McFarland: Doing “little things right” major reason for Puhl’s long career
Terry Puhl (Melville, Sask.) played parts of 15 major league seasons.
*This article was originally published on Saskatchewan Dugout Stories on October 30, 2024. You can read it here.
October 31, 2024
By Joe McFarland
Saskatchewan Dugout Stories
Terry Puhl had a long and successful Major League Baseball career, but the highlight of his journey in the game came more than 30 years after his retirement.
The statistics speak for themselves:
-1,531 games played
-1,361 hits
-676 runs
-62 home runs
-435 runs batted in
-217 stolen bases
-.993 fielding percentage
For the longest time, the Melville, Sask., native would have told you that it was the 1980 season that stood out above everything else, as he helped the Houston Astros to their first playoff berth in franchise history.
However, the outfielder says it was his induction into the Astros Hall of Fame on Aug. 13, 2022, that put it all into perspective.
It was an opportunity for Puhl to be on the field with his family, friends, peers and teammates.
“That ended up being one of the greatest things, not just for myself but for the entire Puhl family,” the 68-year-old told Alberta Dugout Stories: The Podcast. “My wife, three kids, grandkids, they were all there. They got to be on the field with me and to share something with the people who love you the most, it’s really special.”
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Listen to Saskatchewan Dugout Stories interview Terry Puhl here.
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What was also special was Puhl’s 15 MLB seasons, which he attributes to hard work and doing the little things the right way.
ON THE DOTTED LINE
Known as a big Canadian National Railway town and farming community, Puhl says Melville was a great place to grow up.
“You could do anything at any time, anywhere in the city and grow up with a normal life – as we understand normal anyways,” he said. “The city had a great backbone in sports.”
Puhl tried his hand at every sport he could, including football, where he was the quarterback of his high school team.
However, it was baseball where he found the most success.
At the age of 15, he went to a Cincinnati Reds camp in Yorkton, where he recalls being told he couldn’t get offered a contract because of his age.
He also had a tryout with the Montreal Expos before helping pitch Melville to multiple championships.
Yes, pitched.
One of those championships was the Canadian National Midget Championship in Barrhead, Alta., in 1973, which is where Puhl met Wayne Morgan.
The Astros scout liked what he saw out of the 17-year-old hurler, although he didn’t think his arm was good enough to be a pitcher.
Morgan had seen Puhl bat and run the bases, believing he could be perfect for the outfield.
So he promised the phenom that he’d visit again in two weeks to make sure everything checked out health-wise.
“Two weeks to the day, Wayne shows up in our kitchen,” Puhl said. “I come home from school and he’s sitting there with my mom and dad.”
Morgan took Puhl to a nearby field, where his arm passed all of the tests with flying colours, meaning all that was left was signing his first professional contract.
“I needed to have both parents sign the contract because I was only 17,” Puhl recalled. “My dad signed and it’s my mom’s turn and she says, ‘I’m not signing that contract’ and walked out of the kitchen.”
While his mother didn’t want her son to leave home in Melville, Puhl says he knew he had to make the contract official.
“As soon as she left the kitchen, I slid over into that chair and signed her name on that contract,” he laughed. “I said, ‘I’m going to play baseball.’”
Despite the short-lived protest vote, Puhl was off to the minor leagues.
PARENTAL GUIDANCE NOT REQUIRED
Puhl would spend four seasons in the minor leagues, accumulating a .297 batting average with six home runs, 135 RBIs and 88 stolen bases in 374 games.
He quickly moved his way up the Astros’ depth charts, starting the 1977 season with the Charleston Charlies of the International League.
After hitting .305 with four homers and 33 RBIs in 78 games to start the season, Puhl got the call.
With the Astros season spiraling in the wrong direction as they entered July, it was time to promote their Canadian prospect.
As it turned out, his parents were in attendance for his final Triple-A game and, after giving his mom the ball from a home run he hit in that contest, he gave them the big news.
“The look on their faces was, ‘Oh yeah, we’re going, too,’” Puhl smiled. “I said, ‘No, you’re not going, too. I need to do this.’”
Interestingly, he says it was his mother who agreed to make sure they went back to Saskatchewan as they felt their son had enough on his plate heading towards his big-league debut.
The 6-foot-2, 195-pound Puhl made the drive to Houston and stopped at his hotel on Kirby Drive across from the Astrodome.
“The lights were on that night and, from the outside in, I went, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m going to be playing in that stadium tomorrow.’”
FULFILLING A DREAM
Puhl made his MLB debut as a defensive replacement for leftfielder Jim Fuller in the eighth inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers on July 12, 1977.
It was his “welcome to the big leagues” moment just four days after his 21st birthday.
“We’re there playing the Dodgers in front of 44,000 people in my first game,” Puhl said. “I hadn’t played in front of 4,400 people before.”
The following night, Puhl made his debut as the lead-off hitter for the Astros, going 1-for-6 in a 3-2 extra innings win over the Dodgers.
Puhl’s lone hit, a single to left field, came as he led off the 13th inning, and he eventually scored the walk-off run when Bob Watson doubled to right field.
He finished the season hitting .301 with 10 RBIs and 10 stolen bases in 60 games, earning himself a starting job heading into 1978.
Puhl earned himself his first and only All-Star Game selection that season, hitting .289 with three homers, 35 RBI and 32 stolen bases.
During the 1979 season, Puhl became the fourth player in 124 years to play in at least 150 games while not committing a defensive error.
Then in 1980, he was a major part of the Astros’ run to their first-ever playoff appearance.
DODGING LOS ANGELES
Heading into the final regular season series against the Dodgers, the Astros needed just one win to secure their spot atop the National League West.
However, the Dodgers had other plans thanks to the pitching of Don Sutton and Fernando Valenzuela in a 3-2 victory to open up the weekend.
A complete-game gem from Jerry Reuss in the second game allowed the Dodgers to prevail 2-1.
Then a team effort gave the Dodgers a 4-3 win and a three-game series sweep to force a winner-take-all extra game on Oct. 6, 1980.
In typical Puhl fashion, hustle allowed the left-hitting speedster to get on base with an error charged to second baseman Davey Lopes. He would get to third on a single from Enos Cabell before he scored the game’s first run on a fielder’s choice off the bat from Jose Cruz, Sr.
The Astros wouldn’t look back as Joe Niekro shut the door with a complete-game six-hitter in a 7-1 triumph.
“That was probably one of the greatest games that I ever participated in,” Puhl said.
The National League Championship Series between the Astros and Philadelphia Phillies is widely viewed as one of the best playoff series of all-time, as the two teams went toe-to-toe in all games of the best-of-five, which went the distance and then some.
In fact, they went to extra innings in all but the first game.
Puhl had himself a playoff series to remember, going 10-for-19 (.526), setting a then-record for the highest batting average in the NLCS.
A JOURNEY WORTH CELEBRATING
Puhl had solidified his spot at the top of the Astros’ batting order for years to come.
While he wasn’t able to replicate the same success he had in his first few seasons on a team that had its struggles offensively.
Then Puhl ran into injury troubles between 1985 and 1987, limited to just 57, 81 and 90 games respectively.
He was able to play most of the 1988 and 1989 seasons, before facing more injury troubles and an up-and-coming group of players looking to take his place.
Puhl was released by the Astros at the end of the 1990 season and signed with the New York Mets, but was let go one week before Opening Day.
He gave it one last shot that season by signing with the Kansas City Royals and played in 15 games, but after only 21 plate appearances, he was forced to retire.
Puhl returned to Houston and stayed involved in baseball as the first coach of the University of Houston-Victoria from 2006 to 2022.
He was inducted into the Saskatchewan Baseball Hall of Fame in 1994, the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in 1995 and the Texas Baseball of Fame in 2006.
Puhl also managed the 2008 Canadian Olympic Team alongside Greg Hamilton, finishing in sixth.
Still in Houston as a financial advisor, he looks back on his baseball journey with fondness, saying he may not have had the most skill but he had the work ethic to carve out a great career at the highest level.
“The game of baseball has changed my life and my family’s lives,” Puhl said. “I’m one of those types of guys who shows up to work every day and does all the little things right. Those types of people … things work out for them.”
They certainly do.