What most distinguished Murphy from the other stars at the time (and especially today) was his genuine care for the game, the fans, and himself.Go here to read the "rest of the story."*
*In honor of Paul Harvey who recently passed away.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
BCB Link - Dale Murphy
More Hardball has a great new piece on one of baseball's true gentlemen, Dale Murphy. I highly recommend checking it out. Here is an excerpt:
*In honor of Paul Harvey who recently passed away.
*In honor of Paul Harvey who recently passed away.
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8 comments:
Thanks for the link bro. You'll be rewarded later in the week.
great story...
how cool would it be to be a kid on Murphy's little league team?
Murphy deserves the Hall.
I agree w/ GM-Carson that Murphy should be in the HOF. But I understand why most voters disagree. If Murph could have kept up his early-80's production for one or two more years, I think he'd be a shoo-in. He absolutely ruled the NL for what, five or six years, then caught whatever ailment Andrew Jones appears to have contracted. One more good Dale Murphy-like year would put him at around what, 425 HR? It sucks, but I think that being on the wrong side of the 400 mark really hurts his HOF chances.
still...no one defines the Hall of Fame like Murphy. He is missed.
People forget that Murphy was fortunate to play at all, thanks to a couple of serious early career injuries. If memory serves, he tore up his knee very badly at one point, and I think he had some other major structural thing from falling or diving or banging into a wall.
He was also originally a catcher, and so took additional abuse to his body on that score.
I think all the injuries just all of a sudden caught up with him; his body only had so much reserve strength, and when it was gone, it was gone. The kind of "losing it overnight" we saw with Murphy is most typical among boxers, at least, in my observations of various athletes in various sports. It doesn't normally happen in baseball unless there are other factors, as in Murphy's case with his injuries.
I'm convinced he would have been in Cooperstown with only marginally better numbers. Let's not forget that Murphy did everything steroid-free, as well.
let's not forget those very steroids might have saved his knee and given him another 5-10 years and another 100-300 career home runs. he went out in style and faithful to his beliefs. his "numbers" aren't there because of the caliber of the man he is! my son suggested a family trip to the baseball hall of fame last year and i declined. if dale isn't "good enough" for the hof than the hof isn't good enough for me! i will visit the hof for the first time on dale's induction day.
Hal, I hope you and your son get to see Dale inducted into the Hall one day.
Regardless... I highly recommend the trip to baseball's mecca, Cooperstown.
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