'I want to help the Yankees win another pennant and I think I can improve on my record of recent years,' Bob said just before the season opened."

-The New York Yankees Official 1962 Yearbook

Robert Lee Turley (P)     #19

Born September 19, 1930 in Troy, Illinois, resides in Lutherville, Maryland. Height: 6-2, weight: 218. Bats right, throws right. 

Married and the father of two sons, Terry Lee (7) and Donald Lee (5).

-The New York Yankees Official 1962 Yearbook

Winner of Cy Young Award as top pitcher in the majors, 1958.

Named Major League Player of the Year by The Sporting News, 1958.

Winner of Hickok Belt as Top Professional Athlete, 1958.

-1962 New York Yankees Press-TV-Radio Guide

"Bob Turley came to the Yankees in 1955 and had to earn a place on the club. He did better than that; in fact, he became one of the Bombers' outstanding hurlers. A sore arm and ensuing surgery, however, have him in the same spot this season and the strong-armed right-hander from Troy, Illinois, is out to prove himself capable and ready to regain his former spot with Ralph Houk's World Champions.

The 31-year-old moundsman broke into Organized Ball in 1948 with Belleville of the Illinois State League. He was 9-3 in his first season and had a fine year in 1949, winning 23 for Aberdeen of the Northern League. His 205 strikeouts were tops that season and he was up to Double A ball in 1950.

After he spent time in San Antonio (1950-1951) and Wichita (1951), the old St. Louis Browns called up their fireballing prospect. Turley lost his lone major league contest at the tail end of the '51 campaign and spent the next season in the Army.

Returning to St. Louis late in 1953, Bullet Bob posted a 2-6 record. The Browns' franchise transferred to Baltimore in 1954 and Turley was a star in his new surroundings. He had a 14-15 record and led the American League in strikeouts with 185. However, his control was faulty and he also was the bases-on-balls leader, issuing 181 passes.

In November 1954, the Bombers obtained both Turley and Don Larsen from Baltimore. The Orioles received nine players for the two hurlers, including Gene Woodling, Gus Triandos, Willie Miranda and Harry Byrd.

Turley was 17-13 for New York in 1955, but once again was the softest touch for free passes, giving up 177. He fanned 210 batters and had a respectable 3.06 earned run average, forty points lower than his mark in Baltimore the previous year.

Bullet Bob had two disappointing seasons in 1956 and 1957, but in 1958 he was the pitcher the Yankees had hoped he would be when they dealt for him. He led the Junior Circuit in wins (21) and won and lost percentage (.750), posted a pair of victories in the World Series and was the recipient of the Hickock Belt as the professional athlete of the year.

The 214-pounder slipped to 8-11 in 1959, a year the Yankees didn't win the pennant. But he was 9-3 in 1960 and picked up a win over the Pirates in the World Series.

Last season, Bob was on the disabled list for most of the campaign after giving it his all in spite of constant arm pains. He submitted to surgery after the Series and spent the Winter getting back into shape.

Now a resident of Lutherville, Maryland, Turley is ready to prove that he can once again be one of the team's mound mainstays. He needs only six more wins to reach the century mark.

If his arm is okay, the Yankees will have one of the best mound staffs in baseball, for Bob Turley has the heart and is a big leaguer all the way."

-The 1962 Jay Publishing New York Yankees Yearbook

"This has been a difficult year for Yankee Player Representative Bob Turley. Recuperating from surgery on his pitching elbow, Bob was used sparingly this year.

In 1958, Bullet Bob won 21 games, plus two more in the World Series, and was named winner of the coveted Cy Young Award and the Hickok Professional Athlete of the Year Award."

-Official Souvenir Program of the 1962 World Series (Yankee Stadium)