By Brooke Brottman

To be inducted into The Baseball Hall of Fame is one of the most prestigious honors in all of sports. With over 18,000 players to wear a big-league uniform, only 235 players have been inducted. Every new year brings a long list of athletes who passed away, and 2020 was not an exception. This year, the world has lost some of the greatest athletes that Major League Baseball has ever seen. 

Joe Morgan, Hall of Fame second baseman and a key member of Cincinnati's well known Big Red Machine, died on October 11th in his home in California at the age of 77. He died from polyneuropathy, a condition that affects the nerves in one’s skin, muscles, and organs. He spent the majority of his 22-year career with the Reds and the Houston Astros franchises. Morgan played alongside Pete Rose and fellow Hall of Famers Johnny Bench and Tony Perez, who helped the Reds win back-to-back World Series championships in 1975 and 1976. Morgan's 1975 and 1976 seasons were historically great and he led the National League in on-base plus slugging (OPS) in both seasons, including a 1.020 in 1976. In those seasons combined, he stole 127 bases and was caught only 19 times. He walked 246 times and struck out 93 times, scored 220 runs, and drove in 205, and he won a Gold Glove both seasons. The 1975 and 1976 Cincinnati teams were among the greatest of all time, and maybe the best in the history of the National League. Morgan was a two-time National League Most Valuable Player (MVP), a 10-time All-Star, and a five-time Gold Glove Award winner. Morgan is the only second baseman to win back-to-back MVP awards. He has the fifth-most walks of all time, trailing only Barry Bonds, Rickey Henderson, Babe Ruth, and Ted Williams. Morgan had 850 more walks than strikeouts and had the 11th-most stolen bases ever. He is widely recognized as one of the best second basemen in baseball history with the Cincinnati Reds and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1990. 

Another notable player who recently passed was Whitey Ford. Ford, who was a Hall of Fame Pitcher for the New York Yankees that won more World Series games than any other pitcher, died at the age of 91, on October 8th. Ford helped the Yankees win six World Series titles and 11 American League pennants in his 16 seasons. Ford had a career record of 236-106, setting the Yankees' record for victories. His career winning percentage of .690 is the best of any pitcher with at least 300 career decisions. Ford was the Cy Young Award winner in 1961 when he went 25-4 and was a 10-time All-Star. Ford's status as the best pitcher on the best team was exemplified in the World Series, where he was chosen as a Game 1 starter eight times. His 10 World Series victories are the most for any pitcher, and he pitched 33⅔ consecutive scoreless innings in World Series play, breaking a record set by Babe Ruth. He still holds the records for World Series starts (22), innings pitched (146), and strikeouts (94). Ford was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1974 with former teammate Mickey Mantle.

On October 2nd, baseball lost another star that forever changed the game. Bob Gibson, the St. Louis Cardinals’ Hall of Fame right-hander and one of baseball’s most dominating pitchers, died at age 84 from pancreatic cancer. Gibson played with the Cardinals from 1959 through 1975. Gibson’s legendary career included a National League MVP, two National League Cy Young awards, two World Series MVPs, nine All-Star selections, and nine Gold Glove awards. At the pinnacle of his career in 1968, he finished with a record of 22-9 and a 1.12 ERA, the lowest earned-run average of any pitcher since the early 1900s. He had his own streak of 47 scoreless innings and threw 28 complete games, including 13 shutouts, and had a record-setting 17 strikeout World Series game against the Detroit Tigers. He was so skilled, that in 1968, the rules had to be changed so that the height of the pitcher’s mound was lowered from 15 inches to 10. In 1974, He reached the 3,000 strikeout mark and was the first pitcher in National League history to do so. He is best known for a fiercely competitive nature and for intimidating opposing batters. Gibson owned the inside part of the plate and would not hesitate to hit a batter for the smallest of reasons. Any batter who got too comfortable in the batter’s box could count on getting hit by an inside pitch. Gibson made no apologies, though, and was elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility in 1981. He finished his career with a 251-174 record, five 20-plus win seasons, a 2.91 ERA, and 3,117 strikeouts. 

Lou Brock, one of the best hitters and base stealers in baseball history, died on September 6th at the age of 81. Lou Brock began his career as an outfielder with the Chicago Cubs in 1961 before being traded to the Cardinals during the 1964 season. As a member of the Cardinals, Brock was a six-time All-Star and won two World Series titles in 1964 and 1967. Playing in 103 games for the 1964 Cardinals, Brock hit .348, stole 33 bases, scored 81 runs, and led the Cardinals to the World Series that year. Brock began a stretch of 12 seasons where he averaged 65 steals and 99 runs scored a year. He led the Cardinals to back-to-back NL pennants in 1967 and 1968 and another World Series title in 1967. He finished his career in 1979 with an All-Star Game appearance that year while hitting .304. He totaled 3,023 hits, 1,610 runs, 900 RBI, and 938 steals in his career and led the National League in steals eight times. Brock’s 118 stolen bases in 1974 surpassed Maury Wills’s single-season record of 104 in 1962, and his 938 career steals broke Ty Cobb’s mark of 892. Brock was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1985.

Another devastating loss came when Hall of Famer Tom Seaver died on August 31st, due to dementia. Seaver was one of baseball’s greatest right-handed power pitchers who won 311 games with four different major league teams, most notably the Mets. Seaver struck out more than 200 batters in 10 different seasons, a National League record, and in 1970, facing the San Diego Padres, he struck out a record of 10 batters in a row to end the game. Seaver was a five-time 20-game winner, the league’s rookie of the year in 1967, and was an All-Star nine times in 10 full seasons with the Mets. He went 311-205 with a 2.86 ERA and 3,640 strikeouts. He won three Cy Young Awards and had 61 shutouts during his career that lasted from 1967-86. Seaver pitched for the Cincinnati Reds, the Chicago White Sox, and the Boston Red Sox in the second half of his career, winning more than 100 games, including his only no-hitter with the Reds in 1978. However, during the seasons he spent with the New York Mets, he was the star, and known by New York fans as “Tom Terrific” and, “The Franchise.” He had five seasons with more than 20 wins for the Mets, led the league in strikeouts five times, and he led the league in ERA three times. He was the ace of a young pitching staff in 1969 that rallied to overtake the Chicago Cubs in the N.L. East Division, swept the Braves in the National League Championship Series, and then went onto win the World Series against the Baltimore Orioles, which became known as the year of “The Miracle Mets.” Seaver was inducted to the Hall of Fame in 1992. 

It has been a terrible year for so many people, including many baseball fans who grew up watching these all-time great players. These players were some of baseball’s heroes, they showed us how to play the game. The players who have passed in 2020 have made history and  will never be forgotten.

Brooke is a sports writer for La Tonique.