# Ray Murray

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American baseball player (1917–2003)

For the American speed skater, see [Raymond Murray (speed skater)](/source/Raymond_Murray_(speed_skater)). For the US Marine Corps Major General, see [Raymond Murray](/source/Raymond_Murray).

Baseball player

Ray Murray Catcher Born: October 12, 1917 Spring Hope, North Carolina, U.S. Died: April 9, 2003(2003-04-09) (aged 85) Fort Worth, Texas, U.S. Batted: Right Threw: Right MLB debut April 25, 1948, for the Cleveland Indians Last MLB appearance September 25, 1954, for the Baltimore Orioles MLB statistics Batting average .252 Home runs 8 Runs batted in 80 Stats at Baseball Reference Teams Cleveland Indians (1948, 1950–1951) Philadelphia Athletics (1951–1953) Baltimore Orioles (1954)

**Raymond Lee Murray** (October 12, 1917 – April 9, 2003) was an American professional [baseball](/source/Baseball) player and [manager](/source/Manager_(baseball)). A [catcher](/source/Catcher), he appeared in 250 [games played](/source/Games_played) over all or parts of six seasons for the [Cleveland Indians](/source/Cleveland_Indians) (1948; 1950–1951), [Philadelphia Athletics](/source/Philadelphia_Athletics) (1951–1953) and [Baltimore Orioles](/source/Baltimore_Orioles) (1954). The native of [Spring Hope, North Carolina](/source/Spring_Hope%2C_North_Carolina), threw and batted [right-handed](/source/Right-handed), stood 6 feet 3 inches (1.91 m) tall and weighed 204 pounds (93 kg). He was a veteran of the [United States Army Air Forces](/source/United_States_Army_Air_Forces) during [World War II](/source/World_War_II).[1]

## Major league career

Murray was a backup catcher to [Jim Hegan](/source/Jim_Hegan) in Cleveland, [Joe Tipton](/source/Joe_Tipton) in Philadelphia, and [Clint Courtney](/source/Clint_Courtney) in Baltimore. As a member of the Athletics in [1953](/source/1953_Major_League_Baseball_season), he shared the regular catcher's job with [Joe Astroth](/source/Joe_Astroth) and set personal bests in every major statistical category, including games played (84), [hits](/source/Hit_(baseball)) (76), [home runs](/source/Home_runs) (six), [runs batted in](/source/Runs_batted_in) (41) and [batting average](/source/Batting_average_(baseball)) (.284). All told, he batted .252 with eight homers and 184 [hits](/source/Hit_(baseball)) during his MLB career. He later managed in [minor league baseball](/source/Minor_league_baseball) in the [San Francisco Giants](/source/San_Francisco_Giants)' 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](/source/Stolen_base) (he notched 69 "caught stealings" in 1,803 [innings](/source/Inning_(baseball)) caught)[2] 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.[3][4]

## Post-career life

After his baseball career Murray lived until his death in [Fort Worth, Texas](/source/Fort_Worth%2C_Texas). 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

1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** [Baseball in Wartime.com](http://baseballinwartime.com/those_who_served/those_who_served_atoz.htm)

1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** [Retrosheet](/source/Retrosheet) [career fielding log for Raymond Lee Murray](https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/M/Pmurrr102.htm)

1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** Burks, Ned (April 28, 1954). "Fines". *Baltimore Sun*. p. 23.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** Hatter, Lou (March 20, 1983). "Few victories, but a lot of laughs". *Baltimore Sun*. pp. B10.

## External links

- Career statistics from [Baseball Reference](https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/murrara01.shtml) · [Baseball Reference (Minors)](https://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=murray001ray) · [Retrosheet](https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/Pmurrr102.htm) · [Baseball Almanac](https://www.baseball-almanac.com/players/player.php?p=murrara01)

- [Retrosheet](http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/M/Pmurrr102.htm)

- [Ray Murray](https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/ray-murray/) at [SABR](/source/Society_for_American_Baseball_Research) (Baseball BioProject)

- [Ray Murray](https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/7344311) at [Find a Grave](/source/Find_a_Grave)

v t e Texas League Most Valuable Player Award 1931: Dizzy Dean 1932: Hank Greenberg 1933: Zeke Bonura 1934: Charlie English 1935: Rudy York 1936: Les Mallon 1937: Harold Hillin 1938: Dizzy Trout 1939: Nick Cullop 1940: Bob Muncrief 1941: Rip Russell 1942: Dick Wakefield 1946: Hank Schenz 1947: Al Rosen 1948: Irv Noren 1949: Herb Conyers 1950: Gil McDougald 1951: Jim Dyck 1952: Billy Hunter 1953: Joe Frazier 1954: Frank Kellert 1955: Ray Murray 1956: Ken Guettler 1957: Jim Frey 1958: Michael Lutz 1959: Carl Warwick 1960: Chuck Hiller 1961: Phil Linz 1962: Cap Peterson 1963: Jim Beauchamp 1964: Joe Morgan 1965: Leo Posada 1966: Tommy Hutton 1967: Nate Colbert 1968: Jim Spencer, Bill Sudakis 1969: Larry Johnson, Bobby Grich 1970: Mickey Rivers 1971: Enos Cabell 1972: Randy Elliott 1973: Héctor Cruz 1974: John Balaz 1975: Gary Alexander 1976: Willie Aikens 1977: Karl Pagel 1978: Bobby Clark 1979: Mark Brouhard 1980: Tim Leary 1981: Steve Sax 1982: Darryl Strawberry 1983: Mark Gillaspie 1984: Jim Steels 1985: Billy Jo Robidoux 1986: Steve Stanicek 1987: Gregg Jefferies 1988: Jeff Manto 1989: Ray Lankford 1990: Henry Rodríguez 1991: John Jaha 1992: Troy O'Leary 1993: Roberto Petagine 1994: Tim Unroe 1995: Johnny Damon 1996: Bubba Smith 1997: Mike Kinkade 1998: Tyrone Horne 1999: Adam Piatt 2000: Keith Ginter 2001: Jason Lane 2002: Chad Tracy 2003: Justin Leone 2004: Ryan Shealy 2005: Andre Ethier 2006: Alex Gordon 2007: Chase Headley 2008: Kila Kaʻaihue 2009: Chris Carter 2010: Mike Moustakas 2011: Matt Adams 2012: Oscar Taveras 2013: George Springer 2014: Alex Yarbrough 2015: Chad Pinder 2016: Matt Chapman 2017: Matt Beaty 2018: Joey Curletta 2019: Dylan Carlson 2020: none 2021: MJ Melendez 2022: Moisés Gómez 2023: Thomas Saggese 2024: Jimmy Crooks 2024: JJ Wetherholt

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Ray Murray](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Murray) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Murray?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.