Mrs. Templeton ain't departin!

A link to a recent Templeton interview and his commitment to leading the Chico team to victory.
He sure sounds determined and dedicated to his task, even telling Mrs. Templeton she ain't departin!

Jan. 13th, 2010; Garry Templeton - Chico Outlaws

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Happy 54th Birthday Tempy!

Hope you have a great Birthday with your family and friends! Wishing you and yours continued good health, happiness, and blessings from above.

Time flies but you ain't forgotten cool cat!

Born 54 years ago, became pro 34 years ago, retired 19 years ago, became a dad somewhere in between, now still taking care of business as Outlaws' skipper, seems like time is still on your side after all!

Let's hope we ain't seen nuthin' yet!

Now about some of the things that've been seen but never re-seen, imitated but never duplicated, here's my little picturesque tribute to the man, the 1 and only, Garry Jumpsteady Tempy Templeton tha 1st!

They say, yea, you know, "they"... that a picture is worth a thousand words, well here's a few thousands for your enjoyment fellas.

A new Outlaw in Chico!

So far I've been concentrating this blog on Garry's playing days but of course, any true fan of our favorite shortstop knows that Tempy has never left the game he loves with a passion and he's been very active coaching and managing for the past 12 years or so.

Garry seems to be a natural when it comes to communicating his baseball knowledge and sharing his experience. After all, the game flows in his blood, he's first learned it from his father Spiavia who played pro-ball in the Negro league, had a 16 year all-star career while at that same time coaching his own kids and even spent some of his off-time participating in baseball clinics for youth or throwing batting practice for the neighborhood kids in his own backyard!

Tempy has now just been named the new skipper for the Golden Baseball League's Chico Outlaws which is highly regarded as one of the top-class orginization of the professional independent baseball league, which boasts teams in all three North American countries of Canada, Mexico and of course the US.

Mr. Templeton seemed quite enthusiastic about joining the Outlaws as he said during the press conference;

"I was always kind of jealous of Mark Parent (Outlaws former manager)," Templeton admitted in his typical mellow manner. "His locker was right next to mine for six years when we played on the Padres together. Because of the fan support he had (in Chico), the way the players played here, the stadium he got to play in, I always asked him if he wanted to switch places."

"I've wanted to manage in Chico since the first year of the GBL," said Templeton. "This is the best place to play in the league, with the best fans, and a great facility. There is a fine nucleus of players coming back that with some additions can get the Outlaws back in the playoffs and competing once again for a championship."

The enthusiasm was obviously shared by Chico's GM Curt Jacey;

"It will be exciting to have such an accomplished professional as our new team leader," said Chico Outlaw General Manager Curt Jacey. "Garry's proven he can win at any level, but just as important is his tremendous reputation of being involved in the community wherever he has played or managed."

David Kaval, GBL's chief executive also seemed very pleased about the move;

"We're really looking to put a lot into improving the player experience here," Kaval said. "Having that and Garry's vast network connections in minor league baseball, I think you're going to see a real strong team out on the field."

I'm looking forward to following Garry's new assignment with the Outlaws this spring, it all seems like a win-win situation.

I always thought Tempy would eventually manage in the big leagues as I'm positive he's got all the needed skills and experience to succeed in doing so. I know he's said himself that he was really enjoying coaching young ballplayers and watch them improve. And that, though he would certainly like to take up the challenge of a major league gig, he'd still be a happy man if that opportunity never presented itself, still, as the fan that I am, I really hope that one day, he'll be wearing a MLB uniform again, as a skipper this time!

In the meantime GO OUTLAWS!

100 hits from each SIDE, the 1st!

It's a well known fact that Garry became the first player ever to get at least 100 hits from each side of the plate in 1979. Surprisingly, this feat which obviously, had never been achieved in MLB's long history before Garry, was duplicated the very next year by another triple hitting speedster of the era, Willie Wilson. Interestingly enough, it hasn't been done since. Kinda odd to think that something that's only been done twice in history would happen in consecutive seasons. Obviously, Tempy's achievement had an inspiring effect on Willie.

Sadly many detractors have tried to undermine this remarkable achievement saying that he did it while hitting strictly right handed for his last nine games.

So he did, so what?! What's the problem??

I've read some saying he cheated, his record was tainted... Morons...

The record says, 1st to get 100 hits from each side of the plate not vs lefties and righties...

If anything it should make it even more impressive. For the first time in his pro career he gave up switch hitting to face righties from his right side. Even tougher!

Here's a quote from teamate, catcher Ted Simmons, witness to the feat;
      "That was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. He needed more hits than he had games left, so he batted righthanded against righthanded pitchers to get them. And they weren't dinks; he hit the ball hard. I've never seen anyone in the game do that."
 

Let's be realistic here, it's mathematically impossible to face enough lefties in a season to get the needed 100 hits. If it would have been possible someone would have done it before, or since, someone like Pete Rose for example. For the record Wilson did the same thing to get there...

Also, nobody can accuse him of being selfish in doing so or that it could have affected his team since the Cardinals were already out of the pennant race by that time. At least it gave fans some exitement and a positive reason to keep following the games.

So he did succeed in his quest to become the first 100-100 switcher by getting the last 6 right-handed hits against righties, more power to him!

Nobody can take that away from him. He got 111 from the left side hitting .293 and 100 from the right hitting .346.

1979 was truly an outstanding season for Garry who led the league for hits with 211, triples 19, was 6th with a batting AVG of .314, also 6th in runs scored 105 and 7th in total bases with 308.
Defensively, his range factor numbers, 5.59 RF/9, put him ahead of any shortstop in the big leagues.

With numbers like these, it becomes kinda difficult to argue with the man who snubbed the All-Star voters with his legendary infamous;

"If I ain't startin', I ain't departin'"

There was never any doubts in my mind about who was the true 1979 All-Star shortstop, hence the 1980 Topps card you see at the top right side of this blog.

Waving the hat!

Coming back on the hat-waving-effect at the start of game 3 of the '84 NLCS.

I've already posted the video of how Garry had cheered the crowd up as the series moved to San Diego with his team down 0-2. Just when his team needed it the most Tempy uncharacteristically expressed himself emotionally, coming to the field slapping hands and high-fiving his teamates like never before and then proceeded to cheer a rather timid home crowd by vigorously waving his hat firing up the fans.

Here's how the whole thing was perceived from the other team's perspective.
From Larry Bowa's book, 'I Still Hate To Lose'.

The next night, October 4, 1984, the stadium was bunkers. During pregame introductions, shortstop Garry Templeton stepped out of character and waved a towel over his head to further incite a mob that didn’t need inciting. The comeback was on. « I think Garry Templeton had more of an effect on the fans than they did on him, » said Frey. « He did something that was so unnatural for Garry Templeton to do at that particular time. It kind of aroused the fans, I thought. The waving of the towel when the players were introduced. Otherwise, I have no idea what got anything started. I don’t know anything more about it. I don’t give a darn about psychology or anything like that. And I don’t think any of this means a darn thing to me. It’s not an important issue to me. »
Perhaps not now. In game 3 Templeton did more than towel wave. He snared a Leon Durham line drive to blunt a first-inning Cubs rally. And his fifth-inning double knocked in two runs and gave the Padres their first lead of the series.

Apparently Jim Frey didn't care about the psychology behind the gesture nor did he seem to understand what really happened, how, why or what changed the momentum of the series but it's obvious that Garry Templeton knew what he was doing and he would go about raising his crowd, teamates and game to the next level.

They went on to sweep the next 3 games to win the National League championship and play the Tigers in the World Series!

Jumpsteady Templeton Gamin' on ya!

Here's a lil' nuthin' special... you can see it all, the glove, the arm, the jumps, the hits, the speed, the grace, the style, the coolnes and athleticism... it's all in this little three minute wrap-up video that I manage to drag together...



...on that nightmare Windows Movie Maker crappy ass software that kept crashing every three clicks...

Like I said, nuthin' special, just Jumpsteady going through his motions like it's just another day at the office, making it look easy...

And a little gamin' on ya added with some color fx to posterize poetry in motion.

The Masterp1ece!

Well, here's the pride and joy of my Garry Templeton memorabilias collection, just a few items really;
I have three game used bats, including one that says Jumpsteady Templeton instead of the usual Garry Templeton.
A pair of his 1984 Padres, signed, game worn cleats, of course the championship season. And I can say that he wore size 10 1/2, which is my size, 'cause I tried them on and they fit like a glove, however it seems that Garry had a problem with his right foot 'cause there was some added padding under the arch of that foot which made them uncomfortable for me when I had them on. (Btw, I only wore 'em for a few seconds since I wouldn't have chanced removing Garry's mystical fleet footed aura away from 'em...)

Also have a signed Rawlings baseball saying 3 time All-Star.

And of course a bunch of baseball cards, magazines where he appears on the cover or inside, his 1978 Sports Illustrated poster and about a dozen recorded DVD games of his with the Cardinals and Padres.

Not quite enough to open the Garry Templeton museum yet but hey, if you know anybody who's got more, have him contact me and maybe we'll get ourselves a booth somewhere down the street from the HOF Museum or something...

But back to the jewel of the crown, my pride and joy, this 1980 powder-blue-away St. Louis Cardinals jersey, game worned and signed!

It's my all time favorite jersey and here's why.

I've always liked the Cardinals jersey, logo and colors. And when you have all these sewn-on a powder-blue jersey it makes for a very flashy piece of garment!

But what was even cooler was the 1979-80 jersey because they had numbers on the sleeves instead of on the front of the jersey.

And in the case of Garry because of the length of his last name and the simplicity of his single stroke number it turned into a perfectly symmetrical piece of art!

Watch the pics and notice how the nine letters of his name harmoniously arch around the straight standing, single digit, that is the daddy of all numbers... 1.

Then when you see that same digit on each shoulder it just makes for a perfectly balanced jersey.

I guess it's all in the eye of the beholder but well, those who have eyes will see...

Garry Templeton fired up!

To follow-up on my last post, here's a little recap of how Tempy had turned things around in game 3 of that 1984 NLCS.
We even get a rare video interview as Garry is about to leadoff the bottom of the 3rd for the Friars. No sooner has he finished explaining how he wanted to get things started for the previous game that he goes at it again this time with a single, stolen base and sheer hustle on the basepaths, to once again give his team the lead.


After having struggled for most of that season with injuries, we can clearly see that a playoff run turned out to be the fountain of youth for our favorite shortstop.

1984 San Diego Hero!

I haven't been too active on the blog for a while, blame it on the summer weather, I was too busy being lazy...

But bear with me, here's a little somethin' from Tempy's heydays with the Friars. Yea, it's true that I haven't posted much on Garry's Padres seasons but hey, I had to start at the beginning, St. Louis, where he started his pro career and had some of his best seasons.
Sure we all know now that it wasn't always happy times in Missouri but whatever happened there had to happen and it made our favorite shortstop mature into the leader he was going to become in San Diego.

And that's where I'm taking you now with this video, I strongly believe that Tempy was the cornerstone of the 1984 NLCS. After losing the first two games in Chicago land the Friars where in desperate need of some leadership and who provided? Of course, our very own Mr. Templeton!

Here's my little video resume of how and what happened in that key third game.
First you'll see the players intro where everything was going a little too smooth until Tempy decided to take charge by getting the crowd going by waving his hat and cheerleading some.
Then you'll see how he took away a run to end a potential big 1st inning for the Cubbies by robbing Leon Durham of a sure RBI hit with a tremendous catch, picking a line-drive off thin air, on his feet, muchas gracias, no need to dive à la Ozzie when you got JumpSteadyCoolCat reflexes...
And finally you'll see how, with a "load of potatoes on his back", he hit the clutch double that finally burst Chicago's bubble and put the Padres on top for the 1st and decisive time in the series.
All he did during the series was hit .333 with a .412 OBP and play outstanding defense to lead the franchise to it's first World Series ever.

Jumpsteady funky flava'

And here's the funky remix...

Mr Triple does hit again

Enjoy one more from...
Flashy Garry T...
it all looks so easy...

This, his 9th threebagger of the 1980 season, was also going to be his last. Sidelined by injury for the second time in the season he'd miss another three weeks of play, a total of 44 games which cost him a 4th consecutive Triples Title.

We can appreciate Garry's cool flair for style, with the 'fro poppin' out of the flapless helmet, worn over the cap. The goatee and cross-face sideburns, bright red wristbands worn high around the chocolate brown forearms. Notice the relaxed, standing-up straight batting stance.

More than a ball player, a cool cat...

21 year old departin' All-Star

Here's the kid who had superstar stamped all over him on his first All-Star at bat in 1977.

Yep, that's pretty much how everybody felt about young Jumpsteady when he first came up. Just watch him blaze his way to second base on what was supposed to be a single, no need to steal the bag when you can to that!

How'd you like to be 21, a switch-hitter, hitting well over .300, able to do what he just did?... Indeed!