MVP memories Dan Terrell makes a home run out of his baseball dreams
By Jan Weeks
W
hat was your favorite childhood fantasy? Ballerina? Fireman? Sports star? Rock star? Dan Terrell wanted to play major league baseball, but only after his older brother signed him up for Little League. “Then I was hooked!” Terrell, now 72, said. The baseball bug bit him hard, and his goal became to play for the majors. Terrell, who grew up in Elyria, Ohio, never missed a Cleveland Indians (as they were called then) game if he could help it. He worked hard in school because each A earned a kid two tickets to see the Indians play, compliments of The Cleveland Press. Life sidetracked even the most “THAT KID PLAYED HARDBALL. deep-seated ambitions, but Terrell BUT I HIT A LINE DRIVE OFF never lost sight of his dream.
HIM AND MY TEAM WON THE GAME 4-0.”
10 | MAY 2023 | BEACONSENIORNEWS.COM
Dan Terrell and his wife Barbara Bellamy at the ballpark.
Meanwhile, his now-wife, Barbara Bellamy, was growing up across the river as another rabid Indians (now Guardians) fan. It seems they were fated to meet later in life and become partners as well as fans who traveled 1,000 miles from Grand Junction to see the team play whenever they could. So what better way to celebrate Terrell turning 70 than for Bellamy to gift him a week at the Guardians Fantasy Camp in Goodyear, Arizona? Unfortunately, COVID put the kibosh to that in 2020, so Terrell and Bellamy had to wait until 2023 to realize that dream.
A HOME RUN In January, they headed out to camp.