The Forgotten Man Garry Templeton
- Jeremiah Edwards
- May 6, 2017
- 2 min read
Name: Garry Templeton
Card Company: Donruss
Year: 1989
Team: San Diego Padres
Bats/Throws: S/R
Ht: 5'11
This my friends is Garry Templeton or as many Padres fans know him as, "The guy they traded Ozzie Smith for".
Yep this was the guy that in 1982 left the gloomy streets of St. Louis for the bright and sunny beaches of San Diego. And at the time of the trade it seemed like the Padres got the better of it. They traded away a no-hit SS in Ozzie Smith for a Silver Slugger winner in Garry Templeton.
However, history would not be friendly to Mr. Templeton as Ozzie Smith would go on to help lead the Cardinals to a World Series the next year while Garry Templeton would only make the postseason once while he was in San Diego.
But at least they upgraded their offense, you might say. Nope not really, Templeton at the time of the trade in 1982 through the 1988 season only had 322 RBI's while Smith had 371 RBI's. Smith also posted a higher batting average than Templeton 4 out of those 7 years including 1986-1988. So, the offensive upgrade the Padres traded for turned out to be a downgrade and was no match for Ozzie Smith when it came to defense.
However, the decline in Templeton's game might have been due to some outside factors. Before he was traded to the Padres he was diagnosed with depression and struggled with drug addiction. While he would eventually get himself clean, his knees would fail him while he was in San Diego. In less than six seasons in St. Louis, Templeton had 69 triples. During his 10 years in San Diego, he had only 36. While he was a still a productive piece for San Diego the "it" factor was gone and he would never be the dynamic player the Padres had hoped they traded for.
Garry Templeton is now a scout for the Arizona Diamondbacks and appears to have his life under control now. Could it all have been a case of too much too soon? Perhaps, but Templeton to this day says that he has no regrets about how things turned out.
Garry Templeton will never be remembered for being a steady hand in San Diego that helped the Padres make it to the World Series in 1984. Instead he'll always been known as the guy that brought "The Wizard" to St. Louis.
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