The Strike-Out King

The Yankees' eight-year-old rightfielder couldn't help it. After all, Harry Murphy was pitching for the Braves. Maybe Murph was only ten, but Murph already weighed no Ibs., and was 5 ft. 2 in. tall. And when Murph scowled and bit his tongue and threw his submarine ball, everyone knew that he was just as fast as most of the big kids in town. Still, the eight-year-old managed to stand up at the plate and take his three cuts, even though all the kids and parents in the park could tell only too well that he had wet his pants.

All summer long, parents of the Pee-Wee League (ages 8-10) in Ottawa, Kans. had fidgeted in the stands as their kids walked up to the plate as if to the block, eyes atremble with tears, to face Harry Murphy ("Murphy the Great") and his submarine ball. Murph awes even his catcher, Lyle Adcock, 10. "We don't have any signals," admits Lyle. "All I do is hope he doesn't throw too hard and that I can catch it." Playing it safe, Lyle wears a pair of boots under his shin guards to absorb the force of any errant fastball. Not only did Murph win all eight of his games of five innings each, but he struck out 108 to account for all but twelve outs, allowed only 18 hits. Although Murph has unusually sharp control for a ten-year-old (only eleven walks), he did skull one batter. "That kid throws too hard," cried one irate parent. "He scares these poor kids to death."

Things got so bad during the season that the Murphys were getting anonymous phone calls from adults. "They wanted to know what we meant by letting our boy pitch like that," says Murph's mother. "They said he was too big to throw at their boys." The son of an oil wholesaler who was once a semi-pro pitcher, Murph himself explains: "I just throw as hard as I can. I figure if I let up, someone might hit it." And being hit is the one thing Murph has not been able to stand since he pitched his first game as a seven-year-old and lost, 44-1. Says Mrs. Murphy: "Those people that complain didn't see him when he used to cry because he couldn't keep the batters from hitting."

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