Guest Post: Remembering the Captain… 30 Years Later

Today marks the 30th anniversary Thurman Munson's tragic death. Crossfire, one of this blog's most loyal readers, sent me this great article he wrote about Thurman. A big thanks goes out to Crossfire for the great contribution.


I’m forty four years old. That means that thirty years ago today, I was a fourteen year old kid. And like a lot of fourteen year old kids, I loved baseball. But not just any baseball... Yankee baseball.

What a great time it was to be a Yankee fan. The Yanks had just gone to the World Series three years in a row and had won the last two. Like every kid, I had a hero. Mine was Thurman Munson. I played Babe Ruth baseball and was a catcher, just like Thurman. What was not to like about this guy? He played hard and looked as tough as nails. In his three World Series appearances, he batted .529 in 1976 and .320 in both 1977 and 1978.

During our lives, there are certain moments that that are burned into our minds. For me, one of the biggest was the knock on my door on August 2, 1979. I opened the door and there was my neighbor Steve. I remember the moment as if it were yesterday. He just blurted out “Thurman Munson is dead.”

It was like a punch in the stomach. I felt like I couldn’t breathe. My eyes instantly welled up with tears and I yelled back at him; “NO HE ISN”T!” and I slammed the door in his face. I ran to my room and started to cry.

Heroes don’t die. They can’t.

I remember thinking that maybe Steve was wrong. That’s it! He had to be wrong. News back in 1979 wasn’t like it is today. There wasn’t any ESPN. No 24 hour news stations. I turned on the one tv we had in the house and there was nothing about it. I turned on the radio. WMCA used to carry the Yankees in the 70’s and I don’t recall if it was on that station or another that I finally heard that it was true. I went back in my room and cried some more.

I remember watching the game a few nights later on August 6th, the day of Thurman’s funeral. It was ABC’s Monday Night Baseball. Howard Cosell said incredibly kind words about Munson. The Yankees, being the classy organization that they are, left home plate open before the game. Yankee fans everywhere were in pain.

And then some magic happened.

Yankee magic.

Bobby Murcer, who had earlier in the day given a eulogy at Thurman’s funeral, somehow managed to deliver some happiness on a day when none seemed possible. With the Yankees trailing 4-0, Murcer hit a 3 run homer in the 7th and then a walk off 2 run single in the bottom of the ninth.

What other team besides the Yankees has this sort of magic happen? The player delivers the eulogy at his teammate / best friend’s funeral and then, later the same day, with his team down by four runs, goes out and drives in all five of his team’s runs including two of them in the bottom of the ninth to win the game. Seriously, you can’t make this stuff up.

I remember cheering. Yankee fans everywhere were cheering. They won one for the Captain and in doing so, began the heeling.

I still love the Yankees and they have brought me so many great memories over the years. They have won more championships and had so many great players. But I only have one official Yankee jersey and on the back is the number 15.

I’ve never had another baseball hero since August 2, 1979.

The one I had then never needed replacing.