Joe Morgan
This article is about the baseball player. For information on the baseball manager of the same name, see Joe Morgan (manager). Joseph Leonard Morgan (born
September 19,
1943 in
Bonham, Texas) is a former
Major League Baseball second baseman, considered by many as one of the greatest second basemen to have played the game. Morgan was inducted into the
Baseball Hall of Fame in 1990 with 81.76% of the ballot. Currently, he works as a
color commentator for
ESPN television and
radio.
Morgan was signed by the
Houston Colt .45s as an amateur free agent in 1962. Early in his career, Morgan had trouble with his swing because he kept his back elbow down too low. Teammate
Nellie Fox suggested to Joe that he should 'flap' his back arm like a
chicken to keep his elbow up. He played with distinction with Houston until a multi-player trade brought him to the
Cincinnati Reds in the 1972 season. After joining
The Big Red Machine, Morgan's career reached a new level. This includes eight consecutive
All-Star Game appearances (1972-1979) to go along with his 1966 and 1970 appearances with Houston.
Morgan, along with teammates
Pete Rose,
Johnny Bench,
Tony Perez and
Dave Concepción, led the Reds to consecutive championships in the
World Series. He drove in the winning run in game 7 of the
1975 World Series. Morgan was also the
National League MVP in 1975 and 1976.
|
1974 Topps baseball card #85 |
As a hitter, Morgan was extremely capable. While his lifetime average was only .271, he hit between .288 and .327 during his peak years with the Reds, and drew a great many walks throughout his career, resulting in a superb .392 on base percentage. He also hit 268 home runs and 545 doubles and triples, excellent power for a middle infielder of his era, and was considered the finest base stealer of his generation (689 steals at greater than 80% success rate). Besides his prowess behind the plate and on the bases, Morgan was an exceptional infielder winning the
Gold Glove Award from 1972 to 1976. In 1980, he returned to Houston to help the young Astros to win the NL West. They did, but lost to the Phillies in the National League Championship Series. Morgan went to the
San Francisco Giants for the next two seasons. It was his home run that eliminated the Dodgers out of the division race. Then, he went to the Phillies where he rejoined ex-teammates
Pete Rose, and
Tony Perez. After losing to the
Baltimore Orioles in the
World Series, Morgan finished his career with the
Oakland Athletics. In his
Historical Baseball Abstract,
Bill James named Joe Morgan the best second baseman in baseball history.
In 1999, he ranked Number 60 on
The Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, and was nominated as a finalist for the
Major League Baseball All-Century Team.
In his current broadcasting career, he has also been successful, winning a
CableACE award in
1990 and
Emmy awards for sports analysis in
1998 and
2005.
Morgan started his broadcasting career in
1985 for the Cincinnati Reds. On
September 11,
1985, Morgan along with his television broadcasting partner
Ron Wilson were on hand to call Pete Rose's record breaking 4,192 career hit.
A year later, Morgan started a nine year stint as an announcer for the
San Francisco Giants. Morgan added one more local gig when he joined the
Oakland Athletics' broadcasting team for the
1995 season.
From
1988-
1989, Morgan served as an announcer for
ABC where he helped announce
Monday Night Baseball games, the
1988 American League Championship Series with
Gary Bender and
Reggie Jackson, and served as a field reporter for the
1989 World Series. Morgan was on the field at
San Francisco's
Candlestick Park alongside
Hall of Famer Willie Mays the moment the
Loma Prieta earthquake hit at 5:04 p.m.
From
1994-
2000, Morgan teamed with
Bob Costas and
Bob Uecker to call baseball games on
NBC. During this period, Morgan helped call three World Series (
1995,
1997, and
1999 respectively) and four All-Star Games (1994, 1996, 1998, and 2000). Morgan had spent a previous (
1986-
1987) stint with NBC calling regional
Game of the Week telecasts.
Currently, he broadcasts games for ESPN alongside
Jon Miller. Besides teaming with Miller for
Sunday Night Baseball telecasts, Morgan has also teamed with Miller for World Series broadcasts on
ESPN Radio. He is also a broadcaster in the
MLB 2K series from
2K Sports. Although Joe Morgan's partnership with Jon Miller began in
1990, it wasn't the first time that Morgan associated himself with ESPN. From 1985-1988 Morgan called
college baseball games for ESPN.
Morgan's remarks have concerned many in Chicago, particularly with his views on
Ryne Sandberg. Morgan was notably absent during Sandberg's Hall of Fame induction. However, both former players have maintained at least a front of civility.[
1]
Joe Morgan is one of the more prominent critics of
Billy Beane and the "
Moneyball"
sabermetric style of building teams. Rather, Morgan is an advocate of "small-ball" tactics. He asserts with some pride that he has not read the book and frequently attributes authorship of
Moneyball to Beane or "a computer", when the book is actually about Beane and was written by
Michael Lewis. Ironically, Morgan can be described as a perfect
sabermetric player, as he drew frequent walks and had a remarkably high OBP. Morgan has also gone on record as stating that RBIs are the best statistic for hitters and win-loss records for pitchers. Both statistics are widely viewed as obsolete by sabermatricians
Despite receiving several Emmy awards for his color commentary, an anti-Joe Morgan movement has been inspired by a blogger website firejoemorgan.com. The website critiques not only Joe's irrational dismissal of sabermetrics, but his overall broadcasting style. The site commonly takes excerpts from Joe's broadcasts and online chats on ESPN.com and offers criticism. Below is an example:
Drew (MIdland Tx): Hello Joe: I'm a huge Yankees fan and I know about Abreu, and Wilson; but not much about Lidle. I know he's an upgrade as the 5 starter (Ponson...HA-HA-HA), but just how good is his stuff right now. Oh, and how will these moves impact the Yanks...Al East?, Wildcard?, World series??? Joe Morgan: I don't know a ton about Lidle, but I do think he'll be able to help them. He can give them some innings and help the rotation. If they can get him some runs, they can win. KT: Those of you who play the JoeChat home game will recognize this as the template answer for the question: "Will PITCHER X help my favorite team?"
Joe: "I don't know a ton about PITCHER X, but I do think he'll be able to help them. He can give them some innings and help the rotation. If they can get him some runs, they can win.
Works for every pitcher in every situation. It's the equivalent of a meteorologist saying, "Partly cloudy, chance of showers." Except this meteorologist is a multiple Emmy-winner and among the highest-paid color commentators in America.
| G | AB | R | H | BB | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | SB | CS | AVG | OBP | SLG |
| 2649 | 9277 | 1650 | 2517 | 1865 | 449 | 96 | 268 | 1133 | 689 | 162 | .271 | .392 | .427 |
*Major League debut: September 21, 1963.
*Bats: Left-handed
*Throws: Right-handed
*Member of Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame (inducted in 1987)
*Uniform no. 8 retired by Cincinnati Reds.
* Morgan teamed with
shortstop Dave Concepción a duo winner of four
Gold Gloves, joining a select list of eight shortstop-second baseman combinations have won the honor in the same season while playing together (
1974 to
1977).
See also*
List of Gold Glove middle infield duos*
Baseball Hall of Fame*
Fire Joe Morgan blog*
San Francisco Chronicle - Joe Morgan's clutch homer knocked the Dodgers out of the pennant race on the final day of the 1982 season and made the Braves champions
