>>>>>I've always hated the NY Yankees with a passion (just like I hate the Steelers and the entire ACC!), but I always respected Thurman Munson (who was killed 30 years ago today).
>>>>>
>>>>>1979 was my first year in teener baseball - I pitched and played different infield positions - but our regular catcher broke his leg before the season started, and I volunteered to catch. Thurman was one of my heros, and so I played exactly the way he played (I actually did pretty well).
>>>>
>>>>And Gene Quill played just like Charlie Parker. ;)
>>>>
>>>>Yeah. Munson was one of the true greats. I felt kind of the same way about Tony Conigliaro (before your time). The guy went through a lot only to die as a vegetable.
>>>>
>>>>> And when I got banged up (all kinds of bumps and bruises from foul tips, hurt my knees, and got hit twice in the head/mask with a bat), I pretended I was like Thurman playing hurt.
>>>>
>>>>>By the time August came around, our season was done, but I kept following Thurman as much as I could. (Even wanted to grow a moustache like his, but I was only 14).
>>>>
>>>>>I was watching a late afternoon Phillies game on August 3rd against the Mets. The Phillies put a four spot on the board in the top half of the first inning. Right before they went to a commerical break, Phillies commentator Richie Ashburn said, "Harry (referring to Harry Kalas), I've just been handed a tragic, tragic news story - Thurman Munson, the great catcher for the NY Yankees, has been killed in a plane crash". I was crushed.
>>>>
>>>>>A few night later, the Yankees and Orioles played the famous Monday night baseball game on ABC, right after the funeral, when the Yankees won an emotional come-from-behind victory and Bobby Mercer cried on the field.
>>>>
>>>>>Back in those days, all I did in the summer was play baseball, watch baseball (and yes, chase girls). I was so stunned by the news that for a week I hardly did or said anything.
>>>>
>>>>>RIP, Thurman, you were a stud
>>>
>>>I was watching the game when Tony C. got hit in the face. He was never the same again.
>>>
>>>Yaz was my favorite growing up, and he did it without steroids. He led the AL in 1968 with a .301 batting average. The year of the pitcher.
>>
>>I was a Yaz fan too, but mostly because he played for Boston. When I was a kid, Toronto had a triple-A franchise called the Toronto Maple Leafs (yes just like the hockey team, only they won once in a while), and the Leafs were a Red Sox farm club. So, to be a Leafs fan, meant being a Boson fan, which I would have been anyway because of Ted Williams. Guess who Toronto's short-stop was back when I worked out in the scoreboard at Maple Leaf Stadium. Give up? Sparky Anderson. He ended up as a player coach, and after he left, the coaching duties were handed off to some nobody named Dick Williams.
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>I did not know that.
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>Ted Williams was the best hitter who ever lived. Jim Rice said in his HOF induction speech the other day that he was proud to be a successor in left field in Fenway. As Ted said himself, he was the best f*****g hitter in the American f*****g League. And another double off the wall.
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>He would hold the home run record if not for giving up over 5 years in his prime in two wars. He was a fighter pilot. He was the last man to hit .400. And didn't even win the MVP!

Yeah. Tell me about it. He had better than 20-20 vision and if I'm not mistaken, he still holds the air force record for target shooting while flying.

The man finished with a lifetime OBP of .482. Think about what that means. In comparison, Joe Dimaggio at finished at .383.

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>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Williams