How Murcer became Mr. Yankee after all

By Berry Tramel

Published: July 13, 2008

On April 2, Opening Day at Yankee Stadium, a familiar face, sans hair, appeared on the scoreboard screen. And the cynical, crude New York fans crumbled in emotion.

The screen displayed Bobby Murcer, calling an inning or two for the Yankee network, and the crowd thundered its affection. Players and coaches emerged from the dugout to join the ovation.

Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News called it "an inspiring moment, something transcending the game ... a true heartbeat coming from the truest of Yankees.”

Murcer, battling a brain tumor since December, returns to the Yankee broadcast booth tonight in Arlington, Texas, and Murcer has landed the status expected of him since signing with the Yanks in 1964.

Mister Yankee.

"He warmed the heart of all Yankee fans,” said Thomas Colaprico, a Yankee loyalist from Rockland County, N.Y. "That standing ovation symbolized how the Yankees feel about him.”

Internet blogs from well-wishers hail the man who didn't quite scale the mountain of superstardom as a player but still has become one of the most-loved men in a franchise that for almost a century has been producing epic heroes.

"You're the face of the Yankees,” said one.

"One of the saddest days as a Yankee fan was when you were traded,” said another.

"Like Gehrig, DiMaggio and Mantle, there was no doubt he was a YANKEE when he took the field,” said the most poignant of tributes. "He belongs in Monument Park. We the fans who grew up in the '60s and early '70s did not have spectacular players. We had one hero, and his name was Bobby Murcer.”

Murcer was honored Monday night with Oklahoma City University's Abe Lemons/Paul Hansen Award for Sports Excellence at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. The award recognizes an individual who significantly contributes to the growth of sports in the state.

Past winners include Mick Cornett, Ron Norick, Clay Bennett, Lee Allan Smith, Dr. William Grana, Stanley Draper Jr., Bob Funk and Barry Switzer.

Murcer always figured to be an Oklahoma hero. A New York hero was a tougher assignment. Murcer always drew comparisons to Mickey Mantle.

Both Oklahomans. Both great talents. Both shortstop-turned-center fielders. Both Yankees.

But only Mantle was majestic. There never was another Mick and never will be. Murcer replaced Mantle in center field for the Yanks, hit 252 major league home runs, drove in 1,043 runs and made five all-star teams. Yet for a good part of his career, Murcer was the guy who didn't become the next Mantle.

"I certainly don't think it was a curse,” Murcer said. "I never put myself up there on a pedestal. (Comparisons) never really bothered me. I was always worried what Mickey thought about it.”

Mantle, who died in 1995, would be proud.

Murcer did not have a Hall of Fame career, but he worked himself into Yankee hearts with solid performance, a class personality and going on 25 years of calling Yankee games with humor, humility, insight and a strong Oklahoma twang.

How did it all happen, this Murcer-Yankee love affair?

"That's a good question,” said Murcer, a 1964 graduate of Southeast High School. "I really don't know, other than we've all grown up together.”

Murcer was a bright in the Yankees' dark ages. The franchise that since 1921 has won 39 pennants and 26 World Series, a franchise that from 1921 through Murcer's 1964 arrival had not gone longer than three seasons without an American League flag, struggled to reclaim past glory.

The Yanks went 11 straight years without making the playoffs, returning only after trading Murcer to San Francisco for Bobby Bonds after the 1974 season.

Those Yanks of Joe Pepitone and Horace Clarke, Roy White and Jake Gibbs, had only one true star. The Oklahoma kid.

"He was there when the Yankees weren't so good,” said Colaprico, the Yankee fan. "He was a shining light on Yankee teams that weren't that good.”

Said Murcer: "The fans and myself have gotten along really well since I was 19 years old. I don't remember ever being booed at Yankee Stadium.”

The trade stunned Murcer. Baseball had suspended Yankee owner George Steinbrenner from team operations for illegal campaign contributions to Richard Nixon, and general manager Gabe Paul ran the club.

"Paul and I, we didn't get along that well,” Murcer said. "I think he thought it was an opportunity to move me and not be a big deal.”

Murcer never thought he'd be traded. He also never thought he'd be back. But in June 1979, the Cubs shipped Murcer back to the Yankees, and he played four more seasons with his beloved team.

Murcer's Yankee legend was sealed in August 1979, when one of his best friends, star catcher Thurman Munson, was killed in a plane crash. Murcer delivered not only one of the eulogies at the funeral but the game-winning hit that night at Yankee Stadium.

"That's when he took over the hearts of Yankee fans,” Colaprico said.

In June 1983, with the Yankees wanting to call up hot prospect Don Mattingly, Murcer retired and, at the invitation of Steinbrenner, moved to the broadcast booth, where he's become a Yankee icon to a new generation of fan.

Tonight, that icon returns on the Yankee network. Murcer will work his schedule around trips to Houston's M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, where he will continue treatments.

"I missed being with my colleagues, miss being around the game,” Murcer said of the month he took over to fight his tumor. "Miss being around the players. I made a lot of friends over the last 40-something years.”

Murcer made more than that. He made Mister Yankee, after all.