Timothy Shawn Teufel (born July 7, 1958) is an American former professional baseball second baseman and current coach. He played Major League Baseball from to , most notably as a member of the New York Mets with whom he won a world championship in . He also played for the Minnesota Twins and the San Diego Padres. He is currently a New York Mets minor league instructor and club ambassador. Teufel became known for his batting stance, the "Teufel shuffle", in which he wiggled his buttocks back and forth before the pitcher's delivery.
Early life
Teufel attended St. Mary's High School in Greenwich, Connecticut, St. Petersburg Junior College in St. Petersburg, Florida, and Clemson University in South Carolina. At Clemson, he earned All American honors and participated in the College World Series as a senior in 1980.
In 1979, Teufel played collegiate summer baseball for the Cotuit Kettleers of the Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL). He batted .351 and set league records for home runs, runs batted in, and runs scored in a season. Teufel was inducted into the CCBL Hall of Fame in 2005.
At age 19, he was drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers in the sixteenth round of the 1978 Major League Baseball Draft, but did not sign. Teufel was drafted by the Chicago White Sox in the third round of the secondary phase of the 1979 Major League Baseball Draft, but again did not sign. In the 1980 Major League Baseball Draft, Teufel was drafted in the second round and signed with the Minnesota Twins.
Playing career
Minnesota Twins
Teufel spent all of and with the Double-A Orlando Twins. He raised his average to .282 in , earning a mid-season promotion to the Triple-A Toledo Mud Hens. In , Teufel lit up the International League with a .323 batting average, 1.022 OPS, 27 home runs and 100 runs batted in, resulting in a September call-up to the majors. He made his major league debut on September 3 in 13-0 drubbing at the hands of Scott McGregor and the Baltimore Orioles.
Teufel went 2-for-4 and score two runs to help the last place Twins snap a five-game losing streak on September 6. On September 16, Teufel led off the game by hitting his first major league home run off Jim Gott of the Toronto Blue Jays. His second career home run came in the eighth inning of the same game. In all, Teufel went 5-for-5 with two home runs and five runs scored in arguably the best offensive game of his career. By the end of the season, the Twins surpassed the Seattle Mariners to avoid a last place finish.
The following season, Teufel snatched the starting second base job away from former Rookie of the Year, John Castino. In his rookie season, Teufel had 149 hits, 30 doubles, fourteen home runs, 61 runs batted in, and provided solid defense at second base for the Twins. The Twins improved to 81–81 in , which was good enough for a second-place finish in the American League West. Teufel finished fourth behind Alvin Davis, Mark Langston and teammate Kirby Puckett in American League Rookie of the Year balloting.
The Twins fell back into fifth place in . Following the season, Teufel was traded with minor leaguer, Pat Crosby to the New York Mets for Billy Beane, Bill Latham and Joe Klink.
New York Mets
Although Teufel had hit far better against right-handed pitchers in 1985, Mets manager Davey Johnson used Teufel primarily against left-handed pitching in a platoon system with Wally Backman. Teufel started quickly in with a go-ahead 14th inning single in his first game with the Mets, although they lost in the bottom half of the inning. His batting average hovered around .220 into June. On June 10, Teufel had one of the most exciting moments in the Mets' championship season with a walk-off pinch-hit grand slam in the bottom of the 11th inning against the Philadelphia Phillies.
The Mets' reputation as a rowdy bunch was punctuated on July 19 when Teufel, Ron Darling, Bob Ojeda, and Rick Aguilera were arrested after a bar fight with off-duty police officers in Houston, Texas. Teufel was sentenced to a year of probation and fined $200 for his part. None of the four missed any playing time, though the incident helped fuel some rivalry between the Mets and their impending 1986 National League Championship Series competitors, the Houston Astros. Teufel managed just one hit and no runs batted in against the Astros in the Championship Series, won by the Mets in six games.