Bill Dalton
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Dave Murphy was a terrific baseball player and one of the best Little League players Andover ever had. He hit so many home runs one year that it was the Little League town record for 30 years.
Murphy was on the '55 All-Star team, which I discussed a month ago. That team, in the fourth year of Little League in Andover, did well and went deep into the regional playoffs, not losing until its fourth game. Dave sent me a picture of the team and filled in some details of how the team's pitching did. He said, "Kent Damon beat Haverhill. I beat Newburyport. Bill Gallant beat Danvers spectacularly. His curveball had them falling all over themselves. I think they had a couple of 10 home run guys on their team. I pitched game 4 against Lynn and we lost 2-1 on a two-run single."
Murphy was only in his third year of Little League in 1955, and the next year he would be on the All-Stars again. (Little League allows a kid to play through age 12.)
Dave started playing Little League with the Yankees and stayed with them for two years. At the end of his second year, the League expanded, and he played his final two years with the Red Sox. A rumor survives about a trade of players that wasn't part of the rule book, and Murphy was an involuntary part of that trade. Dave went to the Red Sox, and the Yankees acquired some outstanding players. They won the championship easily that year, often slaughtering other teams. In 1956, the Red Sox won the championship, led by Murphy, who hit the record 14 homers in one season and, according to the Eagle-Tribune, batted .500. (Few of us, including Dave, calculated batting averages. We knew when we were hitting well and when we weren't.)
He started hitting home runs when he was nine, and he hit the first one off North Andover's John Strobel, the best Little Leaguer that year. John Giovinco, who was 12, played on Dave's team and hit six homers, which Dave describes as "almost inhuman at the time." (John would go on to be both a baseball and basketball captain at Punchard, and he had a baseball swing that I would only dream of having.)
Until Little League started, Andover baseball was played without fences. Great ballplayers with names like Ted Boudreau, Bob Burnham, Roy Bowman, Fred McCollum, Everett Collins, and many others had to hit the ball beyond the outfielders and run around the bases hard to hit a home run. Little League fields have a recommended outfield fence 180 feet from home plate.
In 1955, both Dave and Brad Richards, catcher for the champion Yankees and an All-Star, hit six home runs. (I believe Brad hit two grand slams in one game - possibly in one inning.)
In his final year, 1956, Dave led the league in home runs with a record 14. The next highest was Bill Batemen of the Prospect Hill Braves who hit 10 homers.
When I mentioned to Dave that I was going to make him the focal point of this column, he asked me to "please not overemphasize his role" and sent a picture of the 1956 Red Sox champion team, pointing out that several were outstanding players. Included on that team with Murphy were Coach Harold Cookson, Kevin Lynch, Andy Blake, Tom Leary, Bobby Bailie, Larry Cookson, Manager Bob Prochazka, Skippy Madden, Dick Busby, Gus Kenny, Mike Lebreck, Dick Edgar, John Neal, Dick Chadwick, Jim Reilly and Larry Sullivan.
Dave and his three brothers grew up at 8 Florence St. and then 36 Washington Ave. when his family moved there. He went to St. Augustine school and PA, where he played baseball and football. At his graduation, he won the "Yale Bowl" as the outstanding scholar-athlete.
Murphy was such a good batter that, when a left eye problem caused him to switch from being a right- to a left-handed hitter at age 15 (the left eye is a righty's hitting eye), he was still a terrific hitter.
At Williams College, Dave continued football and baseball. He was captain of freshman baseball and ended his baseball career playing in the 100th anniversary college baseball game on May 3, 1963 (Williams vs, Amherst). It was his sophomore year and the next day he hitchhiked to the Carolinas and never went back to Williams or organized baseball.
In 1986, while working for the Andover Bank (formerly the Andover Savings Bank) he was in charge of the stock conversion that took the bank public. Dave is a true Townie. He's not only lived in Andover all his life, he's lived within a close walk to downtown.
Bill Dalton writes a weekly column for the Andover Townsman and enjoys receiving your emails at billdalton@andovertownie.com
