St. Paul native and Twins World Series hero Jack Morris finally received the phone call he's been waiting for a long time.

The Hall of Fame Modern Era Committee name Morris and former Detroit Tigers teammate Alan Trammell the the HOF Class of 2018.

Morris pitched for 18 seasons in the majors and had a career record of 254-186 with a 3.90 ERA.

He pitched on World Series Championship teams with Detroit (1984), Minnesota (1991) and Toronto (1992) and ended his career with the Cleveland  Indians.

Morris was the MVP of the 1991 World Series for his hometown Minnesota Twins.

Trammell played his entire 20 year career with the Tigers and was the MVP of the 1984 World Series.

The shortstop batted .280 for his career with 2,365 hits and 1,003 RBI's.

Other former players on the list were Steve Garvey, Tommy John, Don Mattingly, Dale Murphy, Dave Parker, Ted Simmons and Luis Tiant.

You could make the case for Morris making the greatest pitching performance in World Series history when he went all 10 innings in a 1-0 win over Atlanta in the 1991 World Series.

It certainly was the best pitching performance I've seen in my nearly half century of watching the games.

Yes I'll admit Minnesota is my team and that makes me a wee bit biased.  But show me a better performance.

You can't make a mistake at all.  There was no margin for error in that game.

I doubt it will ever happen again because these days pitching revolves around the pitch count and specialists in middle relief and late relief and even long relief.

Each year the HOF Modern Era Committee is comprised of different people selected by the HOF Board of Directors.

I don't think it hurt Morris in particular that HOF Manager Bobby Cox and HOF Executive John Schuerholz (both with the Braves when Morris pitched his gem against them) were on the committee.

The six players included fellow St. Paul native Dave Winfield, former Twin Rod Carew, George Brett, Robin Yount, Don Sutton, and Dennis Eckersley.

Several other HOF Executives were also on the committee including the former President of the Blue Jays.

Both were on the HOF ballot presented to the Baseball Writers Association of America for 15 years prior to the Modern Era Committee selection.

This year's class of BBWAA for 2018 will be announced January 24 and the induction ceremony in Cooperstown will be July 29, 2018.

Favorites in their first year of eligibility include former Twin Jim Thome, Chipper Jones, Omar Vizquel and carryovers from last year Vladimir Guerrero and Trevor Hoffman.

Morris never pitched at Target Field but #34 Kirby Puckett never hit there either.  Does Jack Morris get a statue there?

Target Field- Minneapolis photo by Gordy Kosfeld
Target Field- Minneapolis photo by Gordy Kosfeld
loading...

 

 

More From KQCL Power 96