Happy Birthday, Bob Turley!

[Bill_McCurdy]

September 19, 2006. - Bob Turley is celebrating birthday anniversary # 76 this morning!


"Bullet Bob" Remembered
Best as a N.Y. Yankee Ace.

Happy Birthday, Bullet Bob!

Righthanded fireballing pitcher "Bullet Bob" Turley reached the majors with the Browns, struggling to a 2-7 record with the 1951 and 1953 clubs. Bob went with the franchise on its move to Baltimore in 1954. His 14-15 record with the '54 Orioles earned him a trade to the New York Yankees in a major player deal between the two clubs after the season. On November 18, 1954, the Orioles dealt Turley, pitcher Don Larsen, and shortstop Billy Hunter to the Yankees in exchange for Harry Byrd, Jim McDoald, Hal Smith, Gus Triandos, Gene Woodling, and Willie Miranda. - As it turned out, the Turley phase of this deal was only Part One of an 18-player deal that was continued on December 1, 1954. - In Part Two of the trade, the Orioles also shipped Dick Kryhoski, Mike Blyzka, Darrell Johnson, and Jim Fridley to the Yankees in exchange for Bill Miller, Kal Segrist, Don Leppert, minor league outfielder Ted Del Guercio, and that forever famous other figure, "a player to be named later."

Turley pitched his next 8 seasons for the Yankees (1955-62), posting his best MLB season record in 1958 at 21-7. Bob split time between the Angels and Red Sox in 1963 and then retired from baseball. He finished with a career record of 101 wins, 85 losses, an ERA of 3.64, and very little sense of bond and affection for the St. Browns, but who could blame him? In the years his star shone brightest, he was a Yankee. Being one of the last Browns and first Orioles apparently were simply steps on a young man's climb to stardom.

Regardless of his demonstrated disinterest over the years in the annual banquets of the St. Louis Browns Historical Society, Bob Turley remains, in fact, one of our living former members. Next to 73 year old J.W. Porter, Bob Turley is the 2nd youngest of 63 surviving former Browns on this date in 2006.

[dave_heller]

I recently interviewed Bob Turley. We touched briefly on the Browns. Here's one of his quotes:

"There was no winning feeling on the team (in St. Louis). What you had was mostly a lot of older guys who were at the end of their careers, who were just trying to hang on for another couple of years."

When he was traded to New York, he said he was basically "jumping for joy."