Yes, I still have a job. Why do you ask?
A few weeks ago Joe Morgan told a story on Sunday Night Baseball about a Don Wilson no-hitter that was true in almost no way, shape or form. After last year’s Banks Boulevard fiasco, it is well known that Morgan is prone to telling a stretcher now and again.
Tonight, while the crew was talking about Ian Kinsler’s prolonged slump, Joe chimed in that he had a story that Nolan Ryan hates for him to tell. I got excited at this point. The story was about how in 1983 with the Phillies, he was going through a terrible slump, 0 for 32 or 37, he could not remember. He said that his manager told him he was still being pencilled into the lineup because he was getting walks and scoring runs so he was still contributing. Either way, he broke out of the slump by taking a Nolan Ryan curveball out of the park to win the game 1-0. As with anything that comes out of Joe Morgan’s mouth, I was a little sceptical, so I decided to look up the facts.
On July 26th, 1983, the Phillies did in fact defeat Ryan’s Astros 1-0 on a Joe Morgan home run. From June 29th until July 24th, Morgan also went 0 for 36. I do not know in which at-bat he hit the home run, or during which at-bat he got his last hit before the slump, but 0 for 37 is pretty accurate. At this point you are probably saying, wait a minute, those numbers do not add up. 37 AB’s in almost a month is not playing regularly. You would be correct. Morgan started a whopping ten out of a possible twenty-six games during this span. He also scored a grand total of five runs, so I am not sure where this whole “contributing to the team” comment came from. His twelve walks in fourty-eight plate appearances is actually pretty impressive, but when you remember that he had no hits, his OBP is still a paltry .250.
I think it is fair to say that Joe was only a quarter full of it this week. Congratulations.
Hi,
First time visitor but a huge baseball fan! Regarding the story, I was also shocked to learn that the Phillies played a total of 30 games in that month! This also included a brutal stretch from Jul 10 through the 31st without a single day’s break!
I am not sure about Joe Morgan being in the line-up on a regular basis though. He was kind of in and out of the line-up (I checked with baseball-reference.com). So I guess the manager of the Phillies was taking note of his lack of productivity
The Phils of course were trying Juan Samuel a bit at second that year, which must have led the manager to conclude that Joe was still the go-to guy for things like drawing walks, or catching baseballs.
Joe Morgan has a great voice. I love watching Sunday Night Baseball to listen to Joe, Steve and Jon. They’re great conversationalists. Let him keep lying… a little.
Excellent fact checking–hopefully he is being more careful now.
Joe Morgan’s gamelong boner for stolen bases was far worse anyway.
Every one of his favorite cliches not named Gary Sheffield was on display Sunday night.
Adam – Very true. Samuel’s .916 fielding percentage was pretty painful. Morgan also had the second most runs scored and second highest OPS on the team despite his .230 batting average.
Reamofpaper and Joe R – That is what makes Sunday Night Baseball fun to watch, although for different reasons.
slamdunk – Thanks! But I doubt he will.
A&N – You are right, Morgan was not in the lineup regularily during this span. However, if you look at the roster of the 1983 Phillies, they did not exactly have many other options.
[...] America’s baseball uncle was tellin’ tales again last night — something about a long slump and a home run he hit off Nolan Ryan — and for once, his story is supported by those ever-pesky computer numbers. [MLB Insights] [...]