Bob Murphy
Wed., August 11, 10:08 AM
I have to say a few words about Bob Murphy. Who was he? When he passed away last week, it was hardly a blip in the news. On the radio, it was mentioned only in the sports news. But for forty years, he was one of the best baseball broadcasters in the business.
After the Dodgers and the Giants moved to the West Coast, there was no National League baseball in New York. (Believe me, there is – or was – a difference between the leagues.) Once in a while we could catch a Game of the Week, where we discovered that not all the sportscasters were as good as those we’d grown up with. They seemed to be more interested in whatever they were saying than in telling us what was happening on the field. Compared to the likes of Mel Allen and Red Barber, these guys were terrible.
In 1962 the Mets began playing in New York. They were, without doubt, the worst major league team ever seen (Can’t Anybody Here Play This Game?), but there was National League Baseball in New York again. Their announcing crew consisted of Lindsay Nelson, who was well known in New York; Ralph Kiner, unproven as a broadcaster but knowledgeable after a fine career as a champion batter; and Bob Murphy. Who? Bob had experience elsewhere but was new to the area.
It was obvious immediately that he described the games well, but it became even more important in September, when I went up to college to finish out my degree. Even if I’d had a television set, it probably wouldn’t have picked up Channel 9 from New York, and I listened to the games on the radio.
It was comical to me even as I did it, alone in my little apartment, sitting in a rocking chair with my cross-stitching on my lap, listening to a ball game on the radio. What kind of crazy lady are you?! Well, I never said I was perfect.
Bob Murphy made those games come alive. In addition, he began to teach me something new. When you watch a game on TV, you see what the director wants you to see. When a man is at bat, there’s a camera on the batter and one on the pitcher. Maybe they’ll show you a baserunner who is trying to steal. But I listened to Bob say things like, “the infield shifts to the left…” If you watch the infielders move with the pitch, you have some idea what kind of pitch is coming. The batter can’t do that, of course; he has to watch the ball, and it’s coming fast. When I went to a live game, I knew what to look for.
Bob told us about the plays and the strategy. He knew the players well – their strengths, their histories, even their families. He’d elicit players’ viewpoints from Ralph. He loved the game as the fans did.
For forty years, till his retirement in 2002, Bob Murphy gave us good baseball. For most of that time, I still loved the game. Thank you, Bob.
