Hall of Fame Poll: Jack Morris

The next on the ballot is Jose Mesa, Jose was a pretty good closer, at times, during his career. He finished with 321 saves and a 4.36 ERA in 1022 games, 95 starts over 19 seasons.

If you had asked anyone, back in the mid-80's, if Jack Morris was going to be in the Hall of Fame, they would have said yes. But, looking back at his career, it doesn't seem quite as good as it did back then. They used to talk about him 'pitching to win', now we just notice that he got great run support.

The two best AL starters of the 80's were likely Jack Morris and Dave Stieb. Stieb was the better of the two but he didn't get any love from the BBWAA in the Hall of Fame vote. Morris had 22% of the vote his first time on the ballot, but his numbers have kept growing, last year he got 66.7% of the vote. This will be his 14th time on the ballot. if he doesn't make it this year, next year is his last chance, until the veteran's committee gets to vote on him.

He has pretty good raw numbers, 254 wins (42nd all-time), 5 All-Star games, 2478 strikeouts (32nd), 527 start (36th), 175 complete games. His complete numbers can be found here.

Jack played with the Jays for 2 seasons, picking up 2 World Series rings, going 21-6 with a 4.04 ERA in 1992. In 1993 he went 7-12 with a 6.19 ERA and didn't get play in the playoffs that year. He also won a World Series with the Tigers.

I'll admit I never warmed up to the guy, I hated him as a Tiger and then, when he was with the Jays, well he beyond his best before date.