I was recently going over my many thousands of photos that I have accumulated over the years. This one was really ironic because here you have the wives of 3 of the greatest Yankees that I have ever known.
Three guys that always went the extra yard for my well-being.
If you knew Thurman Munson, Bobby Murcer, and Jim Catfish Hunter then you would understand why they had three of the greatest wives that any man could have.
The times that we spent together were always wonderful times. Naturally, it was great because we had great teams during the mid to late seventies. Through celebrating championships, I got to spend a lot of time with the families. In those days we would all travel together to play the national league champions. We were really one family. It was as if Thurman was an uncle to the Murcer’s or Hunter’s kids and vice versa.
I always felt like the adopted little brother. All these guys on the team including Reggie Bucky and Mick The Quick Rivers were always big supporters of mine.
I’m going to tell you three quick stories about how they were always there for me.
Opening day of 1974…
Bobby Murcer at that time was our team leader. He along with Roy White played with Mickey Mantle as a rookie in 1966.
1974 was actually my first full season with the team. Bobby called me over and said… 1973 was really a test to see if you was going to make it with us. Now you are officially a part of us. He asked me where did they assign me. I told him that I was the ball boy down the right field line. Bobby said so this is what I want you to do … put your stool down the line and come back. When the organist Eddie Layton starts to play ( here come the Yankees) we will all run out on the field. You are now officially a Yankee so I want you to run out with us. When the organist started to play the song Bobby screamed out, let’s go… he patted me on the back and I ran out with my heroes with incredible pride. When I got to to my position down the right field line I looked at Bobby in Center Field and he gave me a nod. It was one of my most proud moments with the Yankees.
Spring training 1977….
In those days during spring training, we only had three people manning the clubhouse. Clubhouse head Pete Sheehy who had been there since the days of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. Nick Priore was his assistant and he started with Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris in the 60s and then me.
In those days we had spring training in Fort Lauderdale. We had to take a long bus trip to St. Petersburg to play the Mets. We lost an embarrassing game to the Mets. Even though it was only Spring Training our owner George Steinbrenner didn’t want to lose to them.
On this trip, only Nick and me went to take care of the team and equipment. Billy Martin wanted to get out of town quick because he didn’t want to see the Boss and the fact that he was going to be livid. He told Nick to hurry up so that we can get out so we really had to work our asses off.
Nick rode back on the equipment truck and I rode on the team bus. When I got on the bus I laid down in the back of the bus because I was so tired. Today you have up to 12 guys working in the clubhouse so you can imagine much harder it was then.
Since I was laying down you couldn’t see me. We must of driven about 30 minutes down the highway when all of a sudden Catfish Hunter started to scream… Stop the bus, Stop the damn bus… all of a sudden the bus was burning tires to a stop. The bus driver and others screamed what’s wrong… Catfish screamed, We left Ray Negron behind. At that moment I said I’m back here Catfish. At that moment Cliff Johnson said you stopped the bus for the batboy… Everybody started to laugh. As we started the drive again I looked at Catfish and I thanked him. He gave me a smile and a wink. I put my head down on my makeshift pillow made of some dirty uniform pants and I shed tears of happiness because I couldn’t believe that a great Yankee thought that much of me that he would actually stop the team bus for me.
Spring training 1978.
After the Yankees won the World Series in 1977 the players decided to give me enough money to buy a car. World Series hero Reggie Jackson contacted his then-girlfriend Gara Morse to have her dad get the car ( Mr. Morse owned a car dealership) During the 78 spring training Reggie had his friend visit and he needed to use Reggie’s other car. It was a beautiful Porsche. Reggie didn’t trust his friend’s driving skills so he told me to let him use my Dodge and I could drive the Porsche.
Naturally, I was not going to say no to a Porsche. However, let me say that if it was a bicycle I would have said yes just because it was Reggie and he was truly a big brother then.
The license plate on the car read R. J. 44 so one day someone stole it. I continued to drive without it. One day I woke up late so I got in the car and really drove it like a Porsche is supposed to be driven because I had to get to the clubhouse before the players. All of a sudden I heard the sirens of a cop car.
I stopped and the cop said license and registration. As I started to explain that I didn’t have the registration he got really loud and said license and registration. I could see that this was a young cop and he didn’t want to hear anything except that he thought I stole the car naturally because of a missing license plate no registration and what is this young colored boy doing with a top-of-the-line Porsche. So he took me out of the car and put me in the back of his.
At this moment I realized that road A1A in Lauderdale was a single road and soon the players would be driving by. That was the last thing I needed for them to see. All of a sudden Cliff Johnson and Paul Blair saw what was happening and stopped. They tried to explain to the police officer but he wasn’t buying it. All of a sudden Thurman stopped and saw me sitting in the back of his car. I was mortified to have Thurman see me like this. He turned to the cop and said give us the kid. The officer said absolutely not so Thurman got in his car and we all thought he was leaving but he actually blocked the cop. So the cop called for backup. Two cars showed up within minutes. As they got out they started yelling at the young cop… these are the Yankees, what are you doing. They immediately apologized to Thurman and the others. Thurman asked me where is the car we got you… I told him about Reggie’s friend. He said give Reggie the car back, I will talk to Reggie. Thurman gave me a very quick civil rights lesson and why it wasn’t a good idea for me to be sporting that particular car in an area that was considered the South, especially at that time.
The incredible lessons that I got to learn from all those wonderful wonderful people in that era are just too many to tell.
One person was not better than the other. So many of them were just wonderful. I loved Graig Nettles with a passion. I could easily do a story on him. Chambliss and Gene Michael forget about it.
Naturally, George Steinbrenner was like nobody’s business. If you didn’t try to figure him out then you would always see the incredible heart and soul.
At the end of the day, it was always about the incredible wives that were always there for their men. These 3 women were always my big sisters.
I’m forever grateful. I’m especially grateful to Diana Munson because she has always given me such strength during a time when it should have been the other way around. During these times they taught me what Love really meant!
