Womack: Jack Morris on Hall of Fame: ‘I think my record speaks for itself’
From SABR member Graham Womack at The Sporting News on October 26, 2017:
One of the longest-running debates around the Baseball Hall of Fame could get another jolt in the next week or two.
The Modern Baseball Committee, which meets every two years and considers players, managers, umpires and executives who made their greatest contribution to the game between 1970 and 1987, is expected to release its latest ballot for Cooperstown on Nov. 4.
Several notable players will be eligible on the veterans’ ballot for the first time, including Lee Smith, Alan Trammell, Lou Whitaker and one of the more controversial candidates in recent years, Jack Morris.
Morris went 254-186, won the most games in the 1980s and had an all-time great outing in Game 7 of the 1991 World Series, but fell just short of Cooperstown in his 15 years on the writers’ ballot. Several things hurt his case, including a 3.90 ERA, underwhelming sabermetric stats and, perhaps, some backlash. At some point, his Hall candidacy became about more than him, attracting a heated battle between different schools of baseball thought.
It might have left Morris jaded. The 62-year-old, who played from 1977 through 1994, hesitated during a phone interview this week when asked whether he considered himself a Hall of Famer.
Read the full article here: http://www.sportingnews.com/mlb/news/baseball-hall-of-fame-voting-veterans-committee-candidates-jack-morris-stats/pho19fydmp3g1fjh5ylohv6br
- Related link: Read Jack Morris’s SABR biography, by Stew Thornley
Originally published: October 26, 2017. Last Updated: October 26, 2017.