Something is rankling me:
In Marty Appel's Thurman Munson biography, he reveals that Orioles pitcher Tippy Martinez grooved a fastball to Bobby Murcer in the "Eulogy" game won by the Yankees 5-4.
You know that game: It's curently in heavy rotation on YES and was originally broadcast on Monday Night Baseball which means a heavy dose of Howard Cosell. Here's the situation: The entire New York Yankee contingent travels to Canton, Ohio for Munson's funeral. Bobby Murcer and Lou Piniella are the eulogists. Emotionally spent, some players don't want to play that night's game against Baltimore. But owner George Steinbrenner proclaims, "that's what Yankees do." So they travel back to New York and play.
Bobby Murcer is up at bat in ninth already having hit a three-run homer. For some reason, Yankee manager Billy Martin leaves the lefty Murcer in to face the lefty Tippy Martinez, a former Yankee and Munson devotee.
Tippy gets two quick strikes on Murcer but then Tipppy's mind wanders back to a game years ago when Detroit speedster Ron Leflore had a 30-game hitting streak on the line. Munson, Tippy recalls, visited Tippy on the mound and instructed Tippy to give him a fastball to see if Leflore could extend the hitting streak. Fast forward to the Murcer at-bat. Tippy, who claims he could have blown away Murcer with three pitches, has Thurman in mind. Tippy grooves a fastball to Murcer who lines down the right field line. Yankees win.
Cosell breaks into high drama ("Bobby Murcer, who buried his friend this morning" ). As Appel writes in the book ABC-TV cameras showed Tippy walking off the mound, looking skyward, as if to say, 'That's for you Thurman.' ABC didn't know what they had, writes Appel.
Granted Murcer still had to hit the fastball with the game on the line. Great anecdote. But aren't some things better left unexposed? Must we know everything? The legend is ALWAYS better.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
The Legend is Always better...agreed...just finished Leigh Montville's book on Babe Ruth..BIG BAM...lots of myth and legend there...who knows what really happened? Let the legends lie..no pun intended.
-Len
I don't disagree with you guys, but this is a really nice story -- Martinez grooving a fastball not just because of the situation, but because the guy they were honoring had done it before.
Mickey Mantle's 535th home run -- the one with which he passed Jimmy Foxx's total -- came on a grooved fastball from Denny McLain, who said to his catcher, loud enough for Mantle to hear, "Let's let him hit one."
Funny thing about these stories: if it happened today, we'd all roll our eyes and long for the days when it was a war out there and there was no fraternizing with the enemy.
Post a Comment