I don't know about you, but I am getting tired of 2020 taking our legends. We've got 80 days to go in this damned year, and we've already lost several Olympic Gold Medalists; soccer legends Rob Rensenbrink, Norman Hunter, Trevor Cherry, Tony Dunne, Jack Charlton, Wim Suurbier; hockey legends Henri Richard and Dale Hawerchuk; basketball legends Jerry Sloan and Wes Unseld; football legend Gale Sayers; Don Larsen, the only man to pitch a no-hitter in the World Series; Bob Watson, the general manager who established the late 1990s Yankee Dynasty; and 5 members of the Baseball Hall of Fame: Al Kaline, Tom Seaver, Lou Brock, Bob Gibson and Whitey Ford.
And that doesn't count Kirk Douglas, who famously played a boxer in the 1949 film Champion; or Ben Cross, who played an Olympic Gold Medalist runner in the 1982 film Chariots of Fire; or Chadwick Boseman, who played Jackie Robinson in 42.
Did I say 5 members of the Baseball Hall of Fame? Now, it's 6. And, like I said, the year has 80 days to go.
Joe Leonard Morgan -- apparently, he was born "Joe," not "Joseph" -- was born on September 19, 1943 in Bonham, Texas, outside Dallas. When he was 5 years old, he moved -- as had Frank Robinson, Willie Stargell and basketball icon Bill Russell -- with his family from the South to Oakland, California.
He attended Castlemont High School, which can also count among its graduates baseball All-Star Gary Pettis; basketball player Clifford Robinson; Fred Silva, the referee for Super Bowl XIV; Steve Reeves, bodybuilder known for playing Hercules in 1950s and '60s films; Larry Graham, bass guitarist for Sly & the Family Stone; June Pointer of The Pointer Sisters; and singer Raphael Saadiq.
Joe starred in high school baseball. But at just 5-foot-7, he received no major league offers. So he stayed in his hometown, playing at Oakland City College. That got him noticed by the National League's expansion Houston Colt .45s, and they gave him a $3,000 signing bonus.
Joe made his major league debut on September 21, 1963, wearing Number 12, at Colt Stadium, where the Houston ballclub played from 1962 to 1964, before the Astrodome was completed and they changed their name to the Houston Astros. In the bottom of the 3rd inning, he was sent up to pinch-hit for pitcher Don Nottebart, and popped up to 2nd base -- oddly, his own position. He was not sent into the field, and the Colts lost 4-3 to the Philadelphia Phillies.
He struggled in 1964, wearing Number 35. Nellie Fox, the eventual Hall of Fame 2nd baseman who had starred for the Chicago White Sox, was now playing out the string with the Colts/Astros, and noticed that Joe, a lefthanded hitter, was keeping his back (left) elbow too low. Nellie told Joe to flap his back arm like a chicken.
It sounds silly, but it worked: In 1965, now wearing Number 18, he batted .271, hit 14 home runs, had 40 runs batted in -- very good numbers given that he was short, a leadoff hitter, and playing home games in the pitcher-friendly Astrodome -- and led the National League with 97 walks. He finished 2nd to Jim Lefebvre of the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL Rookie of the Year voting. The following year, despite missing 40 games after being hit on the kneecap by a pitch, he made the All-Star Game for the 1st of what turned out to be 10 times.
Miller: "Joe! Joe Morgan! May I have a word with you?"
Morgan: "Sure, Norm. How's it going?"
Miller: "Fine, Joe, fine. We wanted to ask you about that pitch you missed. What was it?"
Morgan: "Norm, that was a motherfucking curve."
Miller: "Can you tell our listeners, Joe, what's the difference between a regular curve and a motherfucking curve?"
Morgan: "Well, Norm, your regular curve has a lot of spin on it, and you can recognize it real early. It breaks down a little bit, and out. Now, your motherfucker, that's different. It comes in harder, looks like a fastball. Then all of a sudden it rolls off the top of the table and before you know it, it's motherfucking strike three."
Miller: "Thank you very much, Joe Morgan."
In that 1st season of divisional play, the Astros managed to stay in the NL Western Division race into September for the 1st time in their history. But they went into a slump until they, too, rolled off the top of the table. Through the 1971 season, despite the best efforts of Joe and others, the Astros still hadn't really come close to an NL West title. And Astro manager Harry Walker didn't like Joe.
So, on November 29, 1971, the Astros traded Joe, center fielder Cesar Gerónimo, reserve infielder Denis Menke, reserve outfielder Ed Armbrister and pitcher Jack Billingham to the Cincinnati Reds for 1st baseman Lee May, 2nd baseman Tommy Helms and utility player Jimmy Stewart. May was the key for the Astros, due to his power.
The result for the Astros was terrible. They went into a nosedive. Walker was fired midway through the next season. May found the Astrodome too hard to hit in. Helms wasn't as good a fielder at the keystone sack as Morgan. Stewart, one of the reasons the Chicago Cubs traded Lou Brock in 1964, did next to nothing for Houston. They didn't get into another Pennant race until 1979.
*
The result for the Reds was fantastic. Already having won a Pennant in 1970, but slipping to 2nd place behind the San Francisco Giants in 1971, the acquisitions of Billingham, Gerónimo, and especially Morgan helped to solidify them as the Big Red Machine of the memories of baseball fans of the 1970s. Armbrister didn't do much, but was crucial in the 1975 World Series, for a reason that Boston fans still whine about to this day.
In 1972, switching to Number 8, and hitting in Riverfront Stadium instead of the Astrodome, Morgan batted .292; led the NL in the following categories: On-base percentage, .417; walks 115; and runs scored, 122; and reached new career highs with 58 stolen bases, 16 home runs and 72 RBIs. With catcher Johnny Bench winning his 2nd NL Most Valuable Player award in 3 years, and Pete Rose and Tony Pérez also providing big hits, the Reds won the NL West, and beat the Pittsburgh Pirates in the NL Championship Series, before losing the World Series to the Oakland Athletics.
In 1973, with Pittsburgh Pirates 2nd baseman Bill Mazeroski finally retired, Joe won the 1st of his 5 Gold Gloves, and reached new career highs with 67 stolen bases, 28 homers and 82 RBIs. But the Reds lost the NLCS to the New York Mets. In 1974, he again led the NL in OBP with .427, but the Reds finished 2nd in the NL West to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The 1975 season is the one by which the Big Red Machine is usually best remembered. The Reds won 108 games, a franchise record that still stands, and 10 games more than any other MLB team won that year. Joe batted over .300 for the 1st time, with what would remain a career-high .327. He again led the NL in OBP, with .466. He hit 17 home runs, had a new career high with 94 RBIs, and matched his career high with 67 steals. He was named the NL MVP.
The Reds swept the Pirates in the NLCS. That year's World Series is often considered one of the best ever, and its Game 6, with the Boston Red Sox beating the Reds in 12 innings at Fenway Park, one of the best baseball games of all time. As a result, how great Game 7 was tends to get forgotten. The game was tied 3-3 in the top of the 9th, when Joe singled home Ken Griffey Sr. with the winning run. The Reds had their 1st World Championship in 35 years.
Joe was named NL MVP again in 1976, batting .320, with 60 stolen bases, new career highs with 27 home runs and his only 100+ RBI season, 111, and led the NL in OBP with .444 and slugging percentage with .576. The Reds were slightly less impressive in the regular season, but still led MLB with 102 wins, and completed the only undefeated postseason in the Divisional Play Era, sweeping the Phillies in 3 straight and the Yankees in 4 straight, clinching the World Championship at Yankee Stadium.
Some fans call the 1970s Reds the greatest team ever. But they weren't even the Team of the Decade. In 1972, the A's beat them, clinching in Cincinnati, with their best player, Reggie Jackson, unavailable due to injury.
And the Reds ruined their best chance to extend their run into a real dynasty: As smart as they were with their acquisitions early in the decade, they were every bit as dumb with them later on: They let
Pérez go after 1976, let Rose and manager Sparky Anderson go after 1978, and let Morgan go after 1979, even after he had led off the 1977 All-Star Game, at Yankee Stadium with a home run off Jim Palmer. The Reds finished 2nd to the Dodgers in the NL West in 1977 and '78, and won the NL West in 1979, but got swept by the Pirates in the NLCS, and didn't reach the postseason again for 11 years.
*
Free agency and a change of ownership allowed Morgan to return to the Astros for 1980, and he helped them win their 1st NL West title, before losing the NLCS to the Phillies. He then went back to the San Francisco Bay Area from whence he came, and played the 1981 and '82 seasons with the San Francisco Giants. Although the Giants went nowhere, his home run on the last day of the '82 season eliminated the Dodgers, the Giants' arch-rivals, from the NL West race.
Unfortunately, his return to Houston meant that
he had to wear the uniforms the Astros adopted in 1975,
known as "Tequila Sunrise" and "Rainbow Brite."
In 1983, he was reunited with Rose and Pérez on the Phillies. In 1950, the Phillies won the Pennant with, by average age, the youngest team ever to do so, and were known as "the Whiz Kids." This time, Philadelphia Daily News sports columnist Stan Hochman labeled them "the Wheeze Kids," with Morgan being 39 years old, Pérez 40, Rose 41, pitcher Ron Reed 40, outfielder Bill Robinson 39, and pitchers Steve Carlton and Tug McGraw 38.
The Phils not only had Morgan, Rose and Pérez (and Dave Concepción, but not Bench, or George Foster for that matter), they even copied the Big Red Machine's modus operandi, by beating the Dodgers and the Pirates, albeit in reverse order, due to the geography: They beat the Pirates by 6 games to win the NL East, and then beat the Dodgers in the NLCS, after the Dodgers had beaten the Phils in it in 1977 and '78, before Rose arrived and led them to the 1980 World Championship.
Unfortunately, the pattern continued: Just as the Reds did in 1970, with Rose, Pérez, Bench and
Concepción (but without Morgan and Foster), the Phillies lost the World Series to the Baltimore Orioles.
In 1984, Joe returned to Oakland, and played 1 more season with his hometown A's, and retired. He ended his career with a .271 lifetime batting average, an OPS+ of 132; 2,517 hits including 449 doubles, 96 triples and 268 home runs; 1,133 RBIs and 689 stolen bases. Those 268 home runs remain a major league record for players 5-foot-7 or shorter, and he hit more home runs as a 2nd baseman than any player before him. He has since been surpassed by Ryne Sandberg, Jeff Kent and Robinson Canó.
*
Immediately after his retirement, Joe returned to the Reds, hired as a broadcaster. He was part of the broadcast team on September 11, 1985, when, having also returned to the Reds, as player-manager, Rose collected his 4,192 career hit, breaking Ty Cobb's all-time record. (A check of the records revealed that Cobb actually had 4,189 hits, not 4,191, so Rose had already broken the record.)
In 1986, Joe moved back to the Giants as a broadcaster, and also called games for ESPN. In 1988, he switched to ABC, and, as an Oakland native and a former player for both the Giants and the A's, was on the field at Candlestick Park for the pregame ceremony when the Loma Prieta Earthquake pre-empted Game 3 of the World Series.
Joe moved to NBC in 1994, and gained a reputation as, well, let me put it this way: As a broadcaster, he made a great ballplayer. He should have been seen and not heard.
Typical of this was in the 1998 All-Star Game at Coors Field in Denver. Greg Maddux of the Atlanta Braves started the game for the National League. For the last out of the 1st inning, he struck out Alex Rodriguez of the Seattle Mariners.
When NBC came back from commercial, they went right to the instant replay of the pitch that home plate umpire Ed Montague called, "Strike 3." To lead announcer Bob Costas, Joe said, "Now, this is a perfect pitch, Bob." The replay showed that the pitch was 8 inches outside. A-Rod knew it was no strike, and didn't even feint a swing. But Montague and Morgan both thought it was a strike.
In 1999, Joe went back to ESPN, teaming with Jon Miller until 2010, when both men's contracts were not renewed. He then returned to the Reds, with the title of "advisor to baseball operations," and also served as what many sports teams call a club ambassador.
Jon Miller and Joe Morgan at Wrigley Field in Chicago
He had married his high school girlfriend, Gloria Stewart, and they had 2 children. After their divorce, he married Theresa Behymer, and they had twins.
In 1987, the Reds retired his Number 8, and elected him to their team Hall of Fame. In 2013, they dedicated a statue of him outside Great American Ball Park. In 1990, in his 1st year of eligibility, he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
In 1999, The Sporting News chose its 100 Greatest Baseball Players, and ranked him 60th. MasterCard, which then ran the fan balloting for the All-Star Game, printed up similar ballots for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team. Joe was one of the 100 finalists, and some people suggested that he would be chosen by fans as 1 of the 2 2nd basemen, especially since he was a much more recent player than most of the other candidates, including Jackie Robinson, who last played in 1956.
Joe was not moved: He said that if he were chosen, and Jackie wasn't, he would surrender his place on the Team to Jackie. He need not have worried: He finished 3rd in the voting, Jackie was 1st, and Rogers Hornsby was 2nd. Besides, the committee running the project allowed for "wild cards" for players who should have been on the team, but weren't chosen.
The players they felt they had to choose, since the fans didn't, were Christy Mathewson, Honus Wagner, Lefty Grove and Stan Musial -- who had played their last games 83, 82, 58 and 36 years earlier, respectively. Jackie's last game was 43 years earlier, Hornsby's 62, and Joe's only 15.
Also chosen were Joe's Reds teammate Bench, his Phillies teammate Mike Schmidt, his Astros teammate Nolan Ryan, and, controversially, his permanently-banned Reds and Phillies teammate Rose.
In 2001, in his book The New Bill James Historical Abstract, statistician and baseball historian James chose Joe as the best 2nd baseman in baseball history, ranking Eddie Collins 2nd and Rogers Hornsby 3rd. Joe's MVP seasons immediately preceded my coming into awareness about baseball, but I rank him ahead of any 2nd baseman I've ever seen, including Kent, Canó, and Hall-of-Famers Sandberg,
Roberto Alomar and Craig Biggio. (Don't even think of including that little cheat José Altuve.)
In his last years, Joe served on the board of directors of both the Hall of Fame and the Baseball Assistance Team, which aids former professional players, including the few surviving Negro League players, who may have fallen on hard times.
In 2015, Joe Morgan developed leukemia, and battled it for 5 years. He died yesterday, October 11, 2020, at his home in Danville, California, outside Oakland. He was 77. He was the 1st member of the 8-man "Big Red Machine" lineup to die: Rose is 79, Pérez is 78; Bench, Concepción and Gerónimo are
72; Foster is 71 and Griffey is 70. (Manager Anderson died in 2010, at 76.)
All 5 of Joe's teams -- Houston, Cincinnati, Philadlephia, San Francisco and Oakland -- have expressed their heartbreak on Twitter. As have:
Pete Rose: "He was a great friend, a rock as far as a ballplayer."
Johnny Bench: "Joe wasn’t just the best second baseman in baseball history, he was the best player I ever saw and one of the best people I’ve ever known."
Barry Larkin, a later Reds Hall-of-Famer: "RIP uncle Joe...my HOF idol, my franchise four brother, my mentor, my friend.....u will be missed"
Joey Votto, the Reds' active legend: "This one hurts."
Jon Miller: "Joe is rightfully remembered as a great player and Hall of Famer – and in my opinion is the greatest second baseman there ever was – but his pioneering efforts are not always as appreciated. He was the first Black or African-American game baseball analyst in prime time on national television & he did that for 21 seasons. He was the pioneering trailblazer among commentators."
Joel Sherman, Yankees beat writer for the New York Post, who grew up in Brooklyn but was a Reds fan: "I grew up a Reds fan because I loved Pete Rose, but the arrival of Joe Morgan changed them from a contender to a historic team. When I played wiffle ball with my pals, you had to bat like the guys on your fave team. So I got to bat lefty for Morgan and flap my left arm into my ribs and that memory is with me right now. When his bloop landed in front of Fred Lynn in the '75 World Series to bring home the decisive run, I was 11 and my dad had let me stay up to watch the game and I started running around the living room euphoric. Morgan was a great player. Great. He did everything on a field well. His skill set would be even more venerated today."
I can imagine Joe stepping up to the plate in that great ballpark in the sky, saying, "All right, Christy Mathewson, I've been hearing about you my whole life. Now, I'm here. Let me see that curve."
I wonder if people in Heaven are allowed to add profane qualifiers.
No comments:
Post a Comment