Growing up a Yankee fan in the 70’s in New York, when the TV was limited to channels 2,4,5,7,9,11,13 and 47 (if you had a good antenna), it was not uncommon to flip the knob on the TV to 11 and see Thurman Munson in that orange chest protector sending signals to a Yankee pitcher. During an era when athletes were really built up to be heroes it was natural to root and cheer for a guy like Munson. In the current tragic era of the sports world, polarized by crime, drugs, steroids, and gambling, when it is rare for someone to perform like Jerry Rice or Larry Bird and keep his mouth shut and behave like a pro, someone who acts like Munson would get lauded for just being clean. He was admired in his era when many more of his peers were not creating the many crisis that plague big time pro sports today.

Munson was always the modest leader by example. Despite the fact that his numbers in the 1976 World Series were close to his counterpart on the Reds, Johnny Bench, he never got the same kind of accolades. As reserved as he was Munson would always stick up for his team. It is hard to forget him sticking up to his rival on the Red Sox, Carlton Fisk. There were so many big home runs in the 70’s for the Yankees but one of the biggest was Munson’s 2-run blast against the Royals in game 3 of the 1978 ALCS. That was the third consecutive year playing, and beating, rivals Kansas City for the pennant. For Yankee fans of the 90s, it exceeded the Mariners and A’s playoff rivalries. In that game, Hall-of-Famer George Brett of the Royals had hit three home runs, the third of which had tied the game. Munson hit his 2-run shot in the bottom of the eighth to give the Yanks a one run lead which was saved by Goose Gossage in the top of the inning at Yankee Stadium.

There were so many more big moments, not just in the three-playoff series against the Royals but in the two World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1977 and 1978. Munson was the symbol of Yankee grit in the 70s and defined a new era in Yankee history. Munson’s Yankee teams kicked off the new chapters in the remodeled Yankee Stadium era, ending the futility of the previous decade and laying part of the foundation for the greatness that the Yankee culture enjoys today.