If you were a fan of twin Bills and the Mets in 1966, there might not have been a better baseball card going than Topps’ #574 that summer.
On the left-hand side, you had left-hand pitcher Bill Hepler, a Rule 5 pick from the Washington Senators who was thus guaranteed a spot on the major league roster (or a return to Washington).
And on the right-hand side, you had Bill Murphy, a right-handed outfielder who was also a Rule 5 pick, from the crosstown Yankees.
Given their status as Rule 5 guys, Hepler and Murphy made it easy for Topps to include them in their 1966 set — as mentioned, they were locks to make the Mets.
Hepler was just 20 years old when he debuted against the Braves on April 23. Despite that youth, his bottom-line numbers looked OK come season’s end: 3-3 record, 3.52 ERA in 37 appearances that included three starts.
Some other numbers, though, didn’t look so good, like 51 walks against just 25 strikeouts in 69 innings pitched. That performance earned Hepler his first minor league seasoning above Single-A in 1967, and he never did make it back to the majors.
Sort of a shame, from a nickname perspective, if nothing else. The lefty had shown decent strikeout potential his first two seasons, so it would have been cool if he had figured out how to turn MLB batters into ground meat, too.
You know, then we could have called him Hamburger Hepler.
Murphy, meanwhile, was just a bit more seasoned when he debuted against the Braves (sensing a pattern here) on April 15, just shy of his 22nd birthday. He ended up playing in 84 games that summer, mostly in center field, with big helpings of pinch-hitting and pinch-running thrown in.
Overall, Murphy hit .230 with three home runs and 13 RBI. Like Hepler, he had problems with the strike zone, walking seven times and striking out 34 in 146 plate appearances.
As with Hepler, the Mets had seen enough of Murphy. He spent the next four seasons in the minors, spending time in the Mets, Angels, Cardinals, Brewers, and Cubs organizations from 1967 through 1970.
Murphy never made it back to the majors, though, so his 1966 rookie performance with the Mets stands as his career line.
Today, Billy Murphy turns 80 years old, and long-tenured Mets fans who remember the twin Bills summer of 1966 might just be wondering where the time went.
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