This is a downbeat on ninety seven one the Freak all right, joining us
now on the Freak Hotline. It is former Rangers outfielder Ya also works over
at bally Given some Rangers now so as you catch them on some Rangers broadcasts
throughout the year. You know him, you love him. It is our
friend David Murphy. Good morning, Murph. How you doing good? How
are you all? We're doing excellent, thrilled that the Rangers are back in
the playoffs after a few years a few years off, and thank you so
much for taking the time before I'm gonna be a little unprofessional here before I
start asking you questions for me and Danny started asking questions. I just want
to say thank you to you because you don't know me from Adam, although
I've interviewed you a few times. And I used to be on the Bennet
Skin Show back in the day. But when I was, you know,
chasing a career, I was an intern, go in the locker room,
and I was a clubhouse. I was is a clubhouse, yes, And
I was always a little uncomfortable about invading the privacy of athletes because I think
I respect what you do too much and you were always a guy that I
could lean on if I needed a ten to fifteen second sound bite, just
so I didn't get in trouble by my bosses at the corporation I worked for.
So I just want to say thank you for always being a stand up
dude and someone who got it and would be there to, you know,
kind of talk to the media whenever, well, no problem. And I'm
feeling I'm feeling what you felt on this side of it, because even though
even though I was a player, I'm now media and so whenever I'm in
the clubhouse, there's some guys I talked to, but I get it,
you know, I don't want to disturb anybody's routine. And it's weird,
you know, on this side of it, and just trying to trying to
see where you can kind of fit in and talk to some guys at times,
you know, Kevin and Hike, David this, Danny, Kevin and
I were talking about this earlier, and it is kind of We'll get to
some Rangers raise preview and maybe talk about their season in a nutshell here in
a moment, But that dynamic that the team has with the media and how
I don't know like maybe uncomfortable or awkward. It kind of can be for
both parties because they're kind of necessary, I guess, to one another's success.
The team kind of needs the media to be promoted, where the media
needs to access to players to be able to get eyes on their on their
paper or their website or podcast or whatever that may be. I feel like
the percentage of people that want to participate that maybe, like as far as
the guys in the clubhouse that enjoy talking to the media is probably a direct
parallel to the number of guys in the media that are chasing tape. It's
probably a small percentage of them that actually really want to do it. But
it always seemed, like Kevin said, you're in our experience with you,
man, you are always just so gregarious and kind and giving. I think
that's kind of rare for the most part to that you seem like you always
actually enjoyed that. You would you kind of say that assessment somewhat true.
I would just say, you know, I never showed up to the ballpark
a single day and didn't realize how blessed I was. You know, how
many kids, how many kids grow up with a dream of being professional athlete,
a professional athlete, and such a small percentage make it. So.
You know, when I was at the ballpark every day, I was just
high on life. I do. I knew that it was only going to
be for a period of time and then it wasn't gonna last forever, and
so I just tried to soak up every minute. And so I just think
that any day at the ballpark was a great day, and I was just
always in a good mood. And you know, there's some guys that are
that were really good at the game of baseball that that didn't actually love it,
and I just, man, I loved baseball from the second that I
was three years old. So whether I was playing it, you know,
talking about it whatever, and especially not to mention you know, it's one
thing to get to fulfill and live your dream, but it's another thing to
be on an amazing team, which I always was with those Texas clubs,
and so that made it even better. We all go through like ebbs and
flows sometimes, I know, like with our jobs. But I love this
job. It's all I ever wanted to do is do radio. But if
you ever get down, A guy told me, it's a long time ago
he's a Hollywood writer, but he said to me one time via email,
he said, who could dream of getting to entertain thousands? And that's stuck
with me forever. I'll never forget that, and I try to remember that
every single day. But you know, you know, we'll have for good
days and bad days. Absolutely so, so, David, before we get
into some hard hitting baseball content, our friend Alex Tran, who works up
here, is the guy gonna hook this up. I mean, I had
your number. I just want him to know that that I had your number
and could have texted you, but I didn't want to, like again,
because I think I respected to it. I like beating people down out of
nowhere because I think if you got my text, you go, who is
this again? Yeah? I've known you for twenty years and I still do
that, Kevin. Yeah, thank you people. How do you know Alex
Tran and will you say his name on the air? Yeah, Alex and
I went to high school together, and uh, you know, so we
have a good group of friends that Alex and I are in. There's three
other guys and so Alex, you know, he called our group to fab
five and that's stuck since what since you know, some sometime in high school.
I don't remember exactly when I was the best man at Alex's wedding,
and uh, you know, he probably would have been in the running to
be to be to be mine, but my brother, I have one brother,
so he was mine. But Alex and I have stayed close through the
years, and he would even you know, he would always pick a road
trip to come on throughout the course of my career. So you know,
we had just you know, guy's trip, spent some time together and man,
just we we've had some great memories throughout the years. That's not surprised
because I don't know you, David, but you always carried yourself and came
across as a really, I don't know, just a sweetheart of a dude.
And it's not I don't think it's any coincidence that you probably surrounded yourself
with like or similar people. Because we feel the same way about Alex getting
to work with him every day, that don't man, don't give him too
much credit though, especially on the air now, I just I just want
twenty dollars By getting you to say his name a couple of times. It
was a challenge and it was accepted. So, okay, Rangers are in
the playoffs. Obviously weird because I don't know how much does momentum even mean
in baseball? Baseball feels like a day to day proposition. But you know,
you kind of feel good about where you were on Thursday night and then
you blow the lead, and then Friday you lose, have a big clincher
on Saturday, and then a dud on Sunday and you end up not getting
a full week off and then having to fly across country five or six hours
to Tampa Bay. And here we two pm this afternoon, we're getting started.
What in the world can we even take from the last few days of
Rangers baseball? And how does that translate into the next three days. Yes,
I'll say this, and this is obviously my own take, but you
know, I feel like momentum is real. But I feel like whatever whatever
you thought during the last week, or any fans around here thought during the
last week of the regular season, or if you even want to go back
to the last months or the last two months, the way that you know
the season didn't quite end up the way that Rangers fans have hope. You
know, after such a you know, a blistering start in the first three
months or so. But I think once you get to the postseason, everybody
is O and O today, So I think the momentum is completely neutral.
And I love, you know, I've i've I love baseball, so I've
I've had MLB Network on, I've been listening to the radio, and I
just love the fact that that everybody is cheering for Tampa because you know,
the south of everybody right where they need them. Tyler Glass now is a
great pitcher, and so they're going to have their handsful today. But TJ.
Mittowski mentioned something great on radio yesterday, and it's the fact that the
Rangers offense is such a big part of this equation. When they scored five
runs or more throughout the course of this season, they won about at an
eighty percent clip. When they scored less than five, they won about twenty
six percent of their games. So I think that's the key number right there.
And we know that power pitching and really good pitching shows up in the
postseason. So can the Rangers offense do what they did most of the season
against some premium arms in the postseason. I think that's going to be a
big part of this first series against the Race. David Murphy, former Ranger
great joining us here on ninety seven. So this is the second year that
the wild Card has expanded and taken this format. And I know you now
working in media US in media and as fans, I guess we kind of
like this because it means it's kind of extra baseball, it's free baseball.
It gives other teams a chance because right now, had the Rangers had this
format not been available to them, they would be excluded from the playoffs.
As a player, though, what is that mindset? What would that I
guess maybe kind of fantasize and put yourself into this position one that you would
have never had to deal with in your career. But that quick turnaround of
the season's over. Now we've got to play potentially three games on the road
just to really kind of get into the real big boy tournament. Do you
really just take it one game at a time or I think or is it
unavoidable to just look ahead and think about the bigger picture of the playoffs as
a whole man? How do you approach that? Yeah, you look at
this series. I mean you can't look ahead, you don't you don't know
if you're gonna win or not. And you know, I do like the
new format where in the wildcard round you at least get a three game series,
because we were in the wildcard game against the Orioles back in twenty twelve
and we lost. And you know, baseball is not a one game type
of thing. That's why you have a World Series and not a super Bowl.
And so I think it's just uh, you know, you you're gonna
run it take uh. You know, the San Diego Padres, they were
they were a good team on pay for that underachieved this year. They're they're
gonna have the likely sty Young winner and Blake Smell. So what if what
if the Padres, you know, a non playoff team, if you put
them up against the Atlanta Braves, who is the team that is favored to
win the World Series this year and Blake Smell has has his a game,
You're talking about a non playoff team, you know, in a one game
playoff that is you know, could very likely beat the Atlanta Brave. So,
you know, baseball is a game that you've got to do it with
consistency. You play a one hundred and sixty two games in the season.
Uh, it's it's a marathon, not a sprint, throughout the course of
the season, and then you get to the playoffs and then for a month
it's more of a sprint. So it's kind of a it's a little bit
of a different format. But I liked I liked that there's that there's a
three game series that you know, if the team comes out they don't play
their best baseball in Game one, they still have life and they still have,
you know, a game to win and hopefully take it to Game three.
But let's hope that the Rangers just go ahead and win in two.
That's David Murphy joining us here on the downbeat on ninety seven one the freak.
Do you ever sit around man these days like this, David, I
can't help but think about twenty ten and twenty eleven and back then clearly it
was the Alds. You ever just kind of reminisce on those days, those
day games at Tropicana Field in twenty ten and twenty eleven to kind of get
the ball rolling on yours World Series runs. Yeah, some good memories,
you know. In twenty ten that was obviously our our first the Rangers first
time in the postseason in about fifteen years or so, and so we didn't
know what to expect. We had a lot of guys that did not have
postseason next year. And then we were going up against the Rays, who
were just two years removed from the World Series in which they lost to the
Philadelphia Phillies in two thousand and eight. So I knew that those guys had
experience on their side, but at the same time, I wasn't sure how
much that was going to play out. And sure enough, we came out
swinging against David Price. You know, I didn't I didn't start that game
with a lefty on the mount, and but man, our our offense was
on fire, and just I was so pumped and proud of our guys for
the way that we showed up from from the word go. And then sure
enough, same thing in game two. The Rays caught us in three and
four and that was just a weird series because no no team won a won
a home game. And then you fast forward to to two eleven and we're
facing Matt Moore, who was a big young stud at the time the series
started at home. Another good series. You know, Adrian Beltrey hit three
home runs and the clincher and Tampa and uh yeah, so, I mean,
I know, whether it's Tampa, you know whatever, you go to
those playoff games back in ten and eleven, I'm gonna have a lot of
great memories of all of them. Well, we reminisced earlier about that that
twenty ten ray series that you you just kind of talked about where no home
team won, and with Cliffley against Price in the clincher, it just took
me back to getting the news when you guys were able to make that trade
and get Cliff, which at that point in the in the team's history was
arguably the most important, biggest a mid season acquisition that this team had ever
ever ever done. Man, you guys had to have been just freaking stoked
when you knew Cliff was coming to this team and then to see it manifest
the way it did to get out of that five game series in a game
five against David Price to move on to I guess it was the Yankees at
that point, right, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean,
not just to be an exhilarating feeling to know that the team was behind
you guys to make a move to acquire Cliff in the mid season because we've
never seen anything like it around here, man, nothing, nothing like that,
And to see it workout was just so damn cool man, Yeah,
so so cool. You know. It was funny too because we traded for
Cliff and it's funny because we're in a rain delay that night and we got
the news, the announcement was given. The clubhouse was fired up. A
lot of times. You know, when you work out in the weight room
throughout the course of one hundred and sixty two games, you kind of keep
it light and minimal. But I remember, you know, I was so
excited that I got in the weight room because we knew the rain delay was
gonna last, and Josh Hamilton was with me, and there was just this
sense of energy that you don't feel every day throughout the course of a major
league season. And then Cliff comes and he actually we lost the first game
that he's threw to Baltimore, and but sure, I've never played with the
guy who was so cool, calm and collected on the big stage, and
he was we saw the previous year when he was thrown in the World Series
for Philly and they ended up losing that to the Yankees. But man,
what And the funny thing was I faced him in triple A. He got
sent down in two thousand and seven, and I faced him in Triple A
and he comes back up in two thousand and eight. He's the Sight Young
Award winner, pits some big games for the Phillies in two thousand and nine,
and then obviously just was was huge for us in two thousand and ten.
Well, hopefully tonight, dude, is the start for a new generation
of Rangers fans to experience what we did back in the day, back when
you guys were making those runs in two thousand and ten, two thousand and
eleven, because those times nothing compares to it in sports, when your team
is hot and you're in the playoffs. And hopefully this is tonight is the
start of something like that for for the next gang. You know, I'm
stuck on board, yeah one hundred percent. You know when I run across
fams, you know, uh, in DFW, they still talk about the
two thousand and ten, two thousand and eleven teams. You know, we
didn't achieve the Ultimate Prize, but man, it was fun for us as
a team. And you can tell that the Metroplex bought into it too,
because they really enjoyed it. Well, David, we really appreciate you taking
the time to hang out with a couple of jackwagons like us this morning,
and uh, we'll be catching you're you're working on Ballyanni this week, getting
getting some work, getting some reps in if yeah, if they get to
if they get to Game three, I'll be doing post game that day,
all right. Yeah, Well, we'll be ready to check you out in
hopefully celebrating your Rangers victory. Uh, David, really appreciate the time.
We'll talk to you next time. Enjoy the guys. I always love talking
baseball thing. Take care of Bud there. David Murphy, the great David
Murphy unless he said he enjoys talking baseball nine as everything talking to us.
So yeah, and thank you to Alamo Drafthouse Cinema. Yes for sponsoring this.
We love Alamo Drafthouse Cinema five locations in the Metroplex and more coming in
the next few weeks. On the October Movie of the Month for the net
let's Freaking Chill series, so that we'll get that going with a please,
it'll be the Benn and Skin Show for this month. That'll be later on
in the month, Thursday Night, the big freak party at the Echo Lounge.
We're gonna start something real quick. Let's do and then we'll probably carry
it over the next break. Okay, the Tampa Bay Rays are our opponents.
Who's the greatest ray of all time? Well, I mean Lugario would
probably be. You're selling out names here. There's only one way to determine
this. A bracket. Okay, it's Ray Madness. David Price would be
on it for sure. No, I guess I don't understand the game.
You were trying to say Longoria. Minute to go to say Lugario Lagario?
Yeah, yeah, Carl Crawford, Yeah, maybe gives no. No,
the greatest ray of all time? I'll start. JJ would like for you
to get a vote in on this because we're gonna need an odd number number
one seed Christine Ray versus number sixteen Mikes Roy's favorite golfer, Raymond Floyd.
I mean I'm going with I'm going with k Ray two all day of course.
The number one seed I mean oatmeal pizza Thursday night at the Echo Lounge,
come see is free for there by six number eight seed Ray J And
I'll tell you what if the Rangers go down one Oh, no one will
appreciate a comeback story more than ray J. Number eight, ray Ja gets
number nine. Billy ray Cyrus, ray J all the way because ray J
started be of something. Oh, he opened up a lot of doors.
JJ got a vote here. That is the worst round every what's eight and
nine seed is? You know, it's right in the middle's involved in a
lot of like iconic relationships. I don't think people realize, like when he
uston, I mean he's Brandy's brother. Was Look, if there's no ray
J, there's no keeping up with the Kardashi. Well, if there's no
Billy, if there's no Billy ray Cyrus, there's no Miley. In fact,
my I got a wild Billy ray Cyrus theory because Aki Racky Hart's not
an original, it's a cover And if that song doesn't hit, he don't
make it Like I'm sorry, What are the other Billy ray Cyrus songs?
Aren't any? There aren't any exactly, So he doesn't become a star,
she doesn't become a star. Incredible there catalysts, he's shows to do a
cover song or the record label forced it up on him. Okay, with
Ray J Ray J. He's Brandy's brother. Okay, Number four Ray Lewis
and it's number thirteen, Ray Guy. I'm voting Ray Guy. Or are
the great punters of our time to rest in peace? He lost last year?
No offense to Ray Lewis, but he might have killed a guy.
Yeah, let's go. Let's play it safe and go with mister guy.
You don't I want to be on the wrong side of history on that one.
He does have a great like opening like walk out, iconic danced.
Oh, I no doubt absolutely the greatest of all time. Number five Sugar
Ray Leonard against number twelve Ray Colmbs, the former Family Feud host. No
offense to Sugar Ray Leonard. I'm gonna go and vote first time voting for
Ray Combs, the former Family Feud host who he killed himself head into the
troubles. Yeah he uh yeah, he was an angry guy, but he
was solid. I mean for he's I know, Steve Harvey, Richard Dawson,
but he did a better job than al Borland did. Or the guy
who was on the soap operas on Seinfeld's Data to Land to get with the
White Hair. Yeah, forgot his name. I'm gonna go with Sugar Ray
Leonard, just because I'm going back in time to those great even though I'm
the one that recommended Ray Combs to be in this bracket, I gotta go
with Sugar Ray. Come on, Ray Colmbs destroyed the inside of his house
and then started hanging his head against the walls and then told police that he
fell into his jacuzzi. Troubled man, She was a troubled many hung himself
with the bit sheets in the person. Sugar or Ray and Leonard gets the
advancement, and we will finish this up, maybe with the help of Benin's
skin here in a minute, plus your messages from the iHeartRadio talkback feature.
It's just a red microphone button on the talking Yeah, just follow ninety seven
one The Freak. We love it when you could stream us when you're at
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finish the greatest Ray Bracket of all time and give our official Rangers picks next
to ninety seven one The Freak