Jack Morris (True) Rookie Card

With their pick in the 5th Round of the 1976 MLB June Amateur Draft, the Detroit Tigers selected Jack Morris from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. Jack Morris has one true rookie card and one Whopper of a food and beverage issue.

Modern Era Committee Gets It Right

On Sunday, December 10, 2017 Baseball’s Hall of Fame Modern Era Committee announced their picks for the 2018 Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony.

The Committee voted and it was a proud day for the city of Detroit as two of their own were chosen. Jack Morris and Alan Trammell.

The sentiment throughout baseball was that the Veteran’s Committee made the right choices, of course with all decisions our human nature will question the legitimacy of those decisions.

Over the years there has been much debate about Jack’s entry into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

He was on the Hall of Fame eligibility list for 15 years. He never received the needed 75% of the vote but did come close in 2013 when he received 67.7% of the vote. The debate was rooted in the numbers.

Some point to the facts that during the 1980s Jack gave up the most hits, most earned runs, the most wildest pitches, and the most home runs of any pitcher in that decade.

However, when looking at facts you must consider all the facts. In that same era, Jack also started the most games, pitched the most innings, and had the most wins of any pitcher of that decade.

Impressive Performances of Jack Morris 

His weapon of choice was a fastball, a slider, and his go-to pitch the split-finger fastball.

Other notable facts include Jack pitching a total of 549 career games, of those, 175 were complete games.

Even more impressive in 1986 he threw three consecutive complete-game shutouts. Emphasis mine because I had to pause and chew on that for a minute remarkable!

He’s got one no-hitter under his belt too. April 7, 1984, versus the Chicago White Sox. It was the first no-hitter by a Tiger since Jim Bunning, another Hall of Famer, did it in 1958.

One of his more impressive years was in 1991 when he signed a one-year contract with his hometown ball club the Minnesota Twins he had a great regular season going 18-3 but the real magic happened in the World Series.

Jack was the starting pitcher in 3 of 7 games played going 2-0 with 1.17 ERA he was awarded the World Series MVP as the Twins went on to beat the Atlanta Braves.

Jack Morris’ 18-year career began in 1977 and ended in 1994. He played on four different organizations: Detroit Tigers 1977-1990; Minnesota Twins in 1991; Toronto Blue Jays in 1992-1993 and Cleveland Indians in 1994.

Career Stats and Accomplishments

According to Baseball-Reference.com Alan Trammell career stats are: Wins 254 | Losses 186 | ERA 3.90 | Games 549 | Games Started 527 | Innings Pitched 3,824 | Strikeouts 2,478.

Accomplishments:

• 5x All-Star
• 3x World Series Champion
• 1x World Series MVP (1991)
• 2x AL Babe Ruth Award (1984, 1991)
• 2018 Hall of Fame Induction

Jack Morris True Rookie Card:

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1978 Topps, #703 (RC)

In 1978 Topps increased the size of its set, from the previous 660 cards set to the new and improved 726 cards.

The rookie cards, which appear toward the back-end of the set feature four players per card by position rather than by team. Although many collectors are not a fan of multi-player rookie cards we make exceptions when they include rookie cards of Hall of Famers.

Although the rookie cards in the set don’t show all its design swag it does give us the basics. Card #703 gives us four rookies, the yellow backdrop outlined with a red line really gives it nice eye appeal.

The card backs are a brownish/copper color with a navy blue font. And since there are four players featured on the card we only get a short bio of each player, there’s not much room for anything else.

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1978 Burger King Tigers, #8 (RYC)

This is a fantastic card of Jack Morris. A couple of things going for this card are, collectors are fans of the first card of players featured by themselves and that’s what we have here. His rookie is featured with three other players.

These are a bit more scarce too. Distributed in 3 card packs at your local Detroit Burger King free with any purchase.

The cards were printed by Topps and mimic the 1978 design in every aspect. This is a very nice collectible card but technically speaking this is not an official Jack Morris rookie card.

Instead, it would be considered a Rookie Year card, meaning that the card was produced and distributed in his rookie year.

Why is this card not considered a rookie card? That’s a great question and I’m glad you asked it.

Well, what disqualifies this one is two long-standing standards within the hobby. First, a rookie card must be distributed nationally, and this was a regional release in the Detroit region.

Secondly, food and beverage issues have technically never been viewed as a rookie card either. You can learn more about this topic in my post, The 10 Commandments of the Rookie Card.

Happy Collecting Collectors,

Learn. Collect. Enjoy.