The 86th round of voting for the Circle of Greats inducts Hall of Famer “Steady” Eddie Murray. Proving that slow and steady wins the race, Murray earns induction more than a year after first appearing on the COG ballot with those eligible from the 1956 birth year.
More on Murray after the jump.
Murray debuted with the Orioles in 1977, logging 160 games in his debut season of 27 home runs (tied with Tony Clark for the most by a switch-hitting rookie) and 88 RBI to win AL RoY honors, the first DH to claim that award and, thus far, the only one to do so in a full-length season (Bob Hamelin took AL RoY honors as a DH in the strike-shortened 1994 season).
Murray moved to first base the next season and stayed there almost every day for a decade, earning the nickname “Steady” with solid seasons year after year. In 12 years in his first tour with the Os, Murray missed more than 12 games in a season only once, logged a qualifying OPS+ between 120 and 157 every year, and joined Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams as the only players to bat .280 with 20 HR and 75 RBI in each of their first 9 seasons (Albert Pujols has since joined that group). Murray’s career best 33 home runs came in the Orioles’ world championship season in 1983, capped by his two home runs in the WS-clinching game (victimizing the Phils’ Charles Hudson, the last starting pitcher to allow three jacks in a WS-clinching game). Quiz: Who is the only starting pitcher to win a WS-clinching game while allowing three home runs?
Murray was traded to the Dodgers after the 1988 season where he posted career bests of 159 OPS+ and .330 BA in 1990, placing 2nd in NL batting behind the Cardinals’ Willie McGee. Murray moved on to the Mets in 1992, recording 100 RBI at age 37 in 1993 after topping 90 RBI in each of the three prior seasons, at the time only the fourth player aged 34-37 to reach 90 RBI each season (only Babe Ruth had done so until Mike Schmidt turned the trick more than 50 years later).
Murray next moved on to the Indians, playing almost exclusively at DH. His .323 BA in the Indians’ pennant-winning 1995 season trails only Ted Williams and Barry Bonds among players aged 39 or older in a 20 HR/80 RBI season. Murray reached the 3000 hit plateau that season to join Dave Winfield as the first teammates in that exclusive club since Ty Cobb, Tris Speaker and Eddie Collins played together for the 1928 Athletics.
Murray had one more productive season split between the Indians and Orioles in 1996, again reaching 20 HR and 75 RBI to join Winfield and Darrell Evans as the only players to do that at age 39 and age 40. Included was Murray’s 500th home run, smacked fittingly in an Orioles uniform off the Tigers’ Felipe Lira.
Murray finished his career in 1997, totaling 3255 hits, 1627 runs, 504 home runs, 560 doubles and 1917 RBI, all ranking top 3 all-time among switch-hitters. Famous for his consistency in the first decade of his career, Murray kept it up on the back side, recording over half his career RBI and almost half (49.4%) of his career Runs at age 30+. Other testaments to his consistency are reaching 500 home runs despite never recording 35 in any season (every other 500 HR hitter reached 35 at least four times) and, again uniquely, recording 20 doubles in each of the first twenty seasons of his career.
Welcome to the COG Eddie!
Quiz answer: Bob Gibson, 1964. Had a feeling it would be the last person I would think from the last era I would think of. Anyone know the story of that series? He gave up 2 home runs in the 9th allowing the Yankees to pull back to 7-5… must have been nerve wracking to watch. I guess alot’s changed in terms of bullpens in the last 51 years, he’d never finish the game after that these days, Bob Gibson or no.
And congrats to Eddie, steadily accumulating support in these last several ballots.
Here are the links:
– 2 minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTLbcEUSHPk
– 3 hours (almost): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gvmArmhdTA
One of the YouTube commenters mentions he attended two games of the series in the Yankee Stadium center-field bleachers for the walk-up price of $1.50!
Listening to the full game link (it’s audio only) Joe Garagiola does play-by-play alone (like Vin Scully today). But, there’s so little time between pitches, no opportunity to spin any yarns (as Garagiola liked to do as a color man).
As to nail-biting time in the 9th, didn’t really happen as the Yankees never got the tying run closer than the on-deck circle with two outs. Garagiola only briefly speculates on whether Gibson can finish the game, and only after the second home run.
Tim McCarver provides details of that game in Oh Baby I Love It. I think the argument at the time was – Bob Gibson is on the mound. First, do you have anyone better? Second, do you want to tell Gibby you’re taking him out? The Cardinals “closer” was Barney Schultz, who was 37 and, if I remember correctly, a knuckleballer.
Looking at Game 6, Schultz and Richardson gave up 5 runs in the 8th inning. Looking at Game 2, Schultz and Richardson gave up 4 runs in the 9th. Perhaps they could have gone to Ron Taylor, but he pitched 6 innings on the 11th and an inning in Game 6 (October 14th). Yes, Gibson pitched 10 innings on October 12th, but … no disrespect to Ron Taylor, but he’s not Bob Gibson.
And I don’t know what I’m going to do now that Murray is in the COG … well, I guess there are some guys on the 1903 ballot who may be worth a look or two.
There was some offensive talent on the 1995 Indians, eh?
Career Home Runs
612 … Jim Thome
555 … Manny Ramirez
504 … Eddie Murray
465 … Dave Winfield
381 … Albert Belle
315 … Jeromy Burnitz
287 … Brian Giles
166 … Paul Sorrento
134 … Carlos Baerga
130 … Kenny Lofton
123 … David Bell
112 … Sandy Alomar
107 … Tony Pena
80 …. Omar Visquel
Career WAR
72.9 … Jim Thome
69.2 … Manny Ramirez
68.3 … Eddie Murray
68.2 … Kenny Lofton
63.8 … Dave Winfield
50.9 … Brian Giles
45.3 … Omar Visquel
40.0 … Albert Belle
24.6 … Tony Pena
19.7 … Jeromy Burnitz
19.5 … Carlos Baerga
Is there any way to look up or figure out which team had the most career home runs on it’s roster? I would think this Indians team would be pretty high up the list at least.
I suspect you are right. I have these totals for those Indian clubs.
1996 – 4217
1995 – 4107
1997 – 3963
1998 – 3901
After that are 1989 Rangers at 3895.
“Some offensive talent on the 1995 Indians” — Oh, my, yes. But many would be surprised to hear that the ’95 Indians also led the AL in ERA, ERA+ and run prevention, by pretty healthy margins. Unfortunately for the club’s future, their two best starters were Dennis Martinez (age 41) and Orel Hershiser (36).
The 1996 Indians are one of the 8 teams in my series on teams with six 40-WAR players in their prime, and the only one to make the list with all position players. The other 7 groups all featured at least 2 pitchers. Coincidentally or not, those Indians are also the only team out of the 8 that didn’t win either a World Series or multiple pennants with the same core.
(BTW, I’m having trouble posting once again. I’m hitting “Submit” at 6:02 EDT; let’s see when it shows up.)
With oWAR notated, the 1996 team’s most common lineup was:
Lofton … 4.9
Franco … 2.5
Baerga … 0.6
Belle …. 6.8
Murray … -0.5
Manny …. 4.7
Thome …. 7.4
Alomar … 0.7
Visquel .. 3.0
This was the year that Baerga fell apart at age 27.
He didn’t lose his grip on the 3-hole until a few weeks before they traded him at the deadline for a few months of Jeff Kent.
The Cleveland team lost 3-1 in the Division Series to Balimore. With a chance to tie it at 2, Jose Mesa blew the save on a game-tying single to Roberto Alomar.
And Mesa was still around in the 12th inning to give up the losing homer to… Alomar.
Mesa faced 17 batters that night.
His season highs before that:
11
9
9
7
7
7
7
7
Voomo – Particularly infuriating to Indians’ fans is that Alomar’s dramatics came on the heels of his infamous spitting incident. But rather than suspend him for the playoffs, he was suspended for the first 5 games of the next season.
BTW, I assume Mesa was kept in the game because there weren’t many good options left. It appears that the only two pitchers left in the bullpen were Chad Ogea and Julian Tavarez, neither of whom were appealing options. Plus, pulling Mesa would mean that you’d be down to one arm in the bullpen, not a particularly desirable situation if the game went on for a while.
It is fun to learn these bits of history that occurred the recent past. I was on complete strike from baseball 1995-1997. Missed a few things. Including my team finally winning it all in ’96. I had no television and didn’t find out about it for a week and a half. There was some guy named Derek I heard.
Alomar (COG) was going to appeal his suspension, until he learned that the suspension at retrial could include the playoffs. So he dropped his appeal.
There have been 15 players returned to the ballot via the redemption process (4 of them twice). Of those 15:
4 have made it into the CoG: Alomar, Lofton (redeemed twice), Martinez, Murray;
9 are currently on the ballot: Ashburn, Brown (2x), Eckersley, Evans, Killebrew, Nettles, Reuschel (2x), Tiant, Winfield (2x); only 4 current holdovers (Campanella, Ferrell, Minoso, and Ruffing) have been on the ballot continuously;
2 have fallen off the ballot again: Cone, Drysdale.
Here are the redemption round winners:
Round 1: K Brown, Lofton
Round 2: Lofton, E Martinez
Round 3: Reuschel, Winfield
Round 4: Killebrew, Murray
Round 5: Alomar, K Brown, Eckersley
Round 6: Reuschel, Tiant, Winfield
Round 7: Ashburn, Cone, Drysdale, Dw Evans, Nettles
By the way, birtelcom, on the “CoG Vote Summary 3” spreadsheet, Column C neglects to note that Winfield was on the ballot for rounds #38-40, and Reuschel for #39-40.
Murray was also Mr. Second Half.
Of the 497 players with 6,000+ PAs, he has the greatest positive difference between his second half OPS and his overall OPS (.878 second half, .836 overall, +.042). Much of that is fueled by his September/October numbers where he has the 4th highest positive difference (.906 Sept/Oct, .840 overall, +.066), behind only Zack Wheat, Jimmy Rollins, and Jay Bell. (BTW; I have no idea why his overall OPS is different in the two analyses).
Murray also retired second all-time in grand slams behind only Lou Gehrig (since passed by A-Rod and Manny).
And he will forever be the all-time AL leader in the now defunct game winning RBI stat. The surprising overall leader in that stat….Keith Hernandez.
It’s not that surprising to those of us who are Mets/Hernandez fans.
Using a similar analysis that you used for Murray (6000+ career PAs), Hernandez is somewhere around 15th all-time (with the caveat that there is a lot of incomplete data for leverage situations – Buddy Myer only has 22 high leverage PAs out of 8190 total, etc.) in looking at his OPS in high leverage situations relative to his career OPS. A few of the players ahead of him with incomplete data (Myer, Joost, and Billy Herman) would likely have a large change with complete data, though some players ahead of him (Wertz, Nellie Fox, Yogi, Darrell Evans, Santo) may not because they seem to have a more complete set of data (Santo has 2107 high leverage PAs out of 9397; Hernandez is complete and has 1754 out of 8553).
The players ahead of Hernandez (tOPS+ greater than the 114 Hernandez has – there are a bunch of players at 114) for whom there is complete data:
sOPS OPS Player
.858 .756 Brian Roberts
.861 .782 Edgardo Alfonzo
.885 .810 Dave Parker
.995 .916 Jason Giambi
.763 .707 Terry Pendleton
.852 .785 Ted Simmons
.769 .717 Hubie Brooks
Murray has a 108 tOPS+ for high leverage.
Some of the worst players for whom there are complete data are Greg Gagne, Royce Clayton, and Paul Blair. I would say those make sense as they are players more noted for their defense, so if they were to “fail” in high leverage offensive situations they would likely be “forgiven”. Robinson Cano, Shawn Green, and Adrian Beltre are next. Probably most surprising to me in the bottom 25 – Kirk Gibson, which shows how one event can change the perception of a player.
Craig Biggio – 763
Roberto Alomar – 725
Eddie Murray – 731
John Smoltz – 658
Kenny Lofton – 608
Ryne Sandberg – 607
Edgar Martinez – 507
Lou Whitaker – 493
*Harmon Killebrew – 479
Whitey Ford – 382
Bobby Grich – 376
Sandy Koufax – 375
Tony Gwynn – 346
Willie McCovey – 336
*Kevin Brown – 334
Juan Marichal – 268
*Minnie Minoso – 262
Tom Glavine – 262
*Roy Campanella – 257
*Dennis Eckersley – 246
Alan Trammell – 239
Mike Mussina – 233
*Dave Winfield – 230
Curt Schilling – 224
Nolan Ryan – 220
Ron Santo – 217
Lou Boudreau – 216
Tim Raines – 213
Larry Walker – 197
Barry Larkin – 188
Frank Thomas – 181
*Rick Reuschel – 168
*Luis Tiant – 163
Paul Molitor – 152
Bob Gibson – 147
Gaylord Perry – 142
Jim Palmer – 133
Al Kaline – 132
Duke Snider – 130
Joe Gordon – 126
Ernie Banks – 119
Eddie Mathews – 115
Richie Ashburn – 113
1. The other holdovers: Dwight Evans (65), Wes Ferrell (63), Graig Nettles (63).
2. While Eddie Murray fell short of Craig Biggio, I think it’s time to appreciate just how many votes Biggio got before being elected. Murray got a lot of votes, but Biggio’s total is just astonishing, and unlikely to be matched. I suppose Harmon Killebrew has the best shot, but he’s still nearly 300 votes back – so most of us will be dead by the time we’ve had enough COG rounds to get him there! Kevin Brown, “only” 430+ votes away, is the next best candidate. Watch for him to pass Biggio somewhere around COG round 125.
3. Red Ruffing (20 total votes) falls off the holdover list.
4. Chuck Klein made a good run for it, but fell short at just 6 votes.
5. Richie Ashburn, welcome to the 100+ votes club!
6. Luis Tiant started quite a bit behind Rick Reuschel. He has slowly but surely been gaining ground, to the point that they are now very close. Similarly, because of COG voting, I now will forever link Dennis Eckersley, Minnie Minoso, and Roy Campanella. I think of them as “the pack,” because they basically shoot up my list more or less together. It’s really fun to have that happen with three players who couldn’t be less alike – eras, positions, awards voting – everything.
7. Obviously, there WILL BE be changes to the holdovers coming this round. Stay tuned!
As to #6, I stand corrected; Ruffing received 7 votes, giving him 21 total. He remains eligible.
Did he actually though? Yours and David Horwich’s counts in the last round both say that he got six. But then the comments have been so screwy of late that it wouldn’t surprise me if someone else voted later and I can’t see it for some reason.
RJ – Ruffing was saved by a 9:47 PM vote by Bells.
That’s what I have, too.
I completely trust you guys, but honestly that vote is not showing up on my browser at all. The last comment I can see is David Horwich’s vote update at 11:30 am on March 3rd.
Bells’ vote was the only vote after that last vote update; there were a few other stray comments to finish out the thread. None of those are showing up, huh?
I’ve been finding that Safari works with this site a little better than Firefox – the “Recent Comments” seem to update more rapidly, and so on. Things are still kinda wonky, though.
I usuaully use Chrome. I’ve just opened up the website in Firefox to see if that changes anything, and I can now see the final seven comments on that thread. So weird.
Killebrew definitely has a shot at Biggio’s vote total – with 30+ rounds of voting to go he only needs to average 10 votes a year (while not getting elected, of course).
PS The above list has Alomar and Murray out of order.
Whoops! You’re right about Murray/Alomar. I’ll fix it next time.
I was exaggerating about how long it will take Killebrew. But SO much can happen between now and then. For one, he could massively lose support in comparison to the truckload of good candidates we have now and upcoming (which I fully expect). For two, he could have a big push (as Alomar and Murray recently did) to get him elected in one of the “blank” years. I expect that one or the other will happen before he’s actually elected.
Oh, sure – in the end I don’t think Killebrew will reach Biggio’s total, but he at least has a chance – at this point he’s the only who does.
Are others having problems with the site? My latest blog post was delayed by many hours, ditto my comment #22 above. From the home page, if I click on certain comments in the “Recent Comments” sidebar, I go to the related post, but that comment is gone. That sidebar as displayed on my recent post is still hours behind the home page; Hartvig made a comment on my post which I can see in brief from the home page, but hasn’t shown up on the post yet. Anyone else experiencing this stuff?
I think we’re all experiencing similar things.
Until the Recent Comments gets fixed, think we just have to rely on the Comments count (which is being updated promptly) to identify when additional comments have been made.
JA, when I load this site in Firefox it doesn’t even show your “40-WAR players Part 3” post from yesterday. That’s in addition to the issues with the Recent Comments, the complete failure of the post-subscription service, and the rest. I know this site is free & all, but it sure would be nice if these bugs can get zapped one of these days…