CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. — Daniel Murphy looked out over the grass at Fairfield Properties Ballpark, where the Long Island Ducks were practicing under cloudy skies. “Baseball is a beautiful game,” he said, “and it makes people do peculiar things.”
Murphy would know. A three-time All-Star who played his last Major League Baseball game in 2020, he is attempting a comeback with the Ducks, whose 126-game season is scheduled to begin on Friday with a road game in North Carolina. Murphy, along with some other long shots, intends to grind it out in the Atlantic League despite being 38 and having earned nearly $80 million in a 12-season major league career.