Saturday, July 19, 2008

Bobby Murcer

Last week we lost another Yankee great, Bobby Murcer. Starting in 1965, Bobby was a Yankee playing with greats like Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra and Thurman Munson. He left the Yankees for a few seasons but came back in 1979. Murcer was a 5 time MVP. When he retired in the early 80's he, like Phil Rizzuto, went into Sportscasting in the booth for the New York Yankees where he has been for two decades.When Yankee Catcher Thurman Munson died in early August of 1979, Bobby Murcer, a good friend to Thurman gave one of the eulogies at the service. Later that day he and his fellow Yankees hopped a plane back to New York to play the Baltimore Orioles. Billy Martin wanted Murcer to take the day off, but Bobby would have none of that. He was determined to play for Thurman and that he did. After the Yankees were down 4 - 0 Bobby took the game into his hands and hit a 3 run homer in the 7th. He then hit a 2 run single in the ninth making another great Yankee comeback one of the most memorable in history. Bobby never played with that bat again he instead gave it to Thurman's widow Diana.Bobby lost his battle to Brain Cancer on July 12. He was gracious and friendly as many Yankee and former Yankee can attest and his voice will be sorely missed.

0 comments:

Post a Comment