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

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

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for the

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

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) American League East, East Division. Founded in as one of the Ameri ...

, Washington Senators, and

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Biography

Murray was born on September 23, 1898, in

Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte ( ) is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 United ...

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

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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. Era or ERA may also refer to: * Era (geology), a subdivision of geologic time * Calendar era Education * Academy of European Law (German: '), an international law school * ERA School, in Melbourne, Australia * E ...

. 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–January 30, 30 – Kuomintang in Ch ...

, 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 In Turkey, the year technically contained only 352 days. As Friday, December 18, 1926 ''(Julian Calendar)'' was followed by Saturday, January 1, 1927 '' (Gregorian Calendar)''. 13 days were dropped to make the switch. Turkey thus became the ...

. 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 Baseball (ball), ball is hit in such a way that the batting (baseball), batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safe (baseball), safely in one play without any error ( ...

, very good for a pitcher. Murray pitched

1927 Events January * January 1 – The British Broadcasting ''Company'' becomes the BBC, British Broadcasting ''Corporation'', when its Royal Charter of incorporation takes effect. John Reith, 1st Baron Reith, John Reith becomes the first ...

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

1933 Events January * January 11 – Australian aviator Sir Charles Kingsford Smith makes the first commercial flight between Australia and New Zealand. * January 17 – The United States Congress votes in favour of Philippines independen ...

, 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 Shelby County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. Situated along the Mississippi River, it had a population of 633,104 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of municipalities in Tenne ...

. He was buried in

Brownsville, Tennessee Brownsville is a city in and the county seat of Haywood County, Tennessee, United States. Its population as of the 2020 census was 9,788. The city is named after General Jacob Jennings Brown, an American officer of the War of 1812. History Brow ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Murray, George 1898 births 1955 deaths New York Yankees players Boston Red Sox players Washington Senators (1901–1960) players 20th-century American sportsmen 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