Former MLB Player Daniel Murphy Grateful to God for Life, Baseball

Published: December 15, 2023

Former MLB Player Daniel Murphy Grateful to God for Life, Baseball

By Movieguide® Contributor

Former MLB all-star Daniel Murphy retired in 2021 and surprised many when he returned to the field this year. He opened up with Sports Spectrum about the gratitude he has to God for life and baseball.

Sports Spectrum reported, “Daniel Murphy is a former MLB infielder who played 12 seasons with the New York Mets, Washington Nationals, Chicago Cubs and Colorado Rockies. Selected in the 13th round of the 2006 MLB Draft by the Mets, Murphy made his big-league debut in August 2008. He was selected to his first All-Star Game in 2014, and then a year later he led the Mets to the World Series after setting a postseason record of hitting a home run in six straight games. He was named 2015 NLCS MVP.”

“Regarding this past year…What did God teach you?” Sports Spectrum’s Jason Romano asked Murphy.

“Gratitude,” Murphy replied. “It’s what I kept coming back to. So grateful.”

Murphy feels grateful for the life God gave him. He also feels grateful to be born in this time period and in this era of baseball.

“I listened to Hans Lobert, who’s on that book, ‘The Glory of Their Times.’ And Hans was the same player I was. Just as productive. We’re the same players, he’s just born a hundred years earlier. And Hans, at the end of his life, he lost his wife; he had just gotten hit by a car; he was living in a crummy apartment; and he didn’t even have enough money to have a TV to watch baseball, of which he loved,” he said.

“And so, I think, ‘What did I do to end up here, even though we’re the same player, the exact same player?” Murphy shared. “And then he says something at the end of the interview. He goes, ‘The biggest kick I get is by helping out a youngster. Baseball’s been good to me. I’m going to be real good to it.’ And he meant it. It like broke me…just to hear someone say I may be down on my luck right now, but this game, I have lots to be grateful for. And that’s the way I felt the whole time—grateful to show up to the ballpark.”

For more inspiring sports stories, check out Sports Spectrum.

Movieguide® recently reported on the gratitude of another pro player, Mauricio Dubón:

While on Sports Spectrum’s podcast in September, Dubón shared how blessed he feels to play the game he loves in the States and reflected on his faith journey.

“All the problems you have, just talk to Him,” he explained on the podcast. “It’s something that is easy to say, and it’s easy for you to go out there and talk to Him. And He’ll provide…I think that’s the biggest one I try to tell people: Just talk to Him. Talk to Him, trust God, thank God for everything.”

Murphy also opened up about how he got back into professional baseball.

“This adventure started in the middle of October, kind of around post-season of last year, 2022. And I can say that before this adventure started I had almost zero inclination of ever playing again,” Murphy said.

His mind changed after he analyzed swings and positions and did a deep dive into America’s baseball history.

“I started kind of getting down the YouTube rabbit hole and was reintroduced to the baseball swing. I run across a guy named Jaime Cevallos. He calls himself the ‘Swing Mechanic’…and he so far has been the best swing technician that I’ve seen. Now hitting is much much more than the swing, but tis nice to have a sharp sword,” Murphy said.

Cevallos discussed the beginnings of great ball players like Babe Ruth and Willie Mays. Murphy discovered that some of the best ball players in the world played freely on sandlots without pressure from school boards.

“I observed the way my children moved,” he said at a Long Islands Duck Fest earlier this year. “My swing wasn’t the same as theirs. They seemed to swing it with their whole body. I was probably a bit more of a hand-swinger. It seemed to be similar to the way Ted Williams and Willie Mays and Hank Aaron and Babe Ruth swung the bat. They looked like they played like children. So I’m going to try to play like a child.”

“Once I decided to play…I was playing like a child plays at an extended daycare unsupervised…trying to create play,” he said.

After he unlocked the secret of “play,” Murphy was ready to jump in.

However, he retired again in August.

The New York Post reported on Aug. 15: “After coming out of retirement to play for the Atlantic League’s Long Island Ducks and the Angels’ Triple-A affiliate, the Mets legend retired officially Tuesday.”