Writer’s note: One Sixty-Two is a season-long series of blog posts connecting baseball’s major-league players to life’s universal themes. Just as there are 162 games in a season, so there will be 162 posts in this series. Let’s play some ball.
Day Seventy-Six: Mike Murray, Arizona League Giants
We take a break today from the big-league players in order to drop down a few levels. Today’s focus is a Rookie League player fresh out of college. Mike Murray is not a Major Leaguer yet – give him a couple of years. But Murray is a former student of mine, and he’s playing professional baseball, and that’s worth writing about.
As a junior, Mike was an active participant in our English class at Westfield (N.J.) High, often voicing his opinions on the quality of books I selected (thumbs-up for The Great Gatsby, thumbs-down for The Bluest Eye). When I had him again as a senior, Mike helped brighten a first-period English class by starting class discussions while others were still yawning and rubbing their eyes. It’s not often that you have a student for two straight years, but in those two years I realized that Mike was a natural leader. It was no surprise, then, when I learned that he was a catcher. An All-State and All-American one, at that.
In the spring of his senior year, Mike chose college over the amateur baseball draft, and he spent four years studying and playing ball at Wake Forest University. As a senior, he co-captained the Demon Deacons and hit .345, driving in 53 runs in 54 games. This past spring, Mike signed a contract to play in the San Francisco Giants’ minor-league system. He’s got a .333 batting average so far, playing for the Arizona League Giants in sunny Scottsdale, Ariz.
You hear stories, time and again, about the challenges of adjusting to the minor-league lifestyle. The travel, the down time, the expectations, the loneliness. As Mike Murray begins his minor-league journey out West, I’m sure he’s got plenty of support from his family and friends. But for what it’s worth, may he also know that there’s a high school English teacher back East thinking of him, and wishing him a summer filled with joy, good health, strong throws to second and doubles in the gap.
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