Joe Morgan

The Grim Reaper has been especially busy collecting the souls of baseball Hall of Famers. There have been six players who've died in 2020, five in the last five weeks. Al Kaline died in the spring, but in the last month or so Tom Seaver, Lou Brock, Bob Gibson, Whitey Ford, and lastly Joe Morgan have died.

Morgan is the one that hits me the most, because for a while he was my favorite player. During the mid-70s, when my favorite team, the Detroit Tigers, were terrible, I latched on to the Cincinnati Reds, then nicknamed the Big Red Machine. I had some connection, as my father's family came from Cincinnati and my grandfather, though a Tiger fan, still had a rooting interest. They also had Pete Rose, who was my father's childhood friend.

That was such a great team to watch, and of all their great players, I liked Morgan the most. An early goal of mine was to be a Major League second basemen (a ridiculous fantasy, since I was a horrible athlete), and Morgan arguably is the best second basemen in baseball history. He was a two-time MVP, in 1975 and '76, the years they won the World Series. He hit third, and today, without much thought, I can remember their lineup--Tony Perez at first, Morgan at second, Dave Concepcion at short, Rose at third, George Foster in left, Cesar Geronimo in center, Ken Griffey Sr. in right. It was a team with speed and power. 

Morgan hit from the left side, and for a guy only five-seven, had great power. He had a distinctive batting style--before each pitch he would flap his left arm like a chicken wing, to remind himself to keep the arm away from his body. 

Morgan was also a long-time announcer, and displayed an insightful knowledge of the game.

The deaths of Brock and Gibson took me back to the 1968 World Series, in which my Tigers defeated the Cardinals of those two. In fact, Gibson died on the 52nd anniversary of the day he struck out a record 17 batters in the opening game of that series. Gibson won two games in that series, but lost game seven, the only World Series game he ever lost in three series. 

Brock's memorable moment in that series, and certainly one he wouldn't want to remember, was a key play in game five. The Cardinals were up in the series three games to one, and were poised to wrap it all up. Brock attempted to score on a base hit, but Willie Horton in left threw him out at home. Brock did not slide, and catcher Bill Freehan tagged him just as his foot was coming down on the plate. Kaline had a key hit later in the game to put the Tigers up for good, and they went on to win the series.

Whitey Ford was before my time, but the others played in my baseball crazy youth, when I collected baseball cards and played imaginary games by throwing a ball against the wall, or played catch with my brother. They are ghosts of my past.