Legend of the Week:
Thurman Munson sadly died in a plane crash at the age of 32 on August 2, 1979, which cut his brilliant career as the Yankee captain and catcher, short. Before his sudden death, he had won the AL MVP in 1976 for his tremendous hitting (.302 batting average with 105 RBI’s) and great arm behind the plate (35% caught-steeling percentage, while the league average was 34%). The plane crash ended Munson’s career with a total of 1558 hits, 701 RBI’s, and 2190 total bases all while batting .292 in just 1423 games played in. Thurman was well on his way to Cooperstown, not only because of his regular season numbers that produced 3 100 RBI years in a row, but because Munson was truly excellent in the playoffs (.357 batting average with 57 hits in 40 games played). Unfortunately though, he never received more than 15.5% of the votes for the Hall of Fame ballot, so maybe eventually the Veteran’s Committee will see beyond Munson’s short career, and notice how much he contributed to his 2-time WS champions Yankee teams, behind the plate and at bat. By the way he also won the AL Rookie of the Year Award in 1970, so just imagine the resume Munson would have retired with.
