Thurman Munson

New York Yankees Thurman Munson Jersey T-Shirt Large
$19.99
100% cotton name and number tee from Majestic's Cooperstown Collection.

Thurman Munson: A Baseball Biography
$29.95
I need to first state that I am a HUGE Thurman Munson fan. I have almost every book written about him. I couldn't wait to read this book but after I finished I was pretty disappointed. There really is nothing new in this book. We know that Munson was a great player, that he loved his family, that he had a difficult relationship with his dad, etc. Devine seems to have taken the easy route in writing this book which is to say that he got most of his information from already printed sources. He doesn't seem to have spent a lot of time doing original research. For example: there are NO interviews of his own. He didn't speak to any teammates, players from other teams, much less any of his family. If you have the books written about Munson or the articles from newspapers or magazines then there is really no need for this book. On the other hand, if you want a one stop synopsis of all of these media, then this is a good book for you. Just don't expect to learn anything new.

The Greatest Comeback Ever: A fan's daily diary of the 1978 New York Yankees championship season
$13.99
When no one expects you to win, you can do nothing but impress. "The Greatest Comeback Ever: A Fan's Daily Diary of the 1978 New York Yankees Championship Season" tells the story of the Yankee's historic 1978 season through the eyes of a fan. Raw emotions and patriotism for his team is shown presenting history that is usually devoid of either. For Yankee fans who want to look back and be nostalgic, "The Greatest Comeback Ever" serves its purpose well.

Munson: The Life and Death of a Yankee Captain
$26.00
Before Jeter there was Mattingly and before Mattingly there was Munson. This is a simple but universal truth for any Yankee fan (my age) but I have to say up until now I knew from very little to none about Thurman, a far, far, far from perfect figure. Perhaps this was owed to how recent the information age is. Tbirty years ago all you had were the newspaper stories of which you only got to read a few.
Does one end up dissappointed after learning more from him ? Actually no, he obviously came from an extremely difficult family (to say the least), was rather envious of others and had an extreme love for the material and showy things. That said, the family he did create, the one he had any control about owning, that one spoke volumes about him and I guess they still do until this day.
Is this an enjoyable book ? Sort of, as much as any book that goes into this much detail about somebody's death and funeral (like the title says). But hey, these are things I've been wondering about for decades and I appreciate now having a clear idea of what happened on that faithful day more than 30 years ago which I only learned the following morning while opening the sports section of my local paper and which remains one of the very few "this can't possibly be true" stories I've ever read.
Hard to believe that after reading a book about somebody so flawed, he's probably still my one favorite player of all time.