>>>>>>>>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.
>>>>
>>>>I did not know that.
>>>>
>>>>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.
>>>>
>>>>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.
>>>
>>>>
>>>>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Williams
>>
>>20-10, supposedly. He could see the rotation on the ball.
>>
>>When John Updike died recently I had the opportunity to reread "Kid Bids Hub Adieu." It was about Williams's last game, when he hit a homer in his last at bat. Talk about leaving the stage with style.
>
>Sort of like when he hit .406. He was a tad over 400 and the coach wanted to sit him the last game to preserve it. Williams refused because he didn't want to do it that way. So in the last game of the season, he played and upped his BA to 406. He may have hated the fans and the media, but jeez could he hit a baseball.
>
>>
>>OBP of .482 -- I did not know that.
>>
>>When I was a kid, not called Kid, my dad took my brothers and me to a game at Fenway every year. (Also a Bruins game and a Celtics game in the old Garden). One year it was the Senators when Ted Williams was their manager. 1969, I think. My dad took me down to the rail to shake his hand. It was an offering of sorts from a lifelong baseball fan. I was born the winter after Mickey Mantle won the triple crown and my family still calls me Mickey. My mom wanted to name me Virgil Elroy, after my father, and he said nix that, I've been living with that and it's no treat. They compromised on Michael.
>
>Well, you tell your dad for me (if he's still around) that Virgil just may be my favourite male name. I can't think what's ahead of it. It's a great name. Even 'The Band' thought so. One of my cats is named Virgil.

Virgil Caine was my name....

He is still around. He will be 77 in September.