August 06, 2003
A Light Went Out In August
Has it really been 23 years since New York Yankees catcher and team captain Thurman Munson died, tragically losing his life in his private jet while practicing takeoffs and landings?
Dick Heller of the Washington Times remembers:
Munson's teammates learned the terrible news in different ways. Shortstop Bucky Dent had finished dinner at a Manhattan restaurant and was waiting for his car when an attendant asked, "Boy, isn't it a shame what happened to Thurman?"
After being told, Dent said years later, "I was like, 'Oh, my God,' and I kind of fell up against the car."
Munson's friend Joe Torre was managing the Mets when the news flashed on the scoreboard at Shea Stadium.
"Lee Mazzilli was on deck, and he just looked over at me," Torre said. "I think stunned is the only word I can use to describe the dugout."
Not yet 12 that Summer, I didn't realize that larger than life athletes like Munson could die tragically like anybody else. While I wasn't a Yankees fan, I was a Baseball fan, and can still remember watching Lou Pinella's tearful eulogy for his lost friend.
One thing was for sure: the Yankees weren't the same team without him, as the team fell back into the pack and finished in fourth place that terrible year. Though they would win the AL East title in both 1980, and get to the World Series in 1981, the Yankees wouldn't return to the postseason again after that until 1995.
A number of baseball observers think that Munson deserves a place in Cooperstown. On one tribute site, a fan makes his case by comparing Munson's performance to Fisk's over the same period -- a comparison where Munson fares very well. Though he had fewer home runs than Fisk, Munson hit for better average, had more rbi, was AL MVP in 1976 (an award Fisk never won), and was on a pair of World Series winners (another honor Fisk never enjoyed).
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.ericmcerlain.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/2376
Munson's death is definitely one of the "I remember when" moments for our generation. I remember exactly where I was when I heard the news: walking across the Andover campus, where, at the age of 15, I was attending summer school. I was and am a Mets fan, of course, but those Yankee teams of the mid-to-late '70s were so full of outsized personalities that it was shocking to be reminded so starkly of their mortaility.
Posted by:
at August 6, 2003 11:33 PM
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in,
.
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)
05:08 PM