Terrance Gore made his Major League Baseball debut with the Kansas City Royals in 2014.
That season, he appeared in just 11 games with only 2 plate appearances. He got no hits or walks. Yet he stole 5 bases and scored 5 runs. How?
Because the Royals used Gore almost exclusively as a pinch runner.
Terrance Gore is only 5’7” tall, but he’s incredibly fast.
In the 2014 World Series, he was used in just one game strictly as a pinch runner, his only World Series appearance ever. The Royals lost to the Giants.
In 2015, Gore appeared in only 9 regular season games. Not due to injuries. He just wasn’t used much. No hits or walks. 3 stolen bases.
In the postseason, he appeared in 2 playoff games, both times used only as a pinch runner. No steals, no runs scored.
Gore was left off the 2015 World Series roster. But the Royals won, so Terrance Gore received a World Series ring… his first.
He had a better season in 2016: Seventeen games. Still no hits or walks. Only 3 plate appearances. But 11 steals.
The Royals released him after the 2017 season. The Cubs signed him.
In 2018, Gore got his first major league hit - a single up the middle off Max Scherzer - his only hit after 5 years in the Majors.
Kansas City signed him again in 2019, and Gore had his best year: 57 plate appearances, 14 hits, 6 walks, 13 stolen bags. But then the Royals let him go.
He signed with the Dodgers during the Covid-shortened 2020 season. Gore appeared in just 2 regular season games strictly as a pinch runner, but he stole no bases and scored no runs.
The Dodgers placed him on the NLDS roster, but he sat on the bench. He didn’t make the NLCS or World Series rosters.
Then LA won it all, and Gore got his second ring. Despite doing virtually nothing all season.
He spent all of the 2021 regular season in the Minor Leagues with the Gwinnett Stripers, the Atlanta Braves’ AAA affiliate. He played in no regular season games for the Braves.
But they put Gore on their roster throughout the playoffs.
He appeared in only one playoff game in the first round against Milwaukee as a pinch runner. He didn’t steal or score. He didn’t play in any other postseason games.
Then Atlanta won the World Series, and Gore received his third ring. Despite doing virtually nothing.
Ted Williams, Carl Yastrzemski, Ernie Banks, Tony Gwynn, Barry Bonds, Ichiro Suzuki - those baseball legends never won a single World Series ring.
Terrance Gore, an unknown bench player with comparatively no impact on the sport, has three.
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