Second baseman Joe Morgan was a key contributor for the Cincinnati Reds baseball
team. Morgan was a rarity back in the 1970s in Major League Baseball: a second
baseman who could hit for power and hit for average, as he had a career .271 batting
average. During his time with the Reds, he had three seasons of more than 20-plus home
runs each.
Morgan would play for the Houston Astros, the San Francisco Giants, the Philadelphia Phillies, and the Oakland Athletics after playing for the Reds and winning two World Series titles and two MVP awards. His power numbers decreased, but he was still an effective hitter for his teams.
On June 24, 1984, Morgan hit a home run against the Texas Rangers that put
him in the record books. Morgan would capture the record for most home runs hit by a
second baseman with 265 career home runs. The record Morgan set would eventually
be taken over by Jeff Kent as a member of the San Francisco Giants on Oct. 2, 2004. Morgan died in 2020.
