Terry Forster Marquee

b. January 14, 1952 · Chicago White Sox 1971–1976, Pittsburgh Pirates 1977, Los Angeles Dodgers 1978–1982, Atlanta Braves 1983–1985, California Angels 1986

He had 31 hits in 78 at bats — .397 — which is the highest career average of anyone with 75 or more times up. Managers pinch-hit with him. He led the American League with 24 saves in 1974, at twenty-two, and saved 127 in sixteen seasons with a 3.23 earned run average.

In 1985 David Letterman called him a fat tub of goo on the air and he wrote back, appeared on the show and made a joke of it, which is how a middle reliever became briefly famous outside the game.

He pitched for the Dodgers in the 1978 World Series and for Atlanta into his thirties. Elbow surgery cost him most of 1976 and 1977. No Hall of Fame ballot has ever listed him.

Honors

Award	Times	Years
Player of the Week	1	1984
The Sporting News Fireman of the Year	1	1974

Batting, season by season

Year	Team	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	RBI	BB	SO	SB	AVG
1971	CHW	45	5	1	2	1	0	0	0	1	0	.400
1972	CHW	63	19	1	10	0	0	3	1	2	1	.526
1973	CHW	53	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
1974	CHW	59	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—
1975	CHW	17	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—
1976	CHW	29	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—
1977	PIT	36	26	2	9	1	1	1	0	4	0	.346
1978	LAD	47	8	1	4	1	0	2	0	0	0	.500
1979	LAD	17	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	—
1980	LAD	9	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—
1981	LAD	21	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
1982	LAD	56	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
1983	ATL	56	8	1	4	1	0	0	0	1	0	.500
1984	ATL	25	3	1	2	0	0	1	0	1	0	.667
1985	ATL	46	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
1986	CAL	41	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—
Career	—	620	78	7	31	4	1	7	2	9	1	.397

Pitching, season by season

Year	Team	W	L	G	GS	SV	IP	H	ER	BB	SO	ERA
1971	CHW	2	3	45	3	1	49.2	46	22	23	48	3.99
1972	CHW	6	5	62	0	29	100.0	75	25	44	104	2.25
1973	CHW	6	11	51	12	16	172.2	174	62	78	120	3.23
1974	CHW	7	8	59	1	24	134.1	120	54	48	105	3.62
1975	CHW	3	3	17	1	4	37.0	30	9	24	32	2.19
1976	CHW	2	12	29	16	1	111.1	126	54	41	70	4.37
1977	PIT	6	4	33	6	1	87.1	90	43	32	58	4.43
1978	LAD	5	4	47	0	22	65.1	56	14	23	46	1.93
1979	LAD	1	2	17	0	2	16.1	18	10	11	8	5.51
1980	LAD	0	0	9	0	0	11.2	10	4	4	2	3.09
1981	LAD	0	1	21	0	0	30.2	37	14	15	17	4.11
1982	LAD	5	6	56	0	3	83.0	66	28	31	52	3.04
1983	ATL	3	2	56	0	13	79.1	60	19	31	54	2.16
1984	ATL	2	0	25	0	5	26.2	30	8	7	10	2.70
1985	ATL	2	3	46	0	1	59.1	49	15	28	37	2.28
1986	CAL	4	1	41	0	5	41.0	47	16	17	28	3.51
Career	—	54	65	614	39	127	1105.2	1034	397	457	791	3.23

On this day & linked events

1952

Born January 14, 1952

Sioux Falls, SD, USA

1971

Major-league debut: Terry Forster

Terry Forster made a major-league debut on April 11, 1971.

1986

Final major-league game: Terry Forster

Terry Forster played a final major-league game on October 2, 1986.

Image: Los Angeles Dodgers, public domain