28 years ago today-remembering Munson

Hard to believe it was 28 years ago I was 9 years old watching some kind of afternoon kids show downstairs in the 2-story house my family lived in at the time when they broke in with a special report saying Yankees captain Thurmon Munson was killed in a plane crash.

 

No other Yankees fans here to remember the day with me? Or is this a d_b?

 

Name the catcher who caught the next game.

 

I was an 8-year-old in Long Beach, a Dodger fan to the bone, but I remember that it made me sad when Thurman died. My coming-of-age with baseball was '77 and '78 when the Dodgers and Yanks went back-to-back in the Series.

 

It was a loss. He wasn't a nice guy to many but it was still a tragic loss.

 

Hint: Lifetime batting average of .211, became a major-league manager.

Also had very big shoes to fill.

And I can't swear to this, buckdub, but I think it might have been against Baltimore.

 

i was a copyboy at the n.y. daily news when it happened.

the night of the funeral, at the famous yankee game dramatically won by bobby murcer, i ran film back from the stadium. dan farrell took an award-winning shot from behind graig nettles, with his head bowed during the moment of silence, with munson's face illuminated past him on the scoreboard.

danny kindly had the art department make a copy for me that i have framed in my home office. :'( :'( :'(

 

Jerry Narron.

 

The unemployed Jerry Narron.

I was born 3 1/2 years after he died, but I grew up with a family full of Yankee fans -- one, my grandpa, a former professional catcher. They all idolized Munson and swore he was the ultimate Yankee.

 

Damn.

 

Did your grandpa make it to the show?

 

Yep, Jerry Narron.

Can you imagine?

Listening to a ten-minute standing ovation from the dugout and looking out at the empty space behind the plate -- and then having to go out there and fill it?

That's something.