Mets’ Ojeda joins Munson Award honorees  

“It’s a real tribute to Thurman Munson that these award dinners have still continued for 46 years after his death,” said former Mets pitcher Bobby Ojeda. “That’s a long time for him to be remembered like that.” Thinking back to his playing days, the 1986 Mets World Series Champion pitcher said, “I would have loved to pitch to him.”   

This year’s annual fundraising dinner to benefit the NYC AHRC Foundation was held on March 12 at Pier 60 at Chelsea Piers. Since 1980, the year after New York Yankee captain Thurman Munson’s tragic demise in a plane crash, the annual event has raised $26 million for rehabilitative work with children and adults with developmental disabilities.

Playing for only the Yankees for eleven seasons (1969-1979), Munson was named Rookie of the Year in 1970 and went on to be a seven-time All Star. In 1976 he was named the American League’s MVP and led the Yankees to the World Series from 1976 to 1978. Before his death in August 1979, he achieved a lifetime .292 batting average to rank among MLB’s top 20 hitting catchers.

In his customary role of emcee for the evening’s press conference, John Cirillo introduced this year’s honorees, who exemplify the best in sports in their fields and for their community service.

In addition to Bobby Ojeda representing New York City baseball, two-time Paralympic gold medalist swimmer Gia Pergolini was introduced.  Joining Pergolini another gold medalist Olympian, Micah Zandee-Hart, from the 2022 Canadian hockey team, rounded out the field of three sports figure honorees.

For local community support to the foundation, Marc Deieso, a partner at Gardiner & Theobald, was also honored as the recipient of the inaugural Isaacson Family Corporate Hero Award.       

Stating that she never envisioned this event to be going on for this long, Diana Munson playfully said, “Thurm is probably looking down at us right now saying are they still really doing that same thing for me again.”

With the event’s attendance still strong, Munson pointed out that it’s a testament to how much he meant to the New York City baseball community and to the charity that he chose to represent.

Munson recalled that her husband had a hardcore baseball exterior, but off the field he was a sensitive family man who chose to work with AHRC during his playing days with the Yankees. Noting that she was glad to see funds raised each year go for real breakthrough work, Munson described her visit to an AHRC site saying, “You just had to see the staff working with a little non-verbal girl; and then when I returned months later she was speaking and even singing.”