The Cincinnati Reds, Joe Morgan and Reinventing the Second Batter

Four key cogs in the Big Red Machine:  Tony Perez, Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan & Pete Rose.

Let's wind the clock back a few years to the late 1960s, when pitchers were dominant and home runs were a rarity.  1968, the Year of the Pitcher, stands out because Carl Yastrzemski was the only guy to hit .300 in the entire American League, while in the National League no one was able to hit 40 home runs (Willie McCovey was tops with 36) and only four guys hit 30 or more home runs.  That year the Los Angeles Dodgers had no one with more than 10 home runs. 

Low scoring, and low power numbers resulted in a much different game than today's game.  Late 1960s baseball featured much more emphasis on stolen bases and bunts.  Consequently, the second batter in the lineup was often the team's best bunter.  For example, Cincinnati's Pete Rose was a very good leadoff hitter and the Reds liked to have light hitting Tommy Helms batting behind Rose in order to bunt him over or run the hit-and-run. 

This all changed when the Reds made a huge trade before the 1972 season, giving up Helms and slugger Lee May for  Joe Morgan, pitcher Jack Billingham and outfielder Cesar Geronimo.  Now they had a guy who stood 5'6" with a tiny strike zone and excellent discipline at the plate, so he got on base as often as Rose plus Joe was a prolific base stealer.  They experimented with Joe at leadoff, second and third in the order, although Pete greatly preferred batting leadoff.   Little Joe wasn't very big, so in his early career the thought was that he should be a contact hitter,  hit to the opposite field, bunt and move the runner along. In other words, his career trajectory was more or less similar to Tommy Helms, with the added dimension that Joe could steal bases and get on base via walks.  

The Reds' brain trust, with Manager Sparky Anderson  and Hitting Coach Ted Kluczewski, settled on an unorthodox strategy.  Rose would bat leadoff rather than the faster Morgan, but instead of trying to steal bases, he was to stay put on first base.  That opens up the right side of the infield as the second baseman has to cheat over a little anticipating the steal attempt and the first baseman has to hold the runner on.  Forget about the bunt, let's move Mr. Rose along with a base hit, shall we?  Joe, a left-handed batter, was going to look to PULL the ball and bat Rose over to third base or even drive him in with extra bases.  In other words, the second position in the order was going to do damage rather than giving himself up most of the time.  After Morgan, the Reds were going to come at you with the likes of Bobby Tolan, Johnny Bench, and Tony Perez.

My guess is that Klu and Sparky were not primarily thinking of Morgan as a power hitter.  They were thinking that was going to lead the National League in batting average by hitting line drives through the hole in the right side of the infield and walk 100 times a year.   The home run power was a bit of an unexpected bonus.  

Probably the Reds were not the only team to consciously reinvent the role of the #2 batter, but they were among the most obvious practitioners and benefactors. They won the pennant in 1972 after going 82-80 the previous year.  It may surprise you to be reminded that the 1972 Reds didn't hit that many home runs, but they were second in the league in runs scored because of their super productive front end of the batting order.  At that time, Dave Concepcion hadn't learned to hit, and so the 6-7-8 batters were Dennis Menke,  Cesar Geronimo and Concepcion, none of whom distinguished themselves offensively that year.