August 8 – Shavegate: Munson cleans it up
- Sal Maiorana
- Aug 8, 2017
- 3 min read
SYRACUSE – The writers had taken to calling it the Beard of Defiance, the nearly two-week-old growth on the pudgy face of catcher Thurman Munson.
So, when Munson walked into the tiny, minor-league visiting clubhouse at MacArthur Stadium in Syracuse before some of the Yankees - but mostly a bunch of kids called up from double-A - were to play the Triple-A Chiefs in an exhibition game, it was news to see that Munson was clean shaven.
Unfortunately, Munson took his grumpiness to the next level and refused to discuss the matter, or any other matter, as he informed the Yankees PR department that he would not be speaking to the media for the rest of the season.
When one of the writers came over to ask about it, Munson replied, “I’m not talking anymore, I told you.” Another tried, and the response was, “Didn’t you hear what I just said? Don’t even bother to come up to my locker anymore this year.” Finally, after one more tried, an exasperated Munson asked Billy Martin who was standing nearby, “Billy, would you tell these guys to get away from me?” Martin turned and said, “Would you gentlemen leave Thurman alone, please?”
The beard had become somewhat of a distraction on a team that certainly didn’t need any more of those. Martin had been asked a few days earlier if he had been told my management to tell Munson to shave, and he said, “I don’t have the right to ask him to shave it. No manager does.”
However, in the next couple days, with the Yankees due back in New York after their West Coast trip, Martin knew a confrontation with George Steinbrenner was coming, though Steinbrenner had no idea Munson had grown a beard. “Beard? What beard?” he said when informed by a writer via phone. “I didn’t even know about it.”
“We have a code,” Martin said. “I hope he follows it. I’d like to see him cut it off. I’m going to ask him as a friend. I can’t force him; he’s too hard of a player and too good of a player for me to try and force him. If that’s a reflection on me, that’s a reflection on me.”
Out of respect for Martin, Munson complied, though one player – and it sure sounded like it would have been Reggie Jackson – said, “When he started to grow a beard, we all should have grown beards. I’m not saying this against the owner, but it would have been good for team unity, it might have helped to bring the guys closer. That’s what they did in Oakland.”
Before the game, which the Yankees lost 14-5, Martin seemed relieved it was over. “He shaved, that’s enough. Now the beard issue is dead. Tune in tomorrow for Chapter 13 of As the World Turns.”
Gabe Paul, the Yankees general manager, was also glad the beard was gone, though he never expected Munson to show up at Yankee Stadium looking like a caveman. “I never anticipated any problem with Thurman. We’ve never had one. One thing I know about Thurman, no matter what, he gives it everything he’s got when he’s out there playing. He always has all his life and he always will.”
In the game, the Chiefs scored 10 runs in the first two innings off a pitcher named Roger Slagle who had been called up from Double-A West Haven to pitch for the Yankees. Slagle’s major-league career would ultimately consist of one two-inning appearance for the Yankees on Sept. 7 1979, in Detroit. Ken Holtzman threw the final two innings and gave up an unearned run, offering proof that he was still on the team.
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