Joe Morgan
Joe Leonard Morgan (September 19, 1943 – October 11, 2020) was an American professional baseball second baseman who played 22 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Houston Colt .45s / Astros, Cincinnati Reds, San Francisco Giants, Philadelphia Phillies, and Oakland Athletics from 1963 to 1984. He won two World Series championships with the Reds in 1975 and 1976 and was also named the National League Most Valuable Player in each of those years. Considered one of the greatest second basemen of all time, Morgan was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1990.
This article is about the Baseball Hall of Famer. For the baseball player and manager, see Joe Morgan (manager). For other people named Joe Morgan, see Joe Morgan (disambiguation).Joe Morgan
After retiring as an active player, Morgan became a baseball broadcaster for the Reds, Giants, ABC, and ESPN, as well as a stint in the mid-to-late 1990s on NBC's postseason telecasts, teamed with Bob Costas and Bob Uecker. He hosted a weekly nationally syndicated radio show on Sports USA, while serving as a special advisor to the Reds.
Post-playing career[edit]
Hall of Fame[edit]
In 1990, Morgan was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame with more than 81% of the vote. He entered together with Jim Palmer, both in their first year of eligibility. Morgan and Palmer were the 25th/26th players in MLB history to be elected in their first year of eligibility.[21]
In 2017, Morgan wrote a letter to the Hall of Fame in which he asked that players who had cheated by using performance enhancing steroids not be elected into the Hall.[22]
Legacy[edit]
After his career ended, Morgan was inducted into the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame in 1987, and his jersey number 8 was retired. The Reds dedicated a statue for Morgan at Great American Ball Park in 2013.[23]
In the New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract, Bill James named Morgan the best second baseman in baseball history, ahead of #2 Eddie Collins and #3 Rogers Hornsby. He also named Morgan as the "greatest percentages player in baseball history", due to his strong fielding percentage, stolen base percentage, walk-to-strikeout ratio, and walks per plate appearance.[24]
In 1999, Morgan ranked Number 60 on The Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players,[25] and was nominated as a finalist for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team.[26]
Morgan served as a member of the board of the Baseball Assistance Team, a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to helping former Major League, Minor League, and Negro league players through financial and medical hardships. In addition, since 1994, he served on the Board of Directors for the Baseball Hall of Fame, and was Vice-Chairman from 2000 until his death in 2020.[27]
Broadcasting career[edit]
Local gigs and college baseball[edit]
Morgan started his broadcasting career in 1985 for the Cincinnati Reds.[28] On September 11, 1985, Morgan, along with his television broadcasting partner Ken Wilson, was on hand to call Pete Rose's record-breaking 4,192nd 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.[29]
In 1986, ESPN hired Morgan to call Monday Night Baseball and College World Series games.[30]
ABC Sports[edit]
From 1988 to 1989, Morgan served as an announcer for ABC, where he helped announce Monday Night and Thursday Night Baseball games (providing backup for the lead announcing crew composed of Al Michaels, Tim McCarver, and Jim Palmer), the 1988 American League Championship Series[31] with Gary Bender and Reggie Jackson, and served as a field reporter for the 1989 World Series along with Gary Thorne (Morgan's regular season partner in 1989). Morgan was on the field at San Francisco's Candlestick Park alongside Hall of Famer Willie Mays (whom Morgan was getting set to interview) the moment the Loma Prieta earthquake hit.[32]
NBC Sports[edit]
From 1994 to 2000, Morgan teamed with Bob Costas and Bob Uecker (until 1997) to call baseball games on NBC (and in association with The Baseball Network from 1994 to 1995).[33][34] During this period, Morgan helped call three World Series (1995, 1997, and 1999) and four All-Star Games (1994, 1996, 1998, and 2000). Morgan also called three American League Championship Series (1996, 1998, and 2000) and three National League Championship Series (1995 alongside Greg Gumbel, 1997, and 1999).[29]
Morgan spent a previous stint (1986–1987) with NBC calling regional Game of the Week telecasts alongside Bob Carpenter.[35] During NBC's coverage of the 1985[36] and 1987 National League Championship Series, Morgan served as a pregame analyst alongside hosts Dick Enberg (in 1985)[37] and Marv Albert (in 1987).[38]
Personal life[edit]
Morgan married Gloria Stewart, his high school girlfriend, on April 3, 1967. They had two children, and divorced in the 1980s. He then married Theresa Behymer in 1990. They had twins in 1991.[3]
In March 1988, while transiting through Los Angeles International Airport, Morgan was violently thrown to the floor, brutally beaten, handcuffed, and arrested by Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) detectives who profiled him as a drug courier.[1] He filed and won a civil rights case against the LAPD in 1991,[50] and was awarded $540,000.[51] In 1993, a federal court upheld his claim that his civil rights had been violated.[52]
In 2015, Morgan was diagnosed with Myelodysplastic syndrome, which developed into leukemia. He received a bone marrow transplant from one of his daughters.[53] Morgan died on October 11, 2020, at the age of 77, at his home in Danville, California. He suffered from a non-specified polyneuropathy in the time leading up to his death.[54][55] Behymer-Morgan survives him.