© 2019
ISBN: 9781543980165
Cover Photo and Design by Jon Estrada
I dedicate this book to the two most important girls in my life. My wife, Collette and my daughter, Adaira. They’re the only reason I do anything in life, but trust me. They’re reason enough.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
You’re about to read many comments, quotes, stats, facts, opinions, and stories about Dale Bryan Murphy. Please note that Dale Murphy was NOT involved in this book in any way, shape, or form. That was always my intention. Dale’s not the “pat himself on the back” type. I wanted any touting to be done either by me or by those whom I interviewed. You’ll come to know for yourself the man I will refer to as Dale, Murph, Murphy, and #3 throughout this book isn’t one to write or contribute to something that argues his own legitimacy for baseball’s Hall of Fame. In fact, I was met with the question “What does Dale think of you doing this?” on more than one occasion preparing the book. As you read, you’ll soon understand the dubious nature of such a question. This book was my idea, not Dale’s. He’s not going to “set the record straight” because, with a man like him, the record was never made crooked. That’s the type of person he was out on the baseball field, and that’s the type of person he’s been over the 26 years since he left the game in 1993. I count myself blessed to have had the opportunity to get to know the man through others. Not a single negative comment was made regarding Dale Murphy and you’re all about to see why.
Kirk McKnight, July 2019
“You’re not going to meet a better person than Dale Murphy. The Hall of Fame really needs guys like him. I think he would do a lot for it. Personally, I feel he should be in the hall.”
- Bobby Cox, former manager/GM, Atlanta Braves
“I wish I could be appointed Dale Murphy’s attorney and bring the case for him to be in the Hall of Fame. I have a hard time seeing the case against him to be honest.”
- Jim Powell, lead radio play-by-play broadcaster, Atlanta Braves
“It was a privilege to call all of his games in the 80’s from ’83 to ’88. He had his two MVP years, and I would unhesitatingly recommend Dale Murphy for the Hall of Fame.”
- John Sterling, former T.V. play-by-play broadcaster, Atlanta Braves
“He was the guy. Bob Horner was also very good when he first came up, but Murphy was the guy. There’s a guy on every team who can beat you and you don’t want to face with the game on the line, and he was the guy for the Braves.”
- Bill Brown, former T.V. play-by-play broadcaster, Houston Astros
“It was like we were getting to watch the all American boy. When you were in high school, there was always the kid who was the best athlete out there and was good looking and if you mentioned him, it was like, ‘Oh wow.’ To me, that was Murph. He was this too good to be true guy. You heard stories about him that became legend.”
- Ernie Johnson, Jr., lead T.V. play-by-play broadcaster, Major League Baseball on TBS
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword
Introduction: What It’s All About
Conclusion: What It All Comes Down To
Bibliography
About The Author
FOREWORD
Before you get far enough into this book, I’d like to let you know that hoping to sway the voters on the Modern Era Committee to check the box next to Dale Murphy’s name is, to be honest, only part of the overall reason I’ve decided to write Batting Clean. Sure, if 12 or more members of that panel decide to vote the man in, I’d be more than elated. I’d be full blown ecstatic bordering on happily delirious; but, there’s more to me writing a book that focuses primarily on a former player like Dale Murphy than simply getting the man into baseball’s Hall of Fame at Cooperstown, New York. This book is meant to open the eyes of not only the voters but the fans, writers, players, managers, general managers, team presidents, team owners, and any other person out there who may feel the true definition of and requisites for a Hall of Fame inductee have lost their way.
As you read this work, please know there will be no mud slinging against potential inductees nor disparagement towards any of those already enshrined in Cooperstown. There will be no transitive property (if Dale Murphy > Player A and Player A = Hall of Fame, then Dale Murphy = Hall of Fame) arguments, nor will there be any speculation as to whether or not those already inducted were worthy of such a feat. As a result of the same process through which this book hopes to allow Dale Murphy’s induction into the Hall of Fame, players like Alan Trammell, Jack Morris, Harold Baines, and others have been enshrined, so why would I question any previous judgments? The knowledge of there being a panel such as the Modern Era Committee is what put the idea of writing this book into my head in the first place. I thought Dale Murphy’s eligibility had run out after his 15th and final year on the ballot. Thanks to a friend giving me a copy of a 2018 ESPN The Magazine that included an article titled “Where Have You Gone, Dale Murphy?” by Wright Thompson, I learned of Murphy’s inclusion on the upcoming Modern Era Committee ballot, and, 11 months later, here we are.
I’ve already mentioned there’s more to this book than simply getting Dale Murphy into the Hall of Fame. Truth be told, I’ve learned enough through my research for this book to know come voting time in December (2019), Dale Murphy isn’t going to be sitting at home, cell phone in hand, waiting for the Hall of Fame to call him and let him know he’s been inducted if such is the case. He’ll most likely be playing with one of his grandchildren or making a keynote speaking appearance. Heck, he may even be taking a nap and have put the ringer on silent. I’m not implying Murphy’s an old man. I’m saying 26 years removed from his retirement, Dale is a busy man. If, after taking away the drama of the potential “phone call moment,” you’re now wondering why I’m writing this book and for whom (if not Dale Murphy, that is), I’ll tell you. It’s for people like Chad Murphy (one of Dale’s sons), who lobbied for his dad’s consideration into Cooperstown at the “eleventh hour” of Murphy’s final year of eligibility on the ballot via an impressively comprehensive list of his father’s accomplishments both on and off the field. Many, if not all, of those accomplishments will be described in more detail as you advance deeper into this book. Along with the Chad Murphy’s of the world, this book is for any person who feels integrity rises above all when it comes to Hall of Fame worthiness. Too many players (who will not be named) who would have had Hall of Fame worthy numbers even without the assistance of PHD’s, HGH’s, and any other acronymic violations of the MLBPA’s agreement still chose to inflate those numbers even more, and, as a result have been precluded from enshrinement year after year because they were caught, named, implicated, indicted, or any other accusation-riddled verb. This book goes out to all those voters, who, staring down these ridiculous career numbers, have already and continue to vote “no” for those tainted players. Despite the onslaught of social media scrutiny and even Hall of Fame members themselves arguing the candidacy of these players, enough of a percentage of the voters who believe in the integrity of this game have taken their stand and hopefully will continue to do so in the face of so much opposition. Granted, a great number of those voters (whom I will refer to as the 1472+ throughout this book) did not vote “yes” for Murphy his 15 years on the ballot, which I do not agree with myself; but, if these same voters are upholding the fabric which is clean competition in baseball by voting “no” for these mammoth-stat-holding rule breakers, who am I to question them? They’re off the hook anyway. It’s the 16 on the Modern Era Committee panel this book is intended to convince. It is my hope this message doesn’t fall on deaf ears when it comes to where they stand on whether or not Murphy is worthy of Hall of Fame enshrinement.
Dale Murphy was my favorite player as a kid. I would have never become the lifelong fan I am of this game if it weren’t for tuning in to TBS inside my home every afternoon at 4:05 (Pacific Standard Time) from April to October and watching #3 in that Atlanta Braves uniform try to crush a baseball over the fence. So I guess you could say, in some way or another, this book is also for “TBS kids” like me, who always thought getting to see a guy like Murph play everyday was a gift in and of itself. I’m sure the parents of my generation couldn’t have asked for a better role model for their kids to aspire to become than Dale Murphy. I know he was mine. It’s not every day you get to argue your childhood hero’s case for baseball immortality. I’ll do my darnedest because my damnedest may be just a little too much for the likes of Dale Bryan Murphy.
WHAT IT’S ALL ABOUT
Sometimes, you don’t know it’s love until after you’ve had your heart broken by it. Though it’s a phrase none of us will likely be seeing on any display rack inside a Hallmark store at a local mall, there is definitely some truth to it. Let it be known I love baseball unconditionally. Truth be told, I hate that term. Unconditional love (pause for implied gag sound). An ex girlfriend used it on me once because I didn’t congratulate her on getting engaged two weeks after she dumped me. If I have to work to get to a position where that’s taken in and digested with a smile on my face, no thanks. I’d just as soon stick with being “immature” and lessening my Facebook contact list by one. Outside of “Miss Unconditional Love,” I’ve had my heart broken on several occasions, and, most often, the culprit was that dastardly lady we call America’s Pastime. Baseball.
I have to wonder if my parents knew my heart was broken when the Atlanta Braves traded my favorite player, Dale Murphy, to the Philadelphia Phillies in the summer of 1990. If they did, I guess I should also wonder if it was, to them, yet another awkward situation they would have to sidestep until a veil of forgetfulness swept over me and the proverbial “deneuralizer” from “Men In Black” - a movie that wouldn’t come out for another seven years - kicked in and plopped me onto a new life path. The truth is my parents loved watching Dale Murphy play just as much as I did; hence, they, too were saddened by the trade. My spring/summer connection to Dale Murphy - the TBS Super Station - had been severed. It was as if my favorite T.V. program were cancelled (an act TBS would eventually perform with many of its original content as well). What was I going to do? Send an angry letter to Ted Turner? I was on the edge of 12. I didn’t even know who Ted Turner was. In the late Mr. Turner’s defense, it wasn’t his decision to trade Dale Murphy. It was likely that of John Schuerholz, the team’s general manager at the time. Ted Turner, however, owned the station, and if “The Dale Murphy Show” had been a regularly scheduled program, the station owner would have certainly been entitled to a complaint or two from yours truly. Perhaps it would be more fair to say the Atlanta Braves broke my heart. Not baseball. Then it could at least be attributed to a group of people and not some faceless entity deaf and numb to an 11 year old’s vehement yet futile protests.
Okay, we’ve established I was devastated by Dale Murphy’s trade to the Phillies on August 3rd, 1990. If I were 40 and not 11, I would have probably found it insult to injury that my favorite player’s trade agreement was lousy with “players to be named later.” What is that anyway? “Hey, Dale. You’ve been an incredible asset to the Braves organization the past 15 years. You’ve won two Most Valuable Player awards, five Gold Gloves, four Silver Sluggers, and made seven all star appearances, but we’re just not quite sure who we’re getting in return for you…..I’m sure it’ll all work out….you know….. for both of us.” My sardonic nature was nowhere to be found in the 11 year old version of myself. It must have come with puberty. The three “players to be named later” will remain nameless, but I will say they combined for 14 hits, 4 RBI, and 8 runs from the plate and a 2-3 record with a 4.47 ERA and 27 strikeouts from the mound over their brief careers with Atlanta. Philadelphia got the better of the deal with Murphy alone (the Phillies also received a player to be named later), as the right fielder gathered 57 hits, 28 RBI, and scored 22 runs over the remainder of the 1990 season during which he was traded, raising his batting average .013 points in the process. That trade was still five years before the explosion of the Internet. You can imagine how much more I hate it today with access to Google, Baseball Reference, and other technological phenomena that were mere sparkles in Bill Gates’ eyes the day the Braves traded Dale Murphy.
On the other side of the coin, it’s hard to argue with history if I want to make a case on whether the Braves screwed the pooch by trading Murph. Anyone on the planet with even a little baseball knowledge would know the following season (’91) would be the beginning of one of the most unprecedented individual team runs in baseball history. A worst to first finish to kick off 14 straight division titles within which five National League pennants and a World Series title were won. While Atlanta was making a 29 win improvement from their final year (to date) in the National League East cellar, Murphy was having his worst season in over 10 years; however, he still drove in 81 runs with 18 homers and scored 66 runs of his own. It would be in 1992 that the 36 year old would succumb to his nagging knees and spend the majority of the season on the disabled list, compiling his worst statistical year since 1977. The year was so bad for Murphy, his baseball card (which I own) was just an image of him sitting on the bench. Murph would take a two million dollar pay cut, be released by Philadelphia, and sign with the expansion Colorado Rockies to enter the 1993 season. Still playing in eight more games than his 1992 “campaign,” Dale Murphy’s 18 year career ended May 21, 1993 in Colorado where he went 0 for 3 against the visiting Los Angeles Dodgers. On the fielding side, a side you will get to know better in later chapters, Murphy did record an outfield assist, providing a more positive note.
Right about now, you’re probably asking yourself, “Isn’t the subtitle of this book Why Dale Murphy Belongs in Baseball’s Hall of Fame?” I’ll admit I’ve included more of the negative notes of Dale Murphy’s career than I would have liked to, but it’s for a very good reason. I feel it’s one of, if not the main reason writers passed on the two-time National League’s Most Valuable Player his 15 years on the Hall of Fame ballot and his most recent appearance on the Modern Era Committee ballot in 2017. Murph played in all or part of 18 seasons in the majors. By today’s standard, that is a considerably lengthy career. You’ve got your pre rookie season - which still counts - and then you have your real rookie season. After that, there’s the “Okay, let’s see if last year was a fluke before locking this guy up” season, followed by the “I see you’ve got an agent with you now” season. Then he played 14 more. Outside of a reliever or starting pitcher turned reliever, where are you going to find that kind of longevity today? I’ll save you both time and effort. You’re not. At least, not without a little “help.” Ahh, there it is. The elephant that will stay in the room throughout this book.
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