Joe Morgan Watch

CT unearthed a gem from 1996, but, as this Joesph Reaves column in the Arizona Republic points out, Morgan's shot at Sandberg was not isolated.

One week after Sandberg's surprise retirement [in 1994], Morgan was asked whether he thought the Cubs second baseman had a shot at the Hall.

"He's a great player, but not a cinch for the Hall of Fame," Morgan said in what was a fair assessment.

But then he took a few personal swipes at Sandberg.

"He was kind of quiet, and his teams never won anything," Morgan said. "He never showed me that kind of leadership. When things are going bad, you don't just walk away, do you?"

His teams never won anything. Sure Sandberg's Cubs won two divisional titles, but never made it to a World Series. Is this the threshold? Let's look at Morgan, then.

As I said before, there's no doubt that he was a great player, a Hall of Famer for sure. He played in four World Series: 1972, 1975 and 1976 for the Reds; and 1983 for the Phillies. But let's look at the Reds team he joined. Cincinnati won 102 games in 1970 before struggling in 1971. But the nucleus of the team (Johnny Bench, Tony Perez, Dave Concepcion, George Foster, Pete Rose and a young pitching staff) remained. Along with Morgan came starting outfielder Cesar Geronimo (who filled in nicely for Foster, who was injured for most of 1972) and new ace Jack Billingham.

The Big Red Machine won 95 games and the NL Pennant in 1972, but bigger things were yet to come. They won 99 games in 1973 (losing to the Mets in the NLCS), 98 games in 1974 (finishing second to the Dodgers), then 108 and 102 games (along with two World Series titles) in 1975 and 1976. The Reds managed one more division title in 1979 before Morgan re-joined Houston as a free agent. (We'll talk about Houston in a moment).

In 1975 and 1976, Morgan was National League MVP, and the Reds were most successful. Let's compare Morgan's supporting cast in 1975 and 1976 to Sandberg's in 1984. Here's Sparky Anderson's lineup for Game 1 of the 1975 World Series next to Jim Frey's lineup for Game 1 of the 1984 National League Championship Series

1. Pete Rose 3b Bob Dernier cf
2. MORGAN 2b SANDBERG 2b
3. Johnny Bench c Gary Matthews lf
4. Tony Perez 1b Leon Durham 1b
5. George Foster lf Keith Moreland rf
6. Dave Concepcion ss Ron Cey 3b
   
7. Ken Griffey Sr. rf Jody Davis c
   
8. Cesar Geronimo cf Larry Bowa ss
9. Don Gullett p Rick Sutcliffe p

Ignoring the obvious fact that the Reds' first four hitters are Hall of Famers (if you include Rose, who even Morgan concedes is a Hall of Fame calibre player) and the first seven were among the best in baseball at their position, let's methodically compare the two lineups offensively and defensively.

Sandberg and Morgan both hit in the No. 2 slot for most of their careers, so I won't even consider them. As far as leadoff hitters go, I'll take Pete Rose (and Pete would take the over on the money line) over Bobby Dernier, Bench over Gary Matthews, Perez over Durham and George Foster over Keith Moreland. Cey could hit for better power, so I suppose I'd take him as a better No. 6 hitter than Concepcion, but give me Ken Griffey and Cesar Geronimo, and it looks like the Reds have a 6-1 advantage over the '84 Cubs.

Defensively, I like Bench over Davis, Durham over Perez (barely), Concepcion over Bowa, Cey over Rose, Foster over Matthews and Griffey over Moreland. I'll say Dernier and Geronimo are a wash. That's a 4-2-1 Cincinnati advantage.

And outside of Rick Sutcliffe and Lee Smith, does anyone really believe the Cubs pitching staff matched up with the Reds, or that Jim Frey would be able to match wits with Sparky Anderson (if only for a couple breaks and more prudent managerial moves in San Diego, Frey would have had his chance in 1984)?

It's laughable to think Morgan in his prime could have led the Cubs any further than a before-his-prime Ryne Sandberg did in 1984.

But let's look at the second-best team Morgan played on, the 1980 Astros. That's right, I doubt you'd get an argument from Morgan that the 1983 Phillies weren't quite as good as the 1980 'Stros, who fell to Philadelphia 3 games to 2 in one of the best league championship series in history.

Let's compare the Astros' Game 1 lineup from the 1980 NLCS to the Cubs' Game 1 lineup from the 1989 NLCS. Scratch that. Morgan didn't play in Game 1, and Houston lost. Think about that. A Hall of Fame second baseman, given the day off in Game 1. I couldn't find an explanation for this, although perhaps he sat since Steve Carlton was starting for Philadelphia (Morgan was .264 lifetime with 1 homer in 104 at bats against Carlton). But while Houston lost Game 1, Morgan enjoyed the view from the visitor's dugout at Veterans Stadium.

Anyway, Sandberg played in just 10 postseason games to Morgan's 50, so Morgan had a good chance to establish himself as a money player, a Mr. October of sorts. Want to know his numbers next to Sandberg's?
G AB H R 2B 3B HR RBI SO BB AVG OBA SLG OPS
Morgan 50 181 33 26 9 3 5 13 19 37 .182 .323 .348 .671
Sandberg 10 39 15 9 5 1 1 6 6 6 .385 .457 .641 1.098

Extrapolated over 50 games, here are Sandberg's vitals next to Morgan's:
G AB H R 2B 3B HR RBI SO BB AVG OBA SLG OPS
Morgan 50 181 33 26 9 3 5 13 19 37 .182 .323 .348 .671
Sandberg50 195 75 45 25 5 5 30 30 30 .385 .457 .641 1.098

Tell me who you'd rather have in the postseason?

I think it's also fair to consider how Sandberg wound up never winning anything while Morgan lived a charmed life.

Sandberg was traded from the Phillies to the Cubs as the throwaway piece in a deal that the Phillies made to move a disgruntled Larry Bowa. Cubs' GM Dallas Green, the Phils' manager the year before, knew what he was getting in Sandberg, even though few others did. Sandberg joined a team that went 38-65 the year before, and Sandberg brought just six Major League at bats with him. A shortstop his whole career, he learned to play the outfield and third base in spring training 1982 before making the club as the Opening Day third baseman. By September of 1982, the Cubs groomed Sandberg to play second base.

What were the circumstances of Morgan's move from his hometown Houston Astros (where he had played his whole career) to Cincy? Morgan's trade is explained here on Astros Daily (where this trade is listed among the franchise's worst). But why make such a large multi-player team within your division with the one team that tied you for fourth (the Reds and Astros were both 79-83, 11 games out of first in the NL West in 1971)?

Additional speculation about this trade centers around management's desire to "split up" Morgan and Jim Wynn, who were friends and party-goers and may have been considered a risk to get into trouble.

Who sounds like the team player here?