posted on Sunday, May 18, 2008 4:32 PM
by
Jim
Directives from the Commander
Above are excerpts from Carlton Fisk's appearance in Cooperstown Saturday night.
I had thought about asking him about the ill-fated and short-lived move to left field in 1986 to make room for Joel Skinner, but he may have revealed his thoughts about it in an unrelated question about his rivalry with Thurman Munson.
He spoke about a game in the '70s -- looking at the game logs, it may have been
May 21, 1976 -- when Munson made a rare start in left against the Red Sox. He lost a couple of battles with swirling winds in Yankee Stadium, and when Munson came to the plate later in the game, Fisk talked about this exchange between the catchers in his deliberate cadence:
"I said, 'Muns, I feel for you, man, that can't be any fun out there.' And he said, 'You know Fisky, I don't mind screwing up when you know what to do, because then you know how to fix it. I don't know what to do.'"
He repeated Munson's line again, and lingered on it. That may have applied to his own situation 10 years later -- especially coming off a season when he set personal bests in home runs and RBI.
Fundman got it right, by the way -- it was Wilson Alvarez.