clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Posnanski on Jack Morris

Joe Posnanski of the Kansas City Star breaks down the flaws of the Morris for the Hall campaign, and also boggles at those who vote for Morris but not Blyleven:

I'm not going to lie to you here -- I hate the Jack Morris Hall of Fame campaign. Hate it. Despise it. Loathe it. And it isn't just because there are a few people who will put Jack Morris on their ballots but leave off Bert Blyleven, which is so obviously and clearly wrong that it makes my teeth hurt. I know the other day I tried my best to climb into the minds of one of these voters, and I tried to put some logic behind it, but honestly, I failed miserably. To me, this Blyleven or Morris question seems easier than one of those sample questions you would get on those aptitude tests in the third grade.

Hmm, so you're telling me that Blyleven has 33 more wins, 32 more shutouts, 1,223 more strikeouts, 68 fewer walks, an ERA that more than a half run better, an ERA+ that's 13 points better, a better overall postseason record and five or six individual seasons that were better than Jack Morris' best season ... wow, can I have a few more minutes to think about this? Wait, Blyleven had a lot more losses too, so that, oh, he played for worse teams, yeah, that might have had something do with that, um, hold on, I need to sharpen my No. 2 pencil and think about this ...

Posnanski goes on to critique the "he was the best pitcher of the 80s" argument, in great detail...

Good stuff...check it out...