Remembering Yankee Catcher, Thurman Munson 30 Years Later

Former Yankee catcher (1969 to 1979), Thurman Lee Munson died August 2, 1979 when he tried to land his personal airplane. Thurman Lee Munson (June 7, 1947 – August 2, 1979) was an American catcher in Major League Baseball who played with the New York Yankees from 1969 to 1979. Munson was killed at age 32 while trying to land his personal airplane.

Life and career
Born in Akron, Ohio to Darrell Vernon Munson and Ruth Myrna Smylie, Thurman grew up in nearby Canton. He graduated from Lehman High School in Canton, where he earned scholarship offers from various colleges due to his standout performances in football, basketball, as well as baseball. Munson opted to attend nearby Kent State University on scholarship. He married Diane Dominick at St. John's Parish, Canton.
Munson was selected by the Yankees with the fourth pick in the first round of the 1968 amateur draft. In the minor leagues, he caught for the Binghamton Triplets in their final (1968) season. He was named the American League Rookie of the Year in 1970 after batting .302 with seven home runs and 57 RBI, and making 80 assists. In 1976, he was voted the American League MVP after batting .302 with 17 home runs and 105 RBI, and stealing 14 bases. He is the only Yankee ever to win both the Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player awards

His Death

Munson was frequently homesick, and took flying lessons so that he could fly home to his family in Canton on off-days. On August 2, 1979, he was practicing takeoffs and landings in his new Cessna Citation I/SP jet at the Akron-Canton Regional Airport. On the third touch-and-go, Munson failed to lower the flaps for landing and allowed the aircraft to sink too low before increasing engine power, causing the jet to clip a tree and fall short of the runway. The plane then hit a tree stump and burst into flames, killing Munson (who was trapped inside) and injuring two other companions, Dave Hall and Jerry Anderson of Canton.

It is believed that the inability to get out of the plane, and the ensuing asphyxiation, is what killed Munson, rather than injuries sustained on impact or burns. Munson's friends in the aircraft survived the accident. The crash was attributed to pilot error, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.
Munson was survived by his wife, Diana, and their three children. The day after his death, before the start of the Yankees' four-game set with the Baltimore Orioles in the Bronx, the Yankees paid tribute to their deceased captain in a pre-game ceremony during which the starters stood at their defensive positions, save for the catcher's box, which remained empty. At the conclusion of Robert Merrill's musical selection, the fans (announced attendance 51,151) burst into a 10-minute standing ovation.
Four days later, on August 6, the entire Yankee team attended his funeral in Canton, Ohio. Lou Piniella and Bobby Murcer, who were Munson's best friends as well as teammates, gave eulogies. That night (in front of a national viewing audience on ABC's Monday Night Baseball) the Yankees beat the Orioles 5-4 in New York, with Murcer driving in all five runs with a three-run home run in the seventh inning and a two-run single in the bottom of the ninth.
On August 1, 1980, the day before the one year anniversary of the accident, the Yankees filed a $4.5 million lawsuit against Cessna Aircraft Co. and Flight Safety International, Inc. (the company who was training Munson to fly) with team spokesman John J. McCarty saying "we asked for $4.5 million because that is what Munson would be worth if the Yankees traded him.

Immediately following Munson's death, Yankee owner George Steinbrenner announced that his uniform number 15 was being retired. On September 20, 1980, a plaque was dedicated in Munson's memory and placed in Monument Park. The plaque bears excerpts from an inscription composed by Steinbrenner and flashed on the Stadium scoreboard the day after his death:
“Our captain and leader has not left us, today, tomorrow, this year, next ... Our endeavors will reflect our love and admiration for him"

To this day, despite a packed clubhouse, an empty locker next to current Yankee team captain Derek Jeter's, with Munson's number 15 on it, remains as a tribute to the Yankees' lost catcher. The original locker that Munson used, along with a bronzed set of his catching equipment, was donated to the Baseball Hall of Fame (Munson himself is not in the Hall). His number 15 is also displayed on the center field wall at Thurman Munson Stadium, a minor-league ballpark in Canton.
Thurman is one of three Yankees who died in aviation accidents, including pitchers Jim Hardin in 1991 and Cory Lidle in 2006.

Thurman's original locker from Yankee Stadium, which has not been used by anyone since his death, was moved in one piece to New Yankee Stadium. It is located in the New York Yankees Museum. Visitors can view the Yankees Museum on gamedays from when the gates open to the end of the eighth inning and during Yankee Stadium tours.