John Webber "Jerry" Turner (born January 17, 1954) is a retired American

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in baseball league, leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Mod ...

player, an

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to cat ...

who played in seven full seasons and parts of three others in the Major Leagues from 1974–1983, mostly with the San Diego Padres (1974–1981; 1983). Turner threw and batted left-handed, stood tall and weighed .

Biography

Turner was born on January 17, 1954, in Texarkana, Arkansas. He grew up in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, attended Venice High School, and was selected by the Padres with their tenth pick in the

1972 Major League Baseball draft First round selections The following are the first round picks in the 1972 Major League Baseball draft. ''*'' Did not sign Other notable selections ''*'' Did not sign Background The Montreal Expos had perhaps their best draft in franc ...

. Turner was first called to the Majors in September 1974 after he batted .326 with 18

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

s, 68

runs batted in A run batted in (RBI; plural RBIs ) is a statistic in baseball and softball that credits a batter for making a play that allows a run to be scored (except in certain situations such as when an error is made on the play). For example, if the bat ...

and 154

hits Hits or H.I.T.S. may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * ''H.I.T.S.'', 1991 album by New Kids on the Block * ''...Hits'' (Phil Collins album), 1998 * ''Hits'' (compilation series), 1984–2006; 2014 - a British compilation album se ...

for the Double-A

Alexandria Aces The Alexandria Aces were a baseball team based in Alexandria, Louisiana. The last version of the Aces played in the United League Baseball in 2013. The Aces have played their home games at historic Bringhurst Field, which was built in 1933 for the ...

. The following season, he had another late season trial after batting .329 with 91 RBI for the Triple-A Hawaii Islanders. He then spent the next seven full seasons in the Majors, and was the Padres' regular left fielder in and . Turner also played ten games for the

Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team is owned by Jerry Reinsdorf, and p ...

in and 85 games for the

Detroit Tigers The Detroit Tigers are an American professional baseball team based in Detroit. The Tigers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the American League (AL) Central division. One of the AL's eight charter franchises, the club was f ...

in . In 733 MLB games, Turner had a .257 batting average with 448 hits, 222 runs, 238 RBIs, 73 doubles, nine triples, and 45 home runs.

References

External links

1954 births Living people African-American baseball players Alexandria Aces players Baseball players from Arkansas Baseball players from Los Angeles Chicago White Sox players Detroit Tigers players Hawaii Islanders players Las Vegas Stars (baseball) players Major League Baseball outfielders Portland Beavers players San Diego Padres players Tri-City Padres players Venice High School (Los Angeles) alumni {{US-baseball-outfielder-1950s-stub