Batting Clean

Considered by many to be the most dominant player of the 80's, Dale Murphy still remains outside of the hallowed halls of baseball's Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. Compiling numbers that are still among the best in Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves history, Dale Murphy came up short his 15 years on the Hall of Fame ballot. Today, Murphy's name appears once every two years on the Modern Era Committee ballot. Consisting of former players, managers, general managers, sportswriters, etc., the Modern Era Committee, a panel of 16 members chosen every two years, now holds the fate of Dale Murphy with respect to induction into baseball immortality. With several players currently on baseball's regular Hall of Fame ballot being passed on every year due to implications of steroid abuse, and, as a result, infractions of the Hall of Fame's "character clause," baseball writers and voters alike are expressing their protest against the induction of players whose careers have been tainted. Dale Murphy, who never once touched any banned substance during his career, checks off all the boxes with respect to the "character clause." With integrity and character being such a large part of baseball in today's society, Dale Murphy presents as good of a case as any when it comes to ambassadorship and everything that comes with representing the game both past and present. Batting Clean: Why Dale Murphy Belongs in Baseball's Hall of Fame urges the importance of inducting a player of Dale Murphy's pedigree into the Hall of Fame because he has not only earned it, but it also sends the message to aspiring and current players they can achieve baseball immortality through clean and honest training. As Bobby Cox and several others interviewed for this book have said, "The Hall of Fame really needs guys like Dale Murphy."