Upsetting news broke early Monday of former Philadelphia Phillies baseball great Joe Morgan passing away at the age of 77 — much too young.
A first-ballot Hall of Famer, Morgan was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1990 and his jersey No. 8 was retired by the Cincinnati Reds in 1998.
Morgan quite obviously had a great career. Over 22 years, Morgan had 9,277 at-bats spanning 2,649 games, where he hit 268 home runs, 1,133 RBI, while stealing 689 bases, and posting a .271 batting average.
Morgan received several awards and recognitions in his career, including a Silver Slugger Award in 1982; a Gold Glove Award in every year between 1973 and 1977; National League All-Star recognition in 1966, 1970 and every year between 1972-1979; All-Star MVP honors in 1972; National League MVP honors in 1975 and 1976; and a World Series championship in 1975 and 1976.