Audio of the Day: Terry Leach
By Mike Silva ~ December 19th, 2009. Filed under: Audio of the Day, Mets Alumni, Mets Audio.
If there ever was the description of “journeyman pitcher” in the dictionary Terry Leach’s picture would have his picture under it. It took him five years to get to the big leagues in 1981, when he made his debut at Wrigley Field, but it was another six seasons before he got off the “Tidewater Shuttle”.
In 1987 the World Champion New York Mets were decimated with pitching injuries. Leach would step in and win 7 straight starts and run his record to 10-0 before losing his first game of the season. If not for the pitching of Terry Leach the Mets would have been buried by St. Louis in the first half.
His career as a starter wouldn’t last and Leach was a key cog in the Mets bullpen during the 1988 season but, as always was the case in New York, management seemed to believe there was someone better and traded Terry to Kansas City in 1989. He would go on to success as a reliever in Minnesota and Chicago before finally hanging it up in 1993 at the age of 39.
In 2000, Terry wrote a book called “Things Happen for a Reason: The True Story of an Itinerant Life in Baseball” which chronicled his long journey to the big leagues and struggle to stay there. In August of 2007, Terry took the time out to speak to me about the book, and his career, on a lazy August Sunday. We relived a few of of his top performances with the Mets, some of the funny stories in the minor leagues, and participating in the classic 1991 World Series.
