Goodbye to Joe Morgan at the age of 77.
The Hall of Fame second baseman played for five teams but remembered mainly for his seasons with the Cincinnati Reds, had fallen in the eyes of some in recent years due to his commentating work with ESPN on Sunday Night Baseball and his vocal outbursts against some of the players that have an excellent HOF argument and work on the various committees to keep players out of Cooperstown with cases such as Ron Santo and perhaps soon Dick Allen passing away before their induction.
But Morgan the player was sublime, combining power and speed at a position that hadn't been seen since at least the days of Rogers Hornsby and perhaps ever.
Known for his flapping elbow that every kid in the 1970s imitated, Morgan's first six seasons with the Reds after being acquired with Houston earned him two MVP awards, All-Star appearances in each season, and four Gold Gloves.
When you consider that Morgan was traded to the Reds at the age of 28 and had spent his previous seasons with Houston in the cavernous Astrodome, it makes you think about how his lesser statistics with the Astros could have been affected by playing his first seven seasons in a pitchers ballpark.
After Morgan's numbers began to decline in 1978 and 1979, Morgan was allowed to leave as a free agent and he began to find employment by teams looking for a part-time player, pinch-hitter, and veteran leadership with Morgan playing for the 1980 NL West champion Astros, two seasons with the Giants including the surprise contending 1982 Giants with Morgan slamming a homer to eliminate the Dodgers on the final game of the season on the day after the Dodgers had eliminated the Giants from the divisional race, and for the 1983 NL champion Phillies before one final season with Oakland before retirement.
It's sad that Joe Morgan to some generations will be known as the grumpy guy keeping candidates out of the Hall of Fame and the mediocre announcer instead of the Hall of Fame player that reinvented the second base position.
Yet another member of the hall to pass in 2020, Niekro won 318 games in a career spent mostly with the Atlanta Braves and along with perhaps, Hoyt Wilhelm ranks as the best knuckleball pitcher in the history of the game.
Niekro combined with his brother Joe to give the Niekro's the record for most games won by a brother combination with 539 victories that nosed out the Perry brothers, Gaylord and Jim's total of 529.
Niekro also won twenty or more games three times and holds a few statistics that are unlikely to be broken for a long time.
121 wins after the age of 40- Highly unlikely to be broken
5,404 Innings pitched- With the manner that pitchers are handled today, that's not going to be surpassed until robots pitch.
The last pitcher to win 20 (21) and lose 20 in the same season (1979), unlikely in the age of relievers getting more and more decisions.
Niekro is also, along with a few others, the player that recommended that the Indians place Chief Wahoo on their caps in 1986.
Goodbye to Lindy McDaniel at the age of 84.
McDaniel pitched for four teams from 1957-75 and notched over twenty saves in a season for the Cardinals, Cubs, and Yankees in the age of closers being known more as "firemen" and would pitch more than one inning in an outing.
McDaniel was also known for his devout religious beliefs, which he wrote about in a monthly pamphlet that he sent to every major league player during his career.
Jim Bouton mentioned McDaniel and "Pitching for the Master" in Bouton's book "Ball Four".
Goodbye to Phil Linz at the age of 81.
Linz was a light-hitting backup infielder for the Yankees in the 1960s, but became remembered more for an off-field incident than his play.
Linz was on the team bus in 1964 after the Yankees had lost a road game in Chicago to the White Sox and began to play "Mary had a Little Lamb".
Manager Yogi Berra confronted Linz and after the incident, first baseman Joe Pepitone had a cut knee and the Yankee front office decided that Berra had lost control of the team and would be fired at the end the season.
Jim Bouton also writes of this incident in "Ball Four".
Goodbye to Rogelio Moret at the age of 71.
Moret was known as one of the more enigmatic pitchers in the game for Boston in the 1970s and was thought to have the potential to be far better than he performed despite records of 13-2 in 1973 and 14-3 for the 1975 American League champions.
Moret's value was quite high in 1975's offseason and he was traded to the Braves, where he spent one season before a trade to Texas as one of the five players sent to the Rangers for Jeff Burroughs.
On April 12, 1978, Moret was the Rangers scheduled starter against Detroit, but was seen in a catatonic state with his arm held straight ahead of him with a slipper in his hand.
No one was able to get Moret to respond to anything said or done to him and Moret was taken away to a psychiatric facility for treatment with Moret pitching only a few games later in the season before a promising career was over at only 29.
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