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Thursday, January 15, 2009
Dale Murphy not bothered by lack of Hall love
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
So I phoned Dale Murphy Thursday to ask about the Hall of Fame and this is the first thing I heard: “Whoa! Hey, hold on! [Pause] Sorry about that. Just hit a snow bank.”
“Um, should I change the subject?”
“Oh no, it’s that. We’re still digging out [of the snow] here and Nancy’s driving. I’m just a passenger.”
Which somewhat dovetails into Murphy’s Hall of Fame status. Eleven years and he’s still just along for the ride. Earlier this week, the former Brave was named on only 62 of 539 ballots — or 343 short to reach the mandated 75 percent for induction. Murphy’s total equaled 11.5 percent.
“At least I went up a couple of points this year,” he said.
Awkward moment.
I had to break it to him that he actually dropped from 13.8 percent last year.
“Did I? Really? Oh, man. A friend of mine told me I went up a couple. Well, I guess I look real smart. But it shows how close I’m paying attention.”
Bert Blyleven gets passed up for enshrinement again and calls the process “complete crap.” Murphy gets passed up and drops into typical golly-gee-speak: “I’d love to get in, don’t get me wrong. But I’m OK with it.”
Maybe he shouldn’t be OK with it. Two Most Valuable Player Awards. Five Gold Gloves. Four Silver Sluggers. Seven All-Star Games. Seven seasons with 30-plus home runs, and 398 homers in his career (which ranks 46th all-time). A six-season span (1982-87) in which he averaged 36 home runs and 105 RBI.
The strange thing about Murphy’s Hall candidacy seems less relevant than ever. People debated the merits of his career in his last few seasons. Now he’s an afterthought. And consider this little known tale from Opening Day in 1993, when he closed out his playing days with the Colorado Rockies.
“I remember being introduced as a future Hall of Famer,” Murphy said. “We were in New York. I had just gotten picked up and I wasn’t starting or anything but they were introducing the whole team, and the announcer at Shea Stadium says, ‘Future Hall of Famer, Dale Murphy!” I was like, OK, I’ll take it. After that, you kind of start thinking about it more.”
Knee problems led to a late career decline. The Braves traded him to Philadelphia late in the 1990 season — just before the franchise’s startling rise. Murphy struggled with the Phillies and Rockies. People tend to remember those seasons more than the early ones. Voters look at his career batting average (.265), 1,748 career strikeouts and limited playoff resume (one series) and think: Nice guy, but not good enough.
Utah had a hard enough time getting first-place votes in the BCS, and it went undefeated. It follows that one of the state’s most famous residents isn’t expecting a break.
There have been some humorous moments along the way. In 1999, Murphy’s first year on the ballot, the Braves told him they wanted to induct him into their own Hall of Fame at Turner Field. But Murphy was living in Boston with his family at the time, supervising missionaries. He told them the church frowned on him leaving town and the honor would have to be postponed.
Fast-forward one year: Murphy walked into his office one day and his secretary was hysterical. “She starts screaming: ‘You made it! You’re in the Hall of Fame! They just called!’ ” Murphy recalled “I said ‘What?’ But it was just the Braves Hall of Fame. It was nice, but I kinda knew about that one.”
In Cooperstown, he’s 0 for 11. Hall rules allow a candidates to stay on the ballot for 15 years. Murphy has four to go. Jim Rice just made it in his final year. (The two actually are comparable in home runs, RBIs and runs, but Rice had 341 more hits.)
“I’m not going to campaign for it,” Murphy said. “I’ve never been like that.”
He’ll always have Shea Stadium.
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