SF Giants legendary clubhouse manager Mike Murphy retires after 65 years with club: report

Mike Murphy, the San Francisco Giants’ legendary clubhouse manager who has been with the team for its entire existence on the West Coast, informed club staff Thursday that last year, his 65th, would be his last.

Murphy, who turns 81 on Monday, told the club’s do-it-all director of operations Abe Silvestri of his decision to retire in a phone call Thursday. Silvestri relayed the news Friday afternoon in an Instagram post that he later deleted. While the club did not respond to requests for comment, The San Francisco Chronicle reached Murphy, who confirmed he was stepping aside.

“He’s selfless, authentic, and I’m going to miss him,” Silvestri wrote of Murphy, with whom he shares a birthday, which he called his claim to fame. “But over the last 8 years we became friends & that’s my new claim to fame.”

Comments streamed in from the likes of current pitcher Sean Hjelle (“Absolute icon! Going to miss having Murph around”), former Giants players Javier Lopez (“”Love that guy! Sinatra Sundays will be missed. “I don’t botha nobody.””), Cory Gearrin (a single “goat” emoji) and Tyler Beede (“Wow!! Well said man! Absolute legend”), as well as Brandon Belt’s wife, Haylee (“Murph is the best”).

Murphy, a San Francisco native, began his career as a batboy for the Triple-A Pacific Coast League Seals from 1954-57, which turned out to be his only job outside the Giants organization after the team moved west in 1958. Murphy became the Giants’ first batboy, started as the visiting clubhouse attendant in 1960, and in 1980, was promoted to oversee the home clubhouse, which is now named in his honor.

In 2020, Murphy published a book, “From the Stick to the Cove: My Six Decades With the San Francisco Giants.”

After winning their first World Series in 2010, catcher Buster Posey famously told Murphy, “We did it for you, we got your ring.”

As the franchise grapples with losing one of its last remaining ties to its 2010s World Series championship teams — Brandon Crawford is now the last player left after Brandon Belt’s departure this week — “Murph” was one of the last remaining connections to the era of past San Francisco greats, such as Willie Mays, Willie McCovey and Juan Marichal.

In one of his last public appearances before the news of his retirement, Murphy attended the premiere of the new HBO Willie Mays documentary “Say Hey!” at the Castro Theatre in November. When Mays made his first visit back to Oracle Park since the pandemic this summer, one of his first stops was Murphy’s office.

“I’ve always loved Willie and Willie has always been with me,” Murphy said at the premiere. “I’ve visited him at his house and was with him a couple of weeks ago, about two weeks ago. For about three hours, we talked about the old time ballplayers and we had a lot of laughs, talking about Frank Sinatra and everybody else like that. Hey, I love Willie — best all-around, like Leo Durocher used to say, five-tool ballplayer.”

When Silvestri’s phone rang Thursday, he said he thought their annual tradition of trading birthday messages had simply come a few days early.

“After a few minutes of back n forth about who looks older,” Silvestri wrote, “he told me the real reason for the call was to let me know he’s decided to step away from the game of baseball & go see the world & live a little because ‘you never know when the good Lord might be looking for a Clubhouse Manager.’”