Thurman Munson

Thurman Munson
Catcher
Born: June 7, 1947 Akron , United States
Died on: August 2, 1979 in Canton , United States
Suggested: Right	Threw: Right
Debut in Major League Baseball
August 8,  1969  with the  New York Yankees
Last MLB assignment
August 1,  1979  with the  New York Yankees
MLB statistics (until end of career)
Batting average	, 292
Hits	1,558
Home runs	113
Runs Batted In	701
Teams
New York Yankees (1969–1979)
Awards
7 × All-Star (1971, 1973–1978) 2 × World Series winner (1977, 1978) AL MVP (1976) AL Rookie of the Year (1970) 3 × Gold Glove Award (1973–1975) In his honor, the # 15 is no longer awarded by the New York Yankees

Thurman Lee Munson (born June 7, 1947 in Akron , Ohio , † August 2, 1979 in Canton , Ohio) was an American baseball player in Major League Baseball . His nicknames were Tugboat , Squatty Body or The Wall .

biography

Munson, who played his amateur career at Kent State University in his home state Ohio, was committed by the New York Yankees in 4th place in the 1st round of the 1968 draft as a catcher . After less than 100 games in the minor leagues , he was called up by the Yankees in 1969 in the major league team. With his help, too, the Yankees were able to develop from the average team they were in the late 1960s to early 1970s back into a top baseball team. After a mixed start in 1969, Munson, well trained by Ralph Houk , also a catcher during his playing days, was voted Rookie of the Year in 1970. In 1976 he was able to win the title of Most Valuable Player in the American League . To this day, Munson is the only Yankee who has managed to achieve these two awards. Due to his excellent field game he was able to win the Gold Glove in the catcher position from 1973 to 1975 , seven times he was appointed to the All-Star Team.

His human skills were also highly valued by his team, so that he was the first player with the Yankees since Lou Gehrig to be reappointed captain . Three appearances in the World Series with two successes against the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1977 and 1978 are also in the track record of Thurman Munson. Carlton Fisk of the Boston Red Sox and he were considered the outstanding catchers of the decade.

Munson was very popular with fellow players and fans. However, his wife did not want to move from Canton and for this reason he took flight lessons so that he could visit his family in Canton on days when there was no play. He got his license and flew more than 1000 hours with a flight instructor. According to his teammates, he was a very responsible and safe pilot. He flew home to his family on August 1, 1979 after the Yankees finished a series in Chicago. The next day he just wanted to go to the airport to see his new airplane, a Cessna Citation , which he had just bought a few months ago, and to do a little check-up. At the airfield he happened to meet his friend, Jerry Anderson, who also had a flying license, and a flying instructor, Dave Hall. The two accompanied him to his plane and when they got on to take a closer look at the interior, Munson decided that he could briefly present the plane to them in the air.

On a flight a few weeks earlier that had included teammates Reggie Jackson and Graig Nettles on board, there was a small problem with one of the engines. On another flight, on which he was on the way home with his wife and on the way dropped the then manager of the Yankees Billy Martin , there was also a major engine problem, which was so great that Munson and his wife took a scheduled flight home had to take because they could no longer fly Munson's Cessna and the engine had to be repaired. Because of this, Munson thought that if he showed his friends the machine in action, he could do some engine checks. He decided to do a few touch-and-goes , where you land and then accelerate again and take off again. On the third approach, Munson came too flat on the runway and grazed a tree top, which caused the plane to crash in front of the runway and immediately go up in flames. Anderson and Hall survived the crash, and 32-year-old Munson was killed.

Shortly after his death, the owner of the Yankees, George Steinbrenner , announced that Munson's number 15 would no longer be used. On September 20, 1980, the Yankees once again commemorated their lost captain by installing a plaque in Monument Park at Yankee Stadium with the inscription: Our captain and leader has not left us, today, tomorrow, this year, next ... Our endeavors will reflect our love and admiration for him.

His stations as a player

• 1969–1979 New York Yankees

Web links

• Player information and statistics from MLB  or  ESPN  or  Baseball Reference  or  Fangraphs  or  The Baseball Cube  or  Baseball Reference (Minor League) (English)
• Biography of Thurman Munson (English)