I have changed my tune on Joe Morgan. I no longer Mute him and curse the set out. Now, I view him as entertainment and I listen for just the sheer, breathtaking stupidity that has now really made the Sunday night game special for me.
And it’s apparently not only me. Check out this excerpt re Josh Hamilton. This kind of rockheadedness still exists out there in the wild.
From the Yahoo fantasy column By Jeff Erickson and Christopher Liss:
Both Joe Morgan and Steve Phillips talked about how Hamilton “needs to pay his dues” and “earn” the major league spot at the minor league level, and not leapfrog other guys who might not have the same talent but have put in their time. Putting aside the ignorance of the Rule 5 proviso (especially on Morgan’s part), this is unseemly from a couple of other angles. They’re suggesting that building baseball teams shouldn’t be a meritocracy, but rather like the tenure system, where one is promoted on the basis of time put in. I can’t imagine making a decision on a dumber basis. The other side is that while both pay lip service to wanting Hamilton to get his life together, they don’t “really” want that – they want Hamilton to be punished above and beyond the suspensions he already served.
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Addendum:
In the interest of journalistic integrity (unlike Rather), below is a photo of the man who managed the Boston Red Sox AND went by the name of “Joe Morgan” (Left).
If I recall correctly, his catchphrase was, “Six Two and Even…[blah, blah, blah]“
I always (well, not always) wondered just where in the heck that phrase came from. I mean it was just so durned goofy. I had never heard of it. Not even from my parents, who’s speech is peppered with Depression-Era expressions. Then one day I rented either “The Maltese Falcon” or “The Big Sleep” with Humphrey Bogart, and in it, Bogey says something like, “Six Two and Even they shoot this mug”… or something of that nature. But that was it. It came from that era, or from that film perhaps. BTW, both of those films must be seen. Amazing Film Noir. Mega-classics. I defy anyone to watch “The Big Sleep” all the way through with no stops or rewinds and explain the twists. You can’t do it. And there are some hilariously, over-the-top moments in them as well. Pulling out the whiskey bottle to drink with the shopkeep in the bookstore is among the most silly scenes in any movie.
This Joe Morgan was a nice and guy and I suppose that our currently vexing Joe Morgan is too, but he won’t take a breath and let me find that out. One game my wife and I play with Morgan is to pick up the “catchphrase” of the minute with him and then hold up fingers for each repetition of it in succession. If you do it deftly, you can rack up 4 or even 5 fingers very quickly. That’s like a Masters Degree in Joe Morgan. –fog
Morgan and Phillips have very little place in broadcasting and are only there to give their “Unique” experience to the programing. Quite honestly I couldn’t think of 2 worse individuals to have hosting any programs. Phillips made more Mets fans cry than the Yankees and Braves combined while he was there GM and Morgan may be a hall of famer but no one seems to remember he managed one of the worst Red Sox teams of all time. Shows just how much insight the man has on baseball.
Comment by yourblankfile — April 12, 2007 @ 5:37 pm
http://firedannyainge.wordpress.com
Joe Morgan is an idiot. No point in even trying to be politically correct about it. The guy is a biased piece of garbage. I refuse to watch ESPN because of him and I won’t go back. I can miss a few Red Sox games if it means avoiding that
jerk.
Comment by firedannyainge — April 12, 2007 @ 6:41 pm
Are you confusing Joe Morgan, the verbally challenged baseball broadcaster with Don Imus, the everything-challenged shock jock? I’m not understanding how JM is biased, unless by that you mean, that he’s biased in favor of horses**t baseball coverage. Be fair now. –fog
Comment by mcgonnigle — April 12, 2007 @ 10:25 pm
Yeah, And my B on the Joe Morgan mix up for the coach of the Red Sox, had only heard stories and made an assumption.
If you’re looking for an example for Biased see any Yankee game called by Tim McCarver, especially Red Sox vs. Yankee games.
Comment by yourblankfile — April 12, 2007 @ 10:59 pm
Welp, the Mets let him walk over to the Yanks for a couple of bucks and then he was the Yanks’ guy for a few years and that will affect how you call a game. If your knowledge runs heavy to one side, you can’t help it I don’t think.
When T-Mac began with the Mets, he was the ONLY broadcaster in sports doing it that way. He revolutionized baseball analysis. And I thought he was great. Later in his career, he got old and became a little overbearing at times but I think he’s still head and shoulders above the pack and he’s on the moon if the pack is Joe Morgan’s calibre. I never really understood the people who hate T-Mac because to me, he was a marked improvement over what came before him but a lot of folks hammer him.
I admit the Yankee bias is everywhere and hard to take. The Yanks actually go out and hire guys who WILL be BIASED and that’s how they do things there. For McCarver, I just think it was the fact that he covered some very good teams on a day to day basis and his coverage was just out of balance because he knew and followed one team so much more. Don’t forget, the broadcaster for a team is in the same planes and hotels with the team and going to lunch/dinner with them and they can get close. How are you going to sit up in the booth and rip the guy who grabbed the check the night before? -fog
Comment by mcgonnigle — April 13, 2007 @ 6:29 am
Oh I totally agree with the hometown announcer being biased towards the team they cover. It’s the FOX broadcasts with Joe Buck that tend to get on my nerves when he repeatedly tells the same Derek Jeter stories. Also I think it’s still stinging a bit that they had so much fun at the Red Sox expence in the 2004 ALCS pre game 4. As much as the Sox got the last laugh, It will always stick with me when they did an injury report on the Red Sox fans with a “broken heart” and T-Mac was enjoying himself a bit too much on it
Comment by yourblankfile — April 13, 2007 @ 1:22 pm
Well, they were doing the story and down 3-0, that was the story. No one, and I mean NO ONE, thought that the Sox would come back! Yes the Yankee stuff is nauseating. And I’m on record many times saying so. Jeter has his own cologne for pete’s sake! –fog
Comment by Fog — April 13, 2007 @ 8:05 pm
Joe Morgan the broadcaster is terrible, he tells you NOTHING. Listening to his broadcast is just painful, he needs to go! Walpole Joe Morgan was a fine manager who brought the red sox back into contention the year he was brought on. He had a winning record when the sox let him go, because this stud of a manager named Butch Hobson was in the minors and the sox didn’t want to see him go to a rival team (maybe the yankees) what a joke! Hobson was terrible. Kerrigan was terrible. Morgan has access to players and still can’t give insight into what their thinking. Just for the record anyone who know anything about baseball didn’t think the red sox would come back from 3-0, now my wife on the other hand who knows slightly more than Joe Morgan, told me, when the sox were down 3-0. The sox would come back because with the history of this franchise ( no-no nanett) in order for the red sox to win the world series they would have to do something no other team in the history of baseball had done. The rest is history.
Comment by shoolessjake — April 14, 2007 @ 11:22 pm