“New York Mets, second baseman” isn’t Danny Murphy’s favorite title.”Dad” is.
He’s only had the label for about two months, but Murphy already loves everything about it. He is often caught up telling other teammates about his two-month old son, Noah.
“I never thought I’d be the one who comes and talks about their kid all the time,” Murphy said in a segment with “The Today Show.”
For most baseball players, the birth of a new child doesn’t make national news. For Murphy, it did. Murphy decided to take time off during the opening week of the season to be present at his son’s birth. Criticism ensued, from fans and talk-radio types alike. Former NFL QB Boomer Esiason went so far as to suggest that Murphy should have had his wife get a C-section before the season started. He would later apologize.
Murphy didn’t do anything against the rules. Major League Baseball allows players to take 1-3 days off per season for paternity leave. It is the only major sports league to allow that.
Despite all this criticism, Murphy has no regrets about taking the days off.
“No, that never crossed my mind,” Murphy said, when asked about any second-guessing of his decision.
Not everyone has criticized Murphy’s actions. He recently was invited to speak at the White House’s “Working Dads” summit. While there, he explained how he’ll respond when his son asks about his birth.
“When Noah asks me one day, ‘What happened? What was it like when I was born?’ I could have answered, ‘Well, Stephen Strasburg hung me a breaking ball that day, son. I slammed it into the right field corner,’” Murphy said, the Daily News reported. “But I think it’s gonna go so much farther in that I am the one who cut his umbilical cord.”
The early time away hasn’t slowed Murphy, who’s hitting .305 with a league-leading 79 hits. After all, he only missed the first two games of a 162 games season.
Watch “The Today Show” segment on Murphy below.
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