{"id":237,"date":"2023-07-26T17:26:44","date_gmt":"2023-07-26T17:26:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.314stories.com\/?page_id=237"},"modified":"2023-07-26T17:26:44","modified_gmt":"2023-07-26T17:26:44","slug":"murph-and-the-mysterious-power-of-3","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.314stories.com\/?page_id=237","title":{"rendered":"Murph and the Mysterious Power of 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

A great number of baseball wags\u2014particularly those who favor the days of cleaner living and an, arguably, cleaner game\u2014have been promoting the Hall of Fame candidacy of former outfielder\/first baseman Dale Murphy\u00a0 since his retirement.\u00a0 They have a good argument. Dale Murphy has far better career statistics than other perennial losers in the Hall of Fame race\u2014better overall numbers than Dave Kingman, more consistent numbers than Joe Carter and Jim Edmonds, and a more well-rounded game than Jack Clark.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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To be sure, Dale Murphy racked up some strong numbers in the sexy categories. Those that gain favor from Hall voters.\u00a0 His eighteen-year career allowed him to accumulate a solid power base\u2014398 HRs and 1,266 RBIs\u2014but his .265 career batting average, while much higher than Kingman\u2019s, does little to impress the Hall voters.\u00a0 Some would say his back-to-back National League MVPs (1982 and 1983), seven All-Star appearances (1980, 1982-1986), six Gold Gloves (1982-1986), and four Silver Slugger awards (1982-1986) should cement his status as one of the greatest players of his era.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Maybe it is not Murphy\u2019s fault he played his best years in the pre-juiced ball part of the eighties, and had his best stats against relatively weak offensive numbers of colleagues.\u00a0 Maybe he was just a very good player who followed the age-graded predictors of success, having his best seasons during his peak athletic years. \u00a0 From ages 26-30 (1982-1986) Murphy won both of his MVPs, hit 174 of those 398 career HRs, racked up 504 of his 1,266 career RBIs.\u00a0 That he also had his only two .300-plus seasons during that time does not help his candidacy.<\/span><\/p>\n

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One more rub: the only time Dale Murphy hit more than 40 homers was <\/span>during<\/span><\/i> the juiced-ball year, when he tagged 44, batting .295, with 105 RBIs and earning the final All-Star nod of his career.\u00a0 Sustained high-performance or, in recent years, career longevity that leads to certain all-but-Hall-lock plateaus (see: Biggio, Craig) is what paves the road to the Hall.\u00a0 Murphy played eight more seasons after the juiced-ball season and never again hit more than 24 HRs, nor did he exceed 84 RBIs.\u00a0 Perhaps most damning: he never again hit higher than .266, which he achieved in <\/span>part<\/span> of a season with the Phillies in 1990.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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To be fair, Murphy battled numerous injuries during the last five years of his career, missing almost all of 1992 and 1993.\u00a0 He will likely remain one of only two multiple-MVP winners (Roger Maris is the other) to not make the Hall of Fame.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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It is not Murphy\u2019s Hall eligibility under investigation today.\u00a0 Let\u2019s look at just one year, and present the amazing facts of Dale Murphy\u2019s eerie and near-supernatural 1983 season.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Dale Murphy wore uniform number 3 throughout his career.\u00a0 In 1983, the occurrence of numbers related to the number three, especially as <\/span>multiples<\/i><\/b> of three in Murphy\u2019s life and career to that point, met a strange confluence.\u00a0 Maybe this was preordained at birth\u2014he was, after all, born on the <\/span>twelfth<\/i><\/b> day of the <\/span>third<\/i><\/b> month in the year <\/span>1956<\/i><\/b>, and he was drafted by the Atlanta Braves in <\/span>1974<\/i><\/b>.\u00a0 Then, the nearly ridiculous cohesion of the mystical \u201ctroika\u201d and Dale Murphy occurred in the magical season of 1983.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Dale Murphy had played with the Braves major league club since 1976 by the time the <\/span>1983<\/i><\/b> season began, though this would prove to be his <\/span>6<\/i><\/b>th<\/i><\/b> full season, and he entered the season at the ripe young age of <\/span>27<\/i><\/b>.\u00a0 That year the Braves would finish with an 88-74 record and manage only a second place finish in the former NL East, but Murphy would rack up stats reeking of <\/span>threes<\/i><\/b>, perhaps because he was able to play in all <\/span>162<\/i><\/b> games<\/i><\/b> for only the second time in his career.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Murphy logged <\/span>687 plate appearances<\/i><\/b> and stroked out <\/span>178 hits<\/i><\/b> and, though his at-bat total was a meager 589, and his batting average a clunky-looking .302, he must have taken some comfort in the fact that his average helped him earn the NL MVP, in the <\/span>third<\/i><\/b> time he had received top three votes for the award, as he finished <\/span>6<\/i><\/b>th<\/i><\/b> in the NL in BA.<\/i><\/b>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Murphy earned that MVP, being a monster at the dish that season, or so it would appear.\u00a0 Some would say his meager <\/span>24 doubles<\/i><\/b> and <\/span>150 singles <\/i><\/b>were hardly indicative of extra-base power, even if he did jack <\/span>36 homers<\/i><\/b> and rack up <\/span>318 total bases.<\/i><\/b>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Many would point to his lack of speed, though he did streak to <\/span>30 stolen bases<\/i><\/b> in 1983.\u00a0 His <\/span>90 walks<\/i><\/b> were both an indication of the respect he commanded from pitchers <\/span>(12 intentional walks)<\/i><\/b> and his discerning eye at the plate <\/span>(78 earned walks.)<\/i><\/b>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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That many times on base surely must have meant good things for Murphy\u2019s on-base percentage <\/span>(.393)<\/i><\/b> and it most assuredly did.\u00a0 His <\/span>.540 slugging percentage<\/i><\/b> hardly measures up to today\u2019s puffy power standards, but his <\/span>.933 OPS<\/i><\/b> was a big number in the early eighties; both numbers enough to lead the league in the two categories.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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A man to take one for the team, Murphy smacked <\/span>6 sacrifice flies<\/i><\/b> and played a large number of innings <\/span>(1,386 1\/3)<\/i><\/b> to lead his team in that category as well.\u00a0 It was clear that Murphy played well enough to earn his <\/span>third All-Star appearance<\/i><\/b> that season.\u00a0 Of course, not <\/span>all<\/span> powers of three were quite so magical for Murphy that year, as he also grounded into <\/span>15 double plays.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

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When Dale Murphy\u2019s numbers are run through Bill James\u2019 more modern player value calculator, he emerges as the league-leader that year in wins-above-the-value-of-a-replacement-player, or <\/span>WAR (7.2.)<\/i><\/b>\u00a0 But he was no slouch in the field either.\u00a0 Though Murphy played <\/span>three<\/i><\/b> different positions for <\/span>three teams<\/i><\/b> over his <\/span>eighteen year career<\/i><\/b>, he patrolled only the <\/span>three outfield positions<\/i><\/b> in 1983, making a mere <\/span>six errors<\/i><\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Of course all of these numbers look all the more magical because I have intentionally left out some of the major statistical categories in which Murphy did <\/span>not<\/span> do something by a multiple of three, such as runs scored, runs batted in and, ironically, triples.\u00a0 Yes, it was sad but true that Dale Murphy stats in those three major categories were unrelated to the number three in 1983.\u00a0 But, perhaps to atone for what amounted to a minor mathematical failure that season, he concluded his career with totals in each of those categories a bit more favorable, with <\/span>1,997 runs scored<\/i><\/b>, <\/span>1,266 RBIS<\/i><\/b>, and <\/span>39 triples.<\/i><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Never again did Dale Murphy capture the magic of that 1983 season, nor was he able to conjure the mystical power of three he summoned from some supernatural port that year.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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In the end, he played <\/span>fifteen seasons<\/i><\/b> with the Braves, before moving on to play <\/span>three seasons<\/i><\/b> with the Phillies (hitting a meager <\/span>27 HRs<\/i><\/b>, and scoring only <\/span>97 runs<\/i><\/b>, while scraping together <\/span>204 hits<\/i><\/b>, for a paltry <\/span>.249 BA<\/i><\/b> combined in the three seasons.)\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Murphy wrapped up his career with start-up Colorado.\u00a0 In that sad, last-gasp, Dale Murphy, now so-injury-riddled he would play only 26 games, managed to make only <\/span>42 ABs<\/i><\/b>, eking out just <\/span>6 hits<\/i><\/b> and, perhaps most telling, struck out <\/span>15 times.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

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Though Murphy would accumulate a veritable mountain of three-related stats in 1983, the season was hardly magical for the Braves.\u00a0 Though they were a <\/span>six-letter<\/i><\/b> team, in name, the squad would not make it to the playoffs.\u00a0 Perhaps they were overmatched by the team from a <\/span>twelve-letter<\/i><\/b> city\u2014Philadelphia\u2014who had won <\/span>90 <\/i><\/b>games and lost just <\/span>72<\/i><\/b>.\u00a0 Fittingly, the Braves, with their 88-74 record (a <\/span>.584 winning percentage<\/i><\/b>) finished <\/span>three games<\/i><\/b> out of the race for the pennant.\u00a0 Of course, the dominance of higher\u2013number multiples of three did not favor the Phillies in the World Series that year as they stumbled to a 4 games to 1 defeat at the hands of the team from a <\/span>nine-letter city:<\/i><\/b> Baltimore.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In hindsight, we cannot be completely surprised by this outcome\u2026after all, what <\/span>Dale Bryan Murphy<\/i><\/b> (15 letters) had set in motion with his crazy 1983 season and the unveiling of the power of three, was capped off by a man on that 1983 Orioles team who just happened to be that year\u2019s American League MVP: none other than a player with three letters in his first name and six letters in his last: starting Shortstop and would-be Ironman\u2014<\/span>Cal Ripken.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A great number of baseball wags\u2014particularly those who favor the days of cleaner living and an, arguably, cleaner game\u2014have been promoting the Hall of Fame candidacy of former outfielder\/first baseman Dale Murphy\u00a0 since his retirement.\u00a0 They have a good argument. Dale Murphy has far better career statistics than other perennial…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":186,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-237","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.314stories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.314stories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.314stories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.314stories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.314stories.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=237"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.314stories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/237\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":238,"href":"https:\/\/www.314stories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/237\/revisions\/238"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.314stories.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.314stories.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}