Texas Baptists Committed - A Rancher's Rumblings, July 15, 2008

My childhood finally ended on July 12, 2008, when my childhood hero, Bobby Murcer – former centerfielder for the New York Yankees – died at age 62 from brain cancer.

Now I know you must be thinking, “David, he was just 7 years older than you – what do you mean, ‘childhood hero’?”

Yes, it is true that he succeeded my first childhood hero, Mickey Mantle, in centerfield for the Yankees in 1969 when I was already 16 years old, but I loved him as my favorite ballplayer, my last really favorite baseball player, like I was still a kid. When I was 26 and working for the Southern Baptist Christian Life Commission, I wrote him a letter, like I was 12, just to tell him that, as silly as it was at my age, I just wanted him to know he was my favorite baseball player.

I once saw him hit a home run in old Arlington Stadium and stood in my chair, yelling and clapping. Somewhere, I have a bunch of pictures I took of him from that night.

I thought I was a Yankees fan until they did the unthinkable and traded Bobby to the Giants in 1974. Then I realized that I was really more of a Bobby Murcer fan than a Yankees fan, and I still remember the weekly Giants letter to which I subscribed as a youth minister in Gorman.

One of Bobby’s cousins – who was close to my age – lived in Eden, Texas. When she found out that I was a big fan of Bobby, she got me an autographed baseball from him.

But back to Bobby Murcer's days as a Yankee. I spent the summer of 1972 in Cumberland, Maryland, as a Home Mission Board summer missionary. The day before I left to come home, the Yankees were playing the Baltimore Orioles in a doubleheader. Sherrill Dillon, who is still a good friend of mine today, drove me to Baltimore a day early to catch my plane. We spent that day at old Memorial Stadium, watching the Yankees and Orioles.

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I remember it as if it were yesterday. It was July 31, 1972. The Yankees won the second game of that doubleheader, 2-1, and Murcer drove in both runs. The Orioles were up 1-0 in the 8th inning, and the Yankees had runners on 2nd and 3rd, and Murcer was due to bat. Earl Weaver, the Orioles manager, went out to talk to the pitcher, and I just knew that they were going to intentionally walk Bobby. But they weren’t as smart as I was – they decided to pitch to him, and he hit a single, driving in both runs. I can still visualize exactly where he hit the ball and what I felt at that moment.

I confirmed that memory on the Internet, and found some other information there, too. Both Mickey Mantle and Bobby Murcer were born in Oklahoma and signed by the same scout – Tom Greenwade. Bob Stephenson, who serves on our TBC Board, was also born in Oklahoma and played 1 year for the St. Louis Cardinals, playing alongside legends such as Stan Musial, Ken Boyer, and Red Schoendienst. In that 1955 season, Bob played in 67 games, hit .243, drove in 6 runs, hit 3 doubles, and stole 2 bases.

When it comes to Bobby Murcer’s value as a ballplayer, statistics tell only part of the story. Remember – he played long before steroids inflated home run totals. But his 252 home runs ranked 72nd all time when he retired.

In 1972, Murcer hit .292, with 33 home runs, 96 RBIs, 102 runs scored, 171 hits, 30 doubles, 314 total bases, and a slugging percentage of .537. How did those figures rank in the American League that year? Runs scored – 1st; total bases – 1st; home runs – 2nd; RBIs – 3rd; hits – 3rd; doubles – 3rd; slugging percentage – 3rd; triples – tied for 3rd; and batting average – 10th. You stick in the big leagues for 17 years, hit .277, with over 250 home runs and over 1,000 RBIs, and – without question – you’re one of the best players of your time. That was Bobby Murcer’s baseball career.

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But don’t forget the day he gave the eulogy for Thurman Munson, the great Yankee catcher, either. By that time, after several years with the Giants and Cubs, he was back where he belonged – in Yankee pinstripes. That day in 1979, he came home from Munson’s funeral and hit a home run and drove in 5 runs in the Yankees’ 5-4 win. I still have the newspaper story and picture of that game.

But Mike Vaccaro of the New York Post put Bobby Murcer’s life in perspective:

“He was admired for that. He became beloved later on, as an announcer, as an ambassador, as a humble messenger of all that's supposed to be right about baseball, and about human beings. We lose a terrific Yankee. But more important, we lose a tremendous person.”

I was moved as I read article after article this weekend (forwarding them to Lance and Chad) about what kind of man Bobby Murcer was and, especially, the messages posted on the Oklahoma City newspaper memory board about what a devoted Christian he was.

But my favorite quote came from Joe Girardi, the current Yankees manager, who said, “Bobby was the type of man that, I believe, got what life was about – trying to make life better for people around him.”

There’s a sermon in Bobby Murcer’s life, folks. Give it some thought.