Every boy who grew up in the South during the 1980s knows Dale Murphy. With the proliferation of TBS and cable television, we Southerners grew up on Murphy, Horner, Hubbard, Garber, and Niekro. When uniforms were distributed in little league, we all rushed to the box of jerseys in anticipation of grabbing that prized jersey with the "3" on the back. Dale Murphy was not only one of the greatest baseball players of the 1980s. He also taught us that stardom and goodness are not mutually exclusive.
Many moons ago - before he acquired the championship rings and certain hall of fame membership while holding court in the Bronx - Joe Torre managed a young Dale Murphy in Atlanta. Torre, all those years ago, said of Murphy, "If you're a coach, you want him as a player. If you're a father, you want him as a son. If you're a woman, you want him as a husband. If you're a kid, you want him as a father. What else can you say about the guy?" While setting records, garnering honors and turning heads, Murphy was also known as one of the "great guys" in professional sports.
So what's changed since Murph hung up his cleats in 1993? Other than a few pounds and gray hairs, not much. Murphy recently founded the "I Won't Cheat" Foundation, an organization designed to steer young athletes away from performance-enhancing drugs. The foundation recently announced a monthly essay contest in which the winner will receive a $1,000 scholarship check.
In describing the goal of his group, Murphy said, "Our mission statement is ‘injecting ethics into America’s future.’ We are having a lot of success helping kids make the commitment to do things the right way.”
In 1987 Dale Murphy, a sinewy, thirty-one year old gold-glove all-star in his prime, slugged a career-high 44 home runs, a total insufficient to earn him the National League Most Valuable Player Award. That trophy went to Andre Dawson of the Cubs, who belted an awe-inspiring 49 dingers. Just fourteen years later Barry Bonds would round the bases 73 times in one summer. Bonds is currently the centerpiece of a federal investigation into the alleged use by athletes of performance-enhancing drugs (steroids and human growth hormone). While Bonds' feats and freakish physical changes are well-chronicled, Dale Murphy is but an afterthought come election time for baseball's hall of fame.
Murphy, whose only negative career headlines involved an isolated 1984 drop-kick of a water cooler and the "controversial" removal of a female reporter from a locker room of mostly naked men, continues to inspire. “I understand that the choice to cheat is always available whether you’re playing sports or working in business or taking a test in school,” said Murphy, who was the National League MVP in 1982 and 1983. “Our message takes an ethics-based approach to help kids make good decisions. We are getting kids to pledge that they won’t cheat in sports, school and life."
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