Oakland roots led to Hall of Fame life
Joe Morgan, who rose from the baseballrich playgrounds of Oakland to the Hall of Fame, died Sunday night at his home in Danville at the age of 77. The cause of death was nonspecified polyneuropathy.
Morgan had dealt with a number of health issues in recent years.
The twotime National League MVP, a second baseman and key cog in Cincinnati’s Big Red Machine of the 1970s, got his start playing at Brookfield Elementary in Oakland, ultimately taking his place at Cooperstown in 1990 with a firstballot election.
Morgan became an active member, backing election reforms to allow inductees more involvement in the election process and also advocating for a steroidfree Hall.
Morgan’s 22year bigleague career ended with the A’s in 1984 and included a brief but memorable stint with the Giants. On the final day of the 1982 season, his second and last with the Giants, he hit a threerun homer off Terry
Forster at Candlestick Park to beat the Dodgers and cost them the NL West title.
After retirement, Morgan launched a decadeslong broadcasting career, with one season in Cincinnati. The Giants then hired him for what became an eightyear run doing playbyplay and analysis on TV.
“He had a seemingly endless supply of energy, of life, like a force of nature,” said Jon Miller, Morgan’s partner for 21 seasons on ESPN’s “Sunday Night Baseball.”
“I’m sort of in a state of disbelief right now.”
Retired Giants manager Bruce Bochy called the news of Morgan’s death “horrible.” Bochy was a Reds fan growing up because that was his father’s team and said he idolized players like Morgan and Johnny Bench.
In 1980, Bochy and Morgan were teammates on the divisionwinning Astros team that fell to the Phillies in the NLCS.
“He took me under his wing and really told me not just great stories about CinJOE
cinnati, but he taught me the game of baseball,” Bochy said. “What a great man. He was involved in so many charities and things. I felt lucky and honored to spend some time with him.”
Bench issued a statement through the Hall that called Morgan a “dedicated father and husband, and a day won’t go by that I won’t think about his wisdom and his friendship.”
“Joe wasn’t just the best second baseman in baseball history,” Bench said. “He was the best player I ever saw and one of the best people I’ve ever known.”
Giants President and CEO Larry Baer issued a statement that read, “Joe had a long and distinguished career on the field, in the broadcast booth and in the community and his passing leaves a hole in the unique fabric of our great game. Our condolences go out to the Morgan family for their tremendous loss and we extend our thoughts to Joe’s teammates, his friends, and to all those touched by his passing.”
The A’s issued a statement that called Morgan “a trailblazer on and off the field. His impact on our sport and community will be felt for generations to come in Oakland. We send our condolences to his loved ones and the baseball family.”
Though he was 5foot7, earning the nickname Little Joe, Morgan was one of the best allaround players ever at his position; his 266 homers as a second baseman were the most in majorleague history until Ryne Sandberg passed him in 1997.
“I take my vote as a salute to the little guy, the one who doesn’t hit 500 homers,” Morgan said when inducted to the Hall of Fame. “I was one of the guys who did all he could to win. I’m proud of all of my stats, but I don’t think I ever got one for ‘ Joe Morgan.’ If I stole a base, it was to help us win a game, and I’d like to think that’s what made me a little special.”
Morgan recorded at least 100 walks and 100 runs eight times. He stole 40plus bases nine years in a row and won five consecutive Gold Gloves from 1973 through ’ 77. Morgan was traded to the Reds by the Astros in November 1971, and Cincinnati won three of the next five National League pennants and backtoback World Series titles in ’ 7576.
“That little man can do everything,” said the late Sparky Anderson, the manager of the Big Red Machine teams, who also called Morgan
the smartest player he ever managed.
In Game 7 of the 1975 World Series, with two outs in the ninth against Boston, Morgan was on deck with the potential gamewinning run at second base. He told The Chronicle that when Pete Rose stepped into the box, Morgan said to himself, “C’mon, walk him.”
Pitcher Jim Burton obliged. Morgan then fouled off a pitch, took two more and fouled off another before delivering a brokenbat single to center to give the Reds the 43 victory and the title.
“That was what my career was all about,” Morgan told The Chronicle. “That moment was what I was shooting for. It was one of those times where you have to show what you’re made of.
“A childhood dream. A perfect moment.”
When Morgan was named NL MVP after that season, he said, “Personally, I’m happy for baseball I won. What I mean is: Kids should strive to be complete players. … There’s more to baseball than doing just one thing.”
Though Morgan’s time with the Giants was relatively short, he is responsible for one of the most memorable moments in the team’s West Coast history. In the final game of the 1982 regular season — one day after the Dodgers had eliminated the upstart Giants from playoff contention — Morgan’s threerun homer in the seventh put the Giants ahead to stay and knocked the Dodgers out of the postseason.
Duane Kuiper, a member of the 1982 team who later joined Morgan in the Giants’ TV booth for five seasons, said he was surprised to see Morgan in the lineup because the game was meaningless for the Giants, but Morgan wanted to play because the division was at stake for L. A.
“I think he felt it was the right thing to do,” Kuiper said.
“No lefthanded hitter wanted to face ( Forster). He was one of the toughest lefthanders in the league. I was standing outside the dugout just in awe of what that little guy could do.”
It was made sweeter for Morgan because Frank Robinson — a fellow Oaklander and MLB’s first Black manager — was leading the Giants.
“That was one of the highlights of my baseball career, playing there,” Morgan told The Chronicle last year following the death of Robinson. “I played with the Big Red Machine. We were supposed to win. We had the best players. We played the way it was
“He was the best player I ever saw and one of the best people I’ve ever known.” Johnny Bench, Hall of Fame catcher, on former Cincinnati teammate and fellow Hall of Famer Joe Morgan
supposed to be played. We had some great teams.
“That 1982 Giants team, Frank Robinson led us to where we got to go. He was the inspiration. We had a lot of good players. Reggie Smith, Darrell Evans, Chili Davis, Jack Clark. I mean, we had a group of guys who played their tail off.
“They didn’t have the ability the Big Red Machine had, but they played hard, and I was probably as proud of that team, led by Frank Robinson, as any team I played on.”
Morgan, who was born in Bonham, Texas, on Sept. 19, 1943, got his first glove when he was 4 months old, courtesy of his father, Leonard, who had played semipro ball. Leonard Morgan moved the family to Oakland when Joe was 8, and he was a baseball standout as a youth, a threetime Babe Ruth League AllStar.
At Castlemont High School, Morgan played baseball and basketball and ran track, but he drew no scholarship offers, probably because of his size. He played at Oakland City College instead, and in 1962, when Morgan was 19, he signed a minorleague deal with the Houston Colt .45s.
He was mentored there by Hall of Fame second baseman Nellie Fox, who was responsible for Morgan’s trademark elbow waggle; after watching Morgan repeatedly fly out to the warning track, Fox suggested he keep his elbow in closer to generate more power; as a reminder, Morgan began flapping his elbow at the plate.
In 1963, Morgan made his bigleague debut two days after his 21st birthday, but the following year, he was back in the minors, where he was the Texas League Player of the Year. In 1965, Houston recalled him for good. He was the runnerup for NL Rookie of the Year behind Jim Lefebvre of the Dodgers.
After his playing days,