Morris, Trammell get call from Hall
Fittingly, Jack Morris reached the Hall of Fame in extra innings.
Morris was elected to the Hall by its Modern Era committee on Sunday along with former Detroit Tigers teammate Alan Trammell, completing a joint journey from Motown to Cooperstown.
The big-game pitcher and star shortstop were picked by 16 voters who considered 10 candidates whose biggest contributions came from 1970-87. Morris got 14 votes and Trammell drew 13, one more than the minimum needed.
Trammell never came close to election during his 15 tries in Hall voting by Baseball Writers’ Association of America members, peaking at 40.9 percent in 2016. Starting at 22 percent in his first Hall ballot appearance in 2000, Morris reached a high of 67.7 percent in 2003, his next-tolast appearance.
“The time that I’ve spent wondering if this day would ever come seems to be vanished and erased right now because it did come, and it’s amazing,” the 62-year-old Morris said during a conference call. Trammell felt overwhelmed. “I came to realization that it might not happen, and I was OK with that. I really was,” he said. “If people thought it was a tad short, I could live with that.”
Former catcher Ted Simmons fell one vote shy, and former players’ union head Marvin Miller was five short of the 12 needed.
“It’s not a big surprise,” Miller’s son, Peter, said from Japan. “I think my father’s place in history is understood by all baseball players, all baseball fans and the general public.”
The BBWAA annual vote on players will be announced Jan. 24. Chipper Jones, Jim Thome and Omar Vizquel are among 19 first-time candidates, and Trevor Hoffman, Vladimir Guerrero, Edgar Martinez, Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds are among the holdovers.
Trammell and Morris will be enshrined on July 29, and fitting they’ll go in together. They both began their big-league careers in 1977 with Detroit and played 13 seasons alongside each other with the Tigers.
Morris had 254 wins and seven more in the postseason, including his 10-inning shutout in a 1-0 win for Minnesota over Atlanta in Game 7 of the 1991 World Series.
Morris also pitched for World Series winners in Detroit — with Trammell, in 1984 — and Toronto in 1992. His 3.90 career ERA tops Red Ruffing’s 3.80 as the highest of any pitcher in the Hall.
Trammell was the 1984 World Series MVP, hitting .450 as the Tigers trounced San Diego in five games and finished off a season in which they started out 35-5.
A six-time All-Star and four-time Gold Glover, Trammell scored 1,231 runs and drove in 1,003. He batted .285 with 185 home runs and a .352 on-base average — he walked 850 times and struck out 874.
Steve Garvey, Tommy John, Don Mattingly, Dale Murphy, Dave Parker and Luis Tiant also were on the ballot.
Miller, who headed the players’ union from 1966-82 was on the ballot for the seventh time. Miller sent a letter to the BBWAA in 2008, four years before he died, saying he didn’t want to be considered anymore. GREGERSON TO CARDINALS >> The St. Louis Cardinals have agreed to an $11 million, two-year contract with reliever Luke Gregerson, a person familiar with the negotiations said.
The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the agreement was subject to a physical and had not yet been announced.
Gregerson would get $5 million in each of the next two seasons, and the deal includes a $6 million team option for 2020 with a $1 million buyout.
A 33-year-old right-hander, Gregerson struck out 70 in 61 innings for Houston, going 2-3 with a career-high 4.57 ERA in 65 relief appearances.
Gregerson has pitched in nine bigleague seasons for San Diego (200913), Oakland (2014) and Houston (2015-17), which signed him to an $18.5 million, three-year contract. He played for the U.S. at this year’s World Baseball Classic.