Joe Morgan no more?
This is just a rumor so far, but I’m already imagining future Sunday nights, with happy feelings and lower blood pressure and no need to assault my mute button every 30 seconds. I shouldn’t get ahead of myself until it’s official, but the New York Daily News has word that Joe Morgan will no longer be a part of ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball broadcasts.
Could the 19-year “Sunday Night Baseball” broadcasting partnership of ESPN’s Jon Miller and Joe Morgan be coming to an end? And will their ESPN Radio call of the Rays-Phillies World Series be the final chapter?
Well-embedded baseball moles contend the answer is “yes” to both questions.
In a word: Woooooooo!
In more words: I’m sad that Joe Morgan’s broadcasting career has gone this way. I wish it had never started, so that I could just know about him as part of the Big Red Machine - the phenomenal Cincinnati Reds of the ’70s. Morgan’s play at 2nd base is legendary; he’s definitely who I’d emulate if I ever had dreams of making it big as a 2nd baseman. (Sadly, my baseball dreams ended in 6th grade, when I became too old for the no-tryout Little League, and I wasn’t good enough - and was, you know, not a boy - for the next level up.) That’s the Joe Morgan I wish I knew.
Instead, what I think of when I hear his name is a completely deficient announcer. As the linked article says, he’s been criticized by many of his contemporaries for not studying for his broadcasts. It really shows. If you ever read his weekly chats, one theme he repeats almost every week is that he doesn’t watch enough of Team X to answer a reader’s question. (You can read hilarious ripping-apart of the Joe Morgan chats here.)
This man’s JOB is to know about baseball. Any schmuck with a couple hundred dollars can see almost every single game from every single team if he/she so chooses. Morgan certainly has the dough for the Extra Innings package, so why doesn’t he seem to EVER watch a game besides the one per week he is paid to announce? Casual fans of the game should be able to look to the Sunday night announcers to teach them something about the teams on the field. Instead, Morgan skates by on either generalities or flat-out misconceptions about the players, instead of…oh, I don’t know…taking 5 seconds to peek at some baseball-reference pages maybe?
And don’t even get me started on his nonsensical hatred of statistics. He bashes even basic metrics like on-base percentage, which is highly ironic because his career, and the greatness of the Big Red Machine, was all built on OBP. It’s ridiculous. How can anyone honestly believe that “team chemistry” is more important than getting on base? Does your team get two runs if a guy is driven in by a teammate who is also his BFF?
I’m not saying that players are merely compilations of stats - y’all know better than that - but let’s be real. How often does the personal closeness of a bunch of players actually, tangibly affect the outcome of a game? These guys are professionals; they each play as hard as they need to to stay in the Majors. (For some, that’s 100% effort; for others, notsomuch.) If a Player A causes some drama in the clubhouse, Player B is not going to fall apart and forget how to play baseball, or purposely fail out of spite. Team chemistry makes for nice stories, but it is not that important if players can’t get on base. Yet Morgan continues to bash all stats.
Ugh. I’ll do handsprings down the hallway if he is, indeed, gone. I’m sure Jon Miller will too.