FSL League President Chuck Murphy Passes at 83

By Wayne Cavadi | Feb 24, 2015

Sad news for minor league baseball fans everywhere. MiLB.com reports that this past weekend, longtime Florida State League president Chuck Murphy passed away on Saturday. He was 83 years old.

“Chuck Murphy was a very special person and a tremendous friend,” one time Baltimore Orioles manager Dave Trembley said on Murphy’s passing. “He is from the era of the greatest generation. He served his country, and he was very proud of that. I thought Chuck probably made more of a contribution to professional baseball in Daytona Beach as anyone.

“This one really hurts.”

More from MLB Prospects

Trembly managed the Daytona Cubs in 1995 and 1996 and then again in the 2001 and 2002 seasons. Both tours of duty in the FSL were while Murphy was president of the league. Trembly, who led the ’95 Daytona Cubs to the FSL Championship behind a Manager of the Year Award winning season, was inducted into the Florida State League Hall of Fame in 2012. The FSL Hall of Fame was one of Murphy’s greatest innovations to the league, which he helped establish in 2009.

Murphy, a retired Lieutenant Colonel of 21 years in the United States Army, became General Manager of the Daytona Beach Islanders of the High-A Florida State League in 1984. His years of experience led to him being named the 21st president of the FSL in 1990. The post is now open for the first time in nearly three decades.

The FSL attendance soared to record highs under Murphy’s influence. Attendance first eclipsed the one million mark in 2006 and has continued to set record every year. The FSL exceed 1.2 million in 2011 and did so again last season. If you have ever been to a minor league game, you know first hand this is no small feat. Attendance, especially in the lower levels, is sometimes in the high hundreds.

Murphy won the Warren Giles Award for outstanding service as league president in 2011 and his league was the only to register an attendance record over 1.2 million. It was the second time he had won the award, the first time coming two decades earlier in 1991. Murphy joined Randy Mobley (International League), George Spells (Midwest League) and John Moss (South Atlantic League) as the only four league presidents to win the award twice.

“If you were his friend, he was a friend for a life,” Murphy’s daughter, Laura LeCras said in The Daytona Beach News-Journal. “I’ve had so many texts and calls from people that have known him for a long time, and all have stated what a great man he was.”

It is the second big blow this offseason for minor league baseball. Longtime MiLB president Hank Peters passed earlier this winter.

More from Call to the Pen

Home/MLB Prospects