Daniel Murtaugh

January 8, 1917 (age 59)

Chester, Pennsylvania, United States

After school, Murtaugh went to work in the Chester shipyards. He took a number of low-skilled and hazardous jobs between 1935 and 1937, including that of passer boy on a rivet gang; for thirty-four cents per hour he caught hot rivets in a cup. He also worked for a time as a wheat puffer in a cereal factory, shooting kernels out of a cannonlike machine. Murtaugh got his first baseball break in 1937 at a tryout camp held in Chester by Fritz Lucas, a scout for the St. Louis Cardinals. He impressed Lucas sufficiently to win a contract with the Cardinals Class D farm team in Cambridge, Maryland, for $200 per month. He played second base, his preferred position, as well as shortstop and hit . 297 and . 312 in two seasons. He moved up in the Cardinals farm chain to Rochester, New York, Columbus, Ohio, and Houston, Texas, over the next three years, splitting his time between second base, third base, and shortstop. In search of infield help, the last-place Philadelphia Phillies purchased Murtaugh from the Cardinals during the 1941 season. Playing mostly at second base, Murtaugh hit an unimpressive . 219 in eighty-five games but led the National League with eighteen stolen bases. He hit . 241 in 1942 and . 273 in 1943 for the team, which finished eighth (last) and seventh, respectively, in those years. In 1944 he joined the United States Army and saw action as an infantryman in Europe. Shortly after his return to the Phillies in 1946, he was sent back to the Cardinals and assigned once again to their Rochester farm team, where he had his best offensive year ever - batting . 322, with 174 hits and sixty-two runs batted in--and was acquired by the Boston Braves in the off-season. When he was unable to break into the Braves starting infield in 1947, Murtaugh was sent to the club's farm team in Milwaukee, where he went forty-two consecutive games without an error, set an American Association record with a fielding average of . 988, batted . 302, and hit a career-high seven home runs. Subsequently, the Braves traded him to the Pittsburgh Pirates. Murtaugh became the Pirates regular second baseman, collecting 149 hits, hitting . 290, and driving in 71 runs in 1948. He also led National League second basemen in putouts, assists, and double plays, surpassing the totals of such stellar rivals as Jackie Robinson of the Brooklyn Dodgers and Red Schoendienst of the Cardinals. Murtaugh's solid performance helped the Pirates, who had tied for seventh place in 1947, move up to fourth. He slumped badly in 1949, however, batting only . 203 and losing his regular second base job. Murtaugh rebounded in 1950 by hitting . 294, his highest average as a major leaguer, and regained his place in the starting lineup. After the season, Pittsburgh general manager Branch Rickey gave him a blank contract and asked Murtaugh to fill in the salary amount he thought he deserved. He is said to have written in $15, 000, more than he had earned up to that time. Murtaugh struggled at the plate again in 1951, ending the season with a woeful . 199 batting average for a weak Pirates club, which finished in the National League cellar. Realizing that his steady infield play was probably not enough to keep him in the big leagues, he asked Rickey for the opportunity to manage a team in the Pittsburgh farm system. In his nine erratic seasons in the major leagues, Murtaugh had appeared in 767 games, collected 661 hits, and compiled an overall batting average of . 254. In 1952, Murtaugh was installed as player-manager for the New Orleans Pelicans of the Southern Association. While he played regularly the Pelicans were contenders for the league pennant, but when a severe leg injury sidelined him, the team lost momentum and finished in fifth place. Restricted to pinch-hitting duties, Murtaugh gained more experience managing from the bench in 1953, but New Orleans again finished fifth. When he retired as a player in 1954 and devoted all of his energies to managing, the Pelicans were able to move up to a tie for second place. Murtaugh left New Orleans after three years to escape the constant verbal abuse of Pelicans fans. Murtaugh's next managerial post, in Charleston, West Virginia, proved even less fulfilling. Insolvent and in last place, the team released him in mid-season. In 1956 the new general manager of the Pirates, Joe L. Brown, who had been Murtaugh's boss in New Orleans, hired him to manage Pittsburgh's Williamsport, Pennsylvania, farm club. Before he got to Williamsport, however, Murtaugh was tapped by Brown to fill a vacancy on the Pirates coaching staff. He served as first-base coach under manager Bobby Bragan, a former Phillies teammate. The Pirates' poor showing in 1956 and 1957 and the flamboyant Bragan's public comments denigrating the abilities of some of his players brought about his dismissal in August 1957. After veteran coach Clyde Sukeforth declined the job, Brown made Murtaugh interim manager. Although the Pirates ended the 1957 season at the bottom of the National League, they had played better than . 500 ball in fifty-one games under Murtaugh and he was given a chance to lead the club again. By 1958 young players recruited under the Rickey regime (1950 - 1955) were maturing and Brown had added to the team's depth with deft acquisitions. Pitchers Bob Friend, Vernon Law, and Elroy Face, along with such everyday players as Roberto Clemente, Dick Groat, Bill Mazeroski, Bob Skinner, and Frank Thomas, came into their own in 1958 and propelled the Pirates to an unexpected second-place finish, eight games behind the Milwaukee Braves. As a result, Murtaugh, after his first full season at the helm of the Pirates, won manager of the year honors in the National League. In 1958 he had Pirates scout Ray Welsh, a former track coach, devise an intensive running program for the team during spring training. This conditioning probably helped the Pirates avoid serious injuries and advance six places in the standings. Despite high expectations, Pittsburgh finished a disappointing fourth in 1959. In 1960, however, everything came together for "Danny and the Pirates. " During the off-season Murtaugh intervened with Brown to prevent the trade of shortstop Groat to Kansas City for slugger Roger Maris. Groat went on to hit . 325 that year and was the National League's Most Valuable Player. In addition, Clemente batted . 314 and established himself as one of baseball's premier outfielders, and Law won twenty games and the Cy Young Award. The 1960 Pirates captured the National League pennant by eight full games over Milwaukee and went on to win the World Series. Despite being decisively outhit (91-60) and outscored (55-27) by the powerful New York Yankees, the Pirates eked out victories in four games to become the first baseball champions from Pittsburgh since 1925. Mazeroski's dramatic ninth-inning home run in the seventh game of the series was the telling blow. In the next four years the Pirates finished above . 500 only once (1962) and no higher than fourth place, while Groat was traded away, Law was hampered by a sore arm, and relations between Murtaugh and Clemente soured. Although Clemente won two batting titles under Murtaugh (1961 and 1964), the manager came to view his superstar as a prima donna who took himself out of ball games for dubious illnesses. The two had a number of angry confrontations and by 1964 were hardly communicating. Later that year Murtaugh discovered he had a serious heart ailment and left managing to become a Pirates scout and front-office troubleshooter. During the 1967 season, Harry Walker was dropped as the Pirates manager and Brown brought Murtaugh out of retirement. Under Murtaugh's direction, Pittsburgh won thirty-nine games and lost thirty-nine, ending up in sixth place. More important, Murtaugh, who prided himself in his handling of players, made peace with Clemente, who won his fourth league batting championship in 1967. Nevertheless, Murtaugh refused Brown's entreaties to stay on as manager and in 1968 returned to the front office as director of player acquisition and development. When the Pirates floundered under Larry Shepard in 1969, Brown again called upon Murtaugh, who had been cleared to return to the dugout by his doctor. He soon met the challenge of molding a new crop of promising young Pirates into a winning ballclub. His 1970 team was led by Clemente and included slugger Willie Stargell, catcher Manny Sanguillen, and problematic pitcher Dock Ellis. The successful handling of Ellis, who later claimed to have pitched a no-hitter while on LSD, may have been one of the great psychological triumphs of Murtaugh's career. After taking the National League Eastern Division crown and losing the league playoffs to the Cincinnati Reds in 1970, the Pirates won a second World Series for Murtaugh in 1971, beating the Baltimore Orioles in seven games. The heart problem that had plagued Murtaugh intermittently since 1964 and made him miss more than a month of the 1971 regular season caused him to quit managing once more and go back to scouting. Murtaugh returned briefly to manage the National League team in the 1972 All-Star Game and then was rehired by the Pirates in late 1973 after the firing of Bill Virdon. Murtaugh's 1974 and 1975 teams, led by Stargell, Dave Parker, and pitcher Jerry Reuss, won the Eastern Division titles but lost in the playoffs to the Los Angeles Dodgers and Cincinnati Reds. In his last season, 1976, the Pirates ended up second in the National League East, nine games behined the Philadelphia Phillies. When he retired for the last time, in October 1976, Murtaugh had compiled a record of 1, 115 victories and 950 losses (a winning percentage of . 540) in fifteen years of managing. He died on December 2, 1976, in Chester, Pennsylvania, two days after suffering a stroke.

Daniel Edward Murtaugh Edit Profile

also known as Danny

manager sportsman

Background

Daniel E. Murtaugh was born on October 8, 1917, in Chester, Pennsylvania, United States the son of Daniel Joseph Murtaugh, a shipyard worker, and Nellie McCarey. Murtaugh grew up in the Seventh Ward, a poor Irish-American neighborhood in Chester, a shipbuilding city south of Philadelphia on the Delaware River. Small and wiry as a youth, he played sandlot baseball and was known for his grit and hustle. Murtaugh also became a skilled fielder under the tutelage of George Noblitt, an elderly former minor leaguer.

Education

Murtaugh graduated from Chester High School in 1935.

Career

After school, Murtaugh went to work in the Chester shipyards. He took a number of low-skilled and hazardous jobs between 1935 and 1937, including that of passer boy on a rivet gang; for thirty-four cents per hour he caught hot rivets in a cup. He also worked for a time as a wheat puffer in a cereal factory, shooting kernels out of a cannonlike machine.

Murtaugh got his first baseball break in 1937 at a tryout camp held in Chester by Fritz Lucas, a scout for the St. Louis Cardinals. He impressed Lucas sufficiently to win a contract with the Cardinals Class D farm team in Cambridge, Maryland, for $200 per month. He played second base, his preferred position, as well as shortstop and hit . 297 and . 312 in two seasons. He moved up in the Cardinals farm chain to Rochester, New York, Columbus, Ohio, and Houston, Texas, over the next three years, splitting his time between second base, third base, and shortstop.

In search of infield help, the last-place Philadelphia Phillies purchased Murtaugh from the Cardinals during the 1941 season. Playing mostly at second base, Murtaugh hit an unimpressive . 219 in eighty-five games but led the National League with eighteen stolen bases. He hit . 241 in 1942 and . 273 in 1943 for the team, which finished eighth (last) and seventh, respectively, in those years.

In 1944 he joined the United States Army and saw action as an infantryman in Europe. Shortly after his return to the Phillies in 1946, he was sent back to the Cardinals and assigned once again to their Rochester farm team, where he had his best offensive year ever - batting . 322, with 174 hits and sixty-two runs batted in--and was acquired by the Boston Braves in the off-season.

When he was unable to break into the Braves starting infield in 1947, Murtaugh was sent to the club's farm team in Milwaukee, where he went forty-two consecutive games without an error, set an American Association record with a fielding average of . 988, batted . 302, and hit a career-high seven home runs. Subsequently, the Braves traded him to the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Murtaugh became the Pirates regular second baseman, collecting 149 hits, hitting . 290, and driving in 71 runs in 1948. He also led National League second basemen in putouts, assists, and double plays, surpassing the totals of such stellar rivals as Jackie Robinson of the Brooklyn Dodgers and Red Schoendienst of the Cardinals. Murtaugh's solid performance helped the Pirates, who had tied for seventh place in 1947, move up to fourth. He slumped badly in 1949, however, batting only . 203 and losing his regular second base job.

Murtaugh rebounded in 1950 by hitting . 294, his highest average as a major leaguer, and regained his place in the starting lineup. After the season, Pittsburgh general manager Branch Rickey gave him a blank contract and asked Murtaugh to fill in the salary amount he thought he deserved. He is said to have written in $15, 000, more than he had earned up to that time.

Murtaugh struggled at the plate again in 1951, ending the season with a woeful . 199 batting average for a weak Pirates club, which finished in the National League cellar. Realizing that his steady infield play was probably not enough to keep him in the big leagues, he asked Rickey for the opportunity to manage a team in the Pittsburgh farm system. In his nine erratic seasons in the major leagues, Murtaugh had appeared in 767 games, collected 661 hits, and compiled an overall batting average of . 254.

In 1952, Murtaugh was installed as player-manager for the New Orleans Pelicans of the Southern Association. While he played regularly the Pelicans were contenders for the league pennant, but when a severe leg injury sidelined him, the team lost momentum and finished in fifth place. Restricted to pinch-hitting duties, Murtaugh gained more experience managing from the bench in 1953, but New Orleans again finished fifth. When he retired as a player in 1954 and devoted all of his energies to managing, the Pelicans were able to move up to a tie for second place.

Murtaugh left New Orleans after three years to escape the constant verbal abuse of Pelicans fans. Murtaugh's next managerial post, in Charleston, West Virginia, proved even less fulfilling. Insolvent and in last place, the team released him in mid-season.

In 1956 the new general manager of the Pirates, Joe L. Brown, who had been Murtaugh's boss in New Orleans, hired him to manage Pittsburgh's Williamsport, Pennsylvania, farm club. Before he got to Williamsport, however, Murtaugh was tapped by Brown to fill a vacancy on the Pirates coaching staff. He served as first-base coach under manager Bobby Bragan, a former Phillies teammate. The Pirates' poor showing in 1956 and 1957 and the flamboyant Bragan's public comments denigrating the abilities of some of his players brought about his dismissal in August 1957. After veteran coach Clyde Sukeforth declined the job, Brown made Murtaugh interim manager. Although the Pirates ended the 1957 season at the bottom of the National League, they had played better than . 500 ball in fifty-one games under Murtaugh and he was given a chance to lead the club again.

By 1958 young players recruited under the Rickey regime (1950 - 1955) were maturing and Brown had added to the team's depth with deft acquisitions. Pitchers Bob Friend, Vernon Law, and Elroy Face, along with such everyday players as Roberto Clemente, Dick Groat, Bill Mazeroski, Bob Skinner, and Frank Thomas, came into their own in 1958 and propelled the Pirates to an unexpected second-place finish, eight games behind the Milwaukee Braves. As a result, Murtaugh, after his first full season at the helm of the Pirates, won manager of the year honors in the National League.

In 1958 he had Pirates scout Ray Welsh, a former track coach, devise an intensive running program for the team during spring training. This conditioning probably helped the Pirates avoid serious injuries and advance six places in the standings. Despite high expectations, Pittsburgh finished a disappointing fourth in 1959.

In 1960, however, everything came together for "Danny and the Pirates. " During the off-season Murtaugh intervened with Brown to prevent the trade of shortstop Groat to Kansas City for slugger Roger Maris. Groat went on to hit . 325 that year and was the National League's Most Valuable Player. In addition, Clemente batted . 314 and established himself as one of baseball's premier outfielders, and Law won twenty games and the Cy Young Award. The 1960 Pirates captured the National League pennant by eight full games over Milwaukee and went on to win the World Series. Despite being decisively outhit (91-60) and outscored (55-27) by the powerful New York Yankees, the Pirates eked out victories in four games to become the first baseball champions from Pittsburgh since 1925.

Mazeroski's dramatic ninth-inning home run in the seventh game of the series was the telling blow. In the next four years the Pirates finished above . 500 only once (1962) and no higher than fourth place, while Groat was traded away, Law was hampered by a sore arm, and relations between Murtaugh and Clemente soured. Although Clemente won two batting titles under Murtaugh (1961 and 1964), the manager came to view his superstar as a prima donna who took himself out of ball games for dubious illnesses. The two had a number of angry confrontations and by 1964 were hardly communicating.

Later that year Murtaugh discovered he had a serious heart ailment and left managing to become a Pirates scout and front-office troubleshooter. During the 1967 season, Harry Walker was dropped as the Pirates manager and Brown brought Murtaugh out of retirement. Under Murtaugh's direction, Pittsburgh won thirty-nine games and lost thirty-nine, ending up in sixth place. More important, Murtaugh, who prided himself in his handling of players, made peace with Clemente, who won his fourth league batting championship in 1967.

Nevertheless, Murtaugh refused Brown's entreaties to stay on as manager and in 1968 returned to the front office as director of player acquisition and development. When the Pirates floundered under Larry Shepard in 1969, Brown again called upon Murtaugh, who had been cleared to return to the dugout by his doctor. He soon met the challenge of molding a new crop of promising young Pirates into a winning ballclub. His 1970 team was led by Clemente and included slugger Willie Stargell, catcher Manny Sanguillen, and problematic pitcher Dock Ellis. The successful handling of Ellis, who later claimed to have pitched a no-hitter while on LSD, may have been one of the great psychological triumphs of Murtaugh's career. After taking the National League Eastern Division crown and losing the league playoffs to the Cincinnati Reds in 1970, the Pirates won a second World Series for Murtaugh in 1971, beating the Baltimore Orioles in seven games.

The heart problem that had plagued Murtaugh intermittently since 1964 and made him miss more than a month of the 1971 regular season caused him to quit managing once more and go back to scouting. Murtaugh returned briefly to manage the National League team in the 1972 All-Star Game and then was rehired by the Pirates in late 1973 after the firing of Bill Virdon. Murtaugh's 1974 and 1975 teams, led by Stargell, Dave Parker, and pitcher Jerry Reuss, won the Eastern Division titles but lost in the playoffs to the Los Angeles Dodgers and Cincinnati Reds. In his last season, 1976, the Pirates ended up second in the National League East, nine games behined the Philadelphia Phillies. When he retired for the last time, in October 1976, Murtaugh had compiled a record of 1, 115 victories and 950 losses (a winning percentage of . 540) in fifteen years of managing.

He died on December 2, 1976, in Chester, Pennsylvania, two days after suffering a stroke.

Achievements

Daniel Edward Murtaugh was a second baseman, manager, front-office executive and coach in Major League Baseball best known for his 29-year association with the Pittsburgh Pirates, where he won two World Series as field manager (in 1960 and 1971). He also played 416 of his 767 career MLB games during four seasons with the Pirates as a second baseman.

Views

Quotations: "Why certainly I'd like to have that fellow who hits a home run every time at bat, who strikes out every opposing batter when he's pitching, who throws strikes to any base or the plate when he's playing outfield and who's always thinking about two innings ahead just what he'll do to baffle the other team. Any manager would want a guy like that playing for him. The only trouble is to get him to put down his cup of beer and come down out of the stands and do those things. "

Personality

Daniel Murtaugh was five feet, nine inches and 160 pounds.

In addition, Murtaugh had a low-key style and great empathy with the players. A nondrinker who preferred chewing tobacco and cigars, he kept his men relaxed and focused and was careful not to pry into their activities off the field.

Connections

On November 29, 1941, Daniel Murtaugh married Kathleen Patricia Clark. They had three children.

Father:: Daniel Joseph Murtaugh
Mother:: Lucille Ellen "Nellie" Murtaugh (McCarey)
opponent:: Albert Fred "Red" Schoendienst
opponent:: Jack Roosevelt Robinson
Wife:: Kathleen Patricia Murtaugh (Clark)
Son:: Daniel E. Murtaugh

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Daniel Edward Murtaugh Edit Profile

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