Dale Murphy visits Fan Cave to talk life after baseball

“Honey, this is the line for apps…I just stand here?”

Murphy has nearly 33,000 followers at @DaleMurphy3, and that is just the start of his interest in technology. He has been an early adopter going way back to the “Trash 80s,” as the old TRS-80 computers were known during his career. Before signing the Fan Cave autograph wall, he whipped out his iPhone so he could share pics of other signatures—including Johnny Bench’s, given that he used to idolize the Big Red Machine.

“I really enjoy it. A lot of people my age think things are too complicated to get involved with,” Murphy said of technology. “There really is a learning curve and that’s where my kids come in handy and teach me Twitter, iTunes, Instagram, those kind of things that are fantastic tools really to connect communities and families. I am interacting with my kids and my grandkids in a way that just wasn’t possible a few years ago.

“I enjoy Twitter, it’s like one big conversation. I think what people need to know, whether they’re middle-aged, with this technology thing, you’ve just got to dive in. ... It’s opened up a lot of different avenues for me. I can access more music now. I don’t have to listen to classic rock every day.”

Murphy was reminded on Friday that having a Twitter account also can be a lightning rod.

Among the din that followed an infield-fly rule call during the Cardinals-Braves Wild Card game at Turner Field, there was this tweet from Murphy: “Oh my… Not believing this.. Calls an infield fly when the ball is almost on the ground? Oh my..”

He spent much of the next 24 hours elaborating and clarifying.