Friday, June 5, 1998BY JOHN ERARDI
The Cincinnati Enquirer
'I don't know if a guy can have more than I have had,' says Joe Morgan.
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Joe Morgan says Tony Perez had the best perspective on No. 8.
"He told me more than once, 'If you had stayed in Houston, nobody would know who you are.' "
Those words will no doubt resonate again in Morgan's head Saturday night when his No. 8 jersey is retired and unveiled above the left-field wall in a 6:35 p.m. ceremony at Cinergy Field.
"Saturday will be special for me - not so much because my number is going up there, but because I know I'm sharing it with all the guys I played with in Cincinnati over the years," Morgan said.
He knows the ovation will be loud, because it always has been loud when he has returned to the ballpark in Cincinnati, where he played second base from 1972-79.
But, this time, he knows it will be difficult, because this time he has to talk - not only to the fans, but also to his mother and father. They will be in the sellout crowd, likely to top 53,000.
Now ESPN broadcaster.
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"I don't know if a guy can have more than I have had," Morgan said Thursday by telephone from Omaha, Neb.,where he is broadcasting the College World Series on ESPN.
"I've been able to play baseball, play on championship teams, be in the Hall of Fame, and, most importantly, my parents have been there all along the way. That hasn't been the case for a lot of players, and I'm very aware of that."
Morgan was a heck of a player in the six full seasons he spent in Houston before coming to Cincinnati.
Which is why the Reds traded slugging first baseman Lee May, All-Star second baseman Tommy Helms and popular pinch-hitter Jimmy Stewart to get him and four other players.
MORGAN HIGHLIGHTS
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Born: Bonham, Tex., Sept. 19, 1943
Raised: Oakland, Calif.
Pro career: Signed by the expansion Houston Colt 45s in 1963.
Major league debut: Sept. 21, 1963
Rookie year: 1965 (100 runs, 20 stolen bases)
Traded to Reds: Nov. 29, 1971 - Joe Morgan, Jack Billingham, Cesar Geronimo, Denis Menke and Ed Armbrister for Lee May, Tommy Helms and Jimmy Stewart.
First year as Red: 1972 - 122 runs, 115 walks, 58 stolen bases, .292 batting average, 16 home runs.
Best years as a Red: National League Most Valuable Player in 1975 (107 runs, 132 walks, 67 stolen bases, 94 RBI, .327 batting average) and 1976 (113 runs, 114 walks, 60 stolen bases, 111 RBI, .320 batting average, .576 slugging average, 27 HR).
From 1972-78: Seven-time All-Star, five-time Gold Glove.
Best stretch: 1972-77, averaged 60 stolen bases, 113 runs scored, 118 walks, .301 batting average.
Left the Reds: Jan. 31, 1980, to sign with Houston Astros as a free agent.
Elected to Baseball Hall of Fame: 1990.
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In Cincinnati, Morgan spread his wings and became:
- The back-to-back Most Valuable Player in the National League in 1975-'76, when the Reds won consecutive World Championships.
- A first-ballot Hall of Famer, inducted in 1990.
- And, in a vote last year by the Baseball Writers Association of America, recognized as one of the two greatest second basemen in history, behind only Rogers Hornsby.
As lofty as these accolades are, it is a testament to Morgan's greatness as a player that, if anything, he is regarded by many as having been even better than his numbers.
Author Bill James, in his widely praised book The Historical Baseball Abstract, wrote that at the top of Morgan's game (1972-77), he was the best second baseman in history, and in terms of career value, ranks behind only Eddie Collins at that position.
"Rogers Hornsby, in a good mood, in the best shape of his career, in the years 1921-25, was probably as devastating a player as you could want, and maybe better than little Joe," James wrote.
"But his records don't prove that he was, and on the basis of everything I know about the two of them, it would not be a gut-wrenching decision to pass up Hornsby and all the baggage that comes with him for a player who walks more, runs the bases better and plays a superior second base."
Morgan has heard the observation that he has not been given his due over the years. Many pundits in Cincinnati believe that Morgan's star hung slightly lower in fans' eyes than the stars of Pete Rose and Johnny Bench.
Morgan, however, apparently never felt that way.
He has been so deeply immersed in the game all his adult life and so respectful of the talent of the great players that he played with and against, that he says he has barely given the "under-appreciated" notion any thought over the years.
Morgan's speed and baserunning played a big part in his success.
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Everybody who heard Morgan's Hall of Fame induction speech in Cooperstown, N.Y., on Aug. 6, 1990, and was asked about the words that Morgan spoke that day, said they felt the same sense of genuineness and humility from the speaker.
These were some of the words Morgan spoke:
"Now that my induction is complete, I feel like I belong here," he said. "But no matter how long I'm in the Hall of Fame, I'm always going to have problems trying to say "Mays, Musial and Morgan' in the same breath."
Former Reds manager Sparky Anderson has surmised that maybe Morgan was so good as a player, and is so good as a broadcaster, because he understands he wasn't born with every gift known to those professions and because he appreciates the depth of the talent in the highest levels of those Halls of Fame.
Morgan, who is 5-foot-7, was a star baseball player at Castlemont High School in Oakland, Calif., in a conference and a city full of stars, but scouts ignored him because of his size. It wasn't until he led his junior college team in hitting and base-stealing that he gained a single scout's attention, and it came from a scout for the expansion Houston Colt 45s. Morgan signed for $3,000 and a contract of $500 a month.
Whereas Bench is universally regarded as the best catcher in history, and Rose is baseball's hit king, an assessment of Morgan's worth has always required engaging the mind -- Morgan's and the assessor's.
As good as his teammates were, Morgan was the only one who had the green light to do what he wanted whenever he wanted on the baseball field.
Steal, bunt, hit-and-run, take a pitch. It was all up to No. 8. And it was part of the reason the Reds had traded for him in late 1971, after a dismal season. The Reds had lost their only base-stealing threat, Bobby Tolan, to a ruptured Achilles' tendon.
During the first month of the 1972 season, Anderson called Morgan into his office and explained the ground rules. In effect, the rules were these: there were none.
Reds advance scout Ray Shore had determined during his background research for the Morgan deal that Morgan was by far the headiest player on the Houston Astros and chafed under the rigid rein of Astros manager Harry Walker.
Because of what Anderson had heard and seen about Morgan, he knew that Morgan could not only handle the green light, but also that he would relish the responsibility.
"For as long as you are on this team," Anderson told Morgan, "until you prove that you're not up to it, I'm never going to give you a signal to steal. I will never give you a sign of any kind . . .
"I am turning all that over to you. I will expect you to make the right decisions, and I will never question your judgment unless you come to me and tell me you can't handle the pressure."
Morgan later said he could not have walked away from that offer even if he had wanted to.
"It was such a challenge and such an act of trust," he said. And that's part of the reason he never felt slighted here.
"I played in an era with some of the greatest players in the history of the game, guys like Willie Mays, Henry Aaron, Frank Robinson, Pete Rose, Johnny Bench," Morgan said.
"I never felt slighted in that company. The reason it never bothered me, and still doesn't to this day, is that I don't think my teammates and manager would have traded me for any other second baseman. I had the respect of my peers, and that meant more to me than anything.
"To be the Most Valuable Player on what I regard as the best team in the history of the game, the 1976 team, I don't know what else (a player) could ask for."
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