Joe Morgan has died according to USA Today’s Bob Nightengale. The two-time NL MVP not only spent 22 seasons in Major League Baseball, he also spent 25 years in broadcast booths. Morgan was 77 years old.
Morgan’s on-field career saw him play with five different teams. He most notably was a member of the Big Red Machine teams of the 1970s in Cincinnati. That is where he experienced the bulk of his success, being voted an All-Star every year he was with the Reds and winning his only two World Series and MVP awards.
He also played for the Houston Colt .45s-turned-Astros, San Francisco Giants, Philadelphia Phillies, and Oakland A’s. Morgan is a member of the team Halls of Fame for both the Reds and Astros.
When he baseball career ended in 1984, Morgan made his way upstairs. He served as an analyst on both Major League and college baseball broadcasts. As a broadcaster, he moved to a national stage for the Majors in 1988, teaming with Al Michaels on ABC. He would go on to work for NBC in 1994, and most famously, joined ESPN in 1999. Morgan also called local broadcasts for the Reds, Giants, and A’s.
For baseball fans, Morgan was something of a divisive figure in the broadcast booth. Many that grew up with Morgan calling Sunday Night Baseball alongside John Miller consider him one of the premier voices of the game from their youth. Others criticized his many references to the Reds teams of the 70s and being over-critical of the modern game.
Constant criticism of Morgan even inspired the creation of one of the first popular sports blogs on the Internet. Fire Joe Morgan was started by Michael Schur, who would go on to create shows like Parks & Rec and The Good Place for NBC. The blog received recognition from the likes of ESPN and Sports Illustrated.
After leaving game analysis behind in 2010, Morgan returned to the Reds organization, but did not give up broadcasting entirely. He had a hour-long show syndicated by Sports USA while serving as a special advisor to the organization.
Morgan’s death is just the latest in what has been a brutal stretch for baseball fans. Since the end of August, he is the fifth Hall of Famer to die. The others include Tom Seaver (August 31), Lou Brock (September 2), Bob Gibson (October 2), and Whitey Ford on Friday.
