Ron Blomberg - The Captain & Me: On and Off the Field with Thurman Munson

For Bethmy love and inspiration.

Ron

For Katiewith thanks for all the love, belief, and support.

Dan

Contents

Foreword by Diana Munson

When Thurman and Ron first met, over 50 years ago, the Yankees were not in great shape. But they were the young up-and-comers, part of the hope for the teams future.

The team really felt like a family then. All of the guys were young and hungry, and all in the same boatstriving hard to be a good team, united in their quest to go forward and bring winning baseball back to the Bronx. None of them were superstars yet, but you had older players like Mel Stottlemyre and Jake Gibbs taking the younger guys under their wing, showing them and teaching them how to be major leaguers. There was such a nice feeling of camaraderie and brotherhood during that rebuilding process, and us wives were all lucky enough to be part of it. You never forget the beginnings; you just never do.

Thurman and Ron were buddies, no doubt about it. As everyone knows, Thurman was an intense competitor; to earn his respect as a player, you had to really show him that you would do anything to win. I think his bond with Ron just naturally grew out of the respect they had for each other as players, and the little-boy love of the game that they recognized in each other. Rons little-boy heart was recognizable to anyone who ever met him; he was so unguarded and positive and upbeat, and the kind of exuberance and excitement he had about playing baseball is something you definitely want to see from someone on your team. Thurman had this tough and grumpy faade, so it was hard to see that little boy in himI saw it because we were together from when I was 10 and he was 12, so I knew about the little boy that lived inside him. And Ron saw it, too.

Thurman trusted very few people; but if he felt safe with you, then hed feel freer to be himself and to let that guard down. His childhood was not ideal; it scarred him, and theres no doubt in my mind that a lot of his bruises came to the surface as he got older. And Ron is one of those people who is sensitive to other people and their shortcomings and their hurts. So their relationship worked very well for Thurman, because he could have his unguarded moments with Ron where he didnt feel like he was being judged or compared to someone else.

Sportswriters got on Thurman right from the start because he wasnt a yes manhe wasnt the kind of guy who would give you the answer that you perhaps were looking for. How he saw things is how he would say it, and that rubbed people the wrong way a lot of times, whereas Ron would always find a way to charm whoever he was talking to. Thurman would tease him about that sometimeshe teased Ron all the time about all kinds of things, in a brotherly waybut I think he appreciated that Ron kept the sportswriters away from him, and he also kind of marveled at the fact that Ron could be this kind of charismatic character who could talk to anyone about anything. Neither of them were ever ashamed to be themselves; they definitely had that in common. But I think part of Thurman wished he could have been a little more like Ron.

Thurman had absolute respect for Ron as a person. In 1971, their first season together on the Yankees, Ron sat out the last couple of games of the year to be with his wife on Rosh Hashanah. And I remember Thurman having so much respect and admiration for that; it touched Thurman that Ron was that kind of deep-feeling person, and that he had the integrity to be able to say, I choose not to play. That impressed Thurman greatly.

Thurman loved the baseball side of Ron, but he also loved the human side of him. And he felt so terrible for Ron when one injury after another was happening to him. He would tell me, This guy cannot catch a break. Ron was someone who was so ready and so willing to be part of this great new chapter in Yankees history, and he wound up missing out on all of it. Thurman knew it could have been the same story for him, or for any of the other guys on the team at any given time, and he knew what it had to be doing to Rons psyche. Thurman was a sensitive man, and he understood what Ron was going through, the pain that he was feeling.

Someone once called Thurman an enigma, and it was so true; you could never really figure him out. Ive met some fantastic people through my lifetime, Hollywood stars and politicians and so many people in so many different fields, and theres still never been a more interesting person to me than Thurman Munson, not ever. There were so many layers to him, and he kept a lot of things buried because he was so vulnerable. He would tell me that he didnt care if people knew or understood him, but I think its such a shame that so many people missed the heart of that man. He had a tough skin, but Im here to tell you that he was the singularly most tender man Ive ever known.

So many of Thurmans teammates have opened up to me over the years about the Thurman they played with, and Ive been so privileged to hear their stories; to this day, these guys are still so in love with Thurman and everything that he was, and everything that he brought to them and to the team. They got to see sides of him so few other people did, and see how phenomenal a person he was.

I was pleased to learn that Ron was writing a book about his friendship with Thurman, because I knew that he would treat Thurman fairly, and show a softer side of him that so many were not privy to. Of course, if Thurman were still here with us, he would say he didnt care about that kind of thing. But in addition to being a great ballplayer, he was a treasureand speaking as the person who perhaps knew him better than anyone, Im glad Ron is sharing that treasure with the world.

Diana Munson

September 2020

Introduction

Thurman Munson hit a home run in the very first major league ballgame I ever attended. It was May 30, 1976, at Tiger Stadium, and Thurmans deep fly to the venerable ballparks empty left-field upper deck capped the New York Yankees 40 victory over my beloved Detroit Tigers.

I was 10 years old at the time, and the baseball bug had only bitten me about a month earlier, but I already knew who Thurman Munson was, well before my dad and I headed to The Corner together. Thanks to his 1976 Topps card (which pictured him wearing a thick beard, rumpled pinstripes, and a more-than-slightly irritated expression), Id learned that this euphoniously-named dude was an All-Star catcher, and Id read enough Detroit Free Press sports pages that spring to understand that he was one of the big reasons that the Yankees were off to such a hot start in 1976.

So while I should have been annoyed that Thurman had helped beat my team that warm Sunday afternoon, I was, in actuality, really thrilled to have seen him in action. My dad had scored us some sweet field-level seats behind home plate, which gave us an outstanding view of Thurman as he called the game, kibbitzed with Tigers hitters, occasionally went to the mound for a quick conference with Yankees hurler Rudy May, and generally took control of the diamond like he owned it. I knew I was watching one of the greats, and immediately decidedeven though I wasnt a Yankees fanto anoint Thurman as my favorite catcher.

I clearly wasnt alone in that regard. While Yankees fans understandably worship him to this day, Ive met so many baseball aficionados over the years who loved Thurman Munson despite his association with the Yankeespeople who deeply admired his abilities, his toughness, his dedication, his leadership, his salty sense of humor, his down-to-earth attitude, and his tendency to come through in the clutch, even though he often employed those very same qualities and characteristics in beating their favorite teams. We all still vividly remember where we were when we heard the news about his fatal plane crash in August 1979, of course: Me, I was staying at my grandparents house in Freeport, Long Island, and I locked myself in their bathroom so that they couldnt see me crying. The murder of Angels outfielder Lyman Bostock the previous fall had been tragic and senseless and disturbing, but this one really felt like the loss of a family member.