Former Mets broadcaster Murphy dies of cancer

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Hall of Fame broadcaster Bob Murphy, who covered the New York Mets from the team’s inception in 1962 until his retirement after last season, died Tuesday. He was 79.

Murphy died at the Hospice of Palm Beach County, the team said. He had battled lung cancer since his retirement.

Murphy worked as a baseball broadcaster for 50 years, starting with the Boston Red Sox in 1954 and then moving to the Baltimore Orioles in 1960. He came to the expansion Mets in their first year, joining Lindsay Nelson and Hall of Fame slugger Ralph Kiner as the broadcast team. The trio worked together on radio and television for 17 years before Nelson left for San Francisco.

“It’s like losing a brother,” Kiner said in a statement. “It’s so hard to fathom he’s gone.”

Murphy spent the final 15 years of his career working on Mets radio broadcasts with Gary Cohen.

Murphy received the Ford Frick Award in 1994 and was inducted into the broadcasters’ wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame. The radio booth at Shea was named in his honor in 2003.