Thurman Munson recalled in book and television segment

Marty Appel's new biography of Thurman Munson, "Munson: The Life and Death of a Yankee Captain," does a good job balancing the insights of an insider -- Appel is a former Yankees public relations man and worked with Munson on his autobiography -- with a no-frills journalistic approach.
If there is a flaw in the book, it is that Appel at times does too thorough a job as a journalist in its 355 pages, using long quotes from interviews when a more selective approach would have sufficed.
On the whole, though, it is well worth the time and money for those with an interest in the man and the Yankees of that era.
Appel was bothered by the superficial nature of that late '70s autobiography, but here he offers the dark and light of Munson's life, including a troubled childhood.
Perhaps because of those memories, Munson sought to be a dedicated family man himself, evidence of which comes through during a six-minute segment recalling the catcher that the YES Network will present during its pregame show on Sunday.
It includes interviews with his widow, Diana, and all three of their children -- Tracy, Kelly and Mike -- at "Munson's Home Plate," one of two restaurants the family owns in Canton, Ohio.
His daughters appreciate the way their father is spoken of and remembered in New York even more so than in his hometown.
Mike talks about the difficulty of growing up in the shadow of his father's legacy in Canton. He remembers an emotional visit to Thurman's retired locker "to have a moment with my father that I needed to have" on the day of the final game at old Yankee Stadium last September.