Murray Cook (baseball)

George Earl Murray Cook (born December 6, 1940, at Sackville, New Brunswick) is a Canadian scout and former front office executive in Major League Baseball. He was the general manager of three MLB teams: the New York Yankees (1983–84); the Montreal Expos (1984–87); and the Cincinnati Reds (1988–89).

Cook began his baseball career as an infielder in the Pittsburgh Pirates farm system in 1962. He then became a scout and farm system administrator, serving Pittsburgh as assistant director of Minor League operations (1972–77), then director of scouting (1977–82). He was named the Yankees' scouting director in January 1983.

Cook was promoted to general manager of the New York Yankees on June 30, 1983 after Bill Bergesch was fired. With manager Billy Martin at the helm the whole season, the team showed a marked improvement, posting a 91-71 record, good for third place. However, George Steinbrenner fired Martin for the third time after the season, and brought in Yogi Berra as the new manager. Cook had little say in these matters. Murray Cook earned Steinbrenner's wrath when the Oakland Athletics selected pitcher Tim Belcher from the Yankees in the free agent compensation draft on February 8, 1984. Belcher had been the first player selected in the 1983 amateur draft but had refused to sign with the Minnesota Twins at the time; the Yankees had scored a coup by selecting him in the secondary phase of the January 1984 amateur draft and signing him to a contract a few days later. However, they had already submitted their list of protected players for the free agent draft and were unable to add the newly signed Belcher, leading to his selection by the Athletics. A furious Steinbrenner reduced Cook's responsibilities, leaving a void in the front office until he named Clyde King as his replacement on April 9. Cook inherited the title of Vice-President and Director of Scouting in the shuffle, as Steinbrenner stated that "I take the blame of asking a young man to move too fast too soon". He stayed in that role for a few months until he submitted his resignation on August 20, 1984, explaining that he wanted to have a decision-making role again.

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