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Joe Morgan - Award-winning Broadcaster

Although he was no longer playing, Joe Morgan was still a regular presence at ballparks across the country, as a television announcer. In 1985 he started working as a color commentator for ESPN's broadcasts of college baseball, and joined the San Francisco Giants broadcast team from 1986 until 1990. Since then he has been a fixture on ESPN, providing some of the most intelligent, insightful baseball analysis available on any network. His television work has garnered him various awards, including the Ace Award and an Emmy.

Career Statistics

Yr Team AVG GP AB R H HR RBI BB SO SB E
CIN: Cincinnati Reds; HOU-A: Houston Astros; HOU-C: Houston Colt .45s (Texas League); OAK: Oakland Athletics; PHI: Philadelphia Phillies; SFG: San Francisco Giants.
1963 HOU-C .240 8 25 5 6 0 3 5 5 1 3
1964 HOU-C .189 10 37 4 7 0 0 6 7 0 3
1965 HOU-A .271 157 601 100 163 14 40 97 77 20 27
1966 HOU-A .285 122 425 60 121 5 42 89 43 11 21
1967 HOU-A .275 133 494 73 136 6 42 81 51 29 14
1968 HOU-A .250 10 20 6 5 0 0 7 4 3 2
1969 HOU-A .236 147 535 94 126 15 43 110 74 49 18
1970 HOU-A .268 144 548 102 147 8 52 102 55 42 17
1971 HOU-A .256 160 583 87 149 13 56 89 52 40 12
1972 CIN .292 149 552 122 161 16 73 115 44 58 8
1973 CIN .290 157 576 116 167 26 82 111 61 67 9
1974 CIN .293 149 512 107 150 22 67 120 69 58 13
1975 CIN .327 146 498 107 163 17 94 132 52 67 11
1976 CIN .320 141 472 113 151 27 111 114 41 60 13
1977 CIN .288 153 521 113 150 22 78 117 58 49 5
1978 CIN .236 132 441 68 104 13 75 79 40 19 11
1979 CIN .250 127 436 70 109 9 32 93 45 28 12
1980 HOU-A .243 141 461 66 112 11 49 93 47 24 7
1981 SFG .240 90 308 47 74 8 31 66 37 14 4
1982 SFG .289 134 463 68 134 14 61 85 60 24 8
1983 PHI .230 123 404 72 93 16 59 89 54 18 17
1984 OAK .244 116 365 50 89 6 42 66 39 8 10
TOTAL .271 2649 9277 1650 2517 268 1133 1865 1015 689 245

Despite his success and visibility as an athlete and sports commentator, Morgan has on occasion come face-to-face with the grim realities of racial conflict in the United States. In 1988, at Los Angeles International Airport, he was accosted by two undercover members of the LA police department, who accused him of being a drug dealer and took him into detention while refusing to allow him to identify himself. The police eventually realized their mistake and Morgan was released. When the LAPD refused to allow Morgan to file a formal complaint, he brought a civil suit. In 1993 the Los Angeles City Council voted to pay Morgan $796,000 to end the suit. The incident brought home the situation of other black people in the United States.

In 1990, in his first year of eligibility, Morgan was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, only the seventh second baseman to be enshrined and the first in almost thirty years. When Joe Morgan retired he left the game not only as one of the greatest second basemen—some would say the greatest—ever to play the game, but as a complete player. He retired with 268 home runs—at the time the most ever hit by a second baseman—a .271 batting average, 1,133 runs batted in, 689 stolen bases and five Gold Gloves. Add to that, the fact that he was a thinking man's player and the penultimate team player, and he probably ranks as one of the greatest players in baseball history.

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