The ASU Years

On August 17th, 1994 most fans of baseball were talking about the week-old Major League Baseball strike (which would ultimately cancel that year’s World Series).  But in Tempe, Patrick Thomas Murphy was being introduced as just the 3rd baseball coach in Arizona State University’s history.

The task was enormous — replacing a college baseball legend (Jim Brock, who won 1,100 games and 2 National Championships in 23 years).  But over the next fifteen seasons, Coach Murphy established himself as one of the one of the top collegiate coaches in the country.

Coach Murphy’s teams averaged 42 wins per season, made it to the College World Series four times, went an NCAA record 506 games without being shut out and frequently drew the biggest college baseball crowds in the West.

In 2006, Murphy donated $100,000 back to the program to help fund facility improvements.

National Prominence

  • Murphy’s ASU Baseball teams finished in the Top 5 nationally in three of the last five seasons.  Only one other coach  has matched this performance in college baseball.
  • Finished in the Top 10 nationally in five of the last seven seasons, a feat matched by only one other school.
  • 3 straight Pac-10 championships – a feat that has never occurred at ASU, nor in the conference since Rod Dedeaux’s USC team in 1976.
  • Highest Winning % and most wins among Pac-10 teams since 2005 – both conference and full seasons.

    Murph and Travis Buck

  • Only coach of a major baseball conference to capture 3 consecutive conference titles during last 5 years.
  • Since the 2000 season, no other Pac-10 school has won as many games as ASU, both overall and conference games. Murphy has also won four Coach of the Year awards in the past 10 years.  41 Devils earned First Team All-Pac-10 honors since 2000, tops in the conference.

Academics

  • Highest GPA in program history in each of the past 4 semesters.
  • APR #s – Above 96 for the last 3 years – ‘06-‘07 (98.8), ‘07-‘08 (96.6), ‘08-‘09 (96.0)
  • 3 Academic All-Americans of the Year in the past decade – more than any school in the nation.

Attendance

  • Highest attendance on the West Coast 7 out of the last 8 years
  • 2009 marked the highest average attendance since 1984 (3,207 fans/game)

Draft Success

  • ASU has had more players drafted by Major League Baseball teams since 1999 (87) and 1995 (118) than any other school.

    Mike Leake, Reds pitcher and 2009 1st round pick

Draft

  • ASU Baseball has had 118 players drafted by Major League Baseball teams since 1995, more than any other school.

Awards and Achievements

  • Pac-10 Coach of the Year 2000, 2007, 2008, 2009
  • National Coach of the Year in 1998
  • Coached 47 All Americans, a National Player of the Year and 3 Golden Spikes Semi-finalists