Bobby Murcer, hugged by Ron Guidry (left) and Lou Piniella
August 6, 1979: The New York Yankees return from Canton, Ohio, where they attended the funeral of Thurman Munson, their catcher and team Captain, who had been killed in a plane crash there 4 days earlier.
There was a question of whether they would get back in time to play that night’s nationally televised game against the Baltimore Orioles. Team owner George Steinbrenner, a man who liked to say, "To me, winning is second to breathing," said going to the funeral was more important: "If we don't make it back, we'll forfeit."
They got back in time. On ABC Monday Night Baseball, Howard Cosell, a man so often seemingly like he was born without tact, remembered that he was a professional journalist, and handled the situation superbly. He spoke well of Munson, and broadcast an interview he had done with Munson on a recent broadcast, in which Munson spoke of possibly retiring to spend more time with his family. Instead, at the age of 32, he had no future.
Keith Jackson, better known for college football, was the play-by-play announcer. Ron Guidry started for New York, Dennis Martinez for Baltimore. Munson's death had left the Yankees with only 1 catcher on their major league roster: Jerry Narron, who had played exactly 29 major league games, batting .188. The Yankees activated their bullpen catcher, Brad Gulden, who had played in 3, all the previous season, with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The Orioles led 4-0 at the 7th Inning Stretch, including home runs by Lee May and Ken Singleton, who later became a Yankee broadcaster. But with 2 outs in the bottom of the 7th, Bucky Dent drew a walk, and Willie Randolph doubled. Bobby Murcer, a Yankee star who had been traded away and recently reacquired, Munson's best friend and, along with Lou Piniella, one of the eulogists at Munson's funeral, hit a home run to bring the Yankees to within 4-3.
Murcer and Munson in 1973.
Note the Yankee Stadium 50th Anniversary sleeve patches.
Felix "Tippy" Martinez replaced Dennis. (They were not related: Tippy was from Colorado and of Mexican descent, while Dennis was from Nicaragua.) The game remained 4-3 going into the bottom of the 9th. Dent led off with another walk. Randolph tried to bunt him over, but Eddie Murray, the Orioles' best all-around player, dropped the throw at 1st base, putting Dent on 3rd base and Randolph on 2nd. And Murcer hit a drive into the left-field corner, scoring Dent with the tying run, and Randolph with the winning run: Yankees 5, Orioles 4.
The Yankees mobbed Murcer, most of them in tears. A crowd of 36,314 was crying along with them. This game has been called the only time the home fans left Yankee Stadium crying after a win.
But losing Munson was the latest and worst in a series of events that had troubled the Yankees all season long. They never got going, and finished 4th, 13 1/2 games behind the Orioles, who went on to end the Yankees' 3-year run atop the American League Eastern Division, and then win the AL Pennant.
*
August 6, 1979 was, as I said, a Monday. These other 5 games were played in Major League Baseball:
* The Kansas City Royals beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 16-12 at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto. Yes, that's a baseball game, not football. The Royals scored 11 runs in the 7th inning. George Brett went 2-for-4 with a walk and 4 RBIs. Pete LaCock went 4-for-6 with 2 RBIs. Freddie Patek went 3-for-4 with a walk and 5 RBIs. Despite all of that, they hit no home runs. For the Jays, former Royal John Mayberry and Rico Carty hit home runs, and Rick Cerone, who would become the Yankees' catcher the next season, went 3-for-4 with 5 RBIs.
* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Atlanta Braves, 3-1 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati. Johnny Bench went 2-for-3 with a walk.
* The San Francisco Giants beat their arch-rivals, the Los Angeles Dodgers, 7-1 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.
* The California Angels beat the Oakland Athletics, 5-2 at the Oakland Coliseum. Bobby Grich hit a home run. Rod Carew went 2-for-5. Rookie Rickey Henderson went 0-for-3 with a walk, but had an RBI on a groundout.
* And the Seattle Mariners beat the Minnesota Twins, 7-4 at the Kingdome in Seattle.
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