The day before, the Yankees had wrapped up a series in Chicago against the White Sox. This was an off-day, so Thurman decided to spend it at home with his family. But he had also discovered a love of flying, and felt that being able to fly from New York to Canton would enable him to spend more time with his family.
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Having been properly trained on a propeller-driven aircraft, he had just bought his first jet plane, a Cessna Citation I/SP, and decided to spend Thursday, August 2 practicing takeoffs and landings at Akron-Canton airport in Green, Ohio. Also aboard were his flight instructor, Dave Hall, and a friend and business partner, Jerry Anderson.
A Cessna Citation I/SP
Thurman made three takeoffs and landings, with no issues. He made a fourth takeoff, but one his approach to the Ianding, he forgot to lower the flaps, and came in too fast. He overshot the runway and crashed into a tree stump.
Hall and Anderson were injured, but were able to escape. Thurman was trapped in the wreckage. He was asphyxiated. His injuries were such that, had they been able to get him out, he would have ended up paralyzed like another legendary New York catcher, the Brooklyn Dodgers' Roy Campanella.
The crash happened at 4:02 PM. At 6:28, I was watching WOR-Channel 9 from my house in East Brunswick, New Jersey. That was the time that Sara Lee Kessler gave a daily newsbreak. (The station now known as WWOR didn't have an early evening local news broadcast, only a late-night one at 10:00.)
I heard the announcer introduce Sara Lee, and she looked very grim, and even at age 9, I could tell that something bad had happened. She said, "Good evening. Yankee catcher Thurman Munson was killed today... " I don't remember the rest of what she said. I do remember, literally, falling out of my seat. And I remember that they already had film footage of the smoking wreck.
Thurman was a 7-time All-Star, and a 3-time Gold Glove. He was named the American League's Rookie of the Year in 1970, and its Most Valuable Player in 1976. Through the 2020 season, he remains the only player to win both awards as a Yankee.
He helped the Yankees win the AL Pennant in 1976, and go further to win the World Series in 1977 and 1978. By that point, he was battling injuries that might have made a lesser man quit. In 1979, he was playing games at 1st base and as the designated hitter. He might not have played much longer, anyway.
He left behind a wife, Diana; two daughters, Tracy and Kelly; and a son, Michael, who played for a time in the farm systems of the Yankees and the San Francisco Giants, and wore his father's Number 15 uniform as part of the closing ceremony at the original Yankee Stadium in 2008.
Yankee owner George Steinbrenner immediately retired Thurman's number. Before the team's August 3 game, a message that George wrote was put on the scoreboard, and would later be inscribed on Thurman's plaque in Yankee Stadium's Monument Park:
Our Captain and leader has not left us
Today, tomorrow, this year, next
Our endeavors will reflect our love and admiration for him.
On August 6, the Yankees flew -- which may not have been the best of ideas -- to Thurman's funeral in Canton. They flew back, to face the Baltimore Orioles, a game broadcast nationally on ABC Monday Night Baseball. They fell behind 4-0, but Bobby murcer, perhaps Thurman's best friend on the team, hit a home run in the 7th inning to make it 4-3, and then hit a double in the bottom of the 9th to win it, 5-4. Someone called it the only time fans ever left Yankee Stadium in tears after a Yankee win.
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As I said, August 2, 1979 was a Thursday, usually a travel day in baseball. The whole point of Thurman being able to take the day off was that the Yankees were not scheduled to play that day. Six games were played:
* The New York Mets split a doubleheader with the Philadelphia Phillies at Shea Stadium. The Phils won the opener 7-4, and the Mets won the nightcap 2-1.
Shea Stadium scoreboard making the announcement
* The Montreal Expos beat the Chicago Cubs, 6-4 at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal.
* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 5-4 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. In spite of this loss, the Pirates went on to win that season's World Series.
* The Atlanta Braves beat the San Diego Padres, 7-4 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.
* And the Boston Red Sox beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 10-1 at Milwaukee County Stadium.