9001290421
DETROIT FREE PRESS
900730
Monday, July 30, 1990
METRO FINAL
1C
MITCH ALBOM
Copyright (c) 1990, Detroit Free Press
TERRELL, OTHERS FIND YOU CAN GO HOME AGAIN
I tap my clipboard. I glance at my watch. I am standing in the Tigers'
clubhouse, waiting for Kirk Gibson. I figure he's next. And then Lance
Parrish, or maybe Tom Brookens. I have already checked off the following
names from my former Tigers list: Dan Petry. Check. Darnell Coles. Check. Walt
Terrell. Check.
Walt Terrell?
"I was kind of surprised myself," Terrell said as he again pulled on a
Tigers uniform before the game Sunday. "I figured since they traded me three
years ago, there wouldn't be a lot of interest in me a second time."
Yes. That is what you usually figure, isn't it? You trade a guy, you don't
bring him back. I mean, otherwise, why trade him? You could save all those
moving expenses.
But something funny is going on here. Former Tigers are suddenly Tigers
again. The once-traded are suddenly the reacquired. They are flying into town
and slipping on the old white uniforms and going out there and playing
baseball. Petry. Check. Coles. Check. Terrell. Check. They are coming home,
one at a time, like the swallows returning to Capistrano.
"Who's next?" I asked Terrell. "Maybe Doyle Alexander? Maybe Johnny Grubb?"
"You never know," he said, shrugging.
You never know. Who would have ever thought this? Walt Terrell back at Tiger
Stadium? He was traded from here to San Diego. From San Diego to the New York
Yankees. From New York to Pittsburgh. He was like the long-lost uncle who
joined the Foreign Legion and traveled the world.
Then, Terrell was released by Pittsburgh and picked up off waivers Friday
by Detroit. The long-lost uncle was coming home. For months, he has been
trying to sell his house in Grosse Pointe, convinced there would be no use for
it. Now, he will move back in for the rest of the season. He still has the
keys.
"There's no furniture," he said. "But that's OK. I'll just get a sleeping
bag, a couch, a TV set -- that'll be fine."
Walt Terrell. Check.
Tiger Stadium? Call it Reunion Arena
Petry's story was much the same. Was traded out west, played for the
Angels. They let him go; Detroit said, "Come back." Coles, too, has been all
over the map. Was traded here from Seattle, then to Pittsburgh. Then
Pittsburgh sent him back to Seattle.
"Are you surprised?" a reporter asked him when the return to Seattle was
announced.
"The only thing that would surprise me," Coles said, laughing, "would be a
return to Detroit."
Surprise.
Maybe this is just one of those quirky things that happen in baseball.
Maybe Detroit is hard to get out of your system. Maybe the Tigers are planning
this big reunion party, and the other guys haven't sent in their RSVP's yet.
Jim Walewander? He must be coming, right? Gibson, Parrish, Brookens,
Walewander. . . .
"Isn't it a little strange?" I asked Terrell. "When a team trades you, it
means you are not part of their future plans. Then, a few years later, they
say you're important enough to re-sign. Isn't that strange?"
"Yeah," he said. "But I got over any resentment long ago. The way I look
at it now, as long as it's the major leagues, it's OK. I'm happy to be back
here. I was horsebleep in Pittsburgh."
He grabbed his cap. He grabbed his glove. The trainer asked him to jump on
the scale, so he could have a weight for his chart.
And a few hours later, there was Terrell, jogging out of the bullpen in the
fourth inning, hearing the applause of Detroit people who last applauded him
in 1988.
And here I am, with my clipboard. Madlock. Bill Madlock. He ought to be
arriving any time now. . . .
Burning bridges only burns you
Maybe this would be less unusual if a new regime had moved in. New
manager. New general manager. But Sparky Anderson and Bill Lajoie were in
charge when all these trades were made, and Anderson and Lajoie are in charge
now. Same guys? Going, then coming? Is it like selling stock? Sell high, buy
low, sell high? Is that it?
"I think the boys just got lonesome out there with the other teams,"
Anderson said, laughing. "They just wanted to come home."
"Is it ever awkward for you to take a guy back you once let go?"
"No," he said, "because I never told them anything that wasn't true when we
let them go. I'm smarter than that. You never know when something you'll say
will come back to haunt you."
And you never know when someone you traded will come back to help you.
Petry (8-6) has been one of this year's finest comeback stories. Coles was
acquired for Tracy Jones, who was doing poorly. And Terrell was picked up for
a $100,000 waiver fee. At that price, if he wins three games, he'll be a
bargain.
And so I stand here, waiting, with a list full of possibilities. Jim
Morrison could be next. Darrell Evans could come out of retirement. Guillermo
Hernandez isn't doing anything. Dave Collins is out there somewhere -- St.
Louis, I think.
"It's a funny game," Petry told me. It sure is. I look at the pitching
chart for tonight's game in New York. I see that Dave LaPoint, former Tiger,
will throw for the Yankees. Hmmm.
He does well, we may take him home with us.
WALT TERRELL; DTIGERS; RETURN; COLUMN;Detroit Tigers