Seeking a durable, dependable left-handed reliever, the Cardinals signed Rob Murphy in January 1993. Murphy delivered, establishing a Cardinals single-season record for left-handers by appearing in 73 games in 1993. He held the record until Steve Kline topped it with 89 appearances for the 2001 Cardinals.
Among relievers who inherited 20 or more runners, Murphy had the best ratio of runs allowed-to-runners inherited in each of two seasons with the Cardinals. He allowed four of 33 inherited runners to score in 1993 and eight of 33 inherited runners to score in 1994. Murphy was 4-3 with a 3.79 ERA in 50 appearances for the 1994 Cardinals before he was acquired by the Yankees a week before the start of the players’ strike.
With the Reds in 1988, Murphy led National League pitchers in appearances (76). He ranked second in the NL in 1987 (87 with the Reds) and in the AL in 1989 (74 with the Red Sox).
In 2016, Murphy, 55, is a respected youth pitching instructor in Jensen Beach, Fla., about 20 miles from the Cardinals’ spring training base in Jupiter.
On March 7, 2016, Murphy granted me an interview regarding his two seasons with the Cardinals. Thoughtful and accommodating, Murphy provided a wealth of insights. Here is an edited transcript of that taped interview:
Q.: After pitching for the Astros in 1992, you became a free agent. Why did you choose the Cardinals?
Murphy: “I was thinking of signing back with Houston. I had finished the (1992) season very well with them and they had put together a pretty good young team: Jeff Bagwell, Craig Biggio, Ken Caminiti.
“My agent, Alan Hendricks, called and said, ‘I got a call from (general manager) Dal Maxvill and the Cardinals are open to what you’re doing.’ They offered a guaranteed contract for two years with a base salary and incentives.
“Alan went back to the Astros and they were a little slow with moving to that level. Alan recommended I take the deal with the Cardinals.”
Q.: What was it like playing for Joe Torre as Cardinals manager?
Murphy: “Joe knew how to handle the players. That year, my older daughter, Grace, was born and I needed time off. Joe said, ‘Family comes first.’ Joe demanded 100 percent on the field, but there was a balance: You could do your job, but you knew you could take care of personal things.”
Q.: What other qualities did you see in Torre as a manager?
Murphy: “He was a good on-field manager. It was like playing for someone like Pete Rose because of his knowledge of the game. Nothing escapes him once he’s on the field. It was always a professional approach game after game.”
Q.: You had a better first half than you did a second half with the 1993 Cardinals. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch wrote that you were exposed to some situations you probably should not have faced. What did that mean?
Murphy: “I always thrived on a desire to pitch all the time. But sometimes it can go a little too far. Sometimes there are a lot of warmups that take place that don’t show in the boxscore.
“In 1993, we had a lot of young starting pitchers and they were handled with kid gloves and I think that took its toll on the bullpen. I was put in a lot. That was my job. I wasn’t complaining, but looking back, yeah, it might have been too much.”
Q.: Bob Tewksbury was the top winner on the Cardinals in your two years with them. How did such a soft tosser become so effective?
Murphy: “He knew how to get strike one. That was the key to Tewksbury’s success. He would throw strike one, then the next pitch he would throw 10 inches inside. It got the batter off the plate. Now Tewksbury owned the rest of the plate again.
“I never saw anyone do this as much and as consistently as he did. It was uncanny. If you put Tewks in a uniform from 1935, old-school baseball, he was right there. That’s how baseball is. It’s not a new phenomenon.”
Q.: Lee Smith, the closer, was your teammate with the Red Sox and the Cardinals. What was he like?
Murphy: “A great guy. One of the characters of the game. He’s a big guy, but he would take one-inch steps when he walked. Lee saved all his energy for pitching.
“He came from the back country of Louisiana and he had his own language. For example, you’d hear Lee say, ‘I wonder if the skunk on the trunk could get me some grease for the field mouse.’ What he meant was, ‘Could the flight attendant on the airplane get me some food to take home for my kids.’ ”
Q.: Should Lee Smith be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame?
Murphy: “I think so. The guys in my memory with absolutely the best control were Lee Smith and Roger Clemens. At the time, Lee was one of the rare guys who could throw 100 mph. Now it seems like every team has a guy like that. I see that velocity go up and I see Tommy John surgery. There’s definitely a correlation.”
Q.: You played with two Hall of Fame shortstops: a young Barry Larkin with the Reds and an aging Ozzie Smith with the Cardinals. What did you see from them?
Murphy: “Barry is a wonderful guy. Gem of a human being. Outstanding ballplayer. To make it last as long as he did, that’s the reason he has that (Hall of Fame) jacket on. It’s his character, his ability and his results.
“Ozzie was like playing with Ken Griffey Jr. in Seattle. When you see them everyday, you really can embrace their greatness because those guys are almost always the hardest-working guys on the field. Even though by then he was nearly 40, Ozzie, every day, worked on catching pop-ups over his shoulder.”
Q.: What do you recall about the 1993 game when your Cardinals teammate, Mark Whiten, had four home runs and 12 RBI against the Reds?
Murphy: “I remember my jaw being in my lap. You’d watch him daily, though, and he’s one of the greatest batting practice hitters of all time. I say that in a kind way. Everyday, you could stand in Busch Stadium with your back to home plate and you’d hear the crack of the bat and know it was a Mark Whiten rocket shot. He hit so many home runs in batting practice that it was amazing. Mark had a lot of top-deck talent.”
Q.: You baffled some outstanding hitters. Dale Murphy was 0-for-14 against you. Darryl Strawberry was 1-for 12. Ken Griffey Jr. was 1-for-7 …
Murphy: “The guy that schooled me was Keith Hernandez. It was almost always with two strikes on a slider away that would get most lefties out. He’d punch it right through the 5 and 6 hole. Tony Gwynn was like that, too. Barry Bonds hit a home run on a 3-and-1 slider away to left field. I said to myself right there: I’m going to stop doing that. From then on, I threw him fastball, fastball, fastball.
“In 1994 (on April 9), Cardinals are in Candlestick Park. I get called into the game to face Bonds. Bases loaded. Bottom of the ninth. Tie score. Instead of throwing my eight warmup pitches, I threw five because I was already warmed up.
“My first three pitches to Bonds were ball one, ball two, ball three. Place is erupting. I get the ball back and said to myself, ‘Those are my eight warmup pitches.’ I threw strike one, strike two and then Bonds popped up to second. I threw him nothing but fastballs.” Boxscore
Q.: What was your reaction when the Yankees got you from the Cardinals?
Murphy: “We were in Montreal. I came back to the hotel after lunch and the light was blinking on my phone. The message said, ‘Murph, Joe Torre. Give me a call.’ I called him and he said, ‘Come down to my room.’
“I get there and he said, ‘You’re going to the Yankees.’ I said, ‘I’m going from last to first! Are you kidding me?’ I didn’t mean to be disrespectful. He said, ‘I know. It’s a great opportunity for you.’ ”
Q.: When asked then by the Post-Dispatch about that 1994 Cardinals team, you said, “We had great chemistry in spring training, but it didn’t carry into the season.” What did you mean by that?
Murphy: “We flew from spring training up to Cincinnati to open the season and we had a fight between the players before the first game. Spring training had gone well. Joe had jump-started things well. Next thing you know, we’re getting a call around midnight to tell us we already had a fight. For whatever reason, it unraveled from there and it couldn’t get reined back in.”
Previously: Why the best Joe Torre Cardinals club wasn’t good enough
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