Old article, but I just came across it for the first time and figured others here may never have read it and might appreciate it.

Great article...thanks for sharing, crazy!

One of the biggest ommissions from Cooperstown, IMO.

Thanks for sharing. I’m a Red Sox fan but from everything I’ve ever heard, seen or read, Munson was the guy you’d want on your team.

I was the biggest Yankees fan in the world in the '70s. Watched every game that was televised and attended a few, when I could. Munson was larger than life. He is the only person that I know of who stood up to George Steinbrenner and won. When George made a rule forbidding facial hair, Munson, as team captain, grew a beard. George backed down and rescinded the rule. Thurman learned to throw base stealers out from a crouching position, just so he could get the ball out of his hand faster, and it worked. He spent countless hours perfecting the catcher position, and he was by far the most important player on the team, Reggie and Guidry notwithstanding. My world stopped when I heard he had died. I still remember the moment. Great article. Thanks for posting it. I just wish the author knew how to spell Lou Gehrig's name.

Yeah, there are a few weird typos. I'd guess it has to do with converting the original article to an online format.

Great article Crazy, thanks for the post.

I remember seeing him getting hit in his Adam's Apple and just staying in and shaking it off. Tough as nails. He took sh*t from no one.

I still remember where I was when I heard the terrible news. I felt sick to my stomach.

Springtime 1979 I'm late for my first ever Pee-wees practice. Of course, because everyone else didn't want it, I got stuck at catcher. I almost quit on the spot, but gutted it out and told dad at dinner. "So", glaring at me, "I'm raising a quitter?". Sigh.

Couple months later, doing my 7-year old small part as a roadie on the way to one of dad's shows, in the front seat of the staywag with the radio tuned in to KNBR, San Francisco's THE sports leader, dad hears the news while I'm still clueless. But I do out of the corner of my eye notice his couple of shoulder shudders. I turn and see for the first and one of the only times ever dad crying, silent tears streaming.

"DAD, what the hell ?!" So he tells me story, a couple of them. Later we hear about mom, a transplanted New Yorker, sick to her stomach. Suddenly being a catcher didn't seem so bad. Over a decade later after a junior college all-star career and a cup of coffee pro tryout and sick to my stomach that I wouldn't be moving on there or to USC, it is nevertheless still unquestionably the best and most valued position on the field. Thanx dad. Thanx Thurman.

TY for THAT! Now I have tears in my eyes.