Why Dale Murphy = HOF

Dale Murphy’s stats are just borderline HOF. Better than Bill Mazerowski, just less than Jim Rice. Maz’s candidacy was helped by hitting one of the greatest home runs in history. Rice had a surly personality. As a borderline case, playing in Boston tipped the scales in his favor. Andre Dawson and Murphy were undoubtedly the best two players in the 1980’s. Dawson is in, but not Dale. Not only was Murphy the most feared hitter, he also won a collection of Gold Gloves.

Many writers say that had Murphy played in New York, he would’ve been voted in years ago. Murphy’s son mentioned something I did not know: one of Dale’s MVP years was statistically all-around unequalled, in MLB history. Only a few players in history won back to back MVP’s, and they’re all in the Hall. Had Murphy retired earlier, after his knees gave out, his career stats would’ve looked better. Playing 162 games a season for five straight seasons (the seventh longest streak in history), wore out his body.

Dave O’Brien’s article this week was pretty good. One of the five criteria for enshrinement into the HOF is integrity. More than football or basketball, the baseball HOF takes this seriously…in the NEGATIVE sense. Joe Jackson, Pete Rose, Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds, Rafael Palmiero, Sammy Sosa, and Roger Clemens have been excluded. If the integrity clause is so important that it keeps so many of the game’s greats OUT of the Hall, one would think having unsurpassable integrity would be enough to put a borderline HOF player INTO the Hall. That was the crux of O’Brien’s argument.

In addition to not playing in New York, the Braves did not win a World Series during Murphy’s career. Like Ron Santo, this too took away from Dale’s resume.

If Maz, Rice, Santo, Tinker, Evers, and Chance are in the HOF, Dale Murphy certainly deserves to be as well. It’s doubtful he’ll be voted in this year, but I think down the road the Veterans Committee will vote him in.