Saturday, October 11, 2008

Honest Eddie Murphy

Of course when most people think of Eddie Murphy today, they think of the man who single-handedly saved Saturday Night Live and then boycotts it, stars in stinkers like Best Defense, and picks up interesting people on street corners.

Eddie played from 1915 until 1921 for the White Sox. Before that, he spent 1912 until 1915 with the Philadelphia Athletics. Five years after his White Sox career ended, he popped up on the Pittsburgh Pirates, for one year, in 1926.

Eddie played in three different World Series. He appeared in the 1913 and 1914 World Series games with the Athletics and he played in the 1919 World Series with the White Sox.

His stats look bad for the 1919 World Series, but there was no indication that he was a dirty player. He played in three games and made two official plate appearances. His batting average was .000 with one strikeout, but he was hit by a pitch and managed to end up with a .333 on base percentage for the series.

This statistic, coupled with his appearances in only 30 games in 1919, led to his nickname "Honest" Eddie Murphy. By all indications, he played the game right and was rewarded with the moniker that suggested such.

For being one of the innocents in the 1919 World Series, Eddie received a letter from Charles Comiskey himself proclaiming his honesty and offering him $1,500, which was the difference between the winners and losers pay for the 1919 World Series. It just goes to show that honesty really does pay.

1 comment:

--David said...

Excellent research! Great post.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...