How to get tickets for Thurman Munson dinner where Yankees World Series hero will speak

• World Series hero Mike Torrez will speak at annual Thurman Munson dinner in Canton
• Tickets available to public.
• Event promotes Munson's Hall of Fame candidacy.

New York Yankees World Series hero Mike Torrez will be the guest speaker at an annual dinner honoring Thurman Munson in Canton.

The Thurman Munson Catchers Scholarship Dinner is set for Thusday, Aug. 15, at the DoubleTree Hotel in downtown Canton.

Torrez will be joined by special guests Tommy John, a 288-game winner whose teams included the Yankees, Dodgers and Cleveland, and author/historian Ray Negron, a former Yankees batboy.

Munson arguably is the most important baseball figure in Stark County history. He made a name at Canton Lehman High School in the 1960s and a decade later was appointed the first captain of the Yankees since Lou Gehrig. His position was catcher.

Munson helped lead the Yankees to World Series appearances in 1976, 1977 and 1978 before perishing in a jet plane crash near Akron-Canton Airport in 1979.

The dinner, which drew a large crowd last year when it featured Hall of Fame pitcher Goose Gossage, is intended to keep Munson's name alive in in the campaign to get him elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

It is open to the public. Tickets, $60, are available at Davies Pharmacy, 2915 Tuscarawas Street, and the Babe Stearn Center, 2628 13th St, SW.

Torrez won 185 games in an 18-year Major League Baseball career.

Only one of Torrez's seasons, 1977, was with the Yankees as Munson's teammate, but his appreciation for Munson is easily understandable.

That year was Torrez's only one in a postseason, and it was a postseason that ended with a win over the Dodgers in the 1977 World Series.

With Munson catching, Torrez pitched complete games and earned wins in Game 3 and Game 6, the latter having been the final game of the Series.

Munson hit .320 in the series, driving in the first run in Torrez's Game 3 win and scoring the first run in the Game 6 victory. Tommy John was the the Dodgers' starting pitcher in Game 3. John would have started Game 7, had there been one.

Munson's career as a catcher is the inspiration for $2,000 scholarships that will be presented to an area boy and an area girl who play the position in high school.

The dinner also will recognize the 2024 enshrinees in the Babe Center Hall of Fame, Steve Norch and Doug Miller.