Тёрман Мунсон: Легенда бейсбола «Янкиз»

American baseball player (1947–1979)

Thurman Lee Munson (June 7, 1947 – August 2, 1979) was an American professional baseball catcher who played 11 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) with the New York Yankees, from 1969 until his death in 1979. A seven time All Star, Munson had a career batting average of .292 with 113 home runs and 701 runs batted in (RBIs). Known for his outstanding fielding, he won the Gold Glove Award in three consecutive years (1973–75). Born in Akron, Ohio, Munson was selected as the fourth pick of the 1968 MLB draft and was named as the catcher on the 1968 College Baseball All American Team. Munson hit over .300 in his two seasons in the minor leagues, establishing himself as a top prospect. He became the Yankees' starting catcher late in the 1969 season, and after his first complete season in 1970, in which he batted .302, he was voted American League (AL) Rookie of the Year. Considered the "heart and soul" of the Yankees, Munson was named captain of the Yankees in 1976, the team's first since Lou Gehrig. That same year, he won the AL Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award. As captain, Munson helped lead the Yankees to three consecutive World Series appearances from 1976 to 1978, winning championships in the latter two years. He is the first player in baseball history to be named a College Baseball All American and then in MLB win a Rookie of the Year Award, MVP Award, Gold Glove Award, and World Series championship. He is also the only catcher in MLB postseason history to record at least a .300+ batting average (.357), 20 RBIs (22), and 20 defensive caught stealings (24). On August 2, 1979, Munson died in a crash while practicing landings in his aircraft at Akron–Canton Airport. The Yankees honored him by immediately retiring his uniform 15, and dedicating a plaque to him in Monument Park.

Munson was born in Akron, Ohio, to Darrell Vernon Munson and Ruth Myrna Smylie, the youngest of four children. His father was a World War II veteran who became a truck driver while his mother was a homemaker. When he turned eight, the Munson family moved to nearby Canton. He was taught how to play baseball by his older brother Duane, and usually played baseball with kids Duane's age, who were four years older. His brother left to join the United States Air Force while Thurman was a freshman in high school. He played halfback in football, guard in basketball, and mostly shortstop in baseball. Munson switched to catcher in his senior year in order to handle the pitching prowess of his teammate, Jerome Pruett (a fifth round draft pick of the St. Louis Cardinals in 1965 who never reached the majors). He attracted scholarship offers from various colleges, and opted to attend nearby Kent State University on scholarship, where he was a teammate of pitcher and broadcaster Steve Stone. In the summer of , Munson joined the Cape Cod Baseball League, where he led the Chatham A's to their first league title with a prodigious .420 batting average. In recognition of this achievement and his subsequent professional achievements, the Thurman Munson Batting Award is given each season to the league's batting champion. In 2000, Munson was named a member of the inaugural class of the Cape Cod Baseball League Hall of Fame.

Munson was selected by the Yankees with the fourth overall pick in the 1968 Major League Baseball draft. In his only full minor league season, he batted .301 with six home runs and 37 runs batted in (RBIs) for the Binghamton Triplets in their final season , and made his first appearance in Yankee Stadium in August 1968, when the Triplets came to play an exhibition game against the Yankees. He was batting .363 for the Syracuse Chiefs in when he earned a promotion to the New York Yankees. Munson made his major league debut on August 8, 1969, in the second game of a doubleheader against the Oakland Athletics. Munson went two for three with a walk, one RBI and two runs scored. Two days later, his first major league home run was the second of three consecutive home runs hit by the Yankees off Lew Krausse Jr. in a 5 1 Yankee victory over the A's. For the season, Munson batted .256 with one home run and nine RBIs. He made 97 plate appearances, but drew ten walks and had one sacrifice fly, which gave him 86 official at bats, and allowed him to go into the season still technically a rookie. The Yankees used the pair of Jake Gibbs and Frank Fernández at catcher for most of 1969. During the off season, the Yankees dealt Fernández to the A's. Munson responded by batting .302 with seven home runs and 57 RBIs, and making 80 assists en route to receiving the 1970 American League Rookie of the Year award.

Munson received his first of seven All Star nods in , catching the last two innings without an at bat. An outstanding fielder, Munson committed only one error all season. It occurred on June 18 against the Baltimore Orioles when opposing catcher Andy Etchebarren knocked Munson unconscious on a play at the plate, dislodging the ball. He also only allowed nine passed balls all season and caught 36 of a potential 59 base stealers for a 61% caught stealing percentage. Munson was known for his longstanding feud with Boston Red Sox counterpart Carlton Fisk. He would always be irritated at comments praising Boston's catcher. "The Fisk Munson rivalry was at the core of the Yankees Red Sox tension of that era," wrote sportswriter Moss Klein.

On June 24, 1975, during a game against the Baltimore Orioles, Munson had an altercation with Mike Torrez. Torrez hit Munson with a pitch in the first inning, gave up a single to him in the fourth, and threw a pitch up by his head in the sixth. When Munson came to bat in the eighth, umpire Nick Bremigan warned Torrez not to throw any more brushback pitches; this time, Torrez blew kisses to Munson. The benches cleared, but no punches were thrown; however, after Munson grounded out to end the at bat, he charged the pitcher's mound. Munson batted a career high .318 in , which was third in the league behind Rod Carew and Fred Lynn. For the start of the season, Munson was named the first Yankees team captain since Lou Gehrig retired in He responded by batting .302 with 17 home runs and 105 RBIs to receive the American League MVP Award and lead the Yankees to their first World Series appearance since He batted .435 with three RBIs and three runs scored in the American League Championship Series against the Kansas City Royals, and batted .529 with two RBIs and two runs scored in the World Series against the Cincinnati Reds. Already down three games to none, Munson went four for four in the final game of the Series at Yankee Stadium, but New York was swept by the "Big Red Machine." Combined with the hits he got in his final two at bats in game three, his six consecutive hits tied a World Series record set by Goose Goslin of the Washington Senators in
Reds catcher Johnny Bench was named the World Series MVP in 1976. A fairly obvious comparison of opposing backstops was made to Reds manager Sparky Anderson during the post World Series press conference, to which Anderson responded, "Munson is an outstanding ballplayer and he would hit .300 in the National League, but you don't ever compare anybody to Johnny Bench. Don't never embarrass nobody by comparing them to Johnny Bench." Visibly upset by these comments, which he heard as he entered the room, Munson "ripped into Anderson," according to sportswriter Moss Klein. They won the pennant the next day, and went on to beat the Dodgers again in the World Series in six games, winning the final four. Munson batted .320 (8 for 25) with seven RBIs in this Series and also caught Ron Cey's foul pop up for the final out. Munson's World Series championships in 1977 and 1978 made him only the second catcher in baseball history, after Johnny Bench, to win a Rookie of the Year Award, an MVP Award, a Gold Glove Award, and a World Series title during his career. Subsequently, Buster Posey became the third catcher to win all four awards. Munson and Posey, both named as college baseball All Americans, are the only two catchers named to an All American team who also own a ROY, MVP, GG, and World Series title. The Yankees had lost three in a row, and were in fourth place, eleven games behind the Baltimore Orioles in the American League East heading into the All Star break in 1979. Despite a .288 average, the wear and tear of catching was beginning to take its toll on Munson, and he was overlooked for the American League All Star team. Frequently homesick, he had been asking for a trade to the Cleveland Indians since 1977 in order to be closer to his family in Canton. Munson was also considering retiring at the end of the season. At the end of July, the Yankees were still in fourth place at 0.543, fourteen games behind Baltimore.

In August 1979, Munson had been flying airplanes for over a year and purchased a Cessna Citation I/SP jet with a Yankee blue interior so he could fly home to his family in Canton on off days. It was his fourth airplane in less than a year and a half. His flight instructor Dave Hall spoke well of his ability: "From the onset to completion of training Mr. Munson displayed well above average skills and judgment as a pilot." On the afternoon of August 2, 1979, Munson was practicing takeoffs and landings at the Akron Canton Regional Airport with Hall and friend Jerry Anderson, with whom he had formed a real estate partnership. Shortly after 3:40p. m. EDT, Munson had received clearance for takeoff and three touch and go landings on Runway 23, which were completed. on Greensburg Road, 870 feet (265 m) short of runway 19. Hall and Anderson both survived the accident. Hall received burns on his arms and hands, and Anderson received burns on his face, arm and neck. Munson, however, was in a more precarious position. Unable to move due to what was originally thought to be the wrecked fuselage of the plane pinning him against his seat, Munson was trapped and Hall and Anderson were unable to free him in the only attempt they were able to make before flames engulfed the cockpit. Munson died of asphyxiation due to the inhalation of superheated air and toxic substances. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigation into the crash stated that the probable cause was "the pilot's failure to recognize the need for, and to take action to maintain, sufficient airspeed to prevent a stall into the ground during an attempted landing. The pilot also failed to recognize the need for timely and sufficient power application to prevent the stall during an approach conducted inadvertently without flaps extended. Contributing to the pilot's inability to recognize the problem and to take proper action was his failure to use the appropriate checklist and his nonstandard pattern procedures which resulted in an abnormal approach profile." Munson was not wearing the available shoulder harness restraint, only a lap belt, which contributed to the severity of his injuries. That night, before a national viewing audience on ABC's Monday Night Baseball, the Yankees beat the Orioles 5–4 in New York, with Murcer driving in all five runs with a three run home run in the seventh inning and a two run single in the bottom of the ninth. Munson is buried at Canton's Sunset Hills Burial Park. Yankee owner George Steinbrenner retired Munson's number 15 immediately upon his catcher's death. Teammate Lou Piniella thought Munson was "the greatest competitor I've ever seen." John also praised him for his leadership, writing that while Jackson led the team when it came to hitting and talking with the press, "in the locker room we looked to Munson." Munson's widow, Diana, also filed a $42.2 million wrongful death lawsuit against the two companies. Cessna offered Munson a special deal on flying lessons if he would take them from FlightSafety International. Rather than requiring Munson to take a two week safety class in Kansas, FlightSafety assigned a "traveling instructor" to go on the road with him, and train him between ballgames. The lawsuit was eventually settled out of court. Actor Erik Jensen portrayed Munson in the 2007 ESPN produced mini series The Bronx Is Burning.

In September 1968, Munson married Diana Dominick at St. John's Church in Canton. The couple had been childhood sweethearts; Diana was already signing her name "Mrs. Thurman Munson" back in sixth grade.