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Jack Morris Stats & Facts

VINTAGE BASEBALL MEMORABILIA

Vintage Baseball Memorabilia

Jack Morris

Position: Pitcher
Bats: Right  •  Throws: Right
6-3, 195lb (190cm, 88kg)
Born: May 16, 1955 in St. Paul, MN us
Draft: Drafted by the Detroit Tigers in the 5th round of the 1976 MLB June Amateur Draft from Brigham Young University (Provo, UT).
High School: Highland Park HS (St. Paul, MN)
School: Brigham Young University (Provo, UT)
Debut: July 26, 1977 (13,930th in major league history)
vs. CHW 4.0 IP, 2 H, 3 SO, 1 BB, 2 ER
Last Game: August 7, 1994
vs. BOS 3.1 IP, 9 H, 2 SO, 4 BB, 6 ER
Hall of Fame: Inducted as Player in 2018. (Voted by Veteran’s Committee)
View Jack Morris’s Page at the Baseball Hall of Fame (plaque, photos, videos).
Full Name: John Scott Morris
View Player Info from the B-R Bullpen
View Player Bio from the SABR BioProject

Nine Players Who Debuted in 1977

Eddie Murray
Lou Whitaker
Alan Trammell
Jack Morris
Lance Parrish
Dale Berra
Bump Wills
Rick Honeycutt
Willie Hernandez

The Jack Morris Teammate Team

C:   Lance Parrish
1B: Darrell Evans
2B: Lou Whitaker
3B: Jim Thome
SS: Alan Trammell
LF: Albert Belle
CF: Kirby Puckett
RF: Kirk Gibson
DH: Paul Molitor
SP: Dan Petry
SP: Dave Stewart
SP: Frank Tanana
SP: Walt Terrell
SP: Dave Rozema
RP: Aurelio Lopez
RP: John Hiller
M:   Sparky Anderson

Notable Events and Chronology for Jack Morris Career

Major League Season Recap 1991

Biography

  Though the winningest pitcher of the 1980s, Morris’ skills were debated while he played and during his bid for the Hall of Fame. While Morris was a consistent workhorse, notching double-digit wins in 14 of his 16 full seasons in the majors, his ERA hinted at the benefit of run support. He finished in the top ten in Cy Young Award voting seven times, but never won the coveted trophy; his heralded 1984 and 1991 World Series performances were somewhat tempered by his subpar postseason play in 1987 and 1992. However, Morris was a tenacious performer on the mound, relegated to the disabled list just twice in his 18-year career, and helped anchor three different teams’ victories in the World Series.

At the peak of his game, Morris’ ferocious competitive nature added an extra edge to his fastball, slider, and excellent split-finger, making quick and easy work of opposing batters. But occasional outbursts and displays of tension that stemmed from his aggressive mentality often caused a rift between him and some sportswriters. On one less than couth instance, a female reporter attempted to interview him in the Detroit clubhouse and he replied, “I don’t talk to women when I’m naked unless they’re on top of me or I’m on top of them.”

Having accelerated through the Detroit Tigers farm system, Morris joined the team as a spot starter in 1977 and 1978 before landing a starting job for good in 1979. That season he went 17-7 with a 3.27 ERA, establishing himself as the undisputed ace of the staff, a title he held for the next decade with the club. Along with the keystone combination of Alan Trammell and Lou Whitaker and manager Sparky Anderson, Morris became a cornerstone of the rebuilding project that turned Detroit into a contending team for most of the 1980s.

While streaky during the regular season, there was a certain consistency to Morris’ sporadic quality. His statistics evened out at the end of each season, and despite allowing a large number of home runs and walks, his ERA generally stayed within the three and four range. Morris led the club in wins in each of the eight seasons following his breakthrough 1979 performance, a stretch unprecedented in Tigers history. Even though he was mainly a power-pitch hurler, from 1980 to 1988 he made 33 or more appearances every season, except for the strike-shortened 1981. A testament to his stamina and tenacity, he pitched into the seventh inning in 26 straight starts in 1983.

Morris’ championship season of 1984 with the Tigers may have been his finest hour. It started off auspiciously, as the mustachioed righty hurled a no-hitter against the Chicago White Sox on April 7, 1984, matching the earliest date in a season a no-no was thrown. Helming a solid Detroit rotation that included Dan Petry and Milt Wilcox, Morris tallied 19 wins and a 3.60 ERA to lead the Tigers into the championship. Morris was sparkling in his three postseason appearances, notching an ALCS win against the Kansas City Royals and two complete game triumphs in the World Series against the San Diego Padres.

Morris racked up 70 more wins over the next four years, including a remarkable 21-6 campaign in 1986, when he notched a 3.27 ERA and 223 strikeouts, though his season would be greatly overshadowed by Roger Clemens’ Cy Young / MVP effort. The following year, Morris led the Tigers back to the ALCS, but took a loss as Detroit fell to the Twins in five games.

After a 14-year span with the Tigers, Morris finally left Motown in 1991. In his wake the righty ranked among Detroit’s all-time leaders in wins, games, starts, complete games, innings pitched, strikeouts, and shutouts.

Signing with his hometown Minnesota Twins in February 1991, Morris embarked on another fine season. After recording his “usual” 18 wins, he started three times against the Atlanta Braves in what would be one of the finest World Series ever played. After notching a Series victory in the first game and getting a no-decision in the fourth, Morris strode to the mound in the seventh. In an extraordinarily clutch performance, the aging righty tossed ten innings of shutout ball to clinch the game and the Series for the Twins, and was rightfully awarded the World Series MVP Trophy.

Morris wasn’t long for Minnesota. In December 1991, he signed with the Toronto Blue Jays, and quickly rattled off a 21-6 record despite posting a 4.04 ERA. But despite the obvious run support, Morris bore down when it counted, and went 9-2 in August and September. The Jays became the third club Morris would lead to the World Series, and though he didn’t record a win against the Braves this time, went away with his third championship ring.

The next year, Morris was a different pitcher. Plagued by a sore shoulder, he went 7-12 and recorded a 6.19 ERA, and became testier with the media. Released by the Jays in the off-season, he signed on with the Cleveland Indians in February 1994. Though he managed ten wins that year, his ERA ballooned to 5.40, and his solitary attitude strained his relationship with the rest of the team. During the dog days of summer, Morris took time off between his starts to fly back to his Montana farm to tend to his wheat crops rather than stay with the team. The Tribe let him go that August, a week before the season ended.

Though he attempted a comeback with the Cincinnati Reds the following season, Morris realized he couldn’t compete as he once could. Just a month before his 40th birthday, the aged starter tearfully announced his retirement, saying, “I don’t want to be second-best, and I think I would have been.”

Morris picked up the old horsehide a year later to be the ace of the Northern League’s St. Paul Saints, a team that also featured once and future slugger Darryl Strawberry. The competitive pitcher retired just halfway through the season, but ended up leading the league with a 2.61 ERA.

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Factoids, Quotes, Strange Things

Played For
Detroit Tigers (1977-1990)
Minnesota Twins (1991)
Toronto Blue Jays (1992-1993)
Cleveland Indians (1994)

Similar: Bob Gibson, Burleigh Grimes

Linked: Mark Fidrych, Lance Parrish

Best Season, 1986
Morris had a lot of similar seasons. In 1986 he paced the loop in shutouts and struck out 223 batters. He had several other seasons that were comparable.

Awards and Honors
1991 ML WS MVP

All-Star Selections

No-Hit Fame
4/7/1984: For DET (A) vs. CHI (A), 4-0 at CHI. 9 innings pitched.

Post-Season Appearances
1984 American League Championship Series
1984 World Series
1987 American League Championship Series
1991 American League Championship Series
1991 World Series
1992 American League Championship Series
1992 World Series

Description
Morris was tall, but not towering, athletiic, but not muscle-bound. He had almost the perfect pitcher’s body. He was clean-shaven when he first came up, because that was Sparky’s policy, but soon he grew his bushy, brown, almost red mustache. When he retired he was almost the exact same weight as when he first debuted. He kept himself in marvelous shape. As a consequence, he was an excellent fielding pitcher, though he never won a Gold Glove, which was an oversight.

Factoid
Jack Morris made a major league-record 13 straight opening day starts, from 1980 through 1992.

Where He Played: Morris started 490 consecutive games without missing a turn in the rotation.

His Arsenal: The Pitches He Threw
Fastball, slider, split-finger fastball, changeup (though he rarely used it). According to Morris, he had three fastballs: a two-seamer, a four-seamer, and one he gripped with four fingers and pushed with his thumb so it actually got some backspin.

Post-Season Notes
Morris’s record in the post-season: 6-1 with a 3.80 ERA in 13 starts; 3-0 in the World Series with 40 K’s in 51 2/3 innings.

Feats: On April 7, 1984, Morris threw a no-hitter at Comiskey Park against the White Sox, tying Bob Feller for the earliest no-hitter in history. Morris loaded the bases twice in the game, but got out of the jams with strikeouts. He whiffed Ron Kittle for the final out. Lance Parrish was his catcher… Morris had 25 games in his career in which he struck out at least 10 batters, with a high of 12 (three times).

Cantankerous Jack
Morris often alienated media and teammates during his career. He twice went on media-strikes in which he refused to talk to sportswriters. In 1994, while with the Indians, Morris insisted on going back to his ranch between starts rather than travel with the team. During the 1984 season, as the Tigers roared to the World Series title, Morris bickered with the media, stormed out of the locker room, and irritated his teammates and manager Sparky Anderson with his childish antics.

MLB Leaders, 1979-1992
Wins
Jack Morris… 233
Bob Welch… 192
Dave Stieb… 174
Nolan Ryan… 168

Complete Games
Jack Morris… 169
Fernando Valenzuela… 107
Charlie Hough… 106
Dave Stieb… 103

ERA
(2,200 IP min.)
Nolan Ryan… 3.21
Bob Welch… 3.32
Fernando Valenzuela… 3.34
Dave Stieb… 3.39
Dennis Martinez… 3.61
Jack Morris… (8th) 3.71

Quotes About Morris
“You have to wonder if enough of these voters will ever be able to look past his 3.90 career ERA to get him to the podium. Well, if you toss out that ERA (which is lower than Jason Schmidt’s career ERA, by the way), what more evidence of this man’s perpetual ace-hood could a voter ask for? This is about more than just Game 7, 1991. Jack Morris pitched a no-hitter. He started three All-Star Games. He was a huge figure on three World Series pitching staffs. He always started Opening Day. And consider this: From 1979 to ’92, when Morris and Nolan Ryan were both doing their thing, Morris had 65 more wins than Ryan (233-168). I’ve voted for him eight years in a row, and never once felt I’d overinflated what he was in his day.” — writer Jayson Stark, 2007

Quotes From Morris
“The only time I talk to a woman when I’m naked is when she’s on top of me or I’m on top of her.” — Jack Morris, to female reporter Jennifer Frey in 1990 when she approached him in the Tiger clubhouse

All-Star Selections
1981 AL
1984 AL
1985 AL
1987 AL
1991 AL

Replaced
Morris got his first big league start in 1977 when he was called on to replace injured Tiger phenom Mark Fidrych, who had dazzled baseball with 19 wins and zany antics on the mound in 1976. Detroit fans booed Morris when he was announced to replace “The Bird” for the start.

Replaced By
Orel Hershiser took over as the Indians’ veteran righty in 1995, after Morris had retired.

Best Strength as a Player
Competitiveness

Largest Weakness as a Player
Surrendering home runs.

Other Resources & Links