John Robert Murff (April 1, 1921 – November 28, 2008) was a

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who played from through for the

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. Listed at , 195 lb., Murff batted and threw right-handed. He attended

Gettysburg College Gettysburg College is a private liberal arts college in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1832, the campus is adjacent to the Gettysburg Battlefield. Gettysburg College has about 2,600 students, with roughly equal numbers of men and women. ...

. A native of

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, Murff started his professional baseball career in A and AA ball. On June 8, 1951, while pitching for the Texas City Texans, he threw a

no-hitter In baseball, a no-hitter is a game in which a team was not able to record a hit. Major League Baseball (MLB) officially defines a no-hitter as a completed game in which a team that batted in at least nine innings recorded no hits. A pitcher wh ...

against the

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. A year later, he pitched innings of a 20-inning game, in a lost cause against the Texarkana Bears, who defeated the Texans, 3–2. Then, in 1955, he won ''The Sporting News'' Minor League Player of the Year Award and was named Texas League Pitcher of the Year after going 27–11 for the

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. Murff entered the majors in 1956 with the Braves as a 35-year-old rookie, having been signed by Milwaukee scout Earle W. Halstead. In a story chronicled in Murff's biography "The Scout", Halstead negotiated with Dick Burnett, owner of the Dallas Eagles in the Texas League, where Murff played. The two sides reached an impasse until Halstead proposed a game of gin rummy with the winner setting the terms of the trade. Halstead won and the Braves paid Burnett $40,000 and three players from the 40 man roster to obtain Murff's contract. In part of two seasons, he posted a 2–2 record with a 4.65

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and three saves in 26 appearances, including two

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s, giving up 26 earned runs on 56 hits and 18 walks while

striking out ''Striking Out'' is an Irish television legal drama series, broadcast on RTÉ, that first aired on 1 January 2017. Produced by Bl!nder F!lms for RTÉ Television, ''Striking Out'' stars Amy Huberman as Dublin-based solicitor Tara Rafferty, who is ...

31 in innings of work. Following his majors career, Murff coached in the minors and managed the 1960

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of the

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. As a

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for the

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, he discovered and signed future

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pitcher

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and All-Star catcher

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. Ryan, later named president of the Texas Rangers, noted his friendship with Murff in his 1999 Hall of Fame induction speech. In the early 1970s, Murff helped start the

University of Mary Hardin-Baylor A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...

baseball program, and retired to

Tyler, Texas Tyler is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the largest city and county seat of Smith County, Texas, Smith County. It is also the largest city in Northeast Texas. With a 2020 census population of 105,995, Tyler was the List of cities in Texa ...

in 1991 after serving 34 years as a scout. He was inducted into the Texas Baseball Hall of Fame in 1989 and the Texas Scouts Association Hall of Fame in 1999, and in 1994 the UMHB's ballpark was named in his honour, Red Murff Field. Murff died in a Tyler nursing home at the age of 87.

External links

, o
Baseball Almanac
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Murff, Red 1921 births 2008 deaths Atlanta Braves scouts Baseball players from Texas Baton Rouge Red Sticks players Gettysburg Bullets baseball players Dallas Eagles players Houston Astros scouts Industriales de Valencia players Jacksonville Braves players Louisville Colonels (minor league) players Major League Baseball pitchers Mary Hardin–Baylor Crusaders baseball coaches Milwaukee Braves players Minor league baseball managers Montreal Expos scouts Nashville Vols players New York Mets scouts Texas City Texans players Tyler East Texans players Wichita Braves players People from Milam County, Texas

Further reading

External links