Former MLB Star Daniel Murphy Pursues Comeback To The MLB By Playing His Best With The Ducks

Daniel Murphy, who has essentially left Major League Baseball since the end of the COVID-shortened 2020 season, is content to say he’s “back in the bushes,” and he claims he’s enjoying everything that phrase implies.

Murphy plans to persevere in the Atlantic League despite being 38 and having made over $80 million in a 12-season major league career, along with a few other long shots.

Former MLB Star Daniel Murphy Pursues Comeback To The MLB By Playing His Best With The Ducks

Murphy’s objective—and that of the other well-known Ducks players—is straightforward: revert to majors once more.

The three-time All-Star and retired former Mets infielder claims it’s because he’s evolved into a hybrid of a historian and mad scientist, finding a new passion for the game via research into its past while being inspired by the mechanics of redesigning his swing.

But his honest response is that he is still playing baseball because he is able to.

“I’m really having great fun with my baseball. I sincerely learn something new every day, whether it’s physically or just observing the game,” Murphy told the New York Post. “The great thing is everybody is here voluntarily. We could be doing anything else and we’re here. I’m going to keep showing up as long as I’m still enjoying myself and as long as they let me.”

“I was looking for a new sandlot and a team that would have me, and the Ducks were the team that would have me,” Murphy told The Post on Friday at Fairfield Properties Ballpark in Central Islip. “My goals are to come out here every day and be as good a teammate as I can and play the game properly, play the game how David Wright taught me how to play it.

“As far as what happens outside of that, I’m completely open to a new challenge, and I’ll keep playing as hard as I can for as long as they’ll have me.”

During his seven years with the Mets, Murphy was one of the game’s best hitters. He converted a magical swing and his 2015 playoff performance, in which he hit a home run in a record six straight games, into a $37.5 million deal with the Nationals. with his debut season with Washington, he hit.347 with 47 doubles and a.985 OPS, placing second in the MVP vote.

Murphy was renowned for placing his family first. Fans chastised him for taking a leave of absence for the birth of one of his three children, but it also earned him an invitation to the White House. It thus came as no surprise that part of his retirement plans involved enrolling in college courses and increasing his time spent with his two kids and daughter. Baseball, though, didn’t let go.

Murphy also first saw the Ken Burns documentary “Baseball” and “fell back in love with the game,” which inspired him to listen to some vintage baseball audiobooks, like the 1966 Lawrence Ritter book “The Glory of Their Times: The Story of the Early Days of Baseball Told by the Men Who Played It.”

He just listened to the autobiography of Hall of Fame pitcher Christy Mathewson and quoted heavily from it during a 15-minute interview with The Post.

“I just thought, man, this is a really cool game we have,” Murphy said. “But in trying to play it as hard as I could, and being as productive a teammate as I could be, I didn’t really ever pay that much attention to its history. It got me reenergized about the game.”

 

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