I was 9 years old when Mickey Mantle retired, and my memories of his career are tied to the Yankee yearbooks my cousin Craig gave me, old footage I've seen on TV, and his mythical place in any baseball fan's imagination.
"The first time I ever heard of Bobby Murcer,” The Saturday Oklahoman quoted him as saying, “they said a kid from Oklahoma was gonna be the next Mickey Mantle. They were right. Sure enough, he couldn’t play shortstop either.”
I will never forget that August day in 1979 when Thurman Munson died.
I was painting houses that summer, and stopped off to buy the New York Daily News---as I did every day---on my way to work.
Big, bold, New York headlines announced that the Yankee captain was dead.
I was as lousy a housepainter as I've always been with any type of work around a house, but I was even worse that day.
And I very much remember Murcer's role as a spokesman during those next few weeks.
Reggie Jackson called himself the "straw that stirred the drink" on that team, and he and Munson were oil and water.
Jackson might have been the straw--and Munson the drink--but Murcer was the maître de.
Today, Reggie Jackson said of Murcer, "If there's a Hall of Fame for people, he's in it."
And Bobby Murcer? He's in on the first ballot.
2 comments:
This memorable quote that was resently recalled by a announcer during a Red Sox\ Twins game when describing trying to hit a Bean Town knuckle baller Tim Wakefield...
Bobby Murcer said "trying to hit Phil Niekro is like trying to eat a Jell-O with chopsticks"...
TBLMISBT
I love that quote. That's from a guy who was always fair, never foul.
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