The Astros were not my mistress – they were my one and only. I grew up watching them, living and dying with them and even worked for them for a couple surreal years. In later years, I had the opportunity to do some business with Terry Puhl and forwarded an e-mail he had sent to me to my brother – proof of a shout out from a cardboard god.

Loved the posts. Based on what I have read, we were born just days apart, and I can completely identify with much of the writing, but return to this site only on occasion. Reading about these players serves as a constant reminder that although life has been good, my child hood dreams did not come true.

We in the Astro Nation regard Terry as one of the quintessential Astros, right up there with Jose Cruz and Craig Biggio in displaying the gut and grittiness that is the team trademark.

His player page is at http://www.AstrosDaily.com/players/Puhl_Terry.html, if anyone should want to check it out.

With 15 seasons in the majors and a career .280 batting average, 62 homers, 225 doubles, 435 RBIs, and 217 steals, he acquitted himself well.

In the outfield, over 1,300 games, his fielding percantage was a phenomenal .993.

Not Cooperstown material, but a capable professional who did his job extremely well.

If you want to see how tough he was, check out this link: http://www.AstrosDaily.com/video/1980Clinch1stPuhlScores.mpeg

Many people don’t know that even though he’s a natural right-hander, he always batted lefty. When I asked him about that one time, he attributed it to his Canadian upbringing, explaining that in ice hockey, many players skate reverse-handed.

Mr. Puhl stayed in the Houston area after his playing days were over and raised his family there, as many former Astros do.

Today, he has many business interests, but gives one-on-one baseball lessons to kids at his home. I know this becase he taught my son how to hit and play outfield.

You couldn’t meet a nicer guy, or a nicer family.

Darrell Pittman
AstrosDaily.com

6: In addition to the triples, Puhl also got thrown out trying to steal more than I would have guessed: 99 times out of 316 attempts in his career.

Here’s what Bill James has to say about Puhl, who he ranks as the 86th best right fielder in history: “Puhl was a terrific mechanical player, but just didn’t have the power or the arm to be a top-flight right fielder.”

I wonder what his stats would have looked like if he’d played in Fenway his entire career.

I was an APBA and Strato player in the late 70′s and early 80′s also. APBA always had Puhl as a (2) in their ratings. (either you were a (1)slow moving, inept outfielder, think Rusty Staub, a (2) think either the aforementioned Puhl or someone in the Roy White category, the quinessential “decent” outfielder, or the highest rating a (3), Garry Maddox territory.

I think also Puhl had some big hits in the 1980 classic 5 game NLCS playoffs vs the Phillies, which if my memory serves me(no, I shall not Google this, using actual human memory here), 4 of those games went into extra innings.

Also, we would be remiss with mentioning the Berman ish nickname, Terry (Swimming) Puhl.

The best use of “mistress” and the Houston Astros team I can remember since a possible Jim Bouton story in Ball Four after he was traded from the Pilots to the Astros.