Stadium in New York.

Tonight, the New York Yankees begin a four-game series with the Baltimore Orioles.

The players are here, so are the fans, although everyone is subdued in the light of the tragic news received yesterday.

At approximately 4 o'clock, Yankee catcher and captain, Thurman Munson, was killed in a private airplane accident near his home in Caton, Ohio.

The report shocked

the city of New York, the world of baseball, even the nation. Perhaps some of us have not yet felt

the full impact of the loss of a close friend. One man who has felt the loss is the owner

of the New York Yankees, Mr. George Steinbrenner. Well, Frank, ladies and gentlemen, you can't put into words the loss that we've suffered

in the loss of Thurman Munson, our team captain, our catcher, the very body and spirit of the

Yankees.

And he was very close to me personally.

We were in close pals.

We talked often about baseball,

about business, and about families, and he's left us all too soon. And you can't, if you try

to sit down, Frank, and try to feel why, why it had to happen. There's no answer. And you just

have to accept these things

as the Lord's will. And that's the only way that gives you the strength to continue after losing

a fellow like Thurman. When you lose a Thurman-Munson, baseball, business, everything in the world,

all the gripes and all the major conflicts in the world seem totally insignificant when you're compared to

the loss of the life of a man like Thurman. If I could put it in one way, I'd really say this,

that Hugh, the team, everybody connected with the Yankees is just so much better because he touched

every one of our lives, that's all.

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