Yankee For Life: My 40 Year Journey In Pinstripes by Bobby Murcer
Bobby Murcer was never my favorite Yankee player. For one, he played during all those really crappy Yankee years in the early seventies, although he did play with my favorite Yankee Thurman Munson. Murcer skipped out on the '77 and '78 championship teams, then returned to spend the next four years on some of the worst Yankee teams ever. I don't think Bobby Murcer was the Yankees bad luck charm. I just think he might have been the victim of bad luck. But, like Lou Gehrig before him, Bobby Murcer considers himself the luckiest guy in the world. He played for his favorite team, he broadcast for his favorite team for twenty plus years, and most importantly he married his high school sweetheart. I guess when one looks at the grand scheme of things (brain tumor aside), Bobby Murcer is indeed one lucky guy.
His Yankee career didn't start that way though. You may have heard of a guy named Mickey Mantle. The Mick had a ton of similarities to Bobby Murcer. Both grew up in Oklahoma. Both were drafted as shortstops. Both were moved to center field because both had hands of stone. But there was one difference other than the obvious that Mantle drank a ton more Murcer. That difference was that Mickey Mantle was a Hall of Fame baseball player. Bobby Murcer was an above average baseball player. Trying to live up to Mickey Mantle's stature would have killed most ballplayers. Bobby Murcer barely let it affect him. He just went about his business and didn't worry about whether he would perform as well as Mantle or not.
That's sort of the story behind Bobby Murcer. He never got too high. He never got too low. He sort of cruised through life with little to set him back. Sure he would have loved to win a World Series championship, but he was grounded enough to realize that despite a bare right hand ring finger, he had a pretty outstanding life. In an era where most professional athlete's whine and cry and call out their manager, coach, or teammate in the media, Bobby Murcer exemplified the word professional. A case in point is the story of how he managed to be a Yankees broadcaster for so many years. By the time the 1983 season had rolled around, Murcer was seeing very few at bats. His power had left him and at age 37 he was a very old man in a game dominated by those under 30. While in Baltimore, Murcer was preparing to head down to the stadium for the night's game when his hotel room phone rang. It was George Steinbrenner. Steinbrenner proposed an offer to Murcer that he was not expecting. The club wanted to bring up a new first baseman named Don Mattingly and there was not enough room on the roster. The choices were to put a player on the DL, send someone to the minors, or cut someone. No players fit that bill. There was a long shot fourth option though and that was to let Murcer retire and put him in the broadcast booth. Steinbrenner gave Bobby Murcer 30 minutes to make up his mind. We all know the answer he gave, and the man hoping to see his name on the lineup card that night instead kept score in the pressbox. How many players today would do that? How many clubs would make that offer to a player? My guess is none.
And then Bobby Murcer received news that he had a brain tumor. As was typical for Murcer, he dealt with it, and when they found out it was malignant he concentrated on doing as much as he could. Not once did he whine about it. Eighteen months later, on July 12, 2008 Bobby Murcer passed away at the age of 62. Just six weeks earlier this book was released, as if Murcer was just waiting for everyone to read his story before passing on.
This isn't the most well written book in the world. In fact it's kind of a boring read. That's probably because Bobby Murcer is not the biggest baseball character in the world. He's just an outstanding man who lived an outstanding life. Too often the world hears about the scum of the world guy or the guy who saves the world. There's really no one in between. The reality is that the world is filled with every day regular type joes who make the world go around. Bobby Murcer is that kind of guy. Just plain solid. There won't be many kids in the world who look to Bobby Murcer as a mentor which is a shame. He's not enough of a character. But in my mind the world would be better served if he was an example of what a role model should be. Quite simply, Bobby Murcer is the kind of person you really want your kid to be.
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