The following article was written by Bill Madden of the New York Daily News...
Until the very end, Bobby Murcer showed 'heart of a champion' BY BILL MADDEN DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER
Saturday, July 12th 2008, 3:51 PM
Bobby Murcer lost his gallant and determined fight with brain cancer Saturday, a little more than a year-and-half after first being diagnosed with the most aggressive form of tumors. He was 62, and while most of those last 19 months of a life-too-short were spent enduring exhaustive, often-agonizing after-effects of intense chemotherapy and radiation, Murcer, true to his upbeat nature, regarded them as a blessing rather than a curse.
"I feel especially blessed," he told me a few months ago, "to have been able to hear from and see all these wonderful people who have been my fans. Through this entire ordeal, their prayers and support have been so gratifying. You have no idea what a strength the fans have been for me."
According to his literary agent, Rob Wilson, Murcer was especially grateful to have been able to write his book, "Yankee For Life," in which he shared his life's experiences, from the trial of how he and his wife, Kay, dealt with the devastating news of his malignant brain tumor on Christmas Eve 2006, to the joy of his 44 years in the game as a player and broadcaster. During his last appearance in New York, May 27-29, Murcer, though frail and physically weakened, pushed himself to accommodate nearly 2,000 fans in three separate book signings.
"He displayed the heart of a champion throughout all those signings," said Wilson. "I don't know how he was able to get through them. No matter how weak he felt, he just kept signing. I told him at one point, 'We can cut this short, Bobby,' but he insisted on going the full nine innings. There was so much love on those lines, all those people who wanted to share their stories with him, and I think that was what motivated him to keep on going. He wanted them to know he loved them as much as they loved him."
He first came to us in 1966 out the same rolling hills of Oklahoma as his boyhood idol, Mickey Mantle, and with the same lofty expectations. But while that, too, might have been considered a curse for most any other ballplayer, Murcer - who like Mantle was signed by the legendary Yankee scout Tom Greenwade, and began his professional career as a shortstop before shifting to center field - felt honored to be compared with the great Yankee slugger.
"My answer to that was always the same: It never bothered me being compared to Mickey," Murcer said. "What bothered me was how Mickey felt about me being compared to him."
Such was Murcer's wry and self-effacing humor. But he was proud of all he accomplished as a player; especially proud of what he'd meant to a generation of Yankee fans in the mid-'60s and early '70s, who never knew the championship Yankee tradition. For a lot of those years, he was about all the Yankees had, a lonely pinstriped All-Star who came back from a two-year stint in military service to hit 129 homers in his first five full seasons. He would finish his career with a .277 average, 252 homers, 1,862 hits and a .445 slugging percentage - maybe not Mantle-esque, but more than enough to stamp him as a pretty fair country ballplayer. And, combined with his 22 years in the broadcasting booth, he earned Yankee icon status as one of the last to be introduced on Old-Timer's Day.
That's all he ever wanted to be - a respected Yankee. It was his fate, however, to never play on a Yankee world championship team. He arrived on the scene just after the 1949-64 Yankee dynasty had come to an end, and was traded - to the San Francisco Giants on Oct. 21, 1974, for Bobby Bonds - right before George Steinbrenner restored the team to a new championship era. Many years later, Murcer still called the trade to the Giants "the worst day of my life" but always blamed Yankee general manager Gabe Paul rather than Steinbrenner, who was serving his first suspension from baseball.
"Gabe and I always had a personality conflict," he once told me. "I was not a pro-Gabe Paul person. Gabe was only interested, in my opinion, in a team looking good and the budget being held down. He was satisfied with mediocrity."
Nevertheless, the Murcer-for-Bonds deal later became regarded as the pivotal transaction in the building of a new championship Yankee legacy when, a year later, Paul traded Bonds to the California Angels for pitcher Ed Figueroa and center fielder Mickey Rivers, both of whom were key components on the teams that won three straight American League pennants from 1976-78, and back-to-back World Series in '77 and '78. In the year prior to the trade, Murcer was dealt a double-barreled blow to his pride and his status as the premier Yankee: With Yankee Stadium undergoing its renovation, the team moved to Shea Stadium in 1974 and Murcer, who had the perfect lefthanded power stroke for Yankee Stadium, suffered accordingly, his home run output dropping to 10, with only two of them hit at home. At the same time, Yankee manager Bill Virdon determined that Elliott Maddox, whom the Yankees had purchased for $35,000 from the Texas Rangers in spring training '74, was a more adept center fielder, and Murcer was moved to right, never to return.
Murcer would go on to spend the next 41/2 years in Yankee exile, watching with envy from second-division outposts - Candlestick Park and Wrigley Field - as his old team, fortified with Hall-of-Fame-bound free agents Reggie Jackson, Catfish Hunter and Goose Gossage, along with his best friend, Thurman Munson, made regular trips to the World Series.
It wasn't until late June of 1979 that Steinbrenner reunited the 33-year-old Murcer with the Yankees, as the Cubs, who were just looking to dump his $320,000 contract, sent him back to the Bronx for a non-prospect minor league pitcher named Paul Semall. At the time of the deal, the Yankees, who had lost their closer, Gossage, to a thumb injury (the result of a shower room fight with teammate Cliff Johnson) were already falling out of the AL East pennant race. Then, on Aug. 2, an off-day, the Yankees and the rest of baseball were shocked by the news that Munson had been killed in the crash of his single engine private jet as he was practicing landings at the Canton, Ohio, airport.
No one in baseball was closer to Munson than Murcer, who, only the night before, had watched from his car at the end of the runway of a small Chicago airport as Munson took off on his solo flight home to Canton. Four days later, after delivering the eulogy at the Munson funeral in Canton, Murcer, despite having gotten no sleep, implored Yankee manager Billy Martin to let him play in the game that night at the Stadium against the Baltimore Orioles. It would be his finest hour as a Yankee as he honored Munson's memory by driving in all five runs, with a three-run homer and two-run single, in their emotional 5-4 win.
"He loved the game, his fans, his friends, and most of all his family," Murcer had said in the eulogy for Munson. "He is lost, but not gone. He will be missed, but not forgotten."
Now they are both lost.
Bobby Murcer was a pal and I will always choose to remember him, not so much for his exploits on the ballfield, but rather for his humor and humanity off it. A prime example of that latter quality was his service as president of the Baseball Assistance Team, the organization that raises money for indigent former players and baseball front office personnel. "Bobby lending his presence to our organization was so important in raising the awareness among the current players of what we do," said BAT executive director Jim Martin. "With him, it was never about Bobby and all about helping people in need."
One of my everlasting memories was a night in Boston in 1982. Bobby was at the tail-end of his career - on "scholarship" as I would tell him, in reference to the three-year "thanks for the memories" contract Steinbrenner bestowed upon him - and we were walking back to the hotel after having a few postgame cocktails at one of Boston's popular saloons. This was also when he was a spokesman for Skoal chewing tobacco and had actually recorded a goofy song, "Skoal Dippin' Man", for them. Regretfully, he also really chewed the stuff for a few years.
"I've always wanted to write my life story," Bobby said to me, "but I may need your help. Do you want to hear it?"
"Now?" I said.
"Well, yeah. When we get back to the room, I'll tell you everything."
Sure enough, when we got back to the hotel, Bobby doggedly followed me up to my room and as I stretched out on the bed, he pulled up a chair and a waste basket for which to deposit his "chew" spittle. I don't remember much of his monologue, other than feeling myself dozing off when, a half hour into his life story, he was only at Greensboro of the Carolina League.
The next day at the ballpark, he approached me in consternation.
"I can't believe you fell asleep in the middle of my life story!" he exclaimed.
"I can't believe you left that mess in my waste basket and that I'm probably gonna get charged for it!" I countered.
It turned out Bobby Murcer did have quite a life story. It was actually a love story that began and ended with the beautiful Kay, his high school sweetheart, and their two kids, Todd and Tori, who all survive him. And in between were all the rest of us, his friends, teammates and just plain fans, who will miss him and never forget him.
What is this obsession about Brett Favre?...why does the media act like the entire NFL evolves around this man?...for the last three years he has jerked the Green Bay Packer organization around in the off-season with his indecision about retirement...
Finally, this winter Favre announced that he was done...with tears flowing from Favre to John Madden to Peter King, some believed the NFL was not going to survive without the almighty number 4...but the Packers went about building their team and draft with the assumption that Favre was finally gone...in fact, they were ready to honor him during the first week of the NFL season by retiring his number...with less than three weeks from training camp, Favre wants back into the NFL...
As of last night, he reportedly asked the Packers to release him so that he can sign with another team...however, if they do this, the Packers organization fears that Favre may sign within the NFC North with either the Vikings or Bears - two good teams that are in desperate need of a quarterback...
The Packer organization is also being careful of the public relations fallout with their fans and the national media...this has to stop...
Favre has had the Packers organization by the leash for the last 3 years...general manager Ted Thompson needs to make a decision - and make it now...he should first seek a trade with a team from the AFC, such as the Jets, Bills, or Chiefs - three teams that need a quarterback...this would get Favre out of not only their division, but the entire conference...even if they receive a low draft pick, the move would relieve the organization of the burden...
If for some reason Thompson cannot make a trade, then he should release Favre...if Favre wants to sign with the Vikings, Bears, or Lions - so be it...Thompson needs to move the Packers forward and stop diddling with an old veteran who's best years are gone...for every two or three great plays Favre has made while with the Packers, he also has made some boneheaded decisions...who could forget the playoff game against the Eagles a few years back?...or the playoff game against the Rams when he chucked six interceptions....
It's time for this "gunslinger" to fade into the Wisconsin sunset - the sooner the better...the Packers organization and fans deserve better from Favre instead of this annual flip flopping about retirement...it is ashame reporters like Peter King and John Madden refuse to call "the greatest quarterback ever" on the carpet about this situation...
Michael Rosenberg of the Detroit Free Press does not believe new Michigan football coach Rich Rodriguez is a man of his word... "We now know Rodriguez to be a serial job-shopper. His agent, Mike Brown, had pitched Rodriguez’s services to Alabama, Arkansas and Louisiana State in recent years before pursuing Michigan." ...
Mitch Albom of the Detroit Free Press says good-bye to Tiger Stadium as the wrecking ball starts to take down the grand stadium... "There was a small hole in her body. But she will break and crumble much more in the weeks to come. She was born in 1912. Death is inevitable now." ...
Phil Sheridan of the Philadelphia News writes that the Sixers scored big with the signing of Elton Brand... "This was a grand slam for the Sixers. They went into this free-agency period with carefully created space under the salary cap." ...
Jay Mariotti of the Chicago Sun-Times writes that the Cubs will go as far as Carlos Zambrano will take them... "But make no mistake, the newcomer is merely the yin to the yang of Carlos Zambrano, who always will be considered the pitching savior in any ongoing World Series scenario. On a team of heavenly salaries and huge expectations, Zambrano is the crackling fire, the heart and soul on which this season's giddy conviction is based." ...
Brian Doogan of ESPN.com writes about heavyweight champ Wladimir Klitschko and his battle to be recognized as a true champ... "Even against such moribund opposition, Klitschko has struggled to rule with an iron fist -- explaining why so many of the doubters remain." ...
Our friend over at The Zone Blitz loves to show the terrific 32 second video of Jessica Simpson washing the General Lee...but the original car washing babe piece came from the movie Cool Hand Luke...George Kennedy's reaction as a woman thirsty chain gang member in this 3 minute clip is funny...the blond with the jugs is not bad either...
Will someone please tell me why Jeese Jackson is still around?...he is a bumbling idiot racist who preaches one thing, then does something completely different...he is FAKE...his time has come and gone....he is a relic of 20 plus years ago....Jesse needs to just GO AWAY!!!...if not, will someone please cut HIS nuts off!!
Like a firecracker going off, the hottest news this weekend was about the impending divorce between Alex Rodriguez and his wife Cynthia....she has been on the cover of all the New York newspapers....so what the heck, I have to ask my readers what they think of C-Rod now that she is on the market again...
My thoughts - she is not some knock-out babe....she does have some major cans as evident in the photo on the left...she is reported to be 34-years-old...let's put it this way, she is not the hottest woman that I have seen, but she is not bad...this leads to the question:
With the annual All-Star Game is also the annual questioning of players who should have or should not have made the team....It is common practice that the manager of the team usually takes care of players from his own team - which is understandable...I have no problem there...but how in the hell can American League manager Terry Francona justify in putting catcher Jason Varitek on the team?....
Varitek is batting .215!!!!...yes, that is .215, not .315!!!...I like Varitek...he is a good defensive catcher, but come on Terry Francona!!!!...that bonehead move cost someone more deserving to be a part of the team, like Jermaine Dye, Mike Mussina, Evan Longoria, B.J. Upton, or Jose Guillen...
Another "small market" team has made a move to try and win the World Series...the Milwaukee Brewers went out and traded/rented C.C. Sabathia...I thought only the New Yorks, Bostons, and Chicagos made those type of moves for a player of that magnitude?...small market baseball is alive and well...
I am a New York Yankees fan but if the Yankees don't make the playoffs, I am pulling for the Tampa Rays...Tampa's improvement this year gives hope to teams like the Orioles, Pirates, Reds, and Royals...if the Rays can win the A.L. East, then anything is possible when your management team makes smart baseball decisions and uses its luxury tax money to improve the organization...
If Tampa makes the playoffs, they will be tough to beat in that bandbox of a domed stadium...
Well, PTI's Michael Wilbon was right that Roger Federer would not win Wimbledon, but he was way off base when he made the statement that Federer is "done"...it's inevitable that Rafa Nadal will become the number 1 tennis player...but Federer showed that he is still capable of winning a Grand Slam event...
Most NFL teams go with the theory of having a two back offense...I am just surprised that no one has signed former Seattle running back Shaun Alexander...Alexander's better days are behind him, but you mean he cannot make it as a back-up for some team?...I think he would fit nicely with the Cleveland Browns subbing for Jamal Lewis...I think Alexander can still carry the ball 5-10 times a game and be effective...
Has anyone seen the new Nutrisystem commercial with Jillian Barberie-Reynolds?...she claims that she lost 40 pounds...that may be so, but I think she also added some weight to her chest too...her chest looks huge in those commercials...
I can't believe that she married Burt Reynolds?...
NBA Draft Thoughts The two basketball players who made a mistake coming out early have to be Kosta Koufos of Ohio State and Chris Douglas-Roberts of Memphis...Koufos was selected 23rd overall by Utah even though he was predicted to go in the top 15...with more experience, which he would have gotten at Ohio State, Koufos would have been a top 10 pick in a year or two...
I have no idea why CDR left Memphis?...this kid was a first team All-American but he slid all the way into the second round at 39th overall to New Jersey...whoever advised him to leave early made a mistake...
The best "value" pick was by Sacramento taking Patrick Ewing Jr in the second round at 43rd overall...I am not saying Junior is going to be like Papa...but it seemed liek Georgetown always played better whenever Junior was on the floor...I could see him being one of those guys who can do a little of everything including being a defensive stopper...
Finally, with the All-Star Game coming up next week, I found the old theme song from "This Week in Baseball"....hearing this reminds me of Saturday mornings in the early 1980s and Mel Allen....sit back and enjoy...
The Cleveland Indians traded C.C. Sabathia to Milwaukee for their top prospect Matt LaPorta and two other minor leaguers...LaPorta played collegiate baseball for Florida...here is the lowdown on LaPorta...
Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe writes how Pedro Martinez's career may be on the decline... "The former Red Sox ace says he's healthy, and if the Mets are to turn their horror show of a first half into a prosperous second half, MartÃnez is aware he must be a huge part of it." ...
Kevin Kernan of the New York Post writes how Alex Rodriguez took time from his hectic week to spend time with a cancer patient... " . . . the Yankee slugger deftly made his way through a wall of media camped on his Park Avenue doorstep. He had a promise to keep. He had to get John Challis to the game." ...
Autograph collector Ray Robinson reviews his collection after 75 years... "Recently, as I looked over my 75-year-old scrapbook, its yellowed, crumbling pages fatigued by time passing, I realized that my collection revealed a singular cultural footnote: it seemed that most of the players, regardless of status in the game, signed with their nicknames, not their given names." ...
Ben Shpigel of The New York Times writes how the Phillies Jimmy Rollins sees himself in the Mets Jose Reyes... "Rollins says he loves watching Reyes play, and it is easy to see why. In Reyes, Rollins sees a younger, faster version of himself — a switch-hitting dynamo, right down to their shared initials, spot in the lineup and division." ...
Mike Downey of the Chicago Tribune writes about the White Sox young hot second baseman known as the Cuban Missle... "Ramirez is (at least) 10 years younger than Contreras, but they did play together in Cuba for a couple of years. Younger players there all looked up to Contreras, he says. He was someone they all wanted to be like." ...
Pete Grathoff of the Kansas City Star writes about finding the sweet spot on a tennis racket... "Graphite-based rackets are stronger and faster than their wooden counterparts. That equates to faster serves, which seems obvious enough." ...
ry agent, Rob Wilson, Murcer was especially grateful to have been able to write his book, "Yankee For Life," in which he shared his life's experiences, from the trial of how he and his wife, Kay, dealt with the devastating news of his malignant brain tumor on Christmas Eve 2006, to the joy of his 44 years in the game as a player and broadcaster. During his last appearance in New York, May 27-29, Murcer, though frail and physically weakened, pushed himself to accommodate nearly 2,000 fans in three separate book signings.
