THE YANKEES MOUNT OLYMPUS: THURMAN MUNSON

As we continue to fill our Mount Olympus home with Yankee “Gods”, we come to my all-time favorite player.

Like our first two entries into our eternal house of greats, number 10 on our list has always been beloved to Yankees fans.

He was both a Rookie of the Year and a MVP.  His name is Thurman Munson.

From the get-go, Munson endeared himself to the Yankees Empire with his gritty, clutch play. 

Not only were the fans impressed, but so were his teammates and manager.  In 1976 he was named captain of the Yankees, the first one since Lou Gehrig to own that title.

In his 11 years as a Yankee, Munson was an All-Star seven times and won three Gold Gloves. 

At the plate, Thurman was a career .292 hitter.  In three consecutive seasons from 1975 through 1977, Munson hit .309 and drove in at least 100 runs each of those years.  It is no coincidence that the team had two AL Championships and a World Series title (their first since 1962) in that time.

Over those three “peak” seasons of his career, Munson’s peers were among the best in the history of baseball.  The two other backstops mentioned most alongside Munson were Johnny Bench and Carlton Fisk.  Bench and Fisk are in the Hall of Fame.

All three were about the same age (Munson was a year older), so 1975, 1976 and 1977 represented peak performance years.  The table below shows how Munson stacked up with Fisk and Bench in the three seasons from 1975 to 1977:

Statistics courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com

• OPS is On-Base percentage + Slugging PCT
• WAR represents Wins Above Replacement.  It is a statistic developed by Sean Smith of baseballprojection.com

As you can see, the Yankee captain held his own against two of the all-time great catchers.  So why doesn’t the man whose number 15 proudly stands in Monument Park at Yankee Stadium not have a bust in Cooperstown?

In a word, “longevity”.

Namely, Munson’s road to his place among baseball’s immortals was cut short on August 2^nd, 1979 when his plane crashed on a runway in Ohio.

It represents one of the saddest days in New York Yankee history – a day I’ll never forget.

For years Cooperstown had a tribute to him near the entrance to the museum.  It had his locker with an empty chair upon which rested his glove.  Behind it hung his freshly pressed uniform, ready for our leader to slip it on and assume his spot behind the plate.

Unless the Veteran’s committee votes Munson into the Hall of Fame, his place in immortality will be limited to our cathedral in the Bronx. As a Yankees fan, I can say that’s OK, because I know what Munson meant to our franchise and to a generation of fans like myself.   

He may never get his rightful spot among peers whose accomplishments he either equaled or bested, but he does get our “welcome” into the Yankees Mount Olympus.  Where Major League Baseball fails in its recognition of his contributions, we will give him his just due.

Oh Captain, Forever Our Captain,  Thurman Munson.


    
--Steve Skinner, BYB Guest Writer
Twitter: @oswegos1

 


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