The Gaylord Perry "Feud"
Murcer was fined $250 on June 30, 1973, by baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn for saying Kuhn didn't have the "guts" to stop Hall of Fame pitcher Gaylord Perry from throwing the spitball. That night he hit a two-run homer off Perry that put the Yankees ahead in a 7-2 victory over the Cleveland Indians. Murcer made his original comment about Kuhn after Perry beat New York the previous week that ended the Yanks' eight-game winning streak. Kuhn said that Murcer apologized in his meeting with Murcer but Murcer refused to tell newsmen that he did and he "didn't sound too contrite". Murcer, who flung his right hand into the air when he rounded first after hitting the 'homer, said to reporters "I hit a hanging spitter," he quipped.

For his career, Murcer hit Perry at a .232 clip with 2 home runs in 69 at bats. However, much of that low batting average was due to the 2 for 20 performance in the 1972 season which caused Murcer's ire in the first place. Aside from the abysmal 1972 summer he had against Perry, who won the AL Cy Young Award that year, Murcer hit .286 against Perry.

Murcer had some fun with Gaylord; he once caught a fly for the last out of an inning and spit on the ball before tossing it to Perry. Another time he sent Perry a gallon of lard. Perry retaliated by having a mutual acquaintance cover his hand with grease before shaking hands with Murcer and saying "Gaylord says hello."[6]


The Murcer for Bonds swap
Murcer was traded to the San Francisco Giants for Bobby Bonds in 1975 in baseball's first-ever even swap of $100,000 superstar players. In October the Yankees were looking for a quality starter and a righthanded power man. On the 22nd, in the early hours of the morning, Bobby Murcer was awakened in his Oklahoma home by the ring of his telephone. It was Gabe Paul. Murcer had been traded straight up to San Francisco for Bobby Bonds. "The trade came," he remembered sourly, "just after I had told Gabe I could finally accept right field if I knew I would be a Yankee the rest of my career, He said there was no way the Yankees could trade me. Three days later, I was gone." [7]


The Scott Crull game
On August 8, 1977 [while with the Giants -mith], Murcer promised to try and hit a home run and a double for terminally ill fan Scott Crull who he had spoken to by phone. That night, against the Pittsburgh Pirates, Murcer hit two home runs. Broadcasting the game nationally on ABC, Keith Jackson told the country how Murcer had fulfilled the dying boy’s last wish.


The Munson game
Murcer [back with the Yankees -mith] gave one of the eulogies at catcher Thurman Munson's funeral on August 6, 1979, in Canton, Ohio in which he quoted the poet and philosopher Angelo Patri: “The life of a soul on earth lasts longer than his departure. He lives on in your life and the life of all others who knew him.” Afterward, the team flew home to play the first-place Baltimore Orioles in a game which was broadcast nationally on ABC-TV. Yankee manager Billy Martin wanted to give Murcer the day off, but Murcer insisted on playing — and play he did. Murcer practically won the game single-handedly, bringing the Yankees back from a 4-0 deficit with a 3-run homer in the 7th, then hitting a walk-off 2-run single down the left-field line in the bottom of the 9th, causing Howard Cosell to exclaim what a heroic performance Murcer had put on for the deceased Yankee captain Munson, who had died in a plane crash 4 days earlier. Murcer never used the bat from the game ever again and gave it to Munson's widow, Diana.

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