July 13, 2008
Bobby Murcer: 1946-2008
A sad tip of the Yankees cap today to Bobby Murcer, who passed away Saturday at age 62, after suffering since late 2006 from a brain tumor.
Murcer, the only man to have played with both Mickey Mantle and Don Mattingly, spent the last 25 years of his baseball career in the broadcast booth, proving that an Oklahoma drawl can succeed on New York airwaves if mixed with the right amount of charm, wit and genuine love for the Yankees.
Center field for the New York Yankees is perhaps the most revered position in all of sports. And unlike other high-profile jobs — say, quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys or center for the Los Angeles Lakers — it's the only one in which you could do it at 5-11, 180 lbs.
As a player and broadcaster, you could relate to Bobby Murcer in ways that you can't relate to today's bulked-up gazillionaire athletes and polished talking heads who read one network promo/sponsorship after another. He carried himself as if he won some kind of Willy Wonka contest and got to be part of the Yankees for life. His appreciation was always apparent, his demeanor folksy but not clownish.
I'm glad he got to live the dream. He made being a Yankees fan that much better.
Murcer Links: Baseball-Reference.com | Wikipedia | Gallery | YES Network Reflections