Mushnick to Morgan: Do you know what you are talking about?

Veterans with cluttered memories should take the trouble to crosscheck this stuff before leisurely rolling it out, basking in it, and taking bows.

NEVER taking the trouble to do so (or at least have some gofer do so) is sheer, smug, self-indulgent laziness.

Typical Little Joe.

 

What year did you graduate high school? What year did you get married? What year did you have your first child? These are things you don't get confused about, they are burned into your brain. For Morgan to not remeber what year he broke into the majors is completely unbelievable.

 

Like when HR apologizes to you several times after a complaint at work.

 

There's no age limit on "dimensia."

And, you know something? Joe Morgan is not Arnold Palmer, Art Donovan, or anyone else. You don't know his story.

 

Exactly. I don't see how people can dismiss this as just a little memory lapse. Getting some details wrong in a story about yourself is understandable, but inserting yourself into a someone else's story is not. Either Morgan thought he could get away with this tale because he thought nobody would call him on it, or he seriously needs to have a brain scan done because something's obviously not working right up there.

 

Well, that's the thing. We do know the story he told on the air. And we know it's wrong, because it's easy to prove or disprove.

And boots, I'd give him the benefit of the doubt if he got confused that his rookie year was 1964, even though he was called up in September 1963. But it wasn't even that -- not only did he screw up the year, but he claimed that the story was about himself -- when anybody can look it up to see that the incident was not about Joe Morgan, and it was never about Joe Morgan, and Joe Morgan had no involvement in that story, not even indirectly.

That's not "confused about an event." That's "I have no idea what I'm talking about." :

***

The infuriating thing about Morgan is that his broadcasting style, like McCarver's, has devolved over the years from:

all the baseball he knows

to:

all the baseball he knows.

 

I meant the story of his memory, or lack thereof. He's sounded addled to me on more than one occasion.

 

I'm a little slow on the uptake my own self, sometimes.

 

Ask Tim McCarver about his walk-off grand slam to win the 1968 World Series.

 

So he made a mistake. So what? He's human. That's not a reason to jump on him like he committed a serious crime.
He got a date mixed up. Like that has never happened to those who are criticizing him so harshly.

 

No.

He didn't "get a date mixed up."

He inserted himself into a story that he had nothing to do with, and claimed that a memorable rant made by a Phillies manager during a memorable losing streak was because of a hit he made, when anybody who knows anything about the 1964 season can clearly look it up to see that it had nothing to do with Joe Morgan, and Joe Morgan had no involvement in that incident whatsoever.

You're acting like he just screwed up the year. No, he told the story to make it sound like it happened to him, which is like Bill Richardson telling the story that he got drafted by a major league team out of high school when anybody can look it up to see that he didn't.

That's what Morgan did. Same difference.

 

Buck, you're asking boots, of all people, if he understands about making up false stories?