Fired Up Joe Morgan
Posted: April 7th, 2008 | Filed under: Baseball | 28 Comments »
Well, you had to know this was coming: Things are about to change around here. I’m in my last week of real work* before going on a several-month hibernation to research and write “The Machine: The Story of the Great American Ballclub.” The Machine — assuming I actually write it — will come out next March. I seriously doubt, by the way, that will be the title of the book about the Big Red Machine; it’s just the working title. No matter what we end up calling it (Seabiscuit? Tuesdays with Morgan? The Da-Benchy Code?), I’m about to go into serious work mode.
*Well, we all know sports writing is not REAL work. I mean “real” as compared to this blog — as in “something I get paid to do.” And it is true that I have been on the road more or less non-stop for months. I was telling someone here in San Antonio that I’m feeling ridiculously homesick — I said, “I feel like I’m not going to see my daughters until their wedding.” To which he — being a good friend — said: “Yeah, like they’re going to invite you.” I’ve got one more week until I’m home for a long while. First I watch the NCAA Championship (I predicted a great game, and wow did that game deliver. Here’s the column I wrote very, very quickly after the game).Then I go to Augusta to watch Tiger Woods win the Masters. Then … home. It’s a very, very good life, I’m thankful every day. But I am ready to get home for a while.
All of that means things likely will be different on this blog for a while. There will still be posts. They may come more infrequently. Or they may be shorter.* I don’t know yet. I never can predict the direction of this blog. I keep thinking I’ll wise up and quit it someday or at least sell it to Disney for a lot of money.
*I’m a big believer that, if you limit the number of pitches, teams could still go with a four-man rotation. So I’m thinking we could go with the same number of posts, just much, much shorter. 100 pitch posts. I’m so serious about this, I even changed the subtitle of this blog.
We’ll still have weekly (I hope) Who’s Better polls with some of your essays — congratulations by the way, to Roberto Clemente for beating Al Kaline for the sizeable 58-42% victory*. We’ll still have the occasionally super-long interviews with people (a great one coming up Thursday to kick off the Masters). And I’m sure we’ll still have some lengthy diatribes every now and again. But you will, I expect, see some changes. That’s why, I’m considering reducing the admission fee to this blog by 50%. Quite the deal for you.
*HIllary Clinton would kill for this margin in Pennsylvania. I may mean this literally.
On the bright side, because I’m doing all sorts of baseball research, you might get a few cool tidbits that I can’t get into the book like this one about Joe Morgan.
* * *
On July 7, 1977, Joe Morgan was picked off twice by Houston pitcher Joaquin Andujar. Morgan was a very proud player, especially of his ability to steal bases, and he was furious. Here was the what he supposedly said to Andujar after the game:
“That’s the first time that ever happened to me, Joaquin. The next time I face you I’m going to steal second, I’m going to steal third, I’m going to steal home. Then I’m going to steal your underwear.”
I love quotes like that. The question that remains though is … did Joe Morgan ever get Andujar back?
The answer is: Sort of. But not really.
The next time they faced each other, Morgan tried to steal a base off Andujar. He was caught stealing.
The time after that, Morgan tried to steal a base off Andujar again. He was caught stealing again. I can only imagine how angry Morgan was at that point.
Two years later, he walked and doubled off Andujar. But no stolen base.
In fact, it took Morgan SIX YEARS to get some measure of revenge off of Andujar. By then, Morgan was 39 years old. He could still steal a base — he took 18 out of 20 that year — but instead he got Andujar back by banging two home runs off him in the same game. It was probably not the revenge Morgan was hoping for — he never did steal a base off of Andujar. But, hey, two home runs off a pitcher is a pretty good beatdown.
There’s one more part of the story: The next time Morgan faced Andujar, he cracked two doubles. On one of those doubles, though, Andujar picked him off second base.
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I can almost hear Morgan standing at second after his double and still pissed off about being picked twice in one game years before. He’s totally obsessed with stealing third. Thinking about his footing, cross over step, how good it will feel to look at Andujar from third base…hey, is he throwing to second?…oh, —-!
Have good travels, Joe. I know business travel sucks, but it is the final four and the masters. You could be going to a conference on some mundane matter (it’s weird, to me, thinking about you thinking about the final four the way I think about an ACS conference).
Great Morgan story. Andujar always had the Reds’ number, and an attitude calculated to hack off any devoted Reds fan… or player!
Happy travels!
At least he wasn’t clogging up the bases.
I didn’t say that. Don’t misquote me.
This raises the question “Is there any way Andujar can pick him off my TV?”
I suddenly have this image of Morgan and Andujar replacing Gooding and Jordan in a Fruit of the Loom ad, with everyone staring as Morgan screams across the room: “Joaquin, I’m wearing your underwear!”
Damn you, advertising people. Damn you all to hell.
Andujar started as a Reds farmhand, no? He and Morgan presumably knew each other from spring training.
Glad to see that the blogs now go up to eleven. Nigel Tufnel would be proud.
ROCK CHALK JAYHAWK! KU! ROCK CHALK JAYHAWK! KU! I’m sure the past several days away from home was tonight.
Heh, great story. If that one is in the scrap pile, I can’t wait to see the ones that actually get into the book. And I hope people will pardon the shorter and/or less frequent posts. I know I will try to.
I wonder if any of those caught stealings were on pitchouts?
Nice column in the Star today, JoPo.
After the NCAA Championship all you have to do is go to The Masters before you can get a break.
Sorry. As much as I know life as a road warrior is really tough… that you were able to get paid for going to the Japan Series, the Super Bowl, the Final For and the Master… well, we’re incredibly lucky that it’s still work for you and the work you do is really, really good.
I’m looking forward to the Reds book. In the Seventies I was baseballically-challenged. I knew the Kansas City Athletics were on the brink of becoming a great team; Catfish Hunter, Vida Blue, Reggie Jackson…
And then they abandoned me. So I had to hate them. And (probably Charlie O. Finley’s marketing), the A’s tried to go San Francisco with moustaches and long hair and they came up with a bunch of Reds who were shaved cleaner than the Marines.
I wanted to feel good about those kids whom I and a couple hundred others watched become a great team at Municipal Stadium. But Monte Moore f’r chrissakes was getting network exposure!! They were buying the whole “albino Kangaroo shoes” schitck in the Bay Area!
But damn. They were a helluva team and so was Cinncinnati. And the Reds played ball like Republicans play politics.
Enjoy The Masters. Golf is a silly game; not really a sport. To be a sport, somebody’s gotta be playing defense. Golf is a game. A game that demands skill, I grant you. But so does bar-room pool. Yeah, Tiger Woods is good, but how great a golfer would he be if the Patriots defensive line were converging on him as he hits a five-iron?
Golf. Not a sport. No defense.
In golf, God plays defense.
I’ve had trees, very steep hills, and equipment sheds play some mighty fine defense. Also squirrels.
So, like, running a marathon isn’t a sport? I mean, who’s on D?
I thought Tiger Woods came up huge in the Kansas-Memphis game last night.
What? He wasn’t in the game? He doesn’t even play basketball?!?!?
Then why was Jim Nantz mentioning him every five minutes??
IIRC, Andujar was one of the rare pitchers who had the Reds number in 1976. I could look it up in retrosheet, but in light of Rob Neyer’s new book about baseball stories and their inaccuracy -well, i think i’ll just take a guess and see if i am remembering things correctly.
Andujar was in the Reds farm system. The farm system was pretty dang conservative in behavior (Vern Rapp was the triple A manager for example). Anyways, Andujar didn’t really fit in with the Reds idea of what a player should be. They dealt him to the Astros and after that he made the Red’s lives miserable.
I seem to remember the 2nd game a DH. The 76 Reds were just awesome -they could hit anybody, but Andujar held them to 1 run over 8 innings and struck out 10 guys.
Sparky had some choice words for him, but the memory fades.
Did he really have the Red’s number. Did he make the Astros lifemiserable after they dealth him to the Cards?
Maybe it’s just me, but this looks defended pretty damn well.
http://www.historicgolfphotos.com/12th_Hole__Augusta_National_Golf_Club_pictures_photos_art-0112-4056-LP.html
Stoney that made me laugh; I might have been primed by all the previous funny stuff, but that still made me laugh.
Did Morgan tell any stories about how he managed to miss the Hall of Fame Induction ceremony for Ryne Sandberg even though he was an “official” of the Hall of Fame. Also did he explain why, in his role as a baseball analyst on ESPN, he just talks for the sake of talking? Occasionally, he should follow the axiom that less is more and just shut up!
I wonder if Morgan if got into Andujar’s pants—to steal his underwear? Maybe he did that promptly, and felt no need to actually steal the bases. …I’m just thinking out loud. – TL
Andujar’s line against Cincinnati in ‘76:
37.2 IP, 3-0 W-L, 1.67 ERA
Joe M.
Nice try, but we know you aren’t really Joe Morgan. He would NEVER be caught dead reading an actual blog, or ANYTHING off a **shudder** computer!
You might say that Andujar picked Joe off consistently…
Banny: 2-0!!!
Actually, I kinda like Joe Morgan’s broadcasts.
Yes, I wish he’d shut up, and he’s always second-guessing everything, and whatever happens on the field he convolutes into something he just said would happen but didn’t…. just like a day at the ballpark with my late Uncle Virgil.
One of the reasons I prefer baseball is the announcers don’t yell at you all the time. If you’ve never heard a “meaningless” game broadcast by Vin Scully, I hope I owe you money.
He’s like the smartest guy in the world sitting in the crowd next to you. But he shuts up sometimes. And he really, really knows a lot.
Somewhere on the ‘Net is a verbatim transcript of the last half-inning of Sandy Koufax’s perfect game. It’s a perfect essay, off the cuff, with all the strikes and balls (there weren’t many balls) in real time.
Over the years I’ve learned a lot about baseball from Morgan’s blather. A lot of it falls in the old Yogism, “90% of his game is half mental.” But for a lot of years my summer Sunday nights have had Morgan in the background. Like years ago with Uncle Virgil, if Uncle Virgil had been a hall-of-famer.
great another pick abou the 1970’s reds. you realize that ist been done severalt imes already.
“Somewhere on the ‘Net is a verbatim transcript of the last half-inning of Sandy Koufax’s perfect game. It’s a perfect essay, off the cuff, with all the strikes and balls (there weren’t many balls) in real time. ”
It’s even better to listen to:
http://www.doubledogmusic.com/baseball/Scully_Koufax_Perfect.mp3