Rip Joe Morgan

[Assembly Hall]

RIP Joe...you brought lots of joy to my life in my youth.

[Big Klu]

You know what, Joe did attend Rose's statue unveiling a year later in 2017.

Yeah, I'm not right all the time (never claimed to be). As you get older, sometimes the years start blending together. I do remember that at the unveiing of the Rose statue, Joe looked to be in a lot better health than he had the previous year.

[Ron Madden]

Bobby Nightengale Retweeted
Keith Jenkins @MrKeithJenkins

Tomorrow's @Enquirer is a special one. RIP Joe Morgan Folded hands

[Ron Madden]

Bobby Nightengale @nightengalejr
Johnny Bench in a statement: “Joe wasn’t just the best second baseman in baseball history, he was the best player I ever saw and one of the best people I’ve ever known." #Reds

[Kingspoint]

Where does batting 2nd and power go together? Power, especially back then, was meant to follow your table setters and if you had 2 speedsters with good OBP, the more powerful of the 2 batted after the other. And as far as bunting, Griffey was better and when it comes to speed, Griffey was faster.

It's kind of humorous, you seem to being saying that the great eight had a weakness that forced Morgan to bat 3rd when in reality, they had strengths, the perfect batting lineup, and that dictated Morgan bat 3rd.

25-30 homerun powere goes great in the #2 hole because sometimes you need a 2-run-or 3-run HR from that spot. Being able to make someone pay for a 3-0 mistake pitch is important.

[Cyclone792]

Little Joe is the greatest second baseman in the last 90 years of professional baseball. The only guys who played second base who can compare to Joe played a century ago.

I'm too young to have seen him, but my dad raves about Little Joe. My dad gave me his old Little Joe Morgan baseball bat that was a giveaway at some point during the BRM days. It's down in the basement now. Just an absolute all around complete player.

Rest in peace, Joe.

[foster15]

25-30 homerun powere goes great in the #2 hole because sometimes you need a 2-run-or 3-run HR from that spot. Being able to make someone pay for a 3-0 mistake pitch is important.

That's called a luxury. The Reds had the perfect lineup with Morgan batting 3rd. With Rose and Griffey batting in front of him, there was close to a 60 or 70 percent chance that one of them would be on base when Joe came up. With one of the all time great RBI guy with RiSP batting behind him, there was probably about a 50 percent chance one of them would be in scoring position. And Morgan was going to get better pitches to hit because he had such a small strike zone and you didn't want him on base. And you said earlier something about Perez and Bench having too low of batting average. But right in the middle of those two was George Foster who batted .300 or better 4 or his 1st 5 years as a starter.

Back then, the 2nd hitter in your lineup was usually a guy who could execute the hit and run, and the run and hit, the best. Hitting the long ball was not prerequisite. And the Reds were quite different as between their first 3 hitters, their leadoff man was the slowest. But it had to be that way because could you imagine how many more times Morgan, or Griffey for that matter, would've had attempted SBs wiped out by foul balls if Rose batted after them? They would've both been beat up toward the end of the season.

[Ironman92]

[icehole3]

Not sure who would compare to Joe in today's MLB. He has so much base stealing ability to go with all that power. A great man RIP.

[Ren Deagle]

Aww, man. I only just heard because I stopped watching the news. 2020 sucks

[HokieRed]

RIP, Joe. And thanks for all those wonderful years.

[bounty37h]

This really sucks and hurts to hear, love reading the tributes. If you think about it, its kind of amazing we have been so fortunate to have had all these guys w us so many years, its been 40+ years since those great Reds teams.

[CySeymour]

That's called a luxury. The Reds had the perfect lineup with Morgan batting 3rd. With Rose and Griffey batting in front of him, there was close to a 60 or 70 percent chance that one of them would be on base when Joe came up. With one of the all time great RBI guy with RiSP batting behind him, there was probably about a 50 percent chance one of them would be in scoring position. And Morgan was going to get better pitches to hit because he had such a small strike zone and you didn't want him on base. And you said earlier something about Perez and Bench having too low of batting average. But right in the middle of those two was George Foster who batted .300 or better 4 or his 1st 5 years as a starter.

Back then, the 2nd hitter in your lineup was usually a guy who could execute the hit and run, and the run and hit, the best. Hitting the long ball was not prerequisite. And the Reds were quite different as between their first 3 hitters, their leadoff man was the slowest. But it had to be that way because could you imagine how many more times Morgan, or Griffey for that matter, would've had attempted SBs wiped out by foul balls if Rose batted after them? They would've both been beat up toward the end of the season.

Look at it this way: who would you rather getting an extra at-bat: Ken Griffey Sr. or Joe Morgan?

[bm1475]

I believe it was Bill James who said if you cloned Joe Morgan, a team of eight Joe Morgans would beat a team of eight of any other player in big league history. Pretty much says it all. RIP.

[foster15]

Look at it this way: who would you rather getting an extra at-bat: Ken Griffey Sr. or Joe Morgan?

First of all, that's the not the reason you stack a batting order. Otherwise Pete Rose wouldn't have been our leadoff man those two seasons as both Griffey and Morgan were better producers at the plate during that time. And if it were the case, why wasn't Joey Votto our leadoff man during his great years? And I guess in 1977, George Foster should've batted leadoff right?

And if you think Morgan should get more ABs than Griffey, you're in direct conflict with a HOF manager named Sparky Anderson and I'll take his opinion over yours.

And btw, there was another reason Griffey batted 2nd. Griffey was much better hitter than Morgan vs Left handed pitching so it gave us a great advantage to start the game with two guys that hit both lefties and righties very well. Morgan was very average against left handed pitching.