Brotherly Love

As a child, I recall having difficulty remembering the difference between Eddie Murphy and Eddie Murray. I knew that one was an actor in movies my parents did not want me to watch and that the other had been playing baseball for a very, very long time. Eventually, I caught up on my baseball history as well as my 1980s comedies, making it much easier to keep the two straight. So imagine my surprise when I found, through a blog article on Baseball Reference’s Bullpen, that Eddie Murray had a less successful brother named Charlie Murray. When Eddie Murphy’s big brother Charlie achieved notoriety a few years ago for his contributions to Dave Chappelle’s Comedy Central show, it made for an odd Hollywood family tree branching out in a strange sequence. A similar development in Murray’s family would risk even more confusion with their similar sounding names. In order to maintain some semblance of order to the universe, these pairs of Charlies and Eddies have to be compared and dissected, so let’s go to the tale of the tape.

Greater Overall Value: The Eddies make for a classic comparison between a high peak and great longevity. Murphy burst onto the scene in the early 80s doing impersonations and his Mr. Robinson character on SNL, quickly starred in 48 Hrs. and Beverly Hills Cop, and has spent the last 20 years trying to replicate the success of the first five. Eddie Murray had unbelievably little variation in his remarkably lengthy career. He hit 20 or more homeruns sixteen times, but never more than 33. He had 18 seasons with at least a league average OPS, 12 of which were between 30 and 60 percent better than average. Charlie Murray was more top-heavy, hitting 37 homeruns for the Modesto Colts in 1964, but only 63 in his other 6 professional seasons combined. Since Charlie Murphy was able to break out of similar early-career obscurity to achieve semi-stardom of his own in the last few years, I’ll give the nod in this category to the actors. Advantage: Murphy

Longevity: As I mentioned in the previous comment, Eddie Murray had incredible longevity, a record of consistency as impressive as any in the history of Major League Baseball. The Murphys, too, have stayed in Hollywood for a much longer stretch than the average comedic actor. Despite having ups and downs, both Eddie has been a household name across a couple of generations, and Charlie has been working fairly consistently since his brother cast him in Harlem Nights in 1989. Eddie’s shelf life speaks to the quality of different vices common among celebrities. While Eddie saw comedians like John Belushi and Chris Farley achieve similarly radiant peaks, their drug habits ended their success early. Eddie chose sex over drugs, with eight children by four mothers as evidence, and it was a good decision. Aside from a likely high tolerance for penicillin, he has suffered very little over twenty-five years in showbiz. I’m choosing the Murrays on this one based only on the historic consistency of Eddie’s career, but it is a closer race than it may appear at first. Advantage: Murray

Peak Value: Since it is difficult to even define a peak for Murray, the Murphys have a clear advantage in this field. Finishing in the top five in MVP voting each year from 1981 to 1985, including four consecutive 156 OPS+ seasons makes for a pretty solid stretch. In fact, it was good enough to lead the Orioles to a pair of pennants and one World Championship. Nonetheless, Murray was never even the best known player on his own team, whereas Eddie Murphy was arguably one of the most famous and popular personalities in the entire world for a five or six year stretch in the mid-80s. Even though some of his more recent movies have not been as popular or critically acclaimed, they have done his wallet no harm. He explained his motivation as such, "Every bad decision I've made has been based on money. I grew up in the projects and you don't turn down money there. You take it, because you never know when it's all going to end. I made Cop III because they offered me $15 million. That $15 million was worth having Roger Ebert's thumb up my ass." Twenty million apiece for Pluto Nash, Dr. Doolittle 2, and the Nutty Professor 2 demonstrates that he has had two different periods of remarkable success: one popularly and critically, the other financially. Advantage: Murphy

Versatility: In his career, Eddie Murray played 6 games at third base and 3 in the outfield. Other than those rare occurrences, he mainly plodded around first base and the batter’s box as a full-time DH later in his career. He did manage to steal 110 bases in his career, and possibly ranking behind only Mickey Mantle as the second greatest switch hitter of all-time gives him at least a few points for versatility. His brother, by all reports, was an extremely raw player who never had a chance to fully grow into his skills. Never having played a game until his senior year of high school contributed to developmental difficulty, making him something less than a jack of all trades. Between acting and standup comedy, the Murphys take a decided lead in terms of versatility. Eddie started by pushing the envelope, then starred in a slew of children’s movies (quite successfully), and recently received an Oscar nomination for his dramatic role in Dreamgirls. He can supposedly sing, as well, though “Party All the Time” serves as no evidence of that suggestion. Advantage: Murphy

Debuts: Eddie Murray did about as much as one can ask of a rookie. He debuted as a fully developed 21 year old player, having roughly the season he would have 15 or 20 more times in the future. He hit .283/.333/.470 with 27 homeruns, winning the AL Rookie of the Year Award. His brother managed to hit 16 homeruns in his first professional season, but an average of .180 has to dampen one’s enthusiasm. He repeated that performance the next year, leading the Georgia-Florida League with 15 homeruns, while managing a sub-Mendoza .194 BA. Eddie Murphy’s debut in 48 Hrs. was a very good one, if not his very best work. On the positive side, he got to work with Nick Nolte, and he set the stage for the deluge of 80s buddy cop movies that brighten up cable TV lineups to this day. On the other hand, the movie has not aged particularly well, and it is now almost impossible to find it anywhere on TV. As I mentioned earlier, Charlie Murphy’s first movie was Harlem Nights, the sort of mediocre nepotism which I do not hasten to endorse. Advantage: Murray

Comebacks: Charlie Murray sat out all of 1967 and 1968, possibly to serve in Vietnam. He returned to play in 1969 and 1971, albeit not very well. Charlie Murphy’s renaissance on Chappelle’s Show is one of the more remarkable true Hollywood stories, to the point where a small sect of the population may know more about Charlie than his brother. Before Chapelle, Charlie’s only movie role in three years was Paper Soldiers, basically a neo-blacksploitation movie put together by Jay Z’s Rocafella records partner Damon Dash. If all goes according to schedule, he will have seven movies released this year alone. Since the Eddies have remained famous enough not to necessitate any comebacks, this category belongs to the brothers, and Murphy has a clear win. Advantage: Murphy

Awards: While the Charlies dominated the last category, their more acclaimed siblings have won many more awards. Murphy has won pretty much every award that exists, from Grammys for his comedy albums, to Emmys for SNL and the PJs, to a Golden Globe for Dreamgirls. He has never won an Oscar, which has to be considered the MVP of acting trophies. Perhaps more importantly, he got a Razzie in 1989 for acting in and directing Harlem Nights, which was a bad, bad movie. Murray also failed to reach the pinnacle in his sport, compiling a pair of MVP runner-ups, but losing out to Robin Yount in 1982 and teammate Cal Ripken in 1983. With the aforementioned Rookie of the Year under his belt, eight All-Star Games, three Gold Gloves at first base, and three Silver Slugger awards, Murray has a very strong resume. Altogether, it is a very close race. Slight Advantage: Murray

In conclusion, after breaking down the most important achievements of Eddie/Charlie Murray and Murphy, the Murphys come out ahead 4-3, confirming my intuitive believe that the Murphy brothers have had a slightly more prestigious career. Comparing them to Eddie Murray and his more accomplished brother Rich might have been a more fair comparison, but it lacks the intrigue of similarity. As a result, those trying to keep track of which Eddie plays baseball and which acts cannot rely on family ties alone, but can fall back on the Murphys being the ones with greater success.