In last year’s voting for the Hall of Fame, Jack Morris received the most votes he had gained in his nine years on the ballot. From the results in his first four years of eligibility, you would think he was some mediocre, at best, pitcher who didn’t rate his spot on the ballot.
“The first couple years it’s human nature,” Morris said, talking about his reaction to the early voting. “You wonder what went wrong. Did I make these guys mad? I got over that.”
When he played, mostly for the Detroit Tigers in the 1980s, Morris was not the friendliest guy in the clubhouse where most reporters were concerned. They respected his pitching ability and results, but they never voted him a “good guy” award.
“No question I built up walls,” he said in a telephone interview. “I did it purposely. I did everything with a purpose. I wanted to win every day.”
Remaining aloof from writers, keeping them at arm’s length, was Morris’ way of remaining focused, keeping distractions away. He wasn’t the first pitcher to adopt that position; he wasn’t the last.
Years ago pitchers were like other players in their relationship with reporters. They talked to them any day of the week, even on days when they were pitching. Then someone got the idea of not talking to reporters on the day he was pitching. In recent years some pitchers – Roger Clemens is believed to have been the first — expanded their silence to not talking the day before they pitched.
Steve Carlton didn’t talk to reporters on any day of the week. But Silent Steve made it into the Hall of Fame. The writers he disdained did not hold it against him. I don’t know if any writers refuse to vote for Morris because of his personality. They shouldn’t. Personality is not listed anywhere in the voting guidelines.
But do some writers shun a player because he was obnoxious? Out of 543 who voted a year ago there were probably a few who didn’t put an X next to Jim Rice’s name because of his behavior.
Rice is on the writers’ ballot for the last time this year, and after receiving 72.2 percent of the votes and falling 16 votes short last year, he needs help, maybe from some of the people who found him to be unprofessional. Rice was an irascible person who seemed to go out of his way to be disagreeable.
I remember one instance when he was in the midst of a great season and I was assigned to write a piece about him. I was covering the Yankees at the time and was in Boston for their series so I arranged with Rice to talk to him before the game the following day when he arrived at Fenway Park.
He was at his locker when I arrived at the appointed time, but he kept walking away to get or do something or other. When he finally stayed at his locker and I began asking him questions, he stood with his back to me and remained in that position throughout the interview. Thanks, Jim.
Reggie Jackson, then with the Yankees, talked to Rice and tried to get him to be more accessible for the writers and more cordial, explaining it would be to his benefit, but to no avail.
However, if I don’t vote for Rice, it will be a result of his career and not his boorish behavior. I haven’t decided about that vote.
I know, on the other hand, that I will vote for Morris. In fact, if it would help, I would write his name on every line on the ballot to make up for some of my ignorant colleagues who have never understood how dominant a pitcher Morris was throughout most of his career. He even lightened up eventually.
“Eventually,” he said, “I realized I wasn’t going to win every day. Once I understood that and better understood me, I understood writers better.”
Interestingly in recent years, Morris has been a member of the media, though not a writer. He has been part of the Minnesota Twins’ broadcasting team the past four years.
“I’ve been fortunate because the Twins at times have had a three-man radio booth,” Morris said. “I think they’re re-examining that. It’s hard. I don’t know how long I’ll last.
It keeps me around the game and I enjoy it, but part of me says I’m wasting my time. The satisfaction comes from coaching, but you’re married to the uniform again. You can’t do it part-time. You have to be there full-time. It’s something I think I would enjoy doing.”
Several years ago, Morris related, he was in Toronto for an autograph show and, sitting at his signing table, he looked down and saw two loafer-clad sockless feet and instantly knew it was Paul Beeston, the Blue Jays’ chief executive.
Afterward they got together for a drink, Morris said, and Beeston said, “Jack, you have to get back in the game. The game needs people like you. You’re a great teacher.”
And then Beeston offered him a job managing the Blue Jays’ AA minor league team for $50,000. “Fifty grand!” Morris said. “I did the autograph show for 10 grand. I appreciate Paul. He’s the only guy who ever offered me a job. But you’re not going to entice good people to work in the minor leagues for 50 grand.”
Even former players who don’t get into the Hall of Fame.
“It’s totally out of my control,” Morris said of the impending election. “I guess I ask as many questions as some of the writers do. Some say I don’t belong. That’s the American way. That’s how the system works. Unless you’re a No. 1 guy, it depends on who’s taking the tally.”
It’s most likely that voters hold his earned run average against Morris. His 3.90 ERA would be the highest in the Hall if he were elected. “What’s funny,” Morris said when that possibility was mentioned, “is in today’s day and age that would be phenomenal.”
Morris’ career achievements make it obvious to me that he is a legitimate Hall of Famer. His credentials in brief:
From 1979 through 1992, 14 years of his 18-year career, Morris won 233 games, 41 more than the next highest total, and pitched 169 complete games, 62 more than the next highest total. He pitched 235 innings or more 11 times and won 20 games three times. His career record was 254-186.
He pitched on three World Series championship teams and was responsible for winning one of them, pitching a 10-inning 1-0 victory for the Twins in 1991 in one of the great post-season performances of all time.
“I’m not going to toot my own horn and say I deserve it; that’s foolish,” Morris said. “It’s either going to happen or it’s not.”
He spoke about a writer who calls him every year to talk about the Hall. “Last year he said he didn’t vote for me,” Morris said. “I asked what did I do to take your vote away from me? He said he votes for only so many guys.”
Such are the foibles of the voters.
“It’s a wonderful reward, but it’s not going to change my life,” Morris said. “I’ve finally come to an understanding in what retirement means. I’d like to have a second career that challenges me, that gives me the things baseball did, but I’m not going to rely on the Hall of Fame to do it.”
Morris thought he might have some opportunities with the Twins other than broadcasting. “I’m open minded,” he said. In the meantime, he will await the outcome of the voting.
“It will be interesting to see what happens,” he said, meaning the entire vote, not just where he is concerned. “I have mixed emotions. Will Jim Rice make it in is his final year? Will Rickey Henderson make it in his first year? Will anyone else get in if those two do?”
Henderson, he continued, is an obvious choice. “No sense waiting with him,” he said. Then he digressed to pitching candidates, bringing up Rich (Goose) Gossage, Bruce Sutter and Dennis Eckersley.
“The last three pitchers have been relief pitchers,” Morris said. “I could argue that point forever: Which is the harder role? But it doesn’t matter. These guys were the best of the best relief pitchers. I’ve never begrudged anyone who has made it.”
That’s not to say he doesn’t have his views on particular players.
“Guys ask me about Rice,” he said. “He was one of the 10 best. But I had a more difficult time with Dwight Evans. I thought Evans should have been elected and he hardly got any consideration.”
And he added, “I look at my shortstop, Alan Trammel. I’d take Trammel over Ozzie Smith any day of the week. But Alan is my friend. Ozzie did backflips. Alan wasn’t flashy. I’m not begrudging Ozzie. I say if Ozzie’s in Tram has to be in.”
Trammell received only 99 votes, or 18.2 percent, last year. He is on the ballot for the eighth time this year but isn’t expected to do any better. The key question for me, though, is will Morris do better?