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Sports

Mike Murray Jr. Follows Baseball Dream to Arizona

WHS alum playing for Giants minor league team.

When a player first enters the ranks of professional baseball, the heat is always on.
Especially when that player's initial stop is Arizona.

For Westfield's Mike Murray Jr., he not only has the challenge of trying to catch up with a fastball while batting – or catch one by the position of catcher he plays on the field – but he must also learn to adjust to the triple-digit temperatures that at this time of the year are a daily way of life for him out west.

One month into his professional baseball career he is handling the heat of a fastball just as well as the heat of the dry desert air.

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After his first seven games for the Arizona Giants of the Rookie Arizona League, Murray (5-11, 205) was batting .364 (8-for-22) with two doubles, three runs, four RBI and 10 total bases. After wearing No. 15 at Westfield and Wake Forest, Murray is donning No. 10 for the Giants and playing catcher and designated hitter.

Murray, a 2006 Westfield High School graduate, was signed to a free agent contract by the San Francisco Giants on June 15 after a stellar four-year collegiate career at Wake Forest.

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"It's the fulfillment of a lot of hard work and it's ultimately the dream that I wanted to achieve since playing baseball," said Murray by phone Thursday, July 15 before a road game later that night.

"After talking with my advisor, I waited on pins and needles," said Murray, 22, who signed his contract about 10 days after the beginning of the Major League Baseball Draft. "Once I got the call from the Giants everything happened so quickly."

Here's how Murray described the day, a Monday, which he got two calls from the Giants: "It was a crazy afternoon. I was driving back from the Menlo Park Mall after buying a couple of books, I was just killing time.

"Then I got the first phone call telling me that they were checking out my medical history from Wake Forest. They said if everything checks out we will sign you, so get your things together.

"Then my dad (Mike Sr.), my brother A.J. and I were eating dinner at Tarantella's in Clark. That's when I got the second call and the official word from the Giants that everything was good and set to go. A.J. and my dad were the first two people to know. From there it was time to call the rest of my family and friends."

A co-captain his senior season at Wake, Murray flourished with a batting average of .345 to go along with six home runs and a team-high 53 RBI in 54 games.

Like in high school at Westfield for the Blue Devils and head coach Bob Brewster, Murray was a four-year starter at Wake Forest for the Demon Deacons and head coach Tom Walter.

"I felt I did everything I could to make my professional baseball dream a possibility," Murray said.

Murray joins his father Mike Sr. as someone who has reached that dream. Mike Sr. was drafted by the Chicago White Sox in June of 1984 after his senior season at Kean College in Union and played minor league ball in that organization for two years.

"Nobody ever outworked Mike," Mike Sr. said. "He was born with whatever talent he was given and he's maxed it out."

"I had a great year swinging the bat my senior season at Wake," Murray said. "My goal was to drive in 50 runs and I was able to do that by driving in 53. I felt what I did overall the last 12 months was well enough for a team to take a chance on me."

Wake finished its 2010 season 18-37 overall and 8-22 in the Atlantic Coast Conference. The team's No. 3 and 4 batters in the lineup both hail from New Jersey with Murray batting third and Seton Hall Prep 2007 graduate Steven Brooks of Bergen County's Wyckoff fourth.

Brooks, a junior outfielder, was selected in the 17th round of the MLB draft by the Chicago Cubs.

"Steven and I were co-captains at Wake," Murray said. "We were also teammates the last two summers."

Murray and Brooks played on the Chatham A's in the Cape Cod League in the summer of 2009 and the two standouts helped the Sanford Mainers of Sanford, Maine capture the New England Baseball League championship in the summer of 2008.

Here's how Murray explained his first day as a professional baseball player: "It was very hectic. We had a van leaving the hotel at 6 a.m. and then there was paper work, physicals, meeting with orthopedic doctors, blood tests, and a lot of running around.

"It actually helped calm my nerves. I was in a van with six guys, including Brett Bochy who is the son of San Francisco Giants manager Bruce Bochy. It was a very long day, but I slept well that night after a long day of doing a lot of stuff."

The rookie league season runs unti Aug. 31. After that Murray will continue to prepare himself for his first spring training next February.

"My goal for spring training will be to play myself onto a high A Ball team and then, hopefully, move up the ladder," Murray said.

Before then, Murray will keep himself busy staying in baseball shape.

"I'll be working out and staying active in baseball," Murray said. "I'll be doing some hitting and catching instruction."

Murray will also seek to spend some of his valuable time gaining experience in what he will focus on doing after his baseball playing days are over.

Murray graduated from Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C. on time in May with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science.

Perhaps his best 5-for-5 performance to date is that he was accepted into all five law schools he applied to, including Rutgers, Seton Hall, Wake Forest, George Washington and Fordham.

"He maxed out his ability through hard work and he's an incredibly intelligent young man," Mike Sr. said. "He has a plan. He won't burn himself out in the minors. He's a great, young man who plays baseball, but what he has to offer is way beyond baseball."

A lot of major league catchers go on to become managers and when they do they're in the business of getting into arguments at times with umpires.

When Murray's baseball days are over, there's a good chance he will be making his arguments in a courtroom.

"I'm going to try to pick up an internship if I can in the fall to keep as busy as possible," Murray said. "I'll be looking at perhaps a law firm or prosecutor's office to gain a little bit of experience before law school."

So far the jump from big-time collegiate baseball to rookie league ball has been a relative smooth transition for Murray.

"In the rookie league, everyone throws very hard, at least in the low to mid 90s," Murray said. "The pitchers here have great raw ability, but not yet the breaking pitch for strikes or sometimes the location for their fastballs.

"There's also a huge influx of Dominican and Latin players. The middle infielders are really fast and the game is definitely very fast."

On the team Murray is playing for now, there are 22 position players and 20 pitchers on the roster.

Murray said that all of the ball parks are bigger, with the dimensions deeper, but that the ball really carries well with the heat.

"It's been great," Murray said. "The heat does take some getting used to.

"By game time, which is 7 p.m., it's not terrible. Our workouts are from 3-5 p.m. to get ready for the game and catching in the bullpen at that time, it gets really hot. I always feel pretty loose, though. It's easy to get your muscles warmed up to get out there."

Water quickly becomes one of your best friends when you first begin to play in Arizona on a daily basis.

"It took us about a week and a half to get acclimated to the temperature," Murray said of him and his fellow rookie teammates. "You have to be drinking water and it's good to be hydrated before even getting out there. I try to drink a gallon of water even before getting to the park."

Murray said that temperatures sometimes reach 115-120 when July rolls around.

"It's a different kind of hot," Murray said. "During the day when it gets to 110 degrees it can be just as bad as 95 and humid back east. The sun beats down on you differently here. There's a little breeze, but it's often heat that blows across your face and sometimes it almost feels like fire."

Murray said morning temperatures are in the 97-98 degree range and go up to 110-120 on the field when the team is stretching during its afternoon practice sessions.

"When the games begin at 7 p.m. the temperature is right around 100 and compared to earlier in the day that feels nice," Murray said.

While Mike Jr. has just finished his ACC career, A.J. will begin one in 2011. A.J., who will graduate from Westfield next June, just made his verbal commitment on Sunday, July 10 to attend Georgia Tech University on a baseball scholarship.
A.J. becomes the third Murray headed to an ACC school. Brittany Murray, a 2008 Johnson of Clark graduate, is about to enter her junior year at the University of Maryland, where she plays on the varsity softball team and is on pace to get her undergraduate degree in just three years.

"When my dad sent me a text message that A.J. had decided on Georgia Tech I was thrilled for him," Murray said.

Georgia Tech baseball alums include retired Red Sox and Dodgers standout Nomar Garciaparra, present Red Sox catcher Jason Varitek, present Baltimore Orioles catcher Matt Wieders and present New York Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira.

"Having played in the ACC I know what a great place Georgia Tech is," Murray said.

"A.J. will love it down there. I'm looking forward to seeing him play some games down there for sure."

"Mike and A.J. have both been catchers since age 7," Mike Sr. said. "If you're going to compete in high school, college and maybe the professional level, you need to be an expert at one position.

"I jumped around at a lot at different positions. Mike and A.J. have the passion and have excelled at one position where they can become the best players they can possibly be."

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