The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Weighing merits of Dale Murphy
Former Braves icon deserves to get nod in Modern Era vote.
Dale Murphy returns to Hall of Fame consideration, this time by the panel that used to be known as the Veterans Committee. His relatively short tenure as a baseball great held him back in the past.
Dale Murphy never came close to making the baseball Hall of Fame during his 15 years on the writers’ ballot through 2013, but there’s another chance this weekend for the Modern Baseball Era Committee to correct that wrong and send the Braves icon to Cooperstown.
Murphy is among the 10 who’ll be considered for election by what used to be known as the Veterans Committee before the process was changed and individuals were considered on a rotating basis according to which of four eras they played in (or managed, or owned, or whatever they did to impact the game).
A year ago, longtime former Braves GM John Schuerholz was elected by the Today’s Game Era Committee, which considered candidates from the period beginning in 1988. This year it’s the so-called Modern Era that includes those whose greatest impact came during the period from 1970-87.
The candidates include the late players’ union chief Marvin Miller and former players Steve Garvey, Tommy John, Don Mattingly, Jack Morris, Dave Parker, Ted Simmons (who played his last three seasons for the Braves and scouts for them), Luis Tiant, Alan Trammell and Murphy. That’s such an esteemed group that even the notoriously demanding committee might find it hard not to elect at least a few candidates.
Electees will be part of the 2018 HOF class that’s expected to include another Braves icon, Chipper Jones, who’s in his first year of eligibility on the BBWAA (writers’) ballot and who most observers expect to be named on more than 90 percent of the ballots (75 percent is the threshold for election).
Selection by the Modern Era Committee also requires being named on 75 percent of ballots, only in this case it’s 75 percent of a 16-member committee rather than the ballots of hundreds of writers. The committee features eight Hall of Famers, three of whom have Braves ties: Schuerholz, legendary manager Bobby Cox and broadcaster and former pitcher Don Sutton.
Other Hall of Famers on the committee include George Brett, Rod Carew, Dennis Eckersley, Dave Winfield and Robin Yount, and they’re joined by five other baseball executives and three media members/historians.
People I’ve talked to about the voting think Trammell is most likely to be elected. He was named on 40.9 percent of ballots in his 15th and final year on the writers’ ballots a couple of years ago. Also considered to have a good shot is Tiant, who had three 20-win seasons, a 229-172 record and 3.30 ERA in 19 seasons, and was named on 30.9 percent of the writers’ ballots in 1988, but never more than 18 percent after that.
Simmons was one of the better catchers of his era, an eight-time AllStar who received MVP votes in seven seasons and hit .285 with 248 homers in a 21-year career. He appeared on the writers’ ballot only one season, dropped after being named to just 3.7 percent of ballots in 1994.
Another leading candidate for Modern Era Committee consideration: Tommy John, the pitcher for whom the famous surgery was named — he was the first to have it — and who won 288 games in a 26-year career, including three 20-win seasons and three top-four finishes in Cy Young Award balloting.
Despite the deep group of worthy candidates — including Dave Parker, one of my favorite players as a kid — I would argue that none is more worthy of consideration than Murphy. He checks a key box for me — Was he considered the best player in his league at any point in his career? Yes — and because he is as fine a person as there will be on the ballot in this or any other year.
First, the performance: Murphy won back-to-back National League MVP awards in 1982 and 1983, something only Hall of Famer Joe Morgan and Mike Schmidt did before him and only Barry Bonds and Albert Pujols have since. Murphy won as many MVP awards in two seasons as the combined total won by Chipper and the greatest of all Braves, Hank Aaron.
Murphy was a seven-time All-Star and fivetime Gold Glove center fielder who finished 12th or higher in league MVP balloting six times from 1980-87. In other words, he was great for a stretch, not simply very good.
The first 15 of his 18 major league seasons were spent with the Braves, a period when the modest slugger played for a lot of bad teams (and a few decent to good ones) but still managed to become a genuine superstar with national recognition, multiple Sports Illustrated covers and the kind of iconic posters that appeared on kids’ bedroom walls.
Murphy had a national audience that watched the Braves on Ted Turner’s cable SuperStation, back when fans outside big-league markets could watch only the Braves or Cubs on a daily basis — the magic of cable TV — and so the famous milk-drinking, homer-hitting Murphy was a big deal not just in the South, but across the nation and some points beyond.
He had seven seasons with 29 or more homers in an eight-year span, including four consecutive seasons (1982-85) in which he totaled at least 36 homers and 100 RBIs.
Murphy had a reputation for clean living, and it was legit — he was as straight an arrow as you would ever come across in professional sports (or any other profession). There was never so much as a hint of controversy on the field or off with Murphy, before, during or since his playing days.
And if writers — or committee members — are going to give demerits to the likes of Bonds and Roger Clemens and many others for connections to steroids or for being general miscreants, then Murphy is among a select group that might warrant bonus points for being the epitome of professionalism, for being one of the friendliest guys that anyone ever had the pleasure of being around.
There simply is no finer ambassador for the game of baseball than Murphy, who’s as popular with Braves fans today as he was with fans everywhere when he played.
His career began in a baseball era tainted by cocaine scandals and amphetamines in the clubhouse, and ended just before the era tarnished by widespread steroids use. But the sins that stained many others only made Murphy’s exceptional conduct stand out more.
His character and reputation were truly beyond reproach, and remain so today.
He makes appearances for the Braves, has his photo snapped countless times with fans at the ballpark or his restaurant nearby, signs autographs until the line is exhausted and suits up as a guest instructor at Braves spring training. This is the man who fathers don’t have to worry about when they point to and tell their sons to grow up and be like him — without fear of that coming back to haunt them.
Murphy doesn’t mess up. He doesn’t do knucklehead things like so many of us other regular folks do.
So, in conclusion: If integrity and character are taken into consideration when voting for Hall of Famers, then Murphy belongs in the HOF. No question about it. He never made it on so much as 25 percent of the ballots from writers in 15 years on the BBWAA ballot through 2013, but now his peers and others on a committee of 16 have a chance to right the wrong and put Murphy in the Hall of Fame.
And how big would that be for Braves fans to see Murph and Chipper inducted in the same class next summer?
Murphy’s late-career erosion from injuries left him with a .265 average — that and his relative short span as one of the game’s best players are two things that held him back with BBWAA voters — a .346 on-base percentage, .469 slugging percentage, .815 OPS, 398 home runs and 1,266 RBIs in 18 seasons.
He was a seven-time AllStar, five-time Gold Glove winner and finished 12th or higher in the league MVP balloting six times while mostly playing on bad teams and being the primary focus of opposing pitchers.
If Murphy had spent most of his career with the Yankees or Red Sox, he already would be in the Hall of Fame.