Thurman Munson

Thurman Munson is one of those players who makes you genuinely sad that baseball history cut him so short. He was the heart and soul of those late-70s Yankees dynasty teams — a gritty, blue-collar catcher from Akron who earned every bit of his 1976 AL MVP and those Gold Gloves through sheer competitive fire. His .292 career average, 701 RBIs, and seven All-Star selections in just eleven seasons tell only part of the story; the man was the kind of leader teammates followed without question. He was named the Yankees' first captain since Lou Gehrig, and that says everything. When he died in a plane crash on August 2, 1979, at just 32 years old, baseball lost one of its most compelling figures mid-prime. What he might have become is the real tragedy.

Name (English)

Thurman Munson

Name (Japanese)

サーマン・マンソン

Reading

さーまん・まんそん

Born

June 7, 1947 – August 2, 1979

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Gemini / Boar

Origin

Akron, Ohio, United States

Occupation

baseball player

University

Kent State University

Awards & achievements

• Rawlings Gold Glove Award
• 1976 Major League Baseball Most Valuable Player Award

Motto

Private

• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%B5%E3%83%BC%E3%83%9E%E3%83%B3%E3%83%BB%E3%83%9E%E3%83%B3%E3%82%BD%E3%83%B3

Tags

• Ohio
• baseball player

Last updated

2026-06-02

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.