Forty years later, the death of Yankees captain still shocking
Newsday (TNS)
NEW YORK — Forty years ago, on Aug. 2, 1979, an aircraft bearing the numbers NY15 crashed short of the runway at Akron-Canton Airport, about 50 miles south of Cleveland.
The pilot, Yankees captain Thurman Munson, could not be freed before the Cessna twin-engine turbojet burst into flames.
The news of the 32-year-old All-Star catcher’s death stunned the baseball world and shattered his teammates.
“When Thurman got killed, you know, we just lost all — the whole season was just kind of lost,” third baseman Graig Nettles said in a 1981 deposition related to the wrongful death suit filed by Munson’s widow, Diana.
“I knew that those men would never be the same,” Diana Munson said last week from the Canton, Ohio, home that she and Thurman shared, not far from the site of the fiery crash.
Every Yankees fan can recall where they were when the news of Munson’s death broke on that early summer evening.
But imagine being a teammate.
“I was in the backyard with my kids and my wife,” Lou Piniella, 75, said from Tampa. “We got a call from Mr. (George) Steinbrenner. He was almost hysterical. I don’t know what he was talking about initially. Finally, he told me that Thurman had had an accident and died in his airplane.”
The Yankees had an off day after a series in Chicago and Munson was practicing landings and takeoffs in the $1.25 million Cessna Citation he purchased three weeks earlier. At 4:02 p.m., the plane sunk too low, clipped a tree and fell short of the runway, hit a tree stump and burst into flames, according to reports.
The National Transportation and Safety Board determined that pilot error was responsible for the crash, citing lack of airspeed in the attempted landing and Munson’s failure to fasten his seat belt.
“It was the most horrific news I’ve ever received,” Hall of Fame pitcher Rich “Goose” Gossage, 68, said last week from Colorado Springs. “We had just gotten back from a weekend with Thurman busting my chops for not going flying with him because he had his plane out in Seattle when we were playing the Mariners.”
Shortstop Bucky Dent had just finished dining at a restaurant in the Twin Towers. “I came down and a parking attendant recognized me,” said Dent, 67, who lives in Lake Worth, Florida. “He said it’s a shame what happened to Thurman Munson. I said, ‘What are you talking about?’ He said he got killed in a plane crash. It buckled my knees. I just sat down on the hood of my car and I just started crying.”
Gossage said he received a call from Steinbrenner. “I shrieked,” he said. “It didn’t hit me until I walked back into the clubhouse. At Yankee Stadium, the first place I looked was Thurman’s locker. It was cleaned out. His catching gear was hanging up. There was a big spread of flowers in the front of it. His shin guards, his chest protector, his mask, his catcher’s glove. That’s when it hit me. There isn’t a day goes by that I don’t think of him.”