Munson teammates shocked by loss of their captain
Photo credit: Sports/Don Norkett | Yankee players and coaches stand with heads bowed and caps in hands as Terrance Cardinal Cooke delivers a memorial service for The Yankees' Thurman Munson, who was killed in a plane crash Aug. 2, 1979.
Galleries
Thurman Munson
Jerry Narron realizes that the greatest impact he ever made on a baseball field was the time he stayed off it.
It was Aug. 3, 1979, the night after Thurman Munson was killed while piloting his own plane, and the Yankees purposely left the catcher's position empty when the rest of the team took the field.
Narron, the backup promoted to starter that night, remain- ed in the dugout as a prayer was recited, a moment of silence was observed and a ringing ovation went on and on.
That moment never has left Narron. "Probably, like all of us who were there in '79, we probably think about it every day," he said.
Thirty years after his death, Munson still is the captain in the hearts of the Yankees who played with him, especially the ones who were suddenly, tragically forced to play without him.
Those Yankees never will forget the chilling call from some Yankees official - George Steinbrenner called some of the veterans personally - on Aug. 2, 1979.
"The saddest day of my life," Graig Nettles said.
"He was a good teammate, just a good guy to play with and a good guy to hang out with," said Nettles, one of Munson's good friends on the team. "What are you going to do? It sure was a sad time for all of us."
In that first game after the shock, which the Yankees played because Bobby Murcer relayed a message from Munson's wife, Diana, that her husband would have insisted on it, Narron remained on the top step of the dugout, ready to go out and catch once the time was right. He wore a black chest protector, deliberately not wearing an orange one (Munson's trademark).
"He helped me a great deal," Narron said. "The one bit of advice he gave me was this: 'Billy Martin couldn't hit a breaking ball, so whenever you're not sure about something, just call for a breaking ball.' "
Teammates said they were amused and uplifted by Munson. "He was very good, a very confident young man," said relief pitcher Lindy McDaniel, who flourished in 1970, when Munson was the American League Rookie of the Year. "He controlled the game, which is what a catcher is supposed to do."
Roy White was with Munson on the Yankees' trip from mediocrity to two world championships.
"Thurman was a great teammate, a great guy. His locker and mine were right next to each other, so Thurman was the first guy I would see every day, coming to the ballpark," White said nearly 30 years after he cried and cried at the funeral. "He and I had a lot of conversations over the years, a lot of dinners together. He was a great family guy. People don't know that side of him, but he was really a soft-hearted guy. And a smart guy. He already had a business plan for after he got out of baseball. He used to tell me, 'I want to get some land and do this shopping center in Canton.' A really unique guy."
And a terrific player. "No doubt about it," White said. "If you had the winning run on second base in the bottom of the ninth, Thurman was the guy you wanted at the plate."
Except on the night of Aug. 6, 1979, you wanted Murcer at the plate.
He probably was Munson's closest friend on the Yankees, a regular poker partner. Murcer and his wife, Kay, spent the night of the crash with Diana Munson and her three children. Murcer gave the final eulogy at the funeral that Monday.
After the Yankees chartered back to New York for an ABC Monday Night Baseball game, Murcer hit a three-run homer in the seventh to bring his team within one run of the Orioles. In the bottom of the ninth, he laced a two-run single that turned a potential loss into a 5-4 win.
"My best game in pinstripes came on the worst day of my baseball career," Murcer wrote in "Yankee for Life," published last year, months before his death from cancer. He added that he never used that bat again, eventually giving it to Diana.
He also wrote about Munson's No. 15 having been retired and his locker never again used: "Those are the things that people do as part of the healing process. But some things never heal."
A memorial service for Murcer was held on Aug. 6, 2008.
