Story-Joe Morgan

[kairos12]

Last edited Thu May 24, 2018, 08:09 AM - Edit history (1)

Let me say that Joe Morgan has always been my favorite baseball player of all time. That arm flapping and his clutch play. I loved watching him play.

When he was playing for the Astros he swung badly at a pitch and struck out. When he returned to the dugout his teammate Norm Miller approached pretending to use a bat as a microphone and began to interview him.

Miller: Joe you seemed to struggle with that pitch and that pitcher can you tell me what happened?

Morgan: Norm, let me explain. Do you know what the difference is between a curveball and a mf...... curveball?

Miller: No Joe can you tell me?

Morgan: You see with a curveball you can pickup the spin of the ball, see it, and hit it out of the park. Now your mf...... curveball looks just like a fastball until it crosses the plate where it falls off the table, you swing at it, and it's a mf...... strike three.

Love that Joe.

[wasupaloopa]

1. I loved the Big Red Machine

Last edited Thu May 24, 2018, 12:06 AM - Edit history (1)

Pete Rose
Johnny Bench
Tony Perez
Joe Morgan
Dave Conception
Goerge Foster
Ken Griffey
Cezar Geronimo

I grew up with the Cincinnati Reds

[kairos12]

2. One of the all time truly great teams.

[Jim Lane]

3. Let's just note for the record that the Red Sox outscored them in the 1975 World Series.

Unfortunately, because of a quirk in the rules, the Big Red Machine's 29 runs were awarded the win ahead of the 30 runs scored by the Red Sox.

Al Gore and Hillary Clinton can relate.

But, yes, the Reds were a great team.

[wasupaloopa]

4. That was the greatest World Series ever

Carlton Fisk vs Johnny Bench

I watched every game

[Jim Lane]

5. A story from the Boston viewpoint

A key Series figure was Red Sox reliever Jim Willoughby. From his SABR bio page:

Willoughby was called on to put out a fire in the Game Seven. The score was tied, 3-3, in the top of the seventh inning. The bases were loaded and there were two outs with Johnny Bench at the plate. Willoughby retired Bench on a foul pop to catcher Fisk. Willoughby then pitched a 1-2-3 eighth inning. In the bottom of the inning, though, with none on, two out and the score still tied, manager Darrell Johnson pulled Willoughby for a pinch-hitter, the rusty Cecil Cooper. Cooper popped out to Pete Rose in foul territory.

Jim Burton, the rookie hurler who succeeded Willoughby, wound up giving up a run in the ninth and losing both the game and the Series. A story that has grown into a piece of urban folklore among Red Sox fans tells of a sportswriter going into a Boston area watering hole sometime after the World Series and encountering a solitary drinker mumbling to himself about Darrell Johnson, “He never should have hit for Willoughby.” Peter Gammons also has spun that tale.

When I heard the story, it included the detail that this occurred several weeks after the Series, at a bar with the Patriots game on the TV but the fan's mind still back in Fenway Park.

[wasupaloopa]

6. My memory is faded but I think in the last game Bench and Fisk hit

homers and the game could have gone either way. I think Bench hit a homer that won the game. But like I said my mind is fuzzy about it. But I do remember that it was the greatest baseball contest I ever witnessed.

[Jim Lane]

7. No, not a homer and not Bench.

From Wikipedia, here's what happened after we pulled Willoughby:

In the ninth, Griffey led off with a walk, was sacrificed to second by César Gerónimo, and went to third on a groundout. Sox pitcher Jim Burton then walked Rose to set up a forceout, but then gave up a bloop single to Joe Morgan to score Griffey with the go-ahead and Series-winning run.

Bloop single, indeed. It was the classic of too deep for a middle infielder to reach but too shallow for the center fielder. I think I read Roger Angell describe Morgan's hit as dropping "in front of a desperately onrushing Lynn." It was a real cheap hit. In fact, it was the cheapest seventh game, ninth inning, two-out, tie-breaking, Series-winning hit you ever saw.

[wasupaloopa]

9. I remember I liked the ending

[Rhiannon12866]

8. I remember him! He was a favorite of my Dad's too...

[kairos12]

10. Great foto.