by Kyle Smith, Doberman on the Diamond
Last Sunday (July 15), the ESPN telecast of the St. Louis Cardinals - Philadelphia Phillies game, there was a little bit of downtime. With the Redbirds hammering the Phillies early, the outcome of the game was never really in question.
To keep viewers interested, broadcasters Joe Morgan and Jon Miller began talking about Morgan's Hall of Fame career, and how he was involved in the Phillies famed collapse in 1964. St. Louis Post-Dispatch writer Gerry Fraley takes it from here:
"What tall tale will commentator Joe Morgan offer Sunday night during ESPN's baseball telecast? Morgan will be hard-pressed to top the whopper he told during last week's Cards-Philadelphia telecast.
Morgan recounted how he played a role in the history of each club by beating the Phillies with a run-scoring hit during their legendary collapse in September 1964. The game, Morgan said, was his major-league debut. Nice story, but none of it is true. Houston did not play the Phillies during their 10-game losing streak in September. Morgan did not have an RBI in 1964. Morgan debuted in 1963."
As it turns out, Fraley is right. Though it might be a stretch to call Morgan a liar. Confused is more appropriate. He did, in fact, make his Major League debut against the Phillies, and had the game-winning RBI after entering in the eighth inning as a pinch runner. The thing is, that game was in September of 1963, and the Phillies were in 5th place, 14 games behind the Dodgers.
Sunday, July 22, 2007
You Expect Him to Remember Everything?
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1 comment(s):
Morgan is far from the only guy whose memory of past events get a little fuzzy. Old ballplayers (indeed "old timers" of any stripe) are notorious for remembering things they way they'd like for them to have been rather than the way they actually were. Journalists do it, too. Nothing dishonest about it, it's just human nature. I think we should cut Joe some slack here.
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