FanHouse JoeMorgan

No single baseball play has gotten more coverage this season than Jacoby Ellsbury's steal of home against the Yankees in Fenway Park Sunday night -- and rightfully so, as stealing home is a really rare feat, especially these days. In the aftermath, it was particularly disgraceful to listen to Joe Morgan, on ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball, repeatedly try to blame the play on Jorge Posada, the Yankees' catcher, due to the fact that a left-handed hitter was at the plate.

As it turns out, Posada had actually warned Andy Pettitte, the Yankees' pitcher, that Ellsbury might try to swipe home.

ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball broadcast will kick off its 20th season on the air in 10 days when it opens the regular season on the night of April 5 in Philadelphia with the world champion Phillies hosting the Atlanta Braves.

Play-by-play announcer Jon Miller and color commentator Joe Morgan have been fixtures in the booth for all 20 seasons, but the big change to the broadcast this season is that for the first time they will have company. Former Mets general manager Steve Phillips will join Miller and Morgan this season.

The crew talked to the media in a conference call Thursday afternoon, and FanHouse was listening in. The highlights are after the jump.

On February 23, 2009, the people that brought us the statistical analysis websites Baseball Prospectus and Basketball Prospectus, launched their hockey counterpart, Puck Prospectus.

While hockey is somewhat behind the times when it comes to this sort analysis, it's not completely unheard of at this point. Gabriel Desjardins, for example, has been running the fascinating analytical website Behind The Net for a couple of years now, while there is also the little-known Corsi Numbers.

After the jump, we had an opportunity to ask Will Carroll, one of the leading people at Puck Prospectus, a few questions on what the site can provide hockey fans.

One of the things I've always hated about the online chats at sites like ESPN is the filtering of questions asked to the "talent" being featured in those chats. I don't want to see Joe Morgan answering a question about how he feels about CC Sabathia's deal with the Yankees, I want to see him answer a question like: "How in the hell do you keep your job considering that you don't know about anything not concerning yourself or the Big Red Machine?"

Which is why I applaud the folks at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch who hosted one of their live-chats on their website with Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak on Wednesday when this question from a reader named I Hate Bill DeWitt! came through.

Let's go on a trip back in time to the year 2002. It was the month of October and while people all over the country were falling in love with Good Charlotte's "Young and the Restless" and flocking to local theaters to see "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," there were new cultural phenomenons taking place in southern California. The Los Angeles Angels were on their way to winning the World Series, and introducing us all to the Rally Monkey and the Thunderstick in the process.

In my entire life as a baseball fan I have never seen fans do anything more annoying than bang those two inflated sticks together repeatedly for hours. Joe Morgan and Tim McCarver included. It was a plague that had been unleashed on the sport -- in 2005 they were handing them out at White Sox playoff games -- and thankfully they've since died out. For one man in Los Angeles, though, they didn't die out soon enough.

Back in 2004 when the Angels and Red Sox were facing each other in the playoffs, then 29-year old Daniel Slama was in attendance at a game rooting for his Angels. He also took the time to make sure he chanted "Boston sucks" repeatedly, which is fine, but he then made a fatal mistake. He hit a Red Sox fan in the head with a thunderstick.

So yesterday, The Internets told of a wild rumor. Imagine that. The Internets said that Joe Morgan, Emmy-winning baseball broadcaster and bane of intelligent baseball fans everywhere, was set to be switched out of Sunday Night Baseball. Being that SNB is ESPN's premier baseball broadcast, this would be something of a demotion. And The Internets would rejoice.

Alas, Jon Miller would like to (sort of) refute those rumors:



It would have been way funnier if he would have been like "I don't know, I haven't seen Joe lately, I'd have to watch him analyze." Get it? Because that's what Morgan does? Aw, nevermind.

(HT: SbB, AA)

Some of you will be excited by this news. Others among you will be sad. It is unlikely you will be indifferent, which is a testament to the sort of divergent emotions Joe Morgan inspires. People either love him or hate him, which, hey, makes him just like Barry Bonds! Joe Morgan loves Barry Bonds. I knew I'd bring this circular logic back around somewhere.

Anyway, the news is this: Joseph Morgan might be leaving the Sunday night booth. Cheering and/or weeping may now commence:

Both Morgan and Miller have two years left on their ESPN contracts, but that would not prevent a change. Sources said Morgan could be shifted to the network's midweek baseball telecast, where he would work with a new play-by-play partner.

The best part about all this? Morgan would be replaced by Rick Sutcliffe, who is just like Joe Morgan except with sort of a southern twang. Also, Sutcliffe does this from time to time. I expect no marked improvement.

Admit it, you think it's cool that the Home Run Derby's in Yankee Stadium tonight. The thought of Josh Hamilton launching a ball into Monument Park has you just a little more geeked than you want to admit. Truth be told, you like home runs and the Derby has a ton of them. Maybe you're an NL fan that wants to see Evan Longoria and Josh Hamilton in action, or an AL fan that's curious if Dan Uggla can really be that good. And making fun of Chris Berman and Joe Morgan, well, that's just plain fun.

Anyways, come along after the jump where I'll be joined by a number of FanHouse luminaries while we chat live during the Home Run Derby, giving you the hard hitting analysis you want for the most meaningless event this side of the Slam Dunk Contest. I'll be kicking the chat off around 7:30 while the Derby starts at 8.

Just like Brian Powell, I had no clue that NBC Sports actually handed out a "Whiner of the Week" award. Had I known, I would have been following this sooner. Anyway, this week's winner is a highly regarded figure of the sports blogosphere, a gentleman that really needs no introduction, because of his strengths in the announcing booth and the dedication to learning all the nuances of the game of baseball. That's right: Dr. Joseph Morgan.

"Part of the reason the game doesn't bring that energy is it's a different game now. Now it's considered an exhibition, whereas before it was considered life and death," Morgan whimpered to reporters during a conference call in which he was supposed to be plugging the game for ESPN.

Morgan wants the stars to play all nine innings, like Willie Mays and Hank Aaron used to do. That will make everything better, he says.

Well, it ain't gonna happen, and somebody should tell Morgan that. It's not necessarily worse. It's just different. And ratings are down because ratings are down for everything. That's what happens when you have 400 channels to watch.

So keep your nostalgic whimpering to yourself, Joe. Nobody wants to hear it.

Yowza. Good to know that Joe isn't heavily favored with the Peacock. And I figured he was so popular with the mainstream. It's an understandable reaction though -- on both sides. Joe, predictably, hates change. (Even if it's for the better!) We -- meaning people not over the age of 50 -- prefer that our game today not be knocked.

Although I am interested in this award. Where was Joe Buck's last week? Will Colin Cowherd be receiving a lifetime achievement award? And I assume the winner get a bottle of ... wine.

Make no mistake about it, the reason the Chicago White Sox are in first place in their division is their pitching staff. The White Sox have the best team ERA in baseball at 3.39, and it could be argued that the Dotel-Linebrink-Jenks combination at the back of the bullpen is the best in baseball (I heard Joe Morgan say it, so it has to be true).

So with the Twins refusing to get off their backs, the Sox can't really afford to lose any of their pitchers, and they got some good news on Saturday when they found out Bobby Jenks won't have to spend any time on the disabled list.

The White Sox were concerned enough about the tightness in Bobby Jenks' upper left back that they ordered an MRI and CTScan Saturday. The results were negative and Jenks should be ready to pitch in the Kansas City series starting Tuesday.

The Sox bullpen closer has not appeared since last Sunday against the Cubs, when he allowed a hit and walk but escaped with no runs. Though the tightness is not in his throwing shoulder, it was painful enough that it affected his performance.

It was in that game against the Cubs that the team noticed Jenks was only hitting 91-93 on the radar gun, down from his normal 95-96 range, and became concerned. Considering the struggles that Scott Linebrink has had when he's filled in during 9th innings this season, this is very good news for the White Sox, though it's probably a situation they'll be keeping their eye on.