George King "Smiler" Murray (September 23, 1898 – October 18, 1955) was a

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

for the

New York Yankees The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. They are one of ...

Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Founded in as one of the American League's eigh ...

, Washington Senators, and

Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team is owned by Jerry Reinsdorf, and ...

Biography

Murray was born on September 23, 1898, in

Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...

. He attended to North Carolina State College, where he played

college baseball College baseball is baseball that is played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education. In comparison to football and basketball, college competition in the United States plays a smaller role in developing professional p ...

for the Wolfpack. In , when he was 23, he broke into the Major Leagues on May 8 with the

. He was mainly a relief pitcher, although started two games (out of 22 pitched in all). He was 4-2 with a 3.97

ERA An era is a span of time defined for the purposes of chronology or historiography, as in the regnal eras in the history of a given monarchy, a calendar era used for a given calendar, or the geological eras defined for the history of Earth. Comp ...

. The next two years Murray spent with the

On January 30, 1923, Murray was traded to the Red Sox with Camp Skinner and Norm McMillan for star pitcher

Herb Pennock Herbert Jefferis Pennock (February 10, 1894 – January 30, 1948) was an American professional baseball pitcher and front-office executive. He played in Major League Baseball from 1912 through 1933, and is best known for his time spent with the ...

and $50,000. In , nearly half of the games he pitched in he started; however, he did worse than he did the year before, going 7-11 with a 4.91 earned run average. His seven wins that season were a career high, though. In

1924 Events January * January 12 – Gopinath Saha shoots Ernest Day, whom he has mistaken for Sir Charles Tegart, the police commissioner of Calcutta, and is arrested soon after. * January 20– 30 – Kuomintang in China holds ...

, Murray went back to mainly relief pitching, and did even worse than he did the previous two years. He finished with a record of 2-9 and an earned run average of 6.72; he had one of the worst seasons out of all of the pitchers on the team. That was the final year he played with the Red Sox. He did not play at all in , and went with the Washington Senators in

1926 Events January * January 3 – Theodoros Pangalos declares himself dictator in Greece. * January 8 **Abdul-Aziz ibn Saud is crowned King of Hejaz. ** Crown Prince Nguyễn Phúc Vĩnh Thuy ascends the throne, the last monarch of Viet ...

. He was converted to a starting pitcher, didn't pitch as much, but still had the second best season of his career (behind his rookie season). He finished at 6-3 with a mediocre 5.63 ERA. In twelve games pitched he only gave up one

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

, very good for a pitcher. Murray pitched

1927 Events January * January 1 – The British Broadcasting ''Company'' becomes the British Broadcasting ''Corporation'', when its Royal Charter of incorporation takes effect. John Reith becomes the first Director-General. * January 7 ...

with the Senators as well. His amount of pitching time continued to decline, and it turned out that 1926 was his final season as a starting pitcher; 1927 was spent as a little-used relief man. Murray did not pitch at all for the next five years. He made a comeback with the

in 1933, but only pitched two games. His final game was played May 1 of that year, and at age 34, that marked the end of his Major League career. Murray died on October 18, 1955, in

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...

. He was buried in

Brownsville, Tennessee Brownsville is a city in and the county seat of Haywood County, Tennessee, United States, located in the western Its population as of the 2010 census was 10,292, with a decrease to 9,788 at the 2020 census. The city is named after General Jacob J ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Murray, George 1898 births 1955 deaths New York Yankees players Boston Red Sox players Washington Senators (1901–1960) players Chicago White Sox players Major League Baseball pitchers Baseball players from North Carolina Rochester Colts players Mobile Bears players Kansas City Blues (baseball) players Dallas Steers players Minneapolis Millers (baseball) players Birmingham Barons players Oklahoma City Indians players Rochester Red Wings players Toronto Maple Leafs (International League) players Sacramento Solons players Savannah Indians players Winston-Salem Twins players Spartanburg Spartans players NC State Wolfpack baseball players