Terry Puhl

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Terry Puhl (born July 8, 1956 in Melville, Saskatchewan, Canada) is a former professional baseball player.

1 Pre-MLB Career
2 MLB career
3 Career
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Pre-MLB Career

As a boy, Puhl quickly showed exceptional baseball skills as a consistent all-round player with a strong work ethic. He batted well, was an outstanding fielder, and ran the bases well. He led local teams at the Sandlot, Bantam and Midget levels to four Saskatchewan championships. The 1971 Melville Lions bantam baseball team won the Western Canadian Bantam Championship and Puhl was named Most Valuable Player. In 1973, he led the Melville Elks midget team to the Canadian National Midget Championship and was again named MVP.

[edit] MLB career

Puhl began his Major League Baseball career in 1977 with the National League's Houston Astros. The following year he was selected as a National League All-Star.

In his first Major League game, Puhl got his first hit and followed it with 1,360 more in his career. Over 15 years, he was a .280 hitter with 62 home runs, 435 RBI, and 217 stolen bases in 1531 games. In the post-season he hit .372 (16-for-43) in 13 games. His performance in the 1980 National League Championship Series (featuring a batting average of over .500) was, at the time, the best performance ever by a hitter in a play-off series. (It has since been superseded.)

Puhl retired in 1991 and was inducted into the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame in 1994 and to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in 1995. His son, Stephen Puhl, was selected in the 17th round (514th overall) of the Major League Baseball Draft by the New York Mets in 2006.

Puhl continues to hold Major League Baseball's all-time record for lifetime fielding percentage (.993) by an outfielder.

[edit] Career

Terry Puhl began his Major League Baseball career in 1977 with the Houston Astros. During a major league career spanning 15 years and 1,531 games, Puhl had 1361 hits. He holds the Major League Baseball record for lifetime fielding percentage by an outfielder (.993). He was particularly effective in postseason play, batting .372 in 13 games. In the 1980 championship series against the Philadelphia Phillies, Puhl set a then NL-championship series record with a .526 batting average in a losing cause.

Puhl was selected to the National League All-Star Team in 1978, and named Canadian Baseball player of the year in 1981. In 1994, Puhl was inducted into the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame. The following year, he was inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.

In August 2006, Puhl coached the Canadian National Senior team at the Olympic Qualifier in Cuba that saw Canada successfully advance to the next round of qualifiers in 2007. Puhl made a hands-on impact in his coaching debut for Canada. In a 15-12 defeat of Panama, Puhl replaced catcher David Corrente with pinch hitter Reed Eastley in the 8th inning, despite the fact that Corrente had four hits in four at bats. Eastley hit a 3-run home run to tie the game. In the bottom of the ninth Reed Eastley came to bat for a second time, this time with the bases loaded and the game on the line. Manager Puhl instead called on pinch hitter Jeremy Ware whose grand slam won the game for Canada.[1]

In November 2006, he was inducted into the Texas Baseball Hall of Fame. He is currently serving as head baseball coach at the University of Houston-Victoria.