Where Have You Gone, Dale Murphy?

[jkwilliams]

In case anyone else remembers him, here's an article about one of baseball's good guys, Dale Murphy. How does someone who hit 398 home runs and won back-to-back MVP awards not get into the Baseball Hall of Fame? As a boy, I was a huge Dodgers fan, but I followed and admired Dale Murphy and Alan Ashby, the two most prominent LDS players of that era. Incidentally, Alan Ashby was in my high priests group in Houston and is a really nice guy.

http://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/24182944/where-braves-legend-dale-murphy-now

Edited July 26, 2018 by jkwilliams

[Thinking]

Yep. Dale was definitely one of the good guys. There are a few former professional athletes who are LDS living in Alpine, Utah.

[jkwilliams]

3 minutes ago, Thinking said:

Yep. Dale was definitely one of the good guys. There are a few former professional athletes who are LDS living in Alpine, Utah.

I wonder why they would choose Alpine, Utah. Interesting.

[rongo]

I teared up reading this, and sent it to my parents, when it popped up yesterday. I received a detailed, personal letter from him when I wrote him when I was seven (strikingly similar situation to the boy the article opens with). My dad got the Braves address in the Sporting News, I wrote him, and he sent me a letter, followed by an autographed photo two weeks later. I remember my parents telling me to leave the letter on the piano so we could go to the basketball game (my dad did play-by-play on the radio), and all I could think about during the game was getting home and reading and holding the letter again. 

I've used that letter in different ways in talks over the years . . . 

[Thinking]

1 hour ago, jkwilliams said:

I wonder why they would choose Alpine, Utah. Interesting.

The ones I know about are Fred Roberts, Marty Haws, Jason Buck, and now Dale Murphy.

They may live in Highland instead of Alpine, but it's the same area.

https://www.google.com/maps/@40.4365354,-111.7784931,13z

[Guest]

6 hours ago, jkwilliams said:

In case anyone else remembers him, here's an article about one of baseball's good guys, Dale Murphy. How does someone who hit 398 home runs and won back-to-back MVP awards not get into the Baseball Hall of Fame? As a boy, I was a huge Dodgers fan, but I followed and admired Dale Murphy and Alan Ashby, the two most prominent LDS players of that era. Incidentally, Alan Ashby was in my high priests group in Houston and is a really nice guy.

http://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/24182944/where-braves-legend-dale-murphy-now

I met him a couple of times, great guy, great player. Should have been in the Hall of Fame forever ago. 

[rongo]

From one standpoint, he isn't a Hall of Famer (and I say that as a huge Dale Murphy fan who wrote him as a seven year-old). From another, he should, and the article made a point I never thought of: his 398 home runs in the steroid era count for a lot more than that. He could have extended his career due to healing and would have had 100 more home runs if he had juiced like everyone else. 

And, he had back-to-back MVP years. His prime was better than many stars' primes. They just learned to pitch to him, and he never adjusted. Even as a kid, I could tell they started only pitching to him outside. But, people remember the brightness of his prime, and it offsets the sharp decline. 

[Robert F. Smith]

22 hours ago, Thinking said:

Yep. Dale was definitely one of the good guys. There are a few former professional athletes who are LDS living in Alpine, Utah.

Robbie Bosco lives in my stake in Provo.  He was a high councilman for awhile.  Steve Young has a mansion in nearby Mapleton, but don't know whether he spends much time there.  He is a lawyer.