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Authors: Marty Appel
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and watching Clemente hit during batting practice. I couldn’t get more out of him, although he said Clemente told him that if he ever hit .280 he should consider it a bad season.
Munson finished second in the league in hitting that winter with a .333 mark. There was little doubt as to who would be the Yanks’ starting catcher in 1970. And ultimately, that 1969-70 San Juan Crabbers team would be remembered for having two elite players, both of whom would lose their lives prematurely in aviation accidents.
6
By spring training of 1970, I became Bob Fishel’s assistant in the Yankees’ PR department, with Bill Guilfoile having moved on to the top job in Pittsburgh. One of my assignments was to set up yearbook photos in the first week so we could rush them off to the printer in time for opening day.
That year, instead of a spring training team photo, we decided to take “mini-team photos” by grouping the players by position. We had three catchers: the incumbent regular of the past two seasons, Jake Gibbs; the first-round draft pick, Munson; and a strong boy from New London, Connecticut, John Ellis, a rookie who could also play first base. Fishel told me to position them with Gibbs the most prominent, out of respect to the veteran who was about to lose his job. Jake knew he was passing the torch but appreciated the gesture.
Thurman was not the most productive rookie in camp that spring—that honor went to Ellis, winner of the James P. Dawson Award as the spring’s top Yankee rookie. John did in fact move to first base in time to be the opening day first baseman and to receive a letter cheering him on from Eleanor Gehrig, Lou’s widow. No onefrom the Yankees arranged that—no one called her and asked, “Could you send a letter?” She acted on her own, and wrote something about “waiting all these years for Lou’s true successor.” Very flattering, but she wasn’t much of a scout.
The attention to Ellis (who hit an inside-the-park homer on opening day) was helpful in taking some of the focus off Thurman, who was handed the catching job and started off with an absolutely miserable slump.
In his first nine games, he managed a single and seven walks in thirty-seven trips to the plate. By going 1 for 30, he was the owner of an .033 batting average, and naturally, talk was afloat that perhaps more seasoning in the minors was necessary. He had, after all, played only twenty-eight games at Syracuse the year before.
“It shook him,” says his roommate Gene Michael. “I remember him sitting on the bed in our room at the Shoreham Hotel in Washington, really despondent. He didn’t even want to go to eat. I was trying to encourage him. At the end of the year he outhit me by eighty points.”
Ralph Houk knew better, and not only that, he knew how to deal with such a situation.
“Thurman, don’t give a thought to your hitting. You’re my catcher, you’re going to win a lot more games for me catching than hitting, and the hits will come. Don’t worry about it. Just relax and go out there and play the way we both know you can.”
He managed to maintain both his confidence and his normally cocky personality.
“Thurman was ‘cocky’ in the good sense, very confident,” says pitcher Fritz Peterson. “He was so talented he could get away with it. He also had quite a sense of humor. All the players liked him from the beginning. And he was such a team man. He did all the things a Yankee of old would have done to win games. Run, hit, throw, and break up double plays.”
Maybe there were other things on his mind. Diana gave birth totheir first child, Tracy Lynn Munson, on Friday, April 10, 1970, and Thurman was not able to be in Canton for the birth, being of course at Yankee Stadium. He was just twenty-two, a married father, a regular on the fabled New York Yankees, and seemingly holding on to more responsibility than one might throw at such a young man.
He was also courteous and responsive to fans, something
Munson finished second in the league in hitting that winter with a .333 mark. There was little doubt as to who would be the Yanks’ starting catcher in 1970. And ultimately, that 1969-70 San Juan Crabbers team would be remembered for having two elite players, both of whom would lose their lives prematurely in aviation accidents.
6
By spring training of 1970, I became Bob Fishel’s assistant in the Yankees’ PR department, with Bill Guilfoile having moved on to the top job in Pittsburgh. One of my assignments was to set up yearbook photos in the first week so we could rush them off to the printer in time for opening day.
That year, instead of a spring training team photo, we decided to take “mini-team photos” by grouping the players by position. We had three catchers: the incumbent regular of the past two seasons, Jake Gibbs; the first-round draft pick, Munson; and a strong boy from New London, Connecticut, John Ellis, a rookie who could also play first base. Fishel told me to position them with Gibbs the most prominent, out of respect to the veteran who was about to lose his job. Jake knew he was passing the torch but appreciated the gesture.
Thurman was not the most productive rookie in camp that spring—that honor went to Ellis, winner of the James P. Dawson Award as the spring’s top Yankee rookie. John did in fact move to first base in time to be the opening day first baseman and to receive a letter cheering him on from Eleanor Gehrig, Lou’s widow. No onefrom the Yankees arranged that—no one called her and asked, “Could you send a letter?” She acted on her own, and wrote something about “waiting all these years for Lou’s true successor.” Very flattering, but she wasn’t much of a scout.
The attention to Ellis (who hit an inside-the-park homer on opening day) was helpful in taking some of the focus off Thurman, who was handed the catching job and started off with an absolutely miserable slump.
In his first nine games, he managed a single and seven walks in thirty-seven trips to the plate. By going 1 for 30, he was the owner of an .033 batting average, and naturally, talk was afloat that perhaps more seasoning in the minors was necessary. He had, after all, played only twenty-eight games at Syracuse the year before.
“It shook him,” says his roommate Gene Michael. “I remember him sitting on the bed in our room at the Shoreham Hotel in Washington, really despondent. He didn’t even want to go to eat. I was trying to encourage him. At the end of the year he outhit me by eighty points.”
Ralph Houk knew better, and not only that, he knew how to deal with such a situation.
“Thurman, don’t give a thought to your hitting. You’re my catcher, you’re going to win a lot more games for me catching than hitting, and the hits will come. Don’t worry about it. Just relax and go out there and play the way we both know you can.”
He managed to maintain both his confidence and his normally cocky personality.
“Thurman was ‘cocky’ in the good sense, very confident,” says pitcher Fritz Peterson. “He was so talented he could get away with it. He also had quite a sense of humor. All the players liked him from the beginning. And he was such a team man. He did all the things a Yankee of old would have done to win games. Run, hit, throw, and break up double plays.”
Maybe there were other things on his mind. Diana gave birth totheir first child, Tracy Lynn Munson, on Friday, April 10, 1970, and Thurman was not able to be in Canton for the birth, being of course at Yankee Stadium. He was just twenty-two, a married father, a regular on the fabled New York Yankees, and seemingly holding on to more responsibility than one might throw at such a young man.
He was also courteous and responsive to fans, something
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