A Minor League Teammate Shot This One-Time Twin

Al from SoDak · May 17, 2025

In a bizarre and unfortunate event, Terry Bulling was accidentally shot by a teammate while in the Twins' minor league organization. Surprisingly, that is not the only unique and noteworthy incident for this one-time Twin.

Terry Charles “Bud” Bulling was born December 15, 1952, in Lynwood, California. He grew up in that neighborhood and attended Lynwood High School. After high school, he attended Golden West College in Huntington Beach, where he played baseball, before transferring to California State University, Los Angeles. The Minnesota Twins selected the six-foot-one, 200-pound catcher in the 14^th round of the 1974 amateur draft. From there, it soon got a little weird.

Two weeks after reporting to Wisconsin Rapids for his first professional season in 1974, he and some teammates were hanging out at an apartment. One of the players was showing off his gun, which he thought had the safety on. It was not. One of the players accidentally fired the gun, and the bullet hit Bulling. You hear of things like this, but nobody thinks it will happen to them or anybody they know. The bullet hit Bulling’s stomach, intestines, and colon before lodging in his pelvic bone. He was immediately rushed to a hospital where he was patched up, but spent three days in intensive care. Bulling used the rest of the 1974 season to recuperate from the gunshot wound.

Bulling returned to Class-A Wisconsin Rapids the next two seasons, posting good to great offensive numbers. The right-handed hitter had a .764 OPS in 1975, which increased to .889 in 1976. In 1977, he earned a promotion to Double-A Orlando, where he played well, batting .285/.364/.411 through 67 games. Then fate called. Through a bizarre series of events – a torn knee ligament to the Twins backup catcher Glen Borgmann and a broken finger for the Triple-A catcher – Bulling got the call to the major leagues to help the Twins.

Like many Minnesota Twins teams, this 1977 team could hit and score runs, but was thin on pitching. They led the American League in runs scored that season while Bulling played only 15 games and received 39 plate appearances. I wish I could say the fairy tale continued and Bulling, the gunshot victim, contributed greatly to the team’s impressive offense, but that was not the case. He had only five hits in 32 at-bats with a single extra-base hit (a double) during his time. That was the end of Bulling’s Twins tenure. In 1978, the Twins' catchers were healthy. They only needed Butch Wynegar and Glenn Borgmann. Bulling could see the lack of opportunity within the Twins organization, so before the 1979 season, he signed with the Seattle Mariners.

With his new organization in 1981, Bulling had the opportunity to return to the big leagues. He played 62 games with the Mariners and posted respectable batting numbers, at least for a backup catcher – .247/.341/.305. He performed well enough to stay on the Mariners roster all season as the primary backup catcher and returned in 1982 in that same capacity.

In 1982, Bulling’s appearances were limited. He appeared in only eight games in April and no games the first five days of May. He was a backup catcher whose playing time was irregular. But on May 6, he was inserted into the starting lineup. The timing was fortuitous as it allowed Bulling to become a footnote in baseball history. Bulling would be the man behind the plate for a future Hall of Famer, Gaylord Perry, who was about to do something special. The long-time Giant, who also pitched for eight other teams, was winding down a Hall of Fame career. That day, with journeyman Terry “Bud” Bulling behind the plate, Gaylord Perry went out and beat the Yankees 7-3 to become the 15^th member of the 300-win club. Perry had a complete game, allowing three runs on nine hits and one walk.

Notwithstanding Perry’s historic accomplishment, what an opportunity for a backup catcher to get to catch a game like that! And to top off Bulling’s memorable day, he contributed offensively. Bulling had two hits in three at-bats. He had two runs scored and an RBI. Besides Perry, Bulling might have been the player of the game with that performance.

Well, despite his playing in Perry’s fantastic achievement, Bulling did not stick in the Majors long. Bulling was just not good enough to have a lengthy career. He would continue to play in 1982, appearing in five games in 1983, but then his Major League career was abruptly over.

Bulling finished his MLB career with a batting line of .223/.315/.281 in 138 games and 397 plate appearances. He hit three home runs and had 28 runs batted in. He never played on a noteworthy team. The high-scoring 1977 Twins team finished fourth, and his Mariners teams were simply not as good.

Terry “Bud” Bulling passed away on March 8, 2014, in Salem, Oregon. He was 61 years old. Unfortunately, I was unable to find much information on Bulling’s life after Major League Baseball.

What a weird combination of noteworthy events for such a part-time ball player, huh? Does anybody recall him playing with the Twins? If so, leave a comment below. If you like looking back at the Twins' past, check out my previous articles at Twins Daily History.

Sources include Baseball Reference and the Daily Pilot.

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