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Friday, September 16, 2005
Retired Murphy finally offers an opinion
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
This was bizarre. Out of nowhere (well, at least from Alpine, Utah, which is the same thing), I got a wonderfully crafted book in the mail called “The Scouting Report” by somebody named Dale Murphy. The book’s target audience is professional athletes, and the book’s purpose is to tell the knuckleheads of sports how they should operate during and after their time in the midst of stardom.
So why was this bizarre? Well, we’re talking about Dale Murphy, the slugger and the saint of the Braves from the late 1970s through the 1980s. While he spent most of those years doing his impressive thing, he kept his mouth shut while others did their woeful thing for stumbling and bumbling teams that needed vocal leadership from Murphy that they didn’t get.
Now the guy has written a book that deals in large parts with the same subject that he routinely flunked.
What’s up with that?
“Oh, I don’t know,” said Murphy, chuckling, before pausing and thinking over the phone Friday from Alpine, where he mostly is a professional dad for those of his eight children who remain at home.
“I guess, to be honest, while I played, I was just too guarded, probably, and sometimes it would have been better and more motivating to the team and to myself if I would have spoken out a little more. I was purposely bland, which isn’t good when things are going bad. So, anyway, you get retired. You get older. You find you’re actually more opinionated.”
The fact that Murphy has any opinions is amazing enough. And in “The Scouting Report,” he has a bunch of them, especially regarding the dwindling number of role models in sports.
From a chapter called “Giving back,” Murphy wrote, “Frankly, we’re all tired of athletes whose selfish, thoughtless and rude behavior has started to permeate professional sports â€â€? from profanity-laced interviews to the tendency toward aggressive violence outside the boundaries of their sport, as well as off the playing field.” From a chapter called “Career and Family,” Murphy wrote, “Adultery and immorality are prevalent in the world of professional sports. The professional athlete may be confronted on a regular basis with those who have little regard for marriage vows. You don’t have to look far to find those who would try to weaken your values. Stay away from these people and the places you find them.”
Mostly, the book is about solutions, with everything from Murphy’s tips on how to choose an agent to Dave Winfield’s hints on retirement to keys from Murphy’s wife, Nancy, on how to keep a family together when your husband is away for long stretches.
“Hopefully, in this regard [of writing a book], I’m speaking out a little bit and helping more people than maybe was the case in the past,” said Murphy, 49, who even flirted with running for governor of his native Utah last year. He is a devout Mormon who spent part of his retirement from baseball in 1993 as president of the Boston mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
None of this means that the Braves’ old Gold Glove center fielder and prolific home run hitter isn’t following the exploits of the Braves’ new Gold Glove center fielder and prolific home run hitter.
“How old is he now?” Murphy asked of Andruw Jones, whose home run earlier this week was his 50th of the season and the 300th of his career. “He’s only 28? Oh, my gosh.” Then again, when Murphy was that same age, he owned two Most Valuable Player awards, and Jones won’t get his first until this season. “I never came close to hitting 50 [44 was his highest for a season], and I never played center field like he does,” Murphy said. “People will say, ‘Oh, Dale is just being modest.’ Well, I could go get a ball, and I’d make a diving catch and throw a guy out occasionally. But Andruw, wow, he’s at a whole different level.”
Murphy laughed again, saying, “I mean, there is absolutely no comparison between the two of us. He’s head and shoulders above what I was doing.”
Yeah, but can Jones change part of his image for the good of the whole with the stroke of a pen?
Permalink | Comments (85) | Categories: Braves / MLB, Terence Moore
Weekend Predictions
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jeff Schultz
Let me start by congratulating last week’s 47 alert readers who went 7-0 in the Only NFL Picks That I was Really Serious About.
The Only Picks I Was Serious About are found hidden among other selections - of course, the ones I wasn’t serious about. They are discovered only by veteran Weekend Predictions readers, usually with the aid of a decoder ring, three Buds and a Paul Tagliabue sock pocket. (To obtain your decoder ring, please send $10 to Underpaid Columnist and Investment Adviser, AJC, 72 Marietta St., Atlanta.)
Last week’s first attempt to pick every NFL game went just OK. Even counting both real and phony picks, we were 8-7 against the spread. That wouldn’t get me into the NFL. These guys make money every time somebody sneezes. Sports Business Journal reported the league made $25 million when its merchandising partner, Reebok, was bought by adidas.
NFL Predictions have not yet gone public, but here’s the next best thing: Another guaranteed winner! The Falcons are one point underdogs to Seattle. I can only assume somebody factored relative humidity of the two cities into the equation, because football-wise it makes no sense.
Take the Falcons and the point, and look out for other serious picks below:
4-BAGS
3-BAGS
2-BAGS
Option 1: Real World Marathon
First 17th Earnings Straight up: 10-5. Against the line: 8-7. Lock of the week: Deadbolt.
DEPT. OF HINDSIGHT Straight up: 5-1 last week, 10-3 overall Spreadables: 2-4 last week, 6-7 overall Rock-paper-scissors: 12-6-2
Permalink | Comments (4) | Categories: Falcons / NFL, Jeff Schultz
