Eddie Clarence Murray
( February 24, 1956)
“Steady Eddie”
He is an American former Major League Baseball (MLB) first baseman, designated hitter, and coach. Spending most of his MLB career with the Baltimore Orioles, he ranks fourth in team history in both games played and hits. Though Murray never won a Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award, he finished in the top ten in MVP voting several times. He had 996 runs batted in in the 1980s, more than any other player. After his playing career, Murray coached for the Orioles, Cleveland Indians, and Los Angeles Dodgers.
Murray is one of only seven players in MLB history to be in both the 3,000-hit club and the 500-home run club. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2003. In the New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract (2001), Murray is described as the fifth-best first baseman in major league history. He was 77th on the list of Baseball’s 100 Greatest Players by The Sporting News (1998).
After playing 21 major-league seasons. Murray became a coach, first with the Baltimore Orioles, serving as bench coach in 1998 and 1999 and as first-base coach in 2000 and 2001.
Murray then served as the hitting coach for the Cleveland Indians from 2002 to 2005. He was with the Indians when inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Murray accepted the position of hitting coach with the Los Angeles Dodgers in January 2006. On June 14, 2007, Murray was fired. The Dodgers had just come off a three-game sweep of the New York Mets and had produced 31 hits and 18 runs. Former Dodger player Bill Mueller was named as an interim replacement.
In the 1980s, Murray made a donation to the Baltimore City Parks and Recreation Department which led to the establishment of the Carrie Murray Nature Center, named after Murray’s late mother.[39] In 2008, Murray released a charity wine called Eddie Murray 504 Cabernet, a nod to his 504 career home runs, with all of his proceeds donated to the Baltimore Community Foundation.
On August 17, 2012, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission charged Murray with insider trading. The SEC alleged, in a civil claim, that Murray had “made approximately $235,314 in illegal profits after Illinois-based Abbott Laboratories Inc. publicly announced its plan to purchase Advanced Medical Optics through a tender offer.” Specifically, the SEC alleged that Murray had received a “tip” about the impending purchase offer before the offer was publicly announced, bought stock in Advanced Medical Optics because of the tip, and then sold the stock for the profits after the stock increased in value after Abbott Laboratories’ plans were publicly announced. According to the SEC, Murray received the tip from former Baltimore Orioles teammate Doug DeCinces, with whom he remained close friends after their playing careers ended. One year earlier, DeCinces had agreed to pay $2.5 million to settle the SEC’s civil insider trading charges against him in the same case. Murray agreed to settle the SEC’s civil charges by paying a total of $358,151, without admitting or denying any wrongdoing.
In 1998, he ranked number 77 on The Sporting News list of Baseball’s 100 Greatest Players, and was nominated as a finalist for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team.
On Sunday, July 27, 2003, Murray, along with Gary Carter, was inducted into Major League Baseball’s Hall of Fame.More than 30,000 people heard Murray talk about how hard it was to get to the Hall of Fame. He said that he was never about one person, but about the team. He thanked the “sea of black and orange” in the crowd and then pointed to the kids farthest in the back; (more than 300 inner-city little leaguers had come from Baltimore’s Northwood Baseball League) and told them that one day “they would be here too”.
Murray was named the fifth-best first baseman in major league history in the New Bill James Historical Abstract (2010).
A bronze statue of Eddie Murray’s left-handed-hitting stance was unveiled at Oriole Park at Camden Yards on August 11, 2012.
Union Craft Brewery in Baltimore makes “Steady Eddie,” a wheat IPA named after Murray