Wednesday, July 19, 2017

no. 682 - terry harmon


Who is the man: Terry Harmon appeared in 71 games for the Phillies in 1970 but received just 129 at-bats. He was establishing the role of utility infielder that would be his trademark for Philadelphia throughout the '70s.

Can ya dig it: Harmon, no surprise, is featured in several fielding poses on his cards. This one would be somewhat repeated in the 1975 Topps set.

Right on: I wonder who's ball and glove is behind him?

You see that cat Harmon is a bad mother: Harmon set a major league record on June 12, 1971 by fielding 18 chances without an error. Jim Bunning started for the Phillies in the game against the Padres. Even though the Padres outhit the Phillies 9-4, they lost the game 3-0.

Shut your mouth: Harmon worked in cable television after his career, mostly with home shopping networks, including a station that sold jewelry for 24 hours. Harmon didn't do any on-air hawking (at least none I can find). He was behind the scenes trying to get cable operators to air the station.

No one understands him but his woman: Harmon and his wife, Kay, visited the Baseball Hall of Fame for the first time in 2013. After that visit, Harmon donated the glove he used for his record game to the Hall.


(A word about the back): That could be the earliest reference to "game-winning RBI," the stat that later became enough of a craze in the 1980s that it was included on the back of every hitter's baseball card.

3 comments:

  1. Harmon was one of 3 players to have played his entire career (of at least 10 seasons) for the Phillies. Mike Schmidt and Larry Christenson are the others.

    (Ryan Howard almost made that list, but he's in the Braves' organ-eye-zation now.)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Braves released Howard in May. Add him to the list.

      Delete
  2. But he played for another organization, so no.

    ReplyDelete