Joe Morgan, the Hall of Fame second baseman who was the National League’s Most Valuable Player for two consecutive seasons and the engine of the Big Red Machine — the nickname of one of baseball’s most powerful teams, the Cincinnati Reds of the 1970s — died on Sunday. The Reds announced his death on Twitter but did not say where he died or specify the cause. Morgan’s was the most recent in a string of recent deaths of baseball Hall of Famers, following those of Tom Seaver, Lou Brock, Bob Gibson and Whitey Ford. For younger fans, Morgan may be mainly familiar as a television commentator, most memorably for ESPN, for which he shared a Sunday night broadcast booth with Jon Miller for 21 seasons. For anyone who saw Morgan play, however, especially in his finest years with the Reds, his performance on the field is far more memorable.

Source: New York Times October 12, 2020 15:42 UTC