All that is gold does not glitter, and Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost. From the ashes a fire shall be woken, A light from the shadows shall spring; Renewed shall be blade that was broken, The crownless again shall be king.
– J.R.R. Tolkien, The Riddle of Strider Sometimes I allow myself to do utterly pointless things.
Things a normal person would probably consider foolish, perhaps even a waste of time.
But every path does not have to lead somewhere. Sometimes it’s nice to turn onto a dirt road and just see where you wind up.
So, let’s wander around a bit on baseballreference.com and see what we find.
Did you know, for example, that 16 players with the surname Greene (with the little “e” at the end the way it’s spelled in Greene County) have played Major League Baseball?
Al Greene (not the singer who has no little “e” at the end) is first alphabetically. He was born in Detroit, died in Detroit and hit three home runs in 70 plate appearances for the Detroit Tigers.
Joe Greene (not the iconic defensive tackle for the Pittsburgh Steelers who did have the little “e”) was born in Stone Mountain, is buried at Stone Mountain Cemetery and began his career with the Atlanta Black Crackers in 1932. He spent the majority of his career with the Kansas City Monarchs and caught Hall of Famer Satchel Paige. Greene led the Negro American League with an OBP of .479 in his last season with the Monarchs.
Tommy Greene was a first-round draft pick of the Atlanta Braves in 1985 but only pitched 35 innings for the team. He went 16-4 with the Phillies in 1993 and finished sixth in the Cy Young voting. He and his teammates beat Greg Maddux 6-3 in game six of the NLCS to propel the Phillies to the World Series, where they lost to the Blue Jays in six games just as the Braves had the year before. Good Lord, that was three sixes? No wonder the Braves lost.
Some of you may remember Willie Greene who was drafted out of Jones County High School in the first round by the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1989. From 1996 to 2000 he averaged 16 home runs and 57 RBI per season. Not terrible.
But what about Madison and Morgan?
Four players with the surname Madison played at the big-league level. Art, Bob, Dave, and Scotti. None of them did much.
However, there have been 23 players with the last name Morgan, including two Joes.
Ed Morgan finished a seven year career spent mostly with the Cleveland Indians with a solid .313 batting average. Amazingly, he had 666 at-bats in 1930 and struck out 66 times. I believe Pope Pius XI was notified.
The best of the Morgans was obviously Joe who had a Hall of Fame career with the Astros, Reds, Giants, Phillies and A’s. He won back-to-back MVP Awards with the Big Red Machine in 1975 and 1976. But you knew that already.
The other Joe was not quite as good and only had 207 MLB at-bats. Baseballreference.com needs to get its act together when it comes to the Joe Morgans on the site. If you click on player info or player bio on the site for the less famous Joe, the link takes you to the Hall of Famer’s page.
The other Joe Morgan played for the Atlanta Crackers in 1962 and ’63. He hit 28 home runs and drove in 140 for the Atlanta team during that span. He enjoyed four winning seasons as manager of the Boston Red Sox later on.
Mike Morgan was a journeyman pitcher who played for 12 teams over 22 seasons. He was an All-Star in 1991 with the Dodgers. He appeared in 388 games in the National League with an ERA of 3.81 and 209 games in the American League with an ERA of 4.94, demonstrating the effect the DH has on a pitcher’s ERA. But the DH is now universal so what’s the use in arguing about it?
Pidgey Morgan was born in St. Louis, is buried in St. Louis and played one season for the St. Louis Red Stockings in 1875.
MLB has also seen four Putnams play: Ed, Danny, Pat and Zach. Ed and Danny had a cup of coffee in the majors, but Pat played seven seasons with the Texas Rangers and got some votes for Rookie of the Year in 1979. According to his sabr.org biography, Putnam has lived in Fort Myers, Florida, for the last 35 years. Let’s hope his home is still standing after Ian’s recent devastation.
Maybe we’ll check football references for more of this kind of thing next week. Or maybe not. Even I have my limits.
But you are now armed with many fun facts while readers of other papers remain blissfully ignorant.
And by the way, die-hard baseball fans, the poem in the epigraph has nothing to do with Spencer Strider.
Selah.