Questions & answers with former Yankee Bobby Murcer: All-Star outfielder revives his memories of Mickey Mantle and Thurman Munson, and names Mickey Lolich his toughest pitching opponent

Baseball Digest, July, 2008 by Steve Serby

BOBBY MURCER PLAYED 17 YEARS in the majors including 13 seasons with the Yankees, batting .277 with 252 home runs, 1,043 RBI and one Gold Glove while being named to five All-Star squads.

After he retired as a player in 1983, he became a member of the Yankees broadcast team and also served one year as the club's assistant general manager. Celebrating his 24th year as a color analyst in 2008, Murcer recently sat down for a question and answer chat discussing his baseball career.

Q: You like this Yankees team?

A: I think it's very interesting, especially with the young pitchers. I'm very excited about that. It can be a great year for the Yankees if those kids are ready to go, which I think they are.

Q: First time you met your boyhood idol Mickey Mantle?

A: They were playing Kansas City, (in 1964) and I went up there for a tryout.

Q: Did you introduce yourself?.

A: (Yankees scout) Tom Greenwade introduced me.

Q: What do you remember about meeting The Mick?

A: I remember how muscular he was, how stout.

Q: How'd the tryout go?

A: I never got a ball out of the cage. (Manager) Yogi (Berra) said, "Hey kid, get out of there, you're taking all the BP from my regulars. They gotta get ready to play!"

Q: First time you saw Yankee Stadium?

A: I just was mind-boggled by how big it was when I walked out on the field. I thought to myself, "Oh my goodness, how am I ever gonna catch a fly ball in this place?"

Q: Your first Opening Day (as a shortstop)?

A: I remember (manager) Johnny Keane had told me, "You're gonna play against right-handers and Ruben Amaro's gonna play against left-handers." The Tigers had three right-handed pitchers and I didn't play. But it was a dream come true, obviously, in 1966.

Q: The young Thurman Munson?

A: I thought he was a real cocky kid. He started ruling the roost then. He wasn't sticking his head between his tail.

Q: Any anecdotes?

A: I think he played his gruffness card to the hilt, where everybody thought he was mean and nasty and all that. I think he just wanted to keep people at their distance, and that was the only way he could do that. He was very generous, a teddy-bear-type guy. One of the (greatest) clutch hitters of all time.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Q: One of the great competitors?

A: Very smart, calculated guy. Very sure of himself. When you're sure of yourself, you don't tense up, you don't get nervous. Every" pitcher who pitched to Thurman had total 100 percent confidence in what he called. They didn't have to worry about one thing. If they weren't on the same page, he was out there getting them on the same page. He took a lot of pressure off them.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Q: Delivering the eulogy at his funeral?

A: It was very emotional for me. I wanted to do it. I had to do it. He would have said, "What in the world are you doing, Murce? My goodness, don't make such a big deal out of it."

Q: Billy Martin?

A: Billy tried to win the game from the first pitch to the last pitch--sometimes conventional, sometimes unorthodox. He was a guy who always said, "If I got one run, you gotta get two to beat me." Billy would squeeze in the third inning or the fourth inning because one run put him ahead.

Q: Why did you and Lou Piniella click?

A: We were opposites. Lou's kinda haphazard. I'm one of those guys who likes everything neat and clean, put in place, want to know where I'm going, where to pick 'em up. Lou kinda goes with the flow. We talked about hitting all the time. Lou was my hitting instructor, and I was his hitting instructor.

Q: What do you recall about when the Yankees traded you to the San Francisco Giants for Bobby Bonds?

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

A: (GM) Gabe Paul called me in the offseason at eight in the morning. I thought I had a nightmare. And it was a nightmare. The lowest point in my career.

Q: The 1981 World Series?

A: We should have won it. One of my disappointments we didn't win that thing after winning the first two games at Yankee Stadium.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Q: Being in the booth with Scooter (the late Phil Rizzuto)?

A: One of the greatest times in my whole life. I became the cannoli expert of the world for Oklahoma. We had more cannolis and salamis and cheeses. I never gained so much weight in my life. I learned a lot from Scooter. You had to be on your toes because he was liable to throw you a curveball or a spitter at any time.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Q: You were in the booth for the George Brett pine-tar game.

A: I've never seen such a crazed man in my life. It's a good thing somebody intercepted him. He was ready to choke somebody, wasn't he? Good thing he was in shape, otherwise he might have had a stroke! I was doing the color with Frank Messer. I actually got it right, what they were doing when they were measuring with the pine tar being too far up the label.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Q: You didn't appreciate Gaylord Perry's spitball, so you sent him a gallon of lard.

A: I think I got the clubhouse kid to get it. I just asked him to get me some pure, old grease.