The Hall of Fame Case For and Against Danny Murtaugh

Danny Murtaugh led the Pittsburgh Pirates to two World Series titles in 15 years as the team’s manager. A former Pirates second baseman who once finished 9th in the National League MVP vote, Murtaugh was beloved in Pittsburgh. Like Billy Martin with the New York Yankees, Murtaugh was hired multiple times (Murtaugh had four stints with the Bucs, Martin five with the Yanks). The difference is that the popular Murtaugh was never fired; he merely stepped down multiple times due to health concerns, which eventually led to his early passing at the age of 59 in 1976.

Murtaugh is the only managerial candidate on the Hall of Fame’s Golden Days Eras Committee ballot, which will consider ten men whose primary contribution to the game of baseball was between 1950-69. Murtaugh has been on two previous committee ballots (these used to be called Veterans Committee) and received 50% of the vote (8 out of 16) in December 2009.

Given that Murtaugh is on a ballot with nine players, many of whom have solid cases for Cooperstown, it’s unlikely he’ll do as well this time. Moreover, the 16 members of the committee can only cast four “yes” votes, which makes the math among the ten candidates difficult. A candidate must get 12 out of 16 votes (75%) to be elected to the Hall of Fame. Still, as we’ll see, Murtaugh is arguably the top managerial candidate from his era who does not yet have a plaque.

Cooperstown Cred: Danny Murtaugh

• Pirates manager (1957-64, 1967, 1970-71, 1973-76)
• Career as manager: 1,115-950 (.540) in 15 seasons
• Won two World Series (1960 & 1971)
• Won four N.L. East titles in six seasons in the LCS era
• 3-time Manager of the Year

(cover photo: National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum)

Danny Murtaugh’s Playing Career

Daniel Edward Murtaugh was born on October 8th, 1917, in Chester, Pennsylvania, a city on the Delaware River halfway between Philadelphia and Wilmington. The middle of five children to Daniel and Nellie Murtaugh, Danny grew up in a working-class Irish neighborhood. His father worked in the shipyards, his mother did laundry and baked pies to make money.

Murtaugh played baseball, basketball, soccer, and football as a youth. He took a pay cut from working in the shipyards to start his professional baseball career in the St. Louis Cardinals organization at 19. Murtaugh spent five seasons in the Cardinals’ minor league organization until 1941 when he was sold to his hometown Philadelphia Phillies. He was immediately promoted to the major leagues.

The ’41 Phillies were a terrible ballclub; they won just 41 games and finished last in the National League. Murtaugh, who made his MLB debut on July 3rd, became the Phillies’ starting second baseman. He didn’t hit much at all (51 OPS+) but ran rampant whenever he managed to get on base. As a rookie, the 5’9″ rookie led the National League in both stolen bases (18) and times caught stealing (13).

Murtaugh played second base, shortstop, and third base for the Phillies in 1942 before settling in exclusively at second base in 1943. Philadelphia remained the doormats of the N.L. in ’42 (with 42 wins) but improved to 7th place (with 64 wins) in ’43. Murtaugh still didn’t hit much in 1942 but posted an above-average 105 OPS+ in ’43.

Murtaugh’s last game in 1943 was on August 19th because he had been inducted into the Army. He saw quite a bit of action in Europe (earning three battle stars) and was assigned to the occupation forces in Japan after the war. He was discharged in February 1946.

Murtaugh played in just six games in 1946 before being sold back to the Cardinals organization. He spent the season in the International League with the Rochester Red Wings, where he hit .322. After the season, he was a Rule 5 pick by the Boston Braves; he spent the 1947 campaign mostly with Boston’s AAA affiliate, the Milwaukee Brewers.

After the ’47 campaign, Murtaugh was traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates, where he would spend the final six years of his playing days. The 1948 campaign was Murtaugh’s best in Major League Baseball. As the team’s starting second baseman, he slashed .290/.365/.356 (94 OPS+) and drove in 71 runs. Baseball-Reference credits the 30-year old Murtaugh with a career-best 3.6 WAR for his efforts in ’48. In addition, he was rewarded with a 9th place finish in the N.L. MVP vote.

Murtaugh’s humor and self-deprecating nature were revealed in 1948 when the legendary singer Bing Crosby, a part-owner of the Pirates, visited the team in the dugout. Crosby declared, “there is the greatest second baseman in baseball today.” Murtaugh told Crosby, “Bing, I know you’re a great singer, but you don’t mind if I tell you that you don’t know much about second basemen.”

After his strong ’48 campaign, Murtaugh had a miserable 1949 season; he hit just .203 (51 OPS+) with injuries limiting him to 75 games. He bounced back in 1950 (.297 BA, 100 OPS+) but suffered a skull fracture in late August when a fastball from Sal Maglie hit him in the head.

After a weak campaign in 1951 (.199 BA, 47 OPS+), Murtaugh was offered a job as a player/manager for the Pirates AA affiliate, the New Orleans Pelicans. He spent three years managing the Pelicans, then one season with the unaffiliated Charleston Senators. In 1956, Murtaugh returned to Pittsburgh as a coach under manager Bobby Bragan. After the Bucs got off to a terrible start in the 1957 campaign, losing 67 out of their first 103 games, Murtaugh was named interim manager as Bragan’s replacement.

Danny Murtaugh: Pirates Skipper

The respect that the 39-year-old Danny Murtaugh had built in his brief time as a coach with the Pittsburgh Pirates is revealed by how he was hired. General Manager Joe Brown wanted to give the job to first-base coach Clyde Sukeforth, but Sukeforth declined and recommended Murtaugh.

The Pirates went 26-25 in their last 51 games of 1957, after which Murtaugh was given the job permanently. The ’57 Bucs, even while finishing 2nd to last in the National League, had some building blocks for the future. Those foundational players included a 22-year-old Roberto Clemente (who had yet to find his stride as a hitter but was already a magnificent defensive right fielder) and a slick-fielding double-play combination of 20-year-old second baseman Bill Mazeroski and 26-year-old shortstop Dick Groat. The Bucs also had an emerging trio of pitching stalwarts with starters Bob Friend and Vern Law and reliever Roy Face.

With Murtaugh in place from the start of the season, the 1958 Pirates had their best year since 1944, going 84-70 to finish second in the N.L., eight games behind the Milwaukee Braves. Friend was a 22-game winner, slugger Frank Thomas (a third baseman) set career-highs with 35 HR and 109 RBI, and left-fielder Bob Skinner hit .321. Thanks to the 22-game improvement from ’57, Murtaugh was named the Associated Press Manager of the Year.

In the off-season, the Pirates made an eight-player trade with the Cincinnati Reds. Thomas and three others were dealt for third baseman Don Hoak, catcher Smoky Burgess, and pitcher Harvey Haddix.

Despite the new acquisitions and emergence of first baseman Dick Stuart as a top-flight hitter, the Pirates regressed in 1959. Friend had an off-year (8-19, 4,03 ERA), Mazeroski and Groat had weak offensive campaigns, and the team missed the power of Thomas. The pitching stars on the team were Law (18-9, 2.98 ERA) and Face, who went 18-1 with a 2.70 ERA and finished 7th in the N.L. MVP vote.

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1960: Pennant Winners

Everything clicked for Danny Murtaugh’s Pirates in 1960. In a sign of what was to come, in the 5th game of the season, the Bucs trailed the Cincinnati Reds 5-0 going into the bottom of the 9th inning at Forbes Field. First, Mazeroski delivered an RBI single to cut the lead to four runs. The next batter (Hal Smith) hit a three-run home run to make it a 5-4 lead for the Reds. Then, three batters later, Skinner hit a 2-run home run to deep right field to give the Bucs a walk-off 6-5 victory. After losing the next game, the Bucs won 9 contests in a row to start the season with a 12-3 record.

From May 10th to June 3rd, the magic continued when the Bucs went 16-5, which included a stretch of four extra-inning walk-off wins in the span of ten games, with Clemente twice being the hero. (The Pirates took first place on May 30th and would not relinquish the top spot for the rest of the season).

Between 1959-62, Major League Baseball played two All-Star Games. In this particular year, the two games were played in three days (the first at Municipal Stadium in Kansas City, the second at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx). The Pirates, with a 49-30 record and five-game lead in the National League, had eight All-Stars on the N.L. rosters. Skinner and Mazeroski were in the starting lineup for both games, with Friend getting the start in Kansas City, Law in the Bronx. Clemente, Burgess, Groat, and Face were also on the rosters. Friend and Law were each credited with victories as the senior circuit won both games.

The Pirates lost 7 of their first 11 games after the All-Star break, resulting in one night in which they were tied for the N.L. lead with the Braves. After that, however, the Bucs won 19 out of 25 matchups and were back in front of the pack by 7.5 games. The Bucs finished with a 95-59 record, a full seven games ahead of Milwaukee. In an omen of what was yet to come in October, the Bucs won 11 of those 95 games in walk-off fashion, with 9 of those wins in extra frames.

The Pirates won the N.L. pennant because a variety of things went right. Clemente emerged as a hitting star (hitting .314 with 94 RBI). Groat hit .325 to lead all players in baseball, played superb defense, and was later named the N.L. MVP. Law went 20-9 with a 3.08 ERA and would be named baseball’s Cy Young Award winner. In the meantime, Friend had a bounceback campaign (18-12, 3.00 ERA) with Vinegar Bend Mizell (a mid-season acquisition) going 13-5 with a 3.12 ERA.

1960 World Series

The Pittsburgh Pirates and Danny Murtaugh were matched up in the World Series against Casey Stengel’s New York Yankees, appearing in their 10th Fall Classic since 1949.

Vern Law had by far his worst start of the season in his final regular-season outing against the Braves (2.2 IP, 8 ER), but Murtaugh believed in his All-Star ace and gave him the Game 1 assignment. Interestingly, Stengel had used Whitey Ford in relief in the last game of the regular season (a meaningless encounter) and tabbed veteran Art Ditmar for the first-game start. Roger Maris, the 1960 A.L. MVP (and Golden Days Hall of Fame candidate), hit a first-inning home run off Law but the Pirates bats tagged Ditmar for three runs in the bottom of the first, with Clemente’s single sending the Yankees’ right-hander to an early shower. With Mazeroski providing a two-run tater later in the game, Law and Face held on for a 6-4 victory.

In Game 2, the Yankees battered Friend and five relievers for a 16-3 victory. That blowout was followed by another, a 10-0 win in which Murtaugh also needed six pitchers to get through the game while Ford pitched a shutout.

The Bucs badly needed a win in Game 4 and, again, Law and Face delivered to combine for a 3-2 win. In Game 6, Ditmar was again knocked out early when Mazeroski delivered a second-inning double to give Pittsburgh a 3-0 lead. That was enough for starter Harvey Haddix and Face to combine for a 5-2 victory.

The Pirates had an opportunity to clinch the series in Game 6 at Forbes Field, but The Bronx Bombers tattooed Friend and, again, five relievers. Ford pitched another shutout, and the Yankees won 12-0. Amazingly, the series was tied at three games apiece despite New York outscoring Pittsburgh 46-to-17.

In Game 7, Murtaugh again went with Law, while Stengel tabbed veteran Bob Turley, who had won the MLB Cy Young Award in 1958. The Pirates had a 4-1 lead after five innings but, after Law gave up a single and walk to start the 6th, Murtaugh turned to the man who had earned what we now call a “save” in the Bucs’ previous three wins, Roy Face. Unfortunately, this time the veteran reliever could not deliver. Mickey Mantle hit an RBI single, and Yogi Berra swatted a three-run home run to give the Yankees a 5-4 lead. The Yankees scored two more runs off Face in the 8th, but the Pirates stormed back for five runs in the bottom of the frame to take a 9-7 lead.

Face had been lifted for a pinch-hitter in the 8th, so Murtaugh tried to close it out with Friend. But, after two straight singles, Murtaugh summoned Haddix out of the bullpen, with Mantle and Berra driving in a run apiece to tie the game.

The rest of this story is familiar to all. Mazeroski led off the bottom of the 9th inning and, on the second pitch he saw from Ralph Terry, delivered the first walk-off home run that resulted in a team winning the World Championship. The Pirates, who had won eleven games in the regular season in walk-off fashion, did it again in the most critical game of the year.

After the win, clearly aware of the overall run disparity in the series, Murtaugh noted that “it’s not the number of runs you make, it’s the number of games you win… It was just typical of my ballclub, a fighting ballclub all the way.”

In November, Murtaugh was once again named the Associated Press Manager of the Year.

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1961-64: The End of Murtaugh’s First Managerial Tour

1961 was a season of disappointment for the defending World Series Champions. The team went 75-79 to finish 6th in the N.L. Clemente started hitting like a Hall of Famer (.351 BA, 150 OPS+) while winning the first of his 12 Gold Gloves, but many of the other stars from 1960 had off-years, most notably Groat, Skinner, Friend, Mizell, Face, and especially, Law, who only pitched 59.1 innings and missed most of the season.

The Bucs rebounded to win 93 games in 1962, but that was only good enough for a 4th place finish in the N.L. Also, in 1962, Murtaugh’s health problems started to manifest. During spring training, he checked himself into a hospital in Fort Myers with flu symptoms but learned while there that he had a heart problem.

In the offseason between the ’62 and ’63 campaigns, the Pirates traded three of their starting position players, Groat, Hoak, and Stuart, while Skinner was traded in May. Although the Bucs got major league talent in return, the moves ultimately didn’t work. The Pirates sagged again in 1963, going just 74-88 in 1963. On the positive side, two future stars emerged in the ’63 campaign, pitcher Bob Veale and future Hall of Fame slugger Willie Stargell.

The 1964 campaign was only slightly better for the Bucs (they went 80-82 to finish 6th in the league), despite big years from Clemente (who led the majors with a .339 and the N.L. with 211 hits) and Veale (18 wins, 2.74 ERA).

At the end of the ’64 season, Danny Murtaugh walked away from the team at 46, citing health concerns. However, he remained with the Pirates as a scout and advisor.

Act II: Danny Murtaugh’s Many Returns to the Dugout

Harry Walker took over the Pittsburgh Pirates for the 1965 season, and he guided the Bucs to 90 wins in ’65 and 92 wins in ’66, the year in which Clemente was the N.L. MVP (he set career-bests with 29 HR and 119 RBI to go along with 202 hits and his 7th straight Gold Glove).

The Pirates got off to a mediocre start in 1967 (42-42), after which Walker was fired. Murtaugh took over the team for the balance of the season, which went about the same as the first half: the Bucs went 39-39 in their final 78 games. Whether it was official or not, Murtaugh was an interim manager and did not return for the 1968 campaign. The new Pirates manager was Larry Shephard. He led the team to 80 wins in ’68 and had an 84-73 in ’69 before being fired and replaced at the end of the season by Alex Grammas. General Manager Joe Brown consulted with Murtaugh about who should be the team’s new skipper, and Murtaugh, ready to get back into the dugout at 52, selected himself.

The 1970 Pirates had a mixture of talented 30-something veterans (Clemente, Stargell, center fielder Matty Alou, Veale, and relief ace Dave Giusti) with talented young players in their early to mid-20s (first baseman Bob Robertson, third baseman Richie Hebner, catcher Manny Sanguillen, outfielder/first baseman Al Oliver and a 22-year old hurler named Dock Ellis, who threw a no-hitter while tripping on LSD).

The big new thing for the Pirates in 1970 was the move (in July) from Forbes Field to Three Rivers Stadium. Murtaugh’s Bucs won 89 games for the season, which was good enough to win the N.L. East by five games over the Chicago Cubs.

In the NLCS, the Pirates faced off against the N.L. West champion Cincinnati Reds. The Reds, in their first season under the leadership of future Hall of Fame skipper Sparky Anderson, swept the Bucs in three games.

After the season, Murtaugh was named the N.L. Manager of the Year, the third time he had received managerial honors.

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1971: Murtaugh’s 2nd Title Run

Given that he had dealt with a “heavy virus” in the closing weeks of the 1970 season, it wasn’t a certainty that Danny Murtaugh would return in 1971, but he decided that he was healthy enough to do it.

“I was seriously thinking about retiring from baseball after the 1970 season, my eighth in the Major Leagues playing for the Pittsburgh Pirates. During the off-season, our manager, Danny Murtaugh, called me to talk me out of it. ‘You should come back next season,’ Murtaugh said. “We’ve got something put together, and my plans include you.’

— Gene Alley (Pirates shortstop), in a letter provided by Tim Murtaugh (Danny’s grandson) in which Alley advocates for Murtaugh for the Hall of Fame (November 30, 2021)

The 1971 campaign was well put together for Murtaugh, Alley, and the rest of the Pirates. On June 10th, the Bucs took the lead in the N.L. East and would not relinquish that lead for the rest of the season, ultimately finishing at 97-65, seven games ahead of the St. Louis Cardinals in the East.

Future Hall of Famers Stargell and Clemente had MVP-caliber seasons to lead the Bucs to the playoffs. Stargell, who slugged an MLB-best 48 HR to go with 125 RBI and a 185 OPS+, finished 2nd in the N.L. MVP voting behind the Cards’ Joe Torre. Clemente, who turned 37 in August, finished 5th in the MVP vote; he hit .341 and won his 11th Gold Glove. Sanguillen and Ellis joined Stargell and The Great One as N.L. All-Stars.

Murtaugh did suffer a health scare in late May when he went to a hospital in Cincinnati with chest pains. After that, Murtaugh was in and out of hospitals for two weeks in Cincinnati and Pittsburgh before returning to the dugout.

In the ’71 campaign, the Pirates skipper was the architect of an event that was a “first” in the history of Major League Baseball. On September 1st, he wrote out a lineup of Rennie Stennett, Gene Clines, Clemente, Stargell, Sanguillen, Dave Cash, Oliver, Jackie Hernandez, and Ellis. It was the first time in MLB history that a team fielded a starting lineup containing all minority players. Asked afterward if he realized the significance of the lineup, Murtaugh replied, “I knew we had nine Pirates.”

The 1971 Postseason

The Pirates were matched up against the San Francisco Giants in the NLCS. After the Giants took Game 1 at Candlestick Park behind future Hall of Famer Gaylord Perry, the Pirates won Game 2, thanks to three home runs by first baseman Bob Robertson. It was to date the only time in baseball postseason history that a player not named Babe Ruth hit three taters in a game (the Bambino did it twice).

After the Pirates won Game 3 at Three Rivers Stadium, Perry was back on the mound for the Giants in Game 4, against Pittsburgh’s Steve Blass. Thanks to an RBI single and three-run home run by another future Hall of Famer (Willie McCovey), the Giants had a 5-2 lead in the middle of the 2nd inning. Hebner, however, delivered a three-run blast off Perry to tie the score at 5. Then, in the bottom of the 6th, with the score still tied at 5, Clemente’s RBI single knocked Perry out of the game. Three batters later, Oliver hit a three-run homer off reliever Jerry Johnson to lead Pittsburgh to a 9-5 win and a date in the World Series against Earl Weaver‘s Baltimore Orioles. This would be the second time that Murtaugh would face off in the Fall Classic against a skipper who would later have a plaque in Cooperstown.

Because they were the defending World Series Champions, the Orioles were favored in the World Series. Besides a pair of future Hall of Famers named Robinson (Frank and Brooks), the O’s had a quartet of 20-game winners in their starting rotation (Dave McNally, Pat Dobson, Mike Cuellar, and future Cooperstown inductee Jim Palmer).

Behind McNally and Palmer, the Orioles won the first two games of the series at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore while getting outscored 16-to-6.

“Murtaugh called a team meeting and held up the scouting report we had been using for the Orioles. He tore it up and threw it into the garbage. ‘We’re not using the scouting report anymore,’ Murtaugh said. ‘Go out there and play like the Pittsburgh Pirates.'”

— Gene Alley (letter provided to the author)

Thanks to a 3-run tater from Robertson (his 5th in 7 postseason games), the Bucs took Game 3 by a 5-1 score. In Game 4, Pirates starter Luke Walker was knocked out in the first inning, but Bruce Kison and Dave Giusti shut down the Orioles’ bats with 8.1 innings of one-hit, scoreless ball, delivering the Bucs a 4-3 win. Nelson Briles continued the scoreless streak for the Pirates, throwing a two-hit shutout in Game 5, with Robertson hitting yet another long ball.

The Orioles won Game 6 by a 3-2 score on a walk-off sacrifice fly by Brooks Robinson in the bottom of the 10th, but the game is best remembered by one of the greatest throws in World Series history. In the bottom of the 9th, O’s shortstop Mark Belanger drew a one-out walk off Guisti. Two batters later, left fielder Don Buford hit a double down the right-field line. Clemente dug the ball out of the corner and threw a one-hop strike to Sanguillen to keep Belanger at third and prolong the game for another inning.

Blass and Cuellar were the pitching card in Game 7, and both hurlers were on the top of their games. With a scoreless tie in the top of the 4th inning, Clemente hit a home run to left-center field to give the Bucs a 1-0 lead. Blass went the distance; Pittsburgh held on for a 2-1 victory to deliver Murtaugh his second World Series championship. Clemente, who hit .414 with 2 HR and 4 RBI in the series, was named the World Series MVP. (The Great One and Bill Mazeroski, the 1960 World Series hero, were the two players to enjoy both championships with their beloved manager).

After the season, Murtaugh stepped down as the Pirates manager for the third time due to health concerns.

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Danny Murtaugh Returns for the Fourth and Final Time

Bill Virdon, the starting center fielder for the 1960 World Champion Pirates, took over the reins of the Bucs in 1972. The Pirates won the N.L. East again before falling in the NLCS to the Cincinnati Reds. The Pirates family (and baseball fans throughout the northern hemisphere) were shocked when, on New Year’s Eve, Clemente perished in a plane crash off the coast of San Juan while he was working on relief efforts to help the people of Nicaragua, who had suffered through a devastating earthquake.

Without The Great One, the Pirates were a mediocre team in 1973. After 136 games, the team was 67-69, and Joe Brown convinced Danny Murtaugh to return to the dugout for the fourth time. The team finished the season in 3rd place in the N.L. East at 80-82.

Even with Murtaugh back in the dugout, the Pirates got off to a horrendous start in 1974. They lost 10 of their first 12 contests and, after 50 games, they were 18-32, putting them in last place in the division. After losing the first half of a mid-July Sunday doubleheader against Cincinnati, the Bucs were still a meager 37-49. Things improved in a division with no runaway leader, but the Bucs were still just 51-57 after the first half of a twin-bill against the Cubs in early August. However, Murtaugh’s Bucs righted the ship for the rest of the season, going 37-17 in their final 54 games. Pittsburgh wrapped up the division title on the last game of the season on a Sanguillen walk-off single.

In the NLCS, the Pirates took on Walter Alston‘s Los Angeles Dodgers, making it the fourth time in five postseason series that Murtaugh matched up against a manager who would later earn a Cooperstown plaque. Thanks to two brilliant starts by future Hall of Famer Don Sutton (who gave up just one run in 17 innings), the Dodgers won the series in four games.

In 1975, the Pirates captured the N.L. East title again, this time with 92 wins. This was the fourth consecutive division crown for the Bucs in which Murtaugh managed for the entire season. 1975 was the breakout season for a dynamic right fielder named Dave Parker. The Cobra hit .308 with 25 HR with RBI and led the N.L. with a .541 slugging percentage, leading to a 3rd-place MVP vote. For the third time in the previous six seasons, the Bucs drew Sparky Anderson’s Reds as their NLCS opponent. This edition of the Big Red Machine won 108 games in the regular season and swept the Bucs in three games.

Pittsburgh won 92 games in Murtaugh’s final campaign (in 1976), but the Philadelphia Phillies had emerged as the class of the division, winning the East easily with a 1o1-win season. For the fourth time, Murtaugh voluntarily released the reins of the Pirates, again for his health reasons but also because, at 59, he wanted to spend more time with his family.

On November 30th, Murtaugh suffered a stroke. He died two days later. In 1977, the Pirates retired Murtaugh’s uniform number 40.

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The Hall of Fame Case for Danny Murtaugh

Now one of the ten candidates on the Golden Days Hall of Fame ballot, Danny Murtaugh has been considered for the Hall of Fame twice before. In December 2007, he was on a 10-person Veterans Committee ballot in which only managers and umpires were considered for induction to Cooperstown. Dick Williams and Billy Southworth were elected to the Hall, while Murtaugh got 6 out of 16 votes (12 were required for induction).

Two years later, there was another “managers and umpires” ballot, and Murtaugh was again a candidate. Murtaugh was one of eight managerial candidates, along with Whitey Herzog, Billy Martin, Gene Mauch, Tom Kelly, Davey Johnson, Charlie Grimm, and Steve O’Neill. Two umpires (Doug Harvey and Hank O’Day) were also considered on that Veterans Committee ballot.

Harvey (15 votes) and Herzog (14) were elected to the Hall of Fame, with Murtaugh in third place with eight votes in favor of his Cooperstown candidacy.

Before the committee conferred, the Pirates organization put together an information packet touting Murtaugh’s credentials for Coopertown. Here are the listed points in favor (these statistics are as of the end of the 2009 campaign):

1. Murtaugh had 1,115 wins as an MLB manager, more than Hall of Fame skippers Southworth and Harry Wright. (For the record, Baseball-Reference credits Wright with 1,225 wins, but 225 of them were in the short-lived National Association in the early 1870s).
2. Murtaugh’s .540 winning percentage was better than eight Hall of Fame skippers: Ned Hanlon, Bucky Harris, Tommy Lasorda, Connie Mack, Bil McKechnie, Wilbert Robinson, Williams, and Casey Stengel.
3. Six Hall of Fame managers didn’t win as many as Murtaugh’s two World Series titles. The six: Leo Durocher (1), Earl Weaver (1), Ned Hanlon (1), Al Lopez (0), Wilbert Robinson (0), and Frank Selee (0).

As a corollary to #3, the Pirates press release noted that only seven managers in the Hall had more than Murtaugh’s two World Championships: Joe McCarthy (7), Stengel (7), Connie Mack (5), Walter Alston (4), Sparky Anderson (3), Miller Huggins (3), and John McGraw (3).

The article in which this “case for Murtaugh” was revealed also quoted two of Murtaugh’s former players, who had high praise.

“I loved that man. He was never unprepared. He knew the game inside and out. When any kind of situation came up, he was able to deal with it quietly and effectively. You can never have too many Danny Murtaugh’s in the Hall of Fame.”

— Steve Blass (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Nov. 29th, 2009)

“He deserves it. I’m all for it. I wish I could vote. He was the best thing that ever happened to me in baseball. I played for him, and he set me up to manage. Any time he’d have a chance, he’d tell me why he did something… I thought of him as one of the best in the business.”

— Bill Virdon (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Nov. 29th, 2009)

And this, from a former player:

“His record would be even better if he had not retired four different times because of health problems, but it says a lot that the Pirates kept asking him to come back. When the Golden Days Era committee meets December 5th, I hope they put Murtaugh in Cooperstown where he belongs.”

— Gene Alley (letter sent to the author, November 30, 2021)

The Case Against Danny Murtaugh

OK, pardon me while I poke a few holes in the points presented by the Pirates for Murtaugh’s Hall of Fame candidacy.

1. Murtaugh’s 1,115 wins were indeed more than two Hall of Fame skippers but, just choosing from skippers whose managerial careers were finished as of 2009, he was behind Mauch (1,902), Ralph Houk (1,619), Jimmy Dykes (1,406), Chuck Tanner (1,352), Grimm (1,287), Herzog (1,281), Billy Martin (1,253), Bill Rigney (1,239), Mike Hargrove (1,188), John McNamara (1,160), Kelly (1,140), and Art Howe (1,129). (Herzog, as previously noted, was on that 2010 ballot and was elected to the Hall of Fame).
2. Murtaugh’s .540 winning percentage was solid, to be sure but, just picking from the previous list of skippers with more than 1,115 victories, we have Martin (.553) and Grimm (.547) who had more wins and a higher percentage of wins. Additionally, we can look at Davey Johnson. Davey’s career seemed to be over in 2009 (his last year in the dugout had been in 2000). He was on the same ballot with Murtaugh and Herzog. Johnson had 1,148 wins at the time and a much superior WL% (.564).
3. There were indeed (at the time) six Hall of Fame managers with fewer than two World Series titles. But there were (at the time) four others besides Murtaugh who had a pair of championships: Houk, Cito Gaston, Kelly, and Bill Carrigan. (Two other skippers have matched the feat since 2010, Terry Francona and Bruce Bochy. Both men are almost certainly destined for plaques in Cooperstown).

These arguments in favor of Murtaugh for the Hall of Fame are what sabermetric pioneer Bill James once called the “lowest common denominator” argument. You make a case that there are Coopertown inductees with specific statistics that are inferior to the candidate in question and come to a conclusion that, “if Joe Blow is in the Hall of Fame, then Jon Snow should be as well.” The problem is that the candidate being championed is near the bottom of those statistical categories.

Comparing Danny Murtaugh to his Peers

Now, there is one point that can be fairly made about Murtaugh as a Hall of Fame candidate. If you compare him solely to his peers, other managers whose careers would make them eligible for a ballot that considers individuals whose most significant impact was between 1950-69, his case looks much better. The only other name listed above whose managerial career had substantial overlap with Murtaugh’s from predominantly the 1950s or 1960s would be Rigney.

• Danny Murtaugh: 1,115 wins, .540 WL%, 2 World Series
• Bill Rigney: 1,239 wins, .484 WL%, no pennants

If you’re just comparing Murtaugh and Rigney, it’s a no-brainer for Murtaugh.

There are, in fact, only three Hall of Fame managers who had their most significant impact between 1950-69: Walter Alston, Casey Stengel, and Al Lopez. Murtaugh would be the fourth if elected.

Forgetting a comparison to Alston and Stengel (as inner-circle Hall of Fame skippers), how does Murtaugh compare to Lopez, who managed the Cleveland Indians and Chicago White Sox for 17 seasons?

• Danny Murtaugh: 1,115 wins, .540 WL%, 2 World Series
• Al Lopez: 1,410 wins, .584 WL%, two pennants (lost both times in the World Series)

Lopez had a better regular-season record, but Murtaugh was victorious in his two Fall Classic appearances while Lopez’s teams lost both times (in 1954 to Durocher’s New York Giants and in 1959 to Alston’s Dodgers).

Do the two World Series titles elevate Murtaugh to a higher level than Lopez? Based on Lopez’s much superior WL%, I don’t think so, but it’s not an unreasonable argument.

The Bill James Managerial Rating System

In 2013, Bill James posted a series of articles in which he laid out a system that he created to evaluate Hall of Fame managerial candidates.  James created a points formula that tabulated a skipper’s career wins, his winning percentage, postseason results, and how many times he managed teams that exceeded expectations. This piece explains the system, and James discusses Murtaugh in Part II of the series.

The James system awards points based on the criteria listed above. If a manager scores 100 points or more, the system considers that manager worthy of the Hall of Fame. Of course, just like any objective methodology that has subjective components (think “WAR”), a serious Hall of Fame analyst wouldn’t simply plug a manager’s numbers into a formula and say “yes” or “no” depending on whether they break 100 points or not. But it’s a great starting point and a way to quantify the relative value of total wins, winning percentage, exceeding expectations, and postseason success.

James plugged the career records of Murtaugh, Houk, Rigney, and four others into the system when looking at managers from the 1960s.

Houk did the best among this group, with 81 points, with Murtaugh coming in second-best with 73 (Rigney, with a sub-.500 record and no postseason success, scored just 30 points on the scale). Anyway, based on the system, Houk and Murtaugh are far short of the 100-point bar.

Anyway, the best managerial candidate on that 2010 Veterans Committee ballot was Davey Johnson, who scored 108 points based on the James system.

Here are the point totals for the managers who were elected to the Hall of Fame on the 2008 and 2010 ballots on which Murtaugh was passed over.

• Billy Southworth: 102 points
• Dick Williams: 97
• Whitey Herzog: 88

Remember, Murtaugh scores 73 points on the system, so, based on the system, the Veterans Committee members made the right calls in ’08 and ’10 by selecting those three men, with the exception that perhaps Johnson was a better choice. (If you want to learn more about Davey’s Hall of Fame case, please click here).

By the way, since I invoked Al Lopez’s name in the previous section, he scores 100 points on the James scale. Also, for the record, there are only two skippers enshrined in Cooperstown with fewer than Murtaugh’s 73 points in the system (Harry Wright and Wilbert Robinson).

Before wrapping up, let’s remember that one of the chief calling cards for Danny Murtaugh as a Hall of Fame candidate is that almost all managers who won at least a pair of World Series titles have plaques in Cooperstown. So, let’s compare Murtaugh to the other two-time winners who aren’t in the Hall (excluding Francona and Bochy, who have yet to appear on a Hall of Fame ballot):

WP Table Builder

By the numbers, the only one of these two-time World Series winners in Murtaugh’s league is Houk.

Houk’s managerial career got off to a terrific start, thanks to winning two titles with the New York Yankees in 1961 and ’62, followed by a pennant and World Series loss in ’63. However, for the final 17 years of Houk’s career, his winning percentage is under .500 because he managed the New York Yankees during their “down years” (1966-73) and the Detroit Tigers from 1974-78 when times were tough in Motown. Still, he has 504 more wins and the same number of World Series titles as the longtime Pirates’ skipper.

Does Murtaugh’s consistency trump Houk’s longevity? Considering that Houk took over a “super-team” in 1961, I think the answer is “yes,” but Ralph Houk isn’t in the Hall of Fame, so it really doesn’t matter.

Conclusion:

Danny Murtaugh had a meaningful and highly impactful career in his 15 years with the Pittsburgh Pirates. He certainly deserved to have his uniform number retired by the franchise. And, if you had to pick a manager from the 1950s, 1960s, and early 1970s for the Hall of Fame who isn’t already enshrined, he’d be the guy.

But that’s not what we’re contemplating right now. Murtaugh is on the Golden Days Hall of Fame ballot with nine players from the era (Dick Allen, Tony Oliva, Minnie Minoso, Ken Boyer, Gil Hodges, Maury Wills, Roger Maris, Jim Kaat, and Billy Pierce). I’ve written about all nine of those players (click the links on each name if you’d like to read about one of them).

The 16 members of the Golden Days committee are limited to voting for four out of those ten candidates. A candidate has to get 12 out of 16 votes (75%) to get elected to the Hall of Fame. I have a hard time seeing anyone casting one of their four votes for Murtaugh over seven of the other player candidates.

That’s my opinion. If you’d like to read the arguments for Murtaugh being one of the top four candidates on this ballot, I invite you to read this piece by FanGraphs’ Jay Jaffe.

Murtaugh’s best chance would seem to be if multiple players are elected from this ballot. Then, in December 2026, the next time players and managers from this era are considered, he would look better in comparison. Murtaugh is arguably the best managerial candidate from all of those not yet in Coopertown if you limit the scope to skippers whose careers ended in 1976 or earlier. Given that he won those two World Series championships when his team was the clear underdog and while facing off Hall of Fame skippers (Stengel and Weaver), his case is strong even though his total number of games managed and wins are somewhat lacking.

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