Morgan, Oakland-raised Baseball Hall of Famer, dies at 77.
Morgan, an Oakland-raised Baseball Hall of Famer, dies at 77
Joe Morgan, while one of the smallest members of the Big Red Machine powerhouse teams of the 1970s, was one of its biggest stars.
Morgan, a Hall of Famer and one of the greatest second basemen in baseball history, died. He was 77.
A family spokesman said Morgan passed away Sunday night in his Danville home. The cause of death was complications from nonspecified polyneuropathy, a nerve condition.
The oldest of six children born to Ollie and Leonard Morgan, Joe moved with his family from Bonham, Texas to Oakland when he was 5. Growing up in Oakland, Morgan was often overlooked because of his small stature. He was a high school star at Oakland’s Castlemont High, but at 5-foot-5, 140 pounds, most scouts didn’t consider him someone worth pursuing.
But those doubts helped Morgan eventually grow into one of baseball’s giants on the diamond.
What he lacked in size he made up for with his talent and an unwavering desire to outwork anyone else around him. A 5-foot-7 dynamo known for flapping his left elbow at the plate in the majors, Little Joe could hit a home run, steal a base and disrupt any game with his daring.
“I’ve always felt my size was a plus because it made me work harder,” Morgan once said. “I had to prove I could do the same thing the bigger guys could do. The only way I could do it was to work harder.”
He led the Reds to backto-back World Series championships in 1975 and ’ 76 while being named the National League’s Most Valuable Player in both seasons. Morgan was inducted into baseball’s Hall of Fame in 1990 on the first ballot.
It turned out to be quite a journey of vindication for Morgan, who felt stinging rejection back when he desperately wanted to sign a professional contract out of high school. But he found there was little interest in him. He went to old Oakland City College to play, and two years later he suddenly had scouts lining up to sign him.
Morgan signed with the Houston Colt .45s (now Astros) in 1963, mostly because their scout, Bill Wight, saw something other scouts didn’t.
“A lot of baseball people would come up and say, ‘Joe, you’re a good little player and we’d like to have you,’ “Morgan once said. “What Bill Wight said was ‘ You’re a good player.’ He never brought my size into question.”
Morgan, a 10-time AllStar, played for both the Giants and the A’s during his 22-year career. In fact, he hit one of the most memorable home runs in Giants history on the last day of the 1982 season. He endeared himself to Giants fans by smashing a dramatic, winning three-run homer against the Dodgers at Candlestick Park that knocked the Giants’ hated rivals out of postseason position.
No matter where he played, though, Morgan always maintained a home in the East Bay.
After his playing career, Morgan became a familiar face on baseball broadcasts across the country as an analyst for both NBC and ESPN, where he teamed for years with Giants announcer and fellow East Bay product Jon Miller. They were a TV tandem for 21 years.
Morgan had been a special adviser to the Reds’ baseball operations department and CEO Bob Castellini since 2010.
“The Reds family is heartbroken. Joe was a giant in the game and was adored by the fans in this city,” Castellini said. “He had a lifelong loyalty and dedication to this organization that extended to our current team and front office staff. As a cornerstone on one of the greatest teams in baseball history, his contributions to this franchise will live forever. Our hearts ache for his Big Red Machine teammates.”
He completed Cincinnati’s two-time World Series championship team, driving a club featuring the likes of Pete Rose, Johnny Bench and Tony Perez to back-toback titles.
Morgan’s tiebreaking single with two outs in the ninth inning of Game 7 in 1975 gave the Reds the crown in a classic matchup with Boston, and he spurred a four-game sweep of the Yankees the next season.
The Big Red Machine won a combined 210 regular-season games over their two title years and were 14-3 in the postseason. Morgan’s average WAR for those two seasons was a whopping 10.3.
His Hall of Fame teammates and manager readily acknowledged he was the one that got it all started.
“He was just a good major league player when it didn’t mean anything,” Sparky Anderson once said. “But when it meant something, he was a Hall of Famer.”
In a career that stretched from 1963 to 1984, Morgan scored 1,650 runs, stole 689 bases, hit 268 homers and batted .271. But those stats hardly reflected the force created on the field by the lefty-swinging No. 8.
Confident and cocky, he also was widely copied. His habit of flapping his back elbow at the plate — an effort to keep the elbow high and the swing straight — was imitated by many a Little Leaguer in those days.
“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.”
Health issues had slowed down Morgan in recent years. Knee surgery forced him to use a cane when he went onto the field at Cincinnati’s Great American Ball Park before the 2015 All-Star Game and he later needed a bone marrow transplant for an illness.
In his prime, Morgan helped to revolutionize the game with his quickness and many talents.
Morgan is survived by his wife, Theresa, twin daughters Kelly Ann and Ashley Lauren, as well as daughters Lisa and Angela from his first marriage.