Hall of Fame Poll: Jack Morris

It's Jack Morris' last chance to be voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame by the BBWAA. Last year he was close at 67.7%. His number has been coming up from a low of 19.6.

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.

Jack had the ability to pitch for teams that scored a lot of runs, as well as being able to stay in the game long enough to get the W. If you listen to him, he'll tell you that, once he got the big lead, he wouldn't worry about giving up a run or two, he just didn't give up the big inning, which is useful. But is it a the mark of a Hall of Famer? Jack was the best pitcher on a very good Tigers team, but they were good because they scored in bunches.

He has pretty good raw numbers, 254 wins (42nd all-time), 5 All-Star games, 2478 strikeouts (32nd), 527 start (36th), 175 complete games. He never won a Cy Young. There is a wow factor when you look at his innings total each season. He led the league in innings in 1983 with 293.2 innings, but that was the only season he led the league in innings, though he was often well over 200 innings. He also led the league in wild pitches 6 times.

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 think of him as being a very good pitcher, maybe a better pitcher than we think when we look at his numbers, but, to me, not quite good enough to go to the Hall. But then, I never liked him. He was a bit of a jerk, and the Tigers, well, they were our rivals. When he came to us, he was past his best before date.

We've had a season of listening to him campaign for this vote, did he win you over?

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