It took a long time for Jack Morris to get to the Hall of Fame and the route was full of speed bumps and virtual cyber lynch mobs. Considered one of the greatest pitchers of his generation, Morris won more games than any other pitcher in the 1980’s. He was a workhorse who completed a third of the starts in his 18-year career in Detroit, Minnesota, Toronto and Cleveland.
Morris, during his 15 years on the BBWAA (Baseball Writers Association of America) ballot, became the centerpiece of the emerging debate between “old school” and “new school” writers. He was a favorite of the old guard who valued his wins, complete games, Opening Day starts, grit and post-season resume. Writers more schooled in sabermetrics chafed at his high career ERA and low career WAR (Wins Above Replacement).
I’ve always been a Hall of Fame analyst who believes in blending the traditional with the progressive views of baseball players and the statistics that define them. If you’d like to understand why I’m absolutely convinced that Morris deserved his Hall of Fame plaque, please visit this piece in which I present both an old school and sabermetric argument in favor of his induction into Cooperstown.
Anyway, there’s something that happens when a player becomes a Hall of Famer. The old arguments don’t seem to matter anymore. Brian Kenny, the host of MLB Now on MLB Network, is a leader in the analytics revolution. Kenny wasn’t an advocate of Morris’ induction into the Hall but, when Morris recently visited the show, Kenny told him genuinely, “I’m glad you’re in.”
I’m hoping that most of those who opposed the Hall of Fame candidacy of Jack Morris will be equally charitable. Morris was an important figure in the history of baseball. He may have had statistical flaws as a candidate but the Veterans Committee (a panel that included many of his peers) saw past those numbers, remembered him as the big-game pitcher that he was, and conferred to him a Cooperstown plaque.
Cooperstown Cred: Jack Morris
- Career: 254-186 (.577), 3.90 ERA, 2,478 strikeouts
- Career: 175 complete games, most of any MLB pitcher since 1975
- 3-time 20-game winner
- 5 times in top 5 of Cy Young Voting (7 times in top 10)
- 4-time World Series Champion (with 3 different teams) (did not pitch in 1993)
- Career: 7-4, 3.80 ERA in 13 post-season starts
- 5-time All-Star (started 3 times)
- Opening Day starter for 14 consecutive years (1980-1993)
(cover photo: AP photo/Mark Duncan)
Morris, of course, is most famous for one particular game, a Game 7 matchup against another Hall of Famer, John Smoltz. I’m assuming that most readers are familiar with that game but, in case you were living on a deserted island in 1991, I’ll save the details for the end of this piece.
So, without further ado, here are the top 10 Hall of Fame moments in the career of John Scott Morris.
#10. August 9, 1981: Starts All-Star Game
It was in 1981 was the year that Jack Morris emerged as a star nationwide. 1981 was also the year that the longest players’ strike in history caused the cancellation of 38% of the sport’s schedule.
When the strike was settled, the first game played was the All-Star Game. Kansas City Royals’ manager Jim Frey tabbed the 26-year old Tigers’ right-hander to start the Mid-Summer Classic for the American League. As Frey put it, he simply “went by the stats.” Morris, in the first half of the season before the strike, had a 9-3 record with a 2.56 ERA.
In the top of the 1st inning, in front of over 72,000 fans at Cleveland Stadium, Morris allowed Pete Rose to lead off the game with a single to left field. After that, Morris struck out Dave Concepcion, got Dave Parker to ground out to first base and then struck out future Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt to end the inning.
If you want to, you can watch the entire NBC broadcast of the ’81 All-Star Game by clicking this link. If you don’t quite have that much time, click on it and scroll ahead to 34:20 to watch Morris fan Schmidt, the 1980 and 1981 N.L. MVP.
Morris pitched two scoreless innings in the All-Star Game, a contest eventually won by the N.L. 5-4. He would start two more Mid-Summer Classics (in 1985 and 1991).
By the end of the ’81 campaign, Morris had a 14-7 record with a 3.05 ERA, good enough to finish 3rd in the A.L. Cy Young Award voting.
#9. September 27, 1983: Tigers v Orioles
1983 was the season that the Baltimore Orioles won the World Series. This game was late in the season; the Orioles had already clinched the A.L. East. Still, for Jack Morris it had meaning. He was going for his 20th win of the campaign.
The Tigers won the game easily, by a 9-2 score. Morris completed the game, of course, giving up 2 runs on 6 hits, 4 walks, with 9 strikeouts. For the Tigers’ ace, it was his 20th win and 20th complete game of the ’83 season. Morris led the A.L. with 293.2 innings pitched and 232 strikeouts. For his efforts, he again finished 3rd in the Cy Young Award voting.
1983 was the first of three 20-win seasons for Morris.
#8. September 27, 1986: Tigers v Yankees
For some reason, September 27th is a date that had magic for Jack Morris. It was a meaningless game at the end of the regular season but it was arguably the best regular season start in his 18-year career. Starting for the Yankees was rookie Doug Drabek, who would go on to win the 1990 N.L. Cy Young Award with the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Morris pitched the Tigers to a 1-0, 10-inning victory. It was the only 10-inning shutout of his career other than a certain post-season start that we’ll recap shortly. Morris gave up just 4 hits with 2 walks and 8 strikeouts in the win. Notably, in the bottom of the 9th inning, Morris got future Hall of Famer Dave Winfield to ground into a 5-4-3 double play to end a Yankee rally.
After Larry Herndon gave the Tigers a 1-0 lead on a 10th inning RBI single, Morris came back out to finish the Yankees off and earn the 20th of his 21 wins for the season.
#7. October 2, 1984: ALCS Game 1 (Tigers v Royals)
After blitzing through the American League East with 104 regular season wins, the Tigers were up against the Kansas City Royals, in the American League Championship Series for the 6th time in 9 seasons. This was a fairly weak edition of the Royals, however. They won the A.L. West with just 84 wins.
This was the first post-season start for Jack Morris. It was no surprise that Tigers’ manager Sparky Anderson tabbed his workhorse for Game 1 duties even though Dan Petry had actually had a slightly better regular season. Morris did not let his manager down. In 7 innings, he gave up just 1 run on 5 hits with a walk and 4 strikeouts.
The Tigers won Game 1 easily, by a score of 8-1. They would go on to sweep the Royals in 3 games. This was the last season before the LCS contests were expanded from 5 to 7 games.
#6. October 3, 1987: Blue Jays at Tigers
The 1987 season featured a pennant race between the Tigers and the Toronto Blue Jays that went down to the wire. On the second to last day of the season, Detroit and Toronto were tied atop the A.L. East with identical 96-64 records.
Jack Morris was matched up against veteran lefty Mike Flanagan (famous for his years with the Baltimore Orioles). Morris was pitching out of trouble throughout the game, giving 2 runs in 9 innings but with 9 hits and 5 walks. Flanagan also gave up just 2 runs, going 10 innings.
The Tigers ultimately won the game in the bottom of the 12th when Alan Trammell hit a hard grounder through the legs of Jays’ shortstop Manuel Lee for a walk-off RBI base hit. With the 3-2 win, Detroit took a one-game lead and clinched the A.L. East the following day. Morris wasn’t the winning pitcher but his gutty effort kept the Tigers in the game and allowed them to win in extra frames.
This is a link for the entire NBC broadcast (with Hall of Fame announcers Bob Costas and Tony Kubek). To help you navigate it, here are a couple of key moments you can scroll to.
- 2:41:05 — in the top of the 7th, with two outs and runners on 1st and 2nd, Morris got A.L. MVP George Bell to hit a ground ball to 3rd, which resulted in a force at 2nd base to end the inning.
- 3:00:40 — in the top of the 8th, with two outs and runners on 1st and 3rd, Morris got shortstop Manuel Lee to line out to Kirk Gibson in left field for the last out of the inning.
- 3:24:10 — Morris strikes out Rance Mulliniks to end the 9th inning. Costas said that Morris had thrown about 160 pitches before whiffing the final batter he would face.
The 160+ pitch effort may have taken some steam out of Jack’s sails. Five days later, in Game 1 of the ALCS, he gave up 6 runs in 8 innings in a 6-3 loss to another future Hall of Famer, Bert Blyleven. The Tigers fell in 5 games to the Twins in the ALCS.
#5. October 19, 1991: World Series Game 1 (Braves v Twins)
The 1991 World Series between the Minnesota Twins and the Atlanta Braves was a matchup of two teams that went “worst to first,” each team having gone from last place to first place in their respective divisions from 1990 to 1991. Jack Morris, who was the winning pitcher in two of the Twins’ four wins in the ALCS, was matched up against another veteran, left-hander Charlie Liebrandt.
Game 1 was in Minnesota, at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome. In the bottom of the 5th, Twins third baseman Gary Gaetti hit a 3-run home run to send Leibrandt to the showers and give the Twins a 4-0 lead. Morris went 7+ innings, giving up 2 runs on 5 hits with 4 walks and 3 strikeouts. With help from his bullpen (Mark Guthrie and Rick Aguilera), he won his third game of the ’91 post-season.
#4. October 9, 1984: World Series Game 1 (Tigers v Padres)
After the Tigers dispatched with the Kansas City Royals in a 3-game sweep in the American League Championship Series, Sparky Anderson tabbed his ace to start Game 1 of the World Series against the San Diego Padres.
Game 1 was at Jack Murphy Stadium. The Padres had home field advantage even though the Tigers won 108 regular season games. In those days, the home field advantage was pre-determined to help schedulers avoid conflicts with the NFL, since many cities had dual parks for baseball and football.
With a two run lead after an Alan Trammell RBI single in the top of the 1st inning, Morris got into trouble in the bottom of the frame. After back to back singles by post-season veterans Steve Garvey and Graig Nettles, catcher Terry Kennedy hit a two-run double deep to right field to give the Padres a 2-1 lead.
In the bottom of the 5th, Larry Herndon put the Tigers back in front with a two-run home run. It was all Morris needed. The Tigers’ ace pitched eight scoreless innings to finish the game, tossing two perfect innings in the 8th and 9th. After 82 complete games in 210 regular season starts, Morris had his first CG in post-season ball.
#3. October 13, 1984: World Series Game 4 (Padres v Tigers)
Four days after his Game 1 complete game win, Jack Morris was back on the hill, in Detroit, pitching on three days rest for Game 4 of the World Series. Trammell delivered a two-run home run to give the Tigers a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the 1st inning, followed up by another two-run blast in the 3rd. The two taters gave Morris a 4-1 lead after 3 innings, which was all he needed.
Morris gave up a solo home run to Kennedy in the top of the 2nd and allowed a run to score on a wild pitch in the 9th but that was all. Morris had another complete game victory, giving up 2 runs on 5 hits and no walks. In his first post-season, Morris finished 3-0 with a 1.80 ERA in 3 starts.
The Tigers completed their 4-1 series victory over San Diego the next night to give Motown it’s first World Series title since 1968. Morris could have earned MVP honors with his two wins and complete games by the award went to his teammate Trammell, who will soon be inducted into the Hall of Fame on the same day.
Incidentally, the two home runs in Game 4 made Trammell the MVP of the 1984 World Series. He’ll be joining Morris on stage in Cooperstown on Sunday. To see the top 10 moments in the career of the Tigers’ longtime shortstop, please click here (after the last two Morris moments, of course!)
#2. April 7, 1984: Tigers v White Sox
It was early in 1984. The Detroit Tigers had gotten off to a 3-0 start to the season. Four days earlier, Jack Morris had been tabbed the Tigers’ Opening Day starter by manager Anderson for the fifth year in a row. The Tigers, who opened the season in Minnesota, easily dispatched of the Twins 8-1, with Morris tossing 7 innings of 1-run ball.
Morris’ second start of the season came at Comiskey Park against the Chicago White Sox. Morris, despite walking 6 batters, pitched the game of his life, authoring the first and only no-hitter of his 18-year career. Morris finished the game by striking out Ron Kittle, his 8th K of the game (that was Vin Scully’s voice on the call, as it was a national TV game). I also recommend listening to Ernie Harwell’s radio call (scroll to 1:30 for the final out).
The no-hitter for the Tigers’ ace right-hander was the signature moment in the Tigers historic 35-5 start, which propelled them to 104 wins and, ultimately, a World Series title.
#1. October 27, 1991: World Series Game 7 (Braves v Twins)
Could there be any doubt as to which game would be number one for Jack Morris? Needless to say, it was Game 7 of the 1991 World Series between the Twins and the Braves. As it was in 1987 when the Twins also won a championship, every game was won by the home team. The Twins made it to Game 7 thanks to Kirby Puckett‘s walk-off home run off Leibrandt in the 10th inning of Game 6.
For Game 7, the 36-year old Morris was up against 24-year old John Smoltz, a Michigan native who grew up idolizing Morris. Smoltz was 17 years old when Morris won Games 1 and 4 of the ’84 World Series against San Diego.
Smoltz had emerged as a post-season star in ’91, having gone 2-0 in three previous post-season outings, with a 2.01 ERA. Notably, he was Atlanta’s Game 7 starter in the NLCS against the Pittsburgh Pirates and responded by tossing a 6-hit shutout to send the Braves to the Fall Classic.
In this heavyweight pitching matchup, neither hurler fell to the canvas for the first seven innings. In the top of the 8th, though, with a scoreless tie, the Braves had Morris on the ropes. Lonnie Smith led off with a single. The next batter, N.L. MVP Terry Pendleton, hit a double to left center field. The speedy Smith theoretically could have scored but appeared to be duped by Twins second sacker Chuck Knoblauch and had to hold up at 3rd base. That play has had much discussion about it over the years and the consensus is that Smith was in fact not duped but had a hard time picking up the ball.
Regardless, the Braves had runners on 2nd and 3rd with nobody out. Ron Gant grounded weakly to first base for the first out of the inning, with Smith forced to hold at 3rd. Next, David Justice was walked intentionally to load the bases. The next batter, Sid Bream, also hit a grounder to first. Kent Hrbek fired home for the force; catcher Brian Harper fired back to first to complete the double play. Jack Buck’s “out there, out there” call is the stuff of legend.
Having escaped the 8th, Morris pitched a perfect 9th inning to send the game into extra frames with no runs scored for either team. Twins manager Tom Kelly planned to use closer Rick Aguilera to pitch the 10th but Morris, full of adrenaline, talked him out of it. He went back to the mound and pitched a 1-2-3 10th inning on just 8 pitches. All in all, Morris tossed 10 innings of scoreless ball, giving up 7 hits with 2 walks and 8 strikeouts.
In the bottom of the 10th, the Twins loaded the bases against Braves’ reliever Alejandro Pena. With Atlanta’s outfield playing shallow, pinch hitter Gene Larkin delivered a long game-winning single to left-center field to give Minnesota a walk-off 1-0 victory and its 2nd title in 5 years. In the meantime, Larkin made a winner out of Jack Morris in the biggest game he ever pitched.
This was one of the greatest games in the history of the World Series. With Jack Morris’ induction into the Hall of Fame Class of 2018, the story can finally be told with the opening line, “it was a heavyweight matchup featuring two future Hall of Fame starting pitchers.” There’s a poetry to that. The story is complete.
If you would like to re-live this classic game further and want a complete recap, which includes interviews with 15 players and coaches, I invite you to read Dan Hayes’ piece in The Atlhletic. The Athletic is a subscription-only site and highly worth it for coverage of all major sports. The baseball coverage is superb.
Thanks for reading.
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