Joe Must Go!

Count me in among those who want to take the ax to ESPN baseball analyst Joe Morgan.

The Hall of Fame second baseman is now known more for ignoring and mocking the importance of the statistical side of baseball that has come with the evil computers that supposedly are heading the front offices of Major League Baseball team instead of his Hall of Fame career.

Oh yeah, and there's a website named after him that is dedicated to poor sports journalism.

As for what put me over the top, let's take it back to Sunday's Cubs/Sox game when Eric Patterson made a friend for life when he smacked a two-run homer off Javier Vazquez to extend the Cubs' lead to 4-0.

"The basket was actually put there when Ernie Banks played and a lot of balls were hit that way and umpires had a problem with it. They actually started calling it 'Banks Boulevard' because he hit a lot of balls into that basket."

That one statement did a lot of wrong to a lot of people. Let's start with the idea that the statement implies that many of Ernie Banks' 512 home runs were cheap, basket shots. Next, Joe totally ignored the fact that the basket was really installed so fans wouldn't be able to jump out of the bleachers and on to the field, like they did when Ken Holtzman pitched his no-hitter.

And finally, the fact that Joe Morgan was absolutely WRONG with the statement because of the 512 home runs that Banks hit, only eight (8!!!!) were hit at Wrigley Field after the basket was put up in April 1970. Of the eight (8!!!!) I know that his 500th did NOT go into the basket because I've seen the video tape a million and one times.

And even if he hit the other seven into the basket (7!!!!), that would mean that 7 of his 512 home runs were basket shots. That's only 1.3 percent, not nearly the amount necessary to get the basket named after him.

Lost in this rant will be the fact that Joe Morgan should be reprimanded for this BIG TIME "mistake" and mistake is in quotes because the fact of the matter is that Morgan MADE THE DAMN THING UP OUT OF THIN AIR!

That's called lying. That's called fabricating a story. Talented writers such as Jayson Blair and Stephen Glass were canned because of that kind of thing.

I feel that Joe Morgan should be next in that firing line.

Morgan cubs
by bsap11