Jeff (Los Altos): Joe, what is the most over rated statistic in baseball?
Joe Morgan: Batting average.
Ken Tremendous: Oh my God! He's right!
Joe Morgan (ctd): If you hit .300 they say you are a great hitter. That means you are making 7 outs out of 10 and if you make those outs with runners in scoring position, you are not a good hitter.
KT: Oh boy. Why couldn't you just have stopped typing? You were off to such a good start. So, you're saying that the way to measure a good hitter is if you get hits with runners in scoring position. Well, what if you're on the Royals, and there are never RISP? What if you're slugging .600 and walking 100 times a year, but your team sucks and you don't have a lot of RsBI? You are a bad hitter? Joe? Are you there? Oh -- right. It's 2003, and he can't hear me. Let's continue.
wayne (new yawk): Joe, I understand that players sometimes pick which team they want to go into the HoF for greedy reasons, but I think players should really be able to at least speak to a committee or something about the reasons they want the team they want to be picked. On that note, I think Roger has earned the right to choose whichever team he wants to go into the HoF. It doesn't hurt for me that he wants to go in as a New York Yankee! What are your thoughts?
Joe Morgan: The HOF is a museum which chronologically follows a players career. Wade Boggs reportedly signed a contract with the Devil Rays to go in as a Devil Ray and he should be allowed to do that. There has to be some rhyme or reason and at this point, the HOF, which is a museum, does it without any emotion. If you get mad at an organization and decide to not honor them, then what? The point is, it is being done properly.
KT: Joe, do you sometimes black out in the middle of your posts and then forget what you have said? I'm serious. You might have some kind of neurological disorder. You say this: "Wade Boggs reportedly signed a contract with the Devil Rays to go in as a Devil Ray and he should be allowed to do that." And then you say this, two sentences later: "The point is, it [i.e., the HOF deciding these matters impartially] is being done properly." Do you not see how there's a problem here? Joe? 2003 Joe? Can you--? Oh well. Next.
CBeatty (Denver): Joe, when your commentating a game, are you watching the field or the t.v, or both? Did the pitch calls look as "off" to you Wed. night (Sox-Yanks) as they did from my livingroom? Thanks, chief.
Joe Morgan: I watch the field most of the time, but I do sometimes watch both. I don't get into pitch calls. One of my pet peeves is announcers saying curveball away. He is supposed to say ball or strike. It's the analysts job to say those things.
KT: So, this is how Joe Morgan would have it:
Jon Miller: The pitcher steps back, steps forward, moves his arm, and throws a baseball. The baseball does not cross the plate in the designated zone, and as such has been labeled a "ball" by the home plate umpire.
Joe Morgan: That was a curveball.
Jon Miller: The pitcher steps back, steps forward, moves his arm, and throws a baseball. The baseball *does* cross the plate in the designated zone, and as such has been labeled a "strike" by the home plate umpire.
Joe Morgan: That was a fastball.
Jon Miller: The pitcher steps back, steps forward, moves his arm, and throws a baseball...
Maria (Wimberley, TX): Joe, enjoy your work. Have you read the new book "Moneyball" about Billy Beane? What do "insiders" such as yourself think about what the book says?
Joe Morgan: I read an excerpt in the NY Times. It's typical if you write a book, you want to be the hero. That is apparently what Beane has done. According to what I read in the Times, Beane is smarter than anyone else. I don't think it will make him popular with the other GMs or the other people in baseball.
KT: This blows my mind. Remember this? Joe Morgan repeatedly, insanely, talked about how 1) "Moneyball" was wrong, and then 2) said that Billy Beane SHOULDN'T HAVE WRITTEN THE BOOK. Remember this? He insisted, over and over again, on national TV broadasts, in on-line chats, and elsewhere, that Billy Beane had written "Moneyball." I honestly believe that no one corrected him just to see how long it would be until he figured it out. But seriously, the nerve of this guy to attack the book without ever, obviously, having read it.
Joe Morgan is bad at his job, and someone should fire him. Someone should, at the very least, create a web log, or "blog," to keep track of all of the silly things he says, as well as silly things other sports announcers say. Can someone get on this?
Labels: hall of fame, joe morgan, joechat, moneyball
