Posts tagged JoeMorgan at FanHouse

"Part of the reason the game doesn't bring that energy is it's a different game now. Now it's considered an exhibition, whereas before it was considered life and death," Morgan whimpered to reporters during a conference call in which he was supposed to be plugging the game for ESPN.

Morgan wants the stars to play all nine innings, like Willie Mays and Hank Aaron used to do. That will make everything better, he says.

Well, it ain't gonna happen, and somebody should tell Morgan that. It's not necessarily worse. It's just different. And ratings are down because ratings are down for everything. That's what happens when you have 400 channels to watch.

So keep your nostalgic whimpering to yourself, Joe. Nobody wants to hear it.

Yowza. Good to know that Joe isn't heavily favored with the Peacock. And I figured he was so popular with the mainstream. It's an understandable reaction though -- on both sides. Joe, predictably, hates change. (Even if it's for the better!) We -- meaning people not over the age of 50 -- prefer that our game today not be knocked.

Although I am interested in this award. Where was Joe Buck's last week? Will Colin Cowherd be receiving a lifetime achievement award? And I assume the winner get a bottle of ... wine.

The White Sox were concerned enough about the tightness in Bobby Jenks' upper left back that they ordered an MRI and CTScan Saturday. The results were negative and Jenks should be ready to pitch in the Kansas City series starting Tuesday.

The Sox bullpen closer has not appeared since last Sunday against the Cubs, when he allowed a hit and walk but escaped with no runs. Though the tightness is not in his throwing shoulder, it was painful enough that it affected his performance.

In the fifth inning, when Eric Patterson hit a two-run homer into the wire basket that overhangs the right field wall, Morgan referred to the basket as "Banks Boulevard," and then went on to talk about how many Ernie Banks homers ended up in the Wrigley bleacher baskets back in the day - the implication being, of course, that many of Ernie's 512 career homers were cheapies, and that he would have hit considerably fewer without the help of those right- and left-field baskets.

The baseball Hall of Famer and two-time NL Most Valuable Player received an honorary doctorate of humane letters Saturday from California State University, East Bay-the school where the Bay Area native earned his bachelor's degree after his 22-year playing career ended.

[...]'I've always felt that the quality of your life is directly related to the quality of your education,' said Morgan, who earned his bachelor's degree in 1990. 'If you continue your education, I believe you'll continue to improve the quality of your life.'

"If it happens again, I will call again," Cabrera said. "I don't have to do it with other teams because they always had my back. They don't want to do it here, I can take care of my own business. If you have a problem with what I did, come to me and say something. Don't go to the media to send a message, because he didn't send any message."

"I never had anybody complain about that stuff. If there was a major-league player who tells me he's not selfish, he's lying. Everyone is selfish about numbers, because that's the only thing people cannot lie about. That's it. It's not a big deal. I don't know who's trying to make this a big deal. Maybe it's the media, maybe it's the manager. And nobody is complaining about that stuff. Nobody cares about that."

Thanks to the video genius that is Awful Announcing, here's a rather salient video from last night of Joe Morgan doing what Joe Morgan does best: weak analysis.

On the whole, Morgan's argument isn't that bad. Without realizing it, Joe cites the problem of small sample size -- the oh-so-revolutionary notion that crazy things sometimes happen over 15 games -- as the most likely reason for Ortiz's slump so far this season. Then he talks about "pressure" and "other people looking at you" and "newspapers" and all sorts of stuff that probably isn't nearly as big of a deal as Joe thinks, but which are still at least somewhat accurate.

But to open the way he does -- saying he hasn't seen Papi's swing enough to offer an opinion (!) -- is everything that is wrong with Morgan the analyst. He watches baseball for a living. He's at the ballpark every day. Is it too tough to get one of ESPN's production interns to put together a little film review? How about stopping by batting practice and watching Ortiz hit? Asking Ortiz how his swing feels? Asking the front office for an early assessment? Are we getting warmer here? No? Bueller?

Any of the above would qualify as an attempt at baseball analysis. Joe chose none.