Thurm: Memoirs of a Forever Yankee

by Thurman Munson, Marty Appel (With)

Overview

Thurman Munson's memoir, written just the year before his death, returns with a new introduction about his lasting legacy and a new foreword by his wife Diana who reveals the man dedicated to family and fans above himself.

Over forty years since Thurman Munson’s death, Thurm: Memoirs of a Forever Yankee revives the life of the famous New York Yankees catcher. In collaboration with longtime Yankee historian Marty Appel, Munson chronicles in his own words his path to the majors, his career success, his approach to being the first team captain in nearly forty years since Lou Gehrig, the Yankees return to glory when they won the 1977 and 1978 World Series, the breakdown of his body as he gave his all to the sport, and his absolute dedication to his wife and children above all else. 

Munson, the Ohio native who quickly rose to Yankee stardom, played in an age of Hall of Famers, including a competitive relationship with teammate Reggie Jackson, a fierce rivalry with Boston Red Sox catcher Carlton Fisk, and clashes with new owner George Steinbrenner on their way to championships. Munson shares further stories such as catching for pitchers Ron Guidry, Catfish Hunter, and Goose Gossage, who all later attributed their success to Munson behind the plate. 

Appel’s conclusion gracefully recounts Munson’s tragic death at age thirty-two in the plane he was piloting and with Diana Munson writing the Foreword, they reflect on the impact Munson left in baseball and in life and celebrate his timeless legacy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781635769715
Publisher:	Diversion Books
Publication date:	03/07/2023
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	619,593
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Thurman Munson was a New York Yankees catcher for eleven seasons and the first team captain (1976-1979) since Lou Gehrig over thirty-five years before. Munson was a 2x World Series Champion, 7x All-Star, AL Rookie of the Year, AL MVP, and a 3x Gold Glove winner. Upon his untimely death in 1979, the New York Yankees immediately retired his #15 and honored him with a plaque in their legendary Monument Park. He is survived by his wife Diana and his three children, Tracy, Kelly, and Michael.

Marty Appel is generally considered the leading historian of New York Yankees lore. He is the former Public Relations Director for the New York Yankees, a sports broadcaster, Baseball Hall of Fame magazine historian, and is the award-winning author of over twenty-five books including Pinstripe Empire, Casey Stengel, and Now Pitching for the Yankees. He resides in New York, New York.  

For more author updates, visit appelpr.com 

Editorial Reviews

For Thurm

“More than four decades after Munson’s untimely passing, the legacy of this fallen Yankees captain remains active in the public consciousness. Munson’s connection to the fans who fell in love with his hard-nosed style will never diminish. For those born too late to see Munson in action, this book highlights the legend and introduces you to the man.”  

—Bryan Hoch, Yankees reporter for MLB.com, author of The Baby Bombers and The Bronx Zoom, co-author of Mission 27 

"It was an honor to be Thurman's teammate. Reading Thurm: Memoirs of a Forever Yankee all these years later makes me appreciate his leadership even more."   

—Bucky Dent, New York Yankees shortstop and two-time World Series champion 

"This IS Thurman. What a great time we had as teammates. I still miss our conversations on the mound all these years later."   

—Sparky Lyle, New York Yankees Cy Young-winning relief pitcher, two-time World Series champion, and author of The Bronx Zoo 

"Thurm was a great teammate especially to young players arriving on the Yankees as I did in 1976. I'll never forget his leadership." 

—Willie Randolph, New York Yankees second baseman and co-captain and six-time World Series champion 

"When I got to the Yankees, Thurman was clearly the leader and making him captain was a formality. In Thurm, he tells his story the way only he can." 

—Chris Chambliss, New York Yankees first baseman and six-time World Series champion 

"Thurman was a great teammate, and I was honored to call him a friend. This is him in his own words and I can hear him speaking them now."   

—Ron Blomberg, New York Yankees designated hitter and author of The Captain & Me 

"We knew we had something special when Thurman came to the Yankees; I knew it from day one. His leadership potential was already there. Good to hear his voice again."   

—Roy White, New York Yankees outfielder and two-time World Series champion

For Munson: The Life and Death of a Yankee Captain 

“Seldom does a biographer get a do-over. Appel, who collaborated with legendary New York Yankees captain Thurman Munson on a standard “then-we-played” sports bio in 1977, decided to revisit the subject nearly 30 years after Munson’s death in a plane crash in 1979. It was worth the effort. Appel, the Yanks public-relations director and Munson’s friend during the catcher’s years with the team, digs a lot deeper this time. The product of a harsh blue-collar upbringing in Ohio, Munson was not a simple man. He was capable of great loyalty, perpetual enmity, profound kindness, and arrogant egotism toward the press and sometimes–not always–the fans. His father resented his son’s success, and the two were estranged most of Thurman’s adult life. This time around Appel researches the life of a man, not a sports hero, and emerges with a textured portrait of a flawed but likable individual, often angry and bitter, occasionally an ass, but ultimately worthy of our respect, on and off the field. The best biographies recount the public life, reveal the private life, and give readers a sense of the critical intersection between the two. Appel manages all three and deserves high praise for keeping one of baseball’s most intriguing players in the forefront.”  

—Booklist (starred review) 

 

“If the measure of a great biography is the amount of new, previously un-mined material on the subject, then Marty Appel has hit a grand slam home run with this definitive portrait of Thurman Munson. Thirty years after Thurman's tragic death, we finally get the whole story of a very complex and private man. You don't even have to be a Yankee fan to find this a compelling read.” 

—Bill Madden, New York Daily News 

 

“Appel, former Yankee PR director and coauthor of Thurman Munson’s 1978 autobiography, offers a comprehensive study of the enigmatic Yankee catcher. Appel details Munson’s rough relationship with his father, his tumultuous years with the Yankees, the fatal crash, and the ensuing funeral….Highly recommended for Yankees and Munson fans.” 

—Library Journal 

 

“Marty Appel’s examination of Thurman Munson’s traumatic life and controversial death is fascinating. The detail is amazing, and there’s an anthology’s worth of illuminating quotes. The glimpses of George Steinbrenner behind the scenes are priceless. As a longtime New York Yankee “insider,” Appel knew Munson intimately, knew his family, knew his teammates and knew–knows–almost everyone of importance in Munson’s often difficult life. An extraordinary book.” 

—Robert Creamer, bestselling author of Babe: The Legend Comes to Life 

 

"Only Marty Appel could do justice to this fallen leader; a man who, a generation after his death, continues to inspire all who learn about him. Bravo, Marty, for every page!" 

—Suzyn Waldman, NY Yankees Radio Broadcaster 

 

“Thirty years after teaming with Munson on the Yankee catcher's autobiography, Appel comes back to finish the ultimately sad tale. No one else could have written this book. No one else could have written it better. Great stuff.” 

—Leigh Montville, New York Times bestselling author of The Big Bam and Ted Williams 

 

"Told through the voice of a friend and colleague for whom the death of the Yankee captain was a personal and a professional loss, Marty Appel's incisive and insightful biography of Thurman Munson is not just another sports book. It is a gift to baseball!" 

—Jane Leavy, author of Sandy Koufax: A Lefty's Legacy 

 

For Pinstripe Empire 

“There probably was only one man who could have pulled off a readable yet encyclopedic rendering of the full scope of the Yankees' history. That man is Marty Appel. And with "Pinstripe Empire," he has delivered precisely that, a must-have for fans of the Yankees, and baseball, and splendid reading.”  

―Mike Vaccaro, New York Post 

 

“Marty Appel delivers a riveting and comprehensive history of the Yankees.”  

―Sam Roberts, New York Times 

 

“This is magnificent. Appel, a veteran writer and PR person (longtime for the Yankees), manages the near-impossible: a huge, incredibly detailed history of the New York Yankees that never bogs down or spends too long in any one place. The style is as smooth as can be…. Appel rolls right through, chronologically, with a nugget on almost every page…. Indispensable for any fan and for historians of the game of baseball.”  

―GraceAnne A. DeCandido, Booklist (starred review) 

 

“Not only is Marty Appel's book the definitive history of the Yankees — surely the most famous and, in Appel's handling, one of the most intriguing American sports franchises in history — but it is a page-turner as well. What gives the book an even greater sense of "being there" is that Appel, the one-time public relations executive for the team, was there for a good many of the team's singular events in its later "Boss" years. It's pure pleasure to take this ride through the Yankees' century-long history with Marty Appel.”  

—Ira Berkow, Author and Pulitzer Prize columnist  

 

“…when we piece together a list of today's top sports biographers, it's headlined by Howard Bryant(ESPN) Jane Leavy (The Washington Post) Leigh Montville (Sports Illustrated) Jonathan Eig (The Wall Street Journal), Mark Kriegel (Fox Sports) and Laura Hillenbrand (American Heritage)…..This oversight, however, ends now. In "Pinstripe Empire: The New York Yankees From Before the Babe to After the Boss," Appel has written an important, memorable and riveting history of the world's most dominant sports franchise. The book ...reads like a gripping, action-packed novel, one era more fascinating than the next.”  

―Jeff Pearlman, Newsday 

 

“As a player, you don't always view the things around you as history in the making. Marty Appel always did, and now, he's given us this important book.”  

―Whitey Ford 

 

“Pinstripe Empire" is the most comprehensive and entertaining book on the Yankees ever written…” 

―Allen Barra, Newark Star-Ledger 

 

“It is wonderfully readable, backed up by much original research. Even die-hard Yankees fans will discover serendipitous details.” 

―Ray Robinson, author of Iron Horse and Yankee Stadium 

 

“Pinstripe Empire" by Marty Appel is the mother of all narrative histories about the team from the Bronx. Appel's masterwork bobs and weaves its way through the history of the New York Yankees....At times serious, funny, insightful, dramatic, sad, inspiring and nostaglic, this is a book to take to the beach, to rummage through, to pick up again and again for all the grand nuggets inside of it. The sweep of Yankee legend and lore, facts and figures is here for all time in the pages of "Pinstripe Empire.” 

―Author/historian Harvey Frommer, The Epoch Times

From the Publisher