Raymond Lee Murray (October 12, 1917 – April 9, 2003) was an American

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Modern professional ...

player Player may refer to: Role or adjective * Player (game), a participant in a game or sport ** Gamer, a player in video and tabletop games ** Athlete, a player in sports ** Player character, a character in a video game or role playing game who ...

and

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities ...

. A

catcher Catcher is a position in baseball and softball. When a batter takes their turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the ( home) umpire, and receives the ball from the pitcher. In addition to this primary duty, the ca ...

, he appeared in 250 games played over all or parts of six seasons for the

Cleveland Indians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. Since , they have played at Progressive Fi ...

(1948; 1950–1951), Philadelphia Athletics (1951–1953) and

Baltimore Orioles The Baltimore Orioles are an American professional baseball team based in Baltimore. The Orioles compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. As one of the American League's eight charter ...

(1954). The native of

Spring Hope, North Carolina Spring Hope is a town in Nash County, North Carolina, United States. It is part of the Rocky Mount, North Carolina Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 1,320 at the 2010 census. History The Dr. Hassell Brantley House, Spring Hope H ...

, threw and batted

right-handed In human biology, handedness is an individual's preferential use of one hand, known as the dominant hand, due to it being stronger, faster or more dextrous. The other hand, comparatively often the weaker, less dextrous or simply less subjecti ...

, stood tall and weighed . He was a veteran of the

United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

Major league career

Murray was a backup catcher to

Jim Hegan James Edward Hegan (August 3, 1920 – June 17, 1984) was an American professional baseball player, coach, and scout. He played for 17 seasons as a catcher in Major League Baseball (MLB) from to and to , most notably for the Cleveland Indians w ...

in Cleveland, Joe Tipton in Philadelphia, and

Clint Courtney Clinton Dawson Courtney (March 16, 1927 – June 16, 1975), nicknamed Scrap Iron, was an American professional baseball catcher who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Yankees (1951), St. Louis Browns / Baltimore Orioles (1952 ...

in Baltimore. As a member of the Athletics in , he shared the regular catcher's job with Joe Astroth and set personal bests in every major statistical category, including games played (84), hits (76), home runs (six),

runs batted in A run batted in (RBI; plural RBIs ) is a statistic in baseball and softball that credits a batter for making a play that allows a run to be scored (except in certain situations such as when an error is made on the play). For example, if the ba ...

(41) and

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

(.284). All told, he batted .252 with eight homers and 184 hits during his MLB career. He later managed in minor league baseball in the

San Francisco Giants The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco, California. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1883 as the New Y ...

' organization. Murray was a talented catcher with a big bat and a strong throwing arm. In his short career he allowed very few stolen bases (he notched 69 "caught stealings" in 1,803 innings caught) and quickly gained recognition as a gun slinger at the plate. Murray was known for his colorful antics with the umpires, which may have earned him the nickname "Deacon" for the way he preached to the umps. On one occasion, he stopped in the middle of a game and removed all of his catchers' gear to kneel at home plate and pray to the Lord to give the umpire eyesight because he must be blind, Murray was promptly ejected from the game.

Post-career life

After his baseball career Murray lived until his death in

Fort Worth, Texas Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Texas and the 13th-largest city in the United States. It is the county seat of Tarrant County, covering nearly into four other counties: Denton, Johnson, Parker, and Wise. Accord ...

. He worked for many years for the Tarrant County sheriffs department as a warrant officer until his retirement. Murray raised two children, Buddy and Jill, he was involved in little league baseball for many years. He served as president of the Forest Hill youth association in the 1970s and managed several pony and colt league boys teams. Murray was also a very accomplished golfer carrying a scratch handicap up into his 50s, he was a longtime member of Glen Garden Country Club in Ft. Worth and also a winner of their club championship.

References

External links

RetrosheetPura Pelota – Venezuela Baseball League
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Ray Murray
at

SABR The Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) is a membership organization dedicated to fostering the research and dissemination of the history and record of baseball primarily through the use of statistics. Established in Cooperstown, New ...

(Baseball BioProject) {{DEFAULTSORT:Murray, Ray 1917 births 2003 deaths Baltimore Orioles players Baseball players from North Carolina Cleveland Indians players Corpus Christi Giants players Dallas Eagles players Leones del Caracas players American expatriate baseball players in Venezuela Major League Baseball catchers Minor league baseball managers Oklahoma City Indians players People from Nash County, North Carolina Philadelphia Athletics players Pocomoke City Chicks players Rio Grande Valley Giants players Springfield Giants players Tarboro Orioles players United States Army Air Forces personnel of World War II