Terwilliger Bunts One:

by Nancy Peterson, Peter Boehm, Wayne Terwilliger

Through fifty-seven seasons (and counting) in professional baseball, Wayne Twig Terwilliger has seen and done it all. He witnessed the Shot Heard Round the World at the Polo Grounds in 1951 and Mickey... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0762743107
• ISBN13: 9780762743100
• Release Date: January 2006
• Publisher: Insiders' Guide (CT)
• Length: 311 Pages
• Weight: 1.12 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

A Nice Stroll Down Memory Lane

Wayne Terwilliger was a player, manager and coach for some 30 teams from 1948-2005! Can anyone imagine how many games he saw or people he knew? In "Terwilliger Bunts One", names, games, cities, stadiums, coaches, players and mangers fly by. A wide time span of guys like Rocky Bridges, Charlie Dressen, Whitey Lockman, Gary Gaetti, Kirby Puckett and Ted Williams are all here. Readers of a certain age may enjoy the earlier years of Twig's tale, while those of another certain age should savor the latter ones. Yet that apparent contradiction may reveal the strength of TBO. There is something here for the baseball fans of all ages. Twig's ghost writers have done well here. Even the invasion of Iwo Jima is clearly described. The guy was there too! This reader was curious about one subject left uncovered: Twig spent the 1959 season with the Kansas City A's, yet fails to mention those endless trades twixt the A's and the Yankees. One wonders what the man thought of some of those whoppers. (See "The K.C. A's and the Wrong Half of the Yankees" by Jeff Katz). If TBO has a weakness, it lies not with the writing but the editing. A stern editor with a sharp blue pencil could have trimmed the text slightly. Do publishers perform such tasks anymore? Given that readers can always skim over the sections of lesser interest, 4 stars should be a fair rating. As the header states, TBO is indeed a nice summertime-or hot stove league- stroll down baseball's memory lane.

A Joyride Through Time

A great book by a great guy. I enjoyed every word of every story. As a former minor leaguer myself I found the stories brought back all of those times in my mind. Terwilliger is a member of my Hall of Fame.

Terwilliger Tells All

This book covers the life of Wayne Terwilliger from his childhood in Michigan as a Detroit Tiger fan thru his years as a star high school athlete, service in the Pacific with the marines during WWII and his subsequent return to college at Western Michigan in 1946. He even did a stint with the House of David semi pro team before the Chicago Cubs gave him a chance in 1948. He was sent to Des Moines in the class A Western League. The book traces his career as a player in the major leagues from 1949 thru 1960. He played for the Cubs,the Brooklyn Dodgers,Washington Senators, New York Giants and Kansas City. He was a minor league manager off and on for 18 years between 1961-2005. He served as a major league coach between 1969-1994 with Washington, Texas Rangers and Minnesota Twins. It seems as though he must have kept a diary to remember all the incidents and stories he relates. I can't imagine anyone having that prodigious a memory. I particularly enjoyed his remarks about Ted Williams,Kirby Puckett and Darryl Strawberry. A solid read from a true baseball veteran.

Carole Terwilliger Meyers reviews book by Wayne Terwilliger

Though the years I've been asked countless times if I'm related to Wayne Terwilliger, the famous baseball player. I've always answered no, though technically, because we share a common Dutch ancestor who came over on a ship just after the Mayflower, all Terwilligers are related. With that out of the way, I'm happy to report that Wayne can not only bunt, he can also tell an exciting story. In his new book, Twig (his nickname) describes his career. And with 57 seasons (and counting) in professional baseball, there's plenty to tell. "Twig is that rarity in life--walking history," says Mike Veeck, Saint Paul Saints president. Wayne has played, coached, and managed in more than 7,200 baseball games since 1948, when he was first signed by the Chicago Cubs, and he is still coaching! In 2005, Wayne Terwilliger became just the second man ever (the venerable Connie Mack was first) to manage a professional baseball team at the age of 80. Personally, the chapter I enjoyed most is the one about his service in the Marines: "San Diego to Suribachi--a Gung-Ho Marine." My late father (also a Terwilliger) was almost the same age as Wayne and he also served as a Marine in the Pacific in World War II. (His nickname was Terry.) He, too, was an avid baseball player as a teen, and wound up using his skill to lob hand grenades at the enemy. Wayne describes lobbing a grenade in battle: "They teach you to pull the pin, release the handle, hesitate a couple of seconds, and then lob the grenade overhand, kind of like a hook shot to get distance. I should have used a short-armed snap throw--like turning a double play--for accuracy, because my hook shot went wide, clipped a palm tree branch and fell well short of the target." He was there on Iwo Jima when the flag was famously raised. He ends this chapter saying, "I'm more proud of my Marine service than anything else I've done before or since." Semper fi. See also: [...]

If you like Zim, you'll love Twig

If it's true that it's the bench players and utility infielders who make the best baseball coaches and managers, then it's true that they write the best autobiographies, too. How many books come out ghosted for All-Stars and Hall of Famers that have nothing at all to say about baseball, and make blatant factual errors, too? Rickey Henderson, Lenny Dykstra, Jose Canseco... even Darryl Strawberry's 1992 book, which had a more articulate ghostwriter than usual, ended up collapsing under the weight of Straw's own tragic state of denial. All of that is washed away by Wayne Terwilliger's book. "Twig", as he was known, was a light-hitting, slick-fielding second baseman for several teams in the 1940s and '50s, and after that he embarked on a coaching and managerial career -- in the majors and minors -- that has already spanned five decades. He only amassed 22 lifetime home runs, but they all seem to have come off of legends and Hall-of-Famers. He coached for Ted Williams in Washington and Texas, manned first base for two World Champion Minnesota Twins teams, and then coached for the St. Paul Saints (probably the best-known independent minor league franchise) when they had, among others, Jack Morris, Straw, and J.D. Drew. Still a manager at age 80, he won an independent league championship for Fort Worth (after surviving bladder cancer), and still made 12-hour bus trips to Pensacola. Twig is a baseball legend, even if his story's not as widely known as Don Zimmer's. They've both been around baseball for nearly 60 years, and both sat in on great events. Zimmer's removal for defensive purposes in Game 7 helped Brooklyn win the 1955 World Series; Twig was on the losing bench when Bobby Thomson hit the Shot Heard 'Round The World. Twig was also there for the flag-raising at Iwo Jima, by the way. "Terwilliger Bunts One", written by two St. Paul Saints fans who befriended Twig during his coaching days, is a lively book that draws on 60 years of well-preserved baseball memories, eclectic photographs, newspaper cartoons, and even a passage from an Annie Dillard memoir. A lot of time and care went into this thick volume, and the affection shows on every page. Twig's reminiscences about Ted Williams are easily the highlight of the book. Also amazing is the list of professional teams Twig played, coached and managed for or against -- remember the 1969 Seattle Pilots or the 2003 Alexandria Aces? I have a 2003 Aces pocket schedule somewhere in my belongings, and I have the unfortunate feeling that if I open it up, I'll find that I was in Alexandria one of those nights when Twig was the opposing manager, and missed the chance to see him, still making a living at the best game there is and having a blast.