Read Online Munson: The Life and Death of a Yankee Captain by Marty Appel - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Marty Appel
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the vast public and media couldn’t see. After Tracy was born, a fan sent a homemade knit vest and skirt as a baby gift to him at Yankee Stadium. Thurman wrote a thank-you note on Yankee stationery.
Tracy and her mother and I all thank you for knitting the little vest and skirt. Some time during the season we’ll take a picture of her in the outfit and send it to you
.
It’s nice to know that fans still think of you and your family, especially when you’re not having a particularly good year. I just hope I can make you as happy on the field as people like you make me feel off
.
Thanks again
,
Thurman Munson
After the Sunday doubleheader in which he went zero for seven, he flew home to see Tracy and Diana, and later said, “I was about the happiest I’d ever been.”
Thurman didn’t have to rejoin the team until Tuesday night in Boston. So, in the first week of his rookie season, he got that little break in the schedule that allowed him a quick trip home—the same circumstances that would allow him to go home in that fateful, final week of his career.
The real problem with going 1 for 30 at the start of the season is that you spend the rest of the year digging out of it. A lot of players will have slumps during the season, maybe not 1 for 30, but whenyou’re hitting .288 and you have your slump in July and drop to .272, it’s just not as glaring as starting off hitting .033.
On April 20, Munson went 3 for 4 with a double and two singles, and he never had another slump all season. He didn’t hit a home run until June 28, but no one questioned his hitting from April 20 on through for the rest of his career.
The 1970 Yankees had only two players remaining from their last World Series in 1964—Mel Stottlemyre and Steve Hamilton. There were a few players who had been teammates on the Mantle-era Yankees, notably Roy White and Bobby Murcer. But essentially, the rise of Thurman Munson in 1970 was the first building block toward the three championships that awaited the team later in the decade. Each year, one or two new additions would enhance the roster, until the team was ready to return to an elite status.
Munson wasn’t especially patient with that plan. A battler, a winner, a guy who took every game as a challenge, he appreciated that the 1970 Yanks were having a good year, but he wanted a pennant, not just a good year. He took little pleasure in the team doing well so long as the Orioles were doing better. He wanted to be those guys, and he’d pump his fist at the pitchers in key situations and want more.
“Even as a rookie, he had a confidence and a maturity back there,” says Stottlemyre. “We in turn had confidence in him. He was a kid, but he was very mature as a major league player. We loved pitching to him.”
The fans felt that spirit and liked to see a guy come along who didn’t give in to complacency and mediocrity. The fans were in love with Munson early on, embracing him as New York fans can do—quickly.
A prime example of this came in August 1970, when he was on Reserve duty at Fort Dix and not expected back in time to play at all on Sunday in a doubleheader against Baltimore. However, he droveimpetuously and made it to Yankee Stadium—eighty-six miles—in a little over an hour, in time for the sixth inning of the second game. He listened to the game on WMCA radio as he rushed up the Jersey Turnpike. He went straight to the clubhouse and got into his uniform, emerging into the dugout, where Houk and his teammates greeted him warmly. “Grab a bat and pinch-hit,” said Houk.
Out of the dugout popped Munson. In the press box, Bob Fishel tapped me on the arm with his pencil and pointed toward the on-deck circle. He was smiling. The fans did not expect to see him and his appearance on the field brought a tremendous roar from the crowd. To have been there at that moment was to see Thurman appreciated at a new level—our guy, and our hero.
He lined out to Brooks Robinson at third, but
Tracy and her mother and I all thank you for knitting the little vest and skirt. Some time during the season we’ll take a picture of her in the outfit and send it to you
.
It’s nice to know that fans still think of you and your family, especially when you’re not having a particularly good year. I just hope I can make you as happy on the field as people like you make me feel off
.
Thanks again
,
Thurman Munson
After the Sunday doubleheader in which he went zero for seven, he flew home to see Tracy and Diana, and later said, “I was about the happiest I’d ever been.”
Thurman didn’t have to rejoin the team until Tuesday night in Boston. So, in the first week of his rookie season, he got that little break in the schedule that allowed him a quick trip home—the same circumstances that would allow him to go home in that fateful, final week of his career.
The real problem with going 1 for 30 at the start of the season is that you spend the rest of the year digging out of it. A lot of players will have slumps during the season, maybe not 1 for 30, but whenyou’re hitting .288 and you have your slump in July and drop to .272, it’s just not as glaring as starting off hitting .033.
On April 20, Munson went 3 for 4 with a double and two singles, and he never had another slump all season. He didn’t hit a home run until June 28, but no one questioned his hitting from April 20 on through for the rest of his career.
The 1970 Yankees had only two players remaining from their last World Series in 1964—Mel Stottlemyre and Steve Hamilton. There were a few players who had been teammates on the Mantle-era Yankees, notably Roy White and Bobby Murcer. But essentially, the rise of Thurman Munson in 1970 was the first building block toward the three championships that awaited the team later in the decade. Each year, one or two new additions would enhance the roster, until the team was ready to return to an elite status.
Munson wasn’t especially patient with that plan. A battler, a winner, a guy who took every game as a challenge, he appreciated that the 1970 Yanks were having a good year, but he wanted a pennant, not just a good year. He took little pleasure in the team doing well so long as the Orioles were doing better. He wanted to be those guys, and he’d pump his fist at the pitchers in key situations and want more.
“Even as a rookie, he had a confidence and a maturity back there,” says Stottlemyre. “We in turn had confidence in him. He was a kid, but he was very mature as a major league player. We loved pitching to him.”
The fans felt that spirit and liked to see a guy come along who didn’t give in to complacency and mediocrity. The fans were in love with Munson early on, embracing him as New York fans can do—quickly.
A prime example of this came in August 1970, when he was on Reserve duty at Fort Dix and not expected back in time to play at all on Sunday in a doubleheader against Baltimore. However, he droveimpetuously and made it to Yankee Stadium—eighty-six miles—in a little over an hour, in time for the sixth inning of the second game. He listened to the game on WMCA radio as he rushed up the Jersey Turnpike. He went straight to the clubhouse and got into his uniform, emerging into the dugout, where Houk and his teammates greeted him warmly. “Grab a bat and pinch-hit,” said Houk.
Out of the dugout popped Munson. In the press box, Bob Fishel tapped me on the arm with his pencil and pointed toward the on-deck circle. He was smiling. The fans did not expect to see him and his appearance on the field brought a tremendous roar from the crowd. To have been there at that moment was to see Thurman appreciated at a new level—our guy, and our hero.
He lined out to Brooks Robinson at third, but
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