"Now Batting #2 Bobby Murcer....." Bobby best known to be the 2nd coming of Oklahoman power hitting outfielder only to become a better known announcer for the Yankees after his career was finished in 1983. He's currently the 5th name (One of those names is 3 behind the name of Dale Berra yes he's Yogi's son) prior to Derek Jeter wearing the #2 for the Yankees. As I mentioned before Bobby hailed from Oklahoma he idolized another player who grew up in Oklahoma by the name of Mickey Mantle. In fact Bobby played with Mickey near the end of Mickey's long career being his replacement in Center field while Mickey would play 1st base for the Yankees.
Bobby would play with the Yankees the first time around up until 1974 before being traded as I mentioned before to the Giants for Bobby Bonds. After 2 years with the Giants Bobby was on the move again to the Cubs again as I mentioned before for Bill Madlock where he would become the first Chicago Cubs player to earn $1.6 Million for 5 years then after 4.5 years playing in the National League Bobby found himself traded on June 26,1979 to head back to where he started from the Bronx that's right the Yankees were calling for his services again.
Upon returning to the Yankees he found out he couldn't wear #1 due to the fact someone named Billy Martin was wearing it so hence the reason why Bobby went to wear #2 until his last season in 1983. It was on August 2, 1979 where Bobby lost his best friend in Thurman Munson in a plane crash where Thurman on a Yankee off day was home in Canton,Ohio was practicing his taking off & landings in his Cessna 501 Citation I/SP Twin-Engine Jet. Bobby thought back the day before when the 2 players were walking outside of Comiskey Park when Thurman asked Bobby if he like to fly back to Ohio with him Bobby told him sorry no thanks later after hearing about the crash Bobby said it was the hardest thing was not being with his friend that day. On August 6th the day of Thurman's funeral Bobby gave one of the best eulogies to a great friend then as the Yankees were at the cemetery Billy Martin turned to Bobby saying after doing that take the day off Bobby told his manager "NO!!! Thurman was a friend he would want me to play the game regardless." So with that Bobby preceded to go 2 for 5 that night with 5 RBIs, he had hit a 3-run Home Run in the 7th inning off Dennis Martinez of the Orioles then in the 9th inning Bobby walked off a Yankee Victory with a single scoring 2 runs off Tippy Martinez (No Relation to Dennis). Bobby later that night took the bat he had used that game placing his stirrups socks covering it placing it in his bag & later presented the bat to Thurman's widow Diana saying to her "This is the bat I used in memory of my friend Thurman who was helping me that night with the Home Run in the 7th as well the game winning hit in the 9th so I ask you to keep this just to remind you that even though you lost your husband & I a great friend we know his memory will live on in this bat." 'Til this day it remains in the Munson household with no intentions of getting rid of it keeping Thurman's legacy to live on.
It was in spring training of 1983 where Bobby was thinking this might be his last season & in October he would call it a career however the Yankee brass mainly asked Bobby if he step down a little earlier than that. So on June 20th Bobby announced his retirement (That same day the Yankees brought up from Columbus a young 1st baseman/Outfielder by the name of Don Mattingly) & said he was on his way to join the broadcasting team where he would work with the Yankees until 2007. Sadly Bobby passed in 2008 due to cancer but he was fighter of the disease that took his life he was courageous in trying to beat it. Bobby wrote his Autobiography in 2007 it was published a year later a few months before he lost his battle. The day of his funeral was August 6th 2008 29 years to the day when Bobby made his eulogy to his friend Thurman in attendance that day of his funeral was Diana Thurman's widow she later said " Thurman was sitting next to her keeping her spirits up after all Thurman was going to show his friend what lies ahead."
The funniest thing about this card I bought my 2nd hobby box of this product in 2002 & it was a Bobby Murcer Hot box. What happened was I pulled the Game Used Jersey/Autograph of is set you can see a picture of what it looks like unfortunately this isn't the card I just was too lazy to take a picture of mine to show ya so I did a image search lucky for me someone had one to show ya anyways after pulling that I thought I was done I got my Memorabilia piece I am happy with it only to be shocked when I pulled the bat card 3 packs later.
Again this isn't my card mine is similar but its without the Fanatics mumbo/jumbo.
So do I believe Bobby deserves to be in this set of the bats. Simply I can say is yes he does cause of what he did on that August night against the Orioles in tribute to his good friend Thurman Munson. I am sure Bo will share some of his memories of listening to Bobby on the Yes Network & I like to hear what you think.
Next in this series is a man named John Westley Powell aka Boog Powell until then remember what Rogers Hornsby once said about signing autographs "Any ballplayer who doesn't sign autographs for little kids ain't an American, He's a Communist."
Really nice writeup on Murcer, who is underrated because his great years came on Yankee teams that didn't make the playoffs. Only thing I'd add to it is that he was a beloved Yankees announcer for many years, a delight to listen to.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely a yes, he was the best player on the Yankees in the early '70s. One thing that would be interesting to track would be how well the early 70s are included vs. the late 70s. I feel like a lot of decade analyses, even beyond baseball, tend to focus on the more recent years and forget the earlier ones.