'Cats in Baseball: Dave Turgeon

'Cats in Baseball is a series of stories highlighting Davidson alumni who work in the highest levels of the game. The series opener is here.

Dave Turgeon '87
• 3B/RHP
• Degree: History
• Manager, Altoona Curve (Pirates AA)

Dave Turgeon's path to baseball diamonds around the globe actually led directly through a gym door propped open by a rock.

Growing up in Connecticut, Turgeon and his buddies often played basketball by sneaking into the gym on the nearby UConn-Avery Point campus. At the time, a former pro ballplayer named George Greer was Avery Point's baseball coach and athletic director.

"We would rig the door with a rock, so when the lights went out, we could sneak in there again," says Turgeon, who in January was named manager of the Double-A Altoona Curve. "The thing about it is, he knew."

Greer was on to them, but chose to let the boys have their fun. He later trusted a teenage Turgeon enough to employ him as a babysitter and eventually saw enough athletic potential to recruit him to play more than 700 miles away at Davidson, where Greer led the program from 1982-87.

Turgeon proved to be a prize recruit. He flourished as a Wildcat and became a star at third base, helping the Wildcats to three straight winning seasons as a three-time First-Team All-Southern Conference selection. A career .366 hitter, he set program records with 38 home runs and 182 RBIs, both of which still stand despite his teams never playing more than 43 games in a season.

"The consistency of performance is something I'm proud of," says Turgeon, now 55. "I give a ton of my credit to Coach Greer, and I give a ton of the credit to the competitive, really good teammates that pushed me every day at practice, in the weight room, in the cage."

As a sophomore, he hit .369 with eight homers and 53 RBIs as the Wildcats finished first in the SoCon South Division, and as a senior, Turgeon hit a then-school record 15 home runs — as the Wildcats knocked a program-record 84 round-trippers — and slugged .786. He also closed.

A 22nd round pick of the New York Yankees in 1987, Turgeon set off on a 13-year pro playing career that took him to Europe, Taiwan and Mexico, to Double-A as an infielder and Triple-A as a pitcher.

Inducted into the Davidson Athletics Hall of Fame in 2005, Turgeon made college coaching stops at Boston College, UConn, Virginia Tech and Duke and, after managing three seasons in the Cleveland Indians system, is now in his 10th year with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Prior to taking the reins of Altoona in the Eastern League, Turgeon worked as the Pirates' Coordinator of Instruction from 2015-19.

Dave Turgeon slide

He's a regular speaker on the baseball circuit, and he recently spoke via Zoom to the team at his alma mater.

"Dave has a tremendous passion for Davidson and how the school and baseball program impacted him," says Davidson coach Rucker Taylor. "He has a love of the game of baseball, and his intelligence and energy are easy to see when he is talking about the game."

A day at the park
Altoona's 2020 schedule, prior to the unforeseen COVID-19 cancellations, included 140 games in the 12-team Eastern League.

That makes for a lot of time at the ball park and in the clubhouse, but Turgeon loves living the baseball life. He likes the challenge of the game itself, learning its timeless complexities and new technology and the internal heat of competing daily. And he loves the shared experience of being part of a team of about 35 individuals.

"You go through life in a very intense way for about six or seven months, and you are forever connected," he says. "Baseball offers a ton of adversity, a ton of highs and lows, a ton of life. You go through a ton of family stuff, deaths, guys having their first kids, getting married, getting called up, getting released. There's so many life things that go on."

Regardless of what is occurring outside the lines on any given day, there's typically a game on the schedule, often in colorful promotional uniforms. And these days, there's more of a magnifying glass on young players and prospects, and outside pressure from sources like social media.

"I think it's very important for a leader, someone in my position, to eliminate the noise and have them focus on the game that they loved to play when they were 12," he says.

Turgeon enjoys setting the tone and teaching the game, and he often draws on his own playing experience.

He has been a part of three no-hitters, all on defense, and as a minor league pitcher, carried one himself through six innings in 1998 when pitching for Triple-A Rochester (his Davidson teammate Billy Masse was coaching first for Ottawa that night).

One no-hitter moment still resonates with Turgeon, and it came while he was in a Davidson uniform, during Steve Condon's hitless day against Furman on March 22, 1986. In the middle innings, with Turgeon playing third base and teammate Alan Lewis at shortstop, a ball was hit on the ground to the left side.

"Honestly, routine play," says Turgeon. "It's a simple 'I got it' early by the third baseman or the shortstop, and then it's clear out. So I went to my left, and Alan said, 'I got it,' and I didn't react to 'I got it.' I kept going. I got caught in between, and I kick it.

"I make the play or I let him make the play, and it's a perfect game."

Indeed, the bid for perfection was over with the error, but all was not lost. Condon still closed out the no-hitter, one of just six in Davidson history, and Turgeon had a story to tell for life.

As a player, Turgeon was in about every game situation imaginable in the field, at the plate or on the mound. But he also draws on his experiences of simply living abroad, where English isn't spoken. Having endured culture shock himself helps him relate to players who have come to the U.S. to play.

"I'm grateful for it because, you have to understand, our guys that come over here to chase their dream, it's not easy," he says. "Once you get off the field, every minute of your life is a challenge."

Baseball has its basics that remain mostly the same wherever it is played on the globe, but there are significant differences as well. The baseball in Taiwan is not the baseball played in Mexico and vice versa. And all of it is different than the U.S. game. But it's on the player to adjust to the culture, not the other way around.

Turgeon Coaching Minor Leagues

"I think all that variety has helped me as a teacher and given me empathy for our players, specifically our foreign players who come from a ton of different backgrounds," he says. "I think that's a very big part of who I am."

Over the years, Turgeon has worked with many big leaguers. A current one he's extremely proud of is Pirates catcher Jacob Stallings, who Turgeon says is not the prototypical catcher in any sense, but has steadily worked his way to the top.

Headed for home
In one sense, Turgeon never imagined baseball taking him as far as it has.

Yet in another way, his older brother Mike's experience of playing in college, being drafted and playing pro ball showed him it was possible, that there was no reason his dreams couldn't come true. One opportunity has simply led to the next, over and over, starting with that propped door and a Davidson-bound coach.

And for that, he's thankful.

"I feel very blessed for the opportunity," he says. "Coach Greer gave me the opportunity to play there, he recruited me and had faith in me. I was on a record pace for errors as a freshman, but he kept running me out there. That's the absolute truth, but he saw something in me, and I'm grateful to be a part of a group of guys that were really special."

This year has been ... different for Turgeon. He typically spends his summers bouncing around ballparks and buses — and maybe arguing a call or two along the way — so 2020 has been odd, to say the least.

But he's always prepared for curveballs, and the rare chance to be at home has had its advantages, too. This spring, Turgeon was there for his father Paul's 90th birthday and also when Paul and Pauline Turgeon celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary on May 27.

"I've never been home at this time in my life," he says. "I've been away for a lot of stuff, and I mean that, so this has been a really hard time and a really wonderful time at the same time for me."

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