Terry Turner

Who was Terry Turner?

Terrance Lamont Turner was an infielder in Major League Baseball who played between 1901 and 1919 for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Cleveland Naps/Indians and Philadelphia Athletics. Turner batted and threw right-handed. He was born in Sandy Lake, Pennsylvania.

Listed at 5 ft 8 in, 149 lb., Turner was basically a line-drive hitter and a fearless base stealer. Because normal slides hurt his ankles, he pioneered the use of the head-first slide. As a fielder, he spent most of his playing time between shortstop and third base. He also broke up three no-hitters and spoiled a perfect game effort by Chief Bender after receiving a fourth-inning walk.

In 1904 Turner started a long tenure with Cleveland that lasted 15 years, appearing in a team-record 1,619 games. He hit a career-high .308 in 1912, and from 1906 to 1911 averaged 25.5 steals in each season, with a career-high 31 in 1910. On the field, he led the American League shortstops in fielding percentage four times. He also ranks among the top 10 Cleveland players in seven different offensive categories and still the team-mark in putouts with 4,603. For over seventy-seven years, Turner also held the Indians' team record for the most career stolen bases with 254. His record was broken by Kenny Lofton in 1996, and has since also been surpassed by Omar Vizquel, who did so in 2003.