From The Stick to The Cove: My Six Decades with the San Francisco Giants

by Mike Murphy, Chris Haft

Day in, day out, Mike Murphy has been a constant presence with the San Francisco Giants since the team moved west in 1958. The clubhouse at Oracle Park bears his name, and in the jubilant aftermath of the team's 2010 World Series victory, Buster Posey told Murphy, "We did it for you, we got your ring." If you know the Giants, you know "Murph."

In From the Stick to the Cove, the beloved longtime clubhouse manager reflects on over six decades of incredible memories, from getting his start as a bat boy and first meeting his idol Willie Mays, to unexpected celebrity encounters, to his role as a father figure for more recent generations of Giants.

Genres: Baseball, Sports, Nonfiction

240 pages, Paperback

Published May 12, 2020

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Reviews

[Larry]

Murph is not a good story teller and Chris Haft does not appear to have polished things up. There are only a few nuggets that the average Giants fan wouldn't know and Murphy is too nice to reveal any secrets or dirt.

[Jason Snell]

This is a terribly written book. It's meandering anecdotes woven together with a bunch of lengthy random quotes. This book made me appreciate the good sports books out there. I'm a lifelong Giants fan and this book wasn't worth a dime.

[Russ Bertetta]

I was a little disappointed with this one. As a life long Giant fan and current employee, I'm aware of Mike Murphy's career with, and impact on, the Giants. This comes through loud and clear throughout the book.
The book focuses on the last decade of Giants championships which was fun to recall, especially with the insight Murphy and Chris Haft provide. But there are lot of other years, other players, other stories that could have been included. Newer Giants fans might prefer that but us old-timers would have liked more of those.
Stylisticaly it was a little strange when you have "the author" Mike Murphy recounting his stories with lots of direct quotes from players and team officials about Murph that were inserted by Chris Haft. It just felt a bit awkward.
On the plus side, there were a lot of things I learned-about players and their numbers, nicknames, old managers that I'll be able to use on my tours.

[Bob Crawford]

Not Great Literature, But About A Great Man

This book is a bit rambling, a bit disjointed and a bit repetitious, but who cares? If you’ve followed the San Francisco Giants for any amount of time, in my case it has been more than 65 years, then Mike Murphy is as much a legend as the Willie, Willie, Orlando, Juan, Gaylord, Brandon and Buster.
Next to having lunch or a beer with Murph in person, this book will have to do and while it isn’t classic writing, the content and the memories it evokes are priceless for a Giants fan.
Bless Mike Murphy and Go Giants!

[Laura Hudelson]

Giant fan since 1958

Being a life long Giants fan I couldn’t put the book down. The memories he told I was fortunate enough to have remembered. I didn’t realize how dedicated this man was to his craft for so many years. Thanks for sharing Murph. Go Giants!