Justin Verlander got his 3,500 strikeout. Randy Johnson secured his 300th win. Neither baseball legends will be remembered as Giants, but hey, both were decked out in the orange-and-black when they achieved one of their more significant career milestones.
They aren’t alone. Here’s three more Hall of Famers.
Joe Morgan – 1,000 RBI, 1982
Morgan signed with the Giants in 1981, a year into his five-year foray into the wilds beyond Cincinnati. He played only 90 games in his first year in San Francisco, his lowest season total since 1968, and didn’t do much to improve his slash line.
But that wasn’t the end of the story for Morgan and San Francisco. He was just too dang cool to stay down for long. He rebounded spectacularly in his second year with the team, putting together the last great season of his Hall of Fame career. Over 134 games, he accumulated a 5+ bWAR, his first season since 1977, while batting .289 and cracking a .400 OBP and .400 SLG for the first time since his Cincinnati days. On the second to last day of the 1982 season, Morgan launched a memorable three-run homer to sink the Dodgers chances of winning the division. By year’s end he had to filled up his trophy case with his first and only Silver Slugger Award, the Sporting News’ NL Comeback Player of the Year Award, as well as the Willie Mac Award (started in 1980) for the leadership he displayed on the club.
That honor along with levying a fatal blow against the franchise rival — a moment desperate fans still milk for joy and comfort 40+ years later — were more than enough to earn Morgan unironic #forevergiant status for life.
So yeah, Joe Morgan’s situation is different from Verlander’s and Johnson’s. With 200+ games played for the team, he was more than a one-and-done player in San Francisco. Verlander and Johnson as Giants are handy to have in your back pocket when filling out the Immaculate Grid, but they didn’t/probably won’t endear themselves in any meaningful way to the fans. Seeing a Johnson #51 jersey around Oracle will get a chuckle because it’s an inside joke. But wearing a v-neck Morgan #8 is an act of sincerity — one in which you know you’re nowhere close to looking as cool as he did in it.
The local kid, who after magnificent success elsewhere, came home. Morgan is still beloved for what he did as a Giant because he did it for the Giants.
(Original Caption) The San Francisco Giants’ Joe Morgan sits in the dug out and adjusts his hat during a practice session.
Still, the Giants were not his team, and though he had won his back-to-back World Series rings and his back-to-back MVPs, he still had unfinished business in professional baseball. Morgan entered the 1982 season 30 RBIs shy of the 1,000 RBI milestone — a mark he met in a 6-2 win against LA on July 28th. Already ahead 4-0 in the bottom of the 3rd, he yanked a single into right, scoring Johnny LeMaster from second.
1,000 career RBIs is not that impressive in itself. 307 Major Leaguers have logged 1,000 RBIs so far. Johnny Damon has more than a thousand RBIs. So does Wally Pip. Morgan’s final total of 1133 is 204th on the leaderboard and nearly half of Hank Aaron’s MLB-leading 2,297.
But the RBI total becomes more significant when considering context. There are only 16 primary second baseman who’ve reached the 1000 RBI mark in MLB history. When Morgan drove in LeMaster in 1982, he was the ninth to do it, and just the sixth player who had played their whole career in the 20th century.
Consider the RBI mark as a stepping stone for Morgan. After he was traded to Philadelphia in the offseason (for Mike Krukow!) he was 165 knocks away from 2,500 hits and just 4 from 250 home runs. No second baseman in history had 1000 RBIs and 250 homers until Morgan did it in 1983 with the Phillies. When he scratched off number 2,500 at the age of 40 as a member of the Oakland A’s, Morgan was in a club all by himself, and he remained solo at the offensive peak of second baseman for thirty-plus years until Robinson Cano clambered up there and crowded up the joint.
SAN FRANCISCO, CA – OCTOBER 27, 1989: San Francisco Giants great, Willie Mays (R) in this photo with former Cincinnati Reds second baseman and now Baseball television analyst Joe Morgan (L) before game three of the 1989 World Series between the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland Athletic October 27, 1989 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, California. The Athletics swept the Giants 4-0. (Photo by Focus on Sport/Getty Images) Getty Images
Steve Carlton – 4,000 strikeouts, 1986
Duane Kuiper and Mike Krukow were talking about this on Monday’s game broadcast, and his Giants’ moment was certainly more comparable to Johnson and Verlander than Morgan’s.
Carlton’s tenure with the Giants was brief and inconsequential. After 14+ seasons with the Phillies, the lefty was unceremoniously dumped on June 24th, and picked up a week later by San Francisco. He’d make just 6 starts for the Giants in 1986, logging only 30 innings, before being released in August. Blink and you might’ve missed it. An unspectacular flash in a cold dark pan. After logging 300+ wins and posting a 3.10 ERA across his first 22 seasons, Carlton went 1-3 with a 5.10 record for the Giants. The legendary southpaw needed just 18 strikeouts to reach 4,000 for his career when he joined, and he proceeded to strike out 18 before the Giants kicked him back to the curb.
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Down 3-2 in the 3rd with runners on the corners, Carlton made history with a challenge fastball to Cincinnati’s Eric Davis. The 41 year old became the second pitcher in Major League history to achieve 4000 strikeouts after Nolan Ryan — a group that has grown to four in the years since.
A moment was taken for a handshake from catcher Bob Melvin (!) as the man and the milestone flashed across the jumbotron at Candlestick. Carlton tipped his cap to the strange crowd, tossed the baseball back into the dugout, and accepted a butt tap from third baseman Chris Brown. When the game resumed, Carlton would serve up a wild pitch, allowing the runner on third to score. On that day in August, he managed to pitch just 3.2 innings, surrendering 7 runs on 7 hits and 3 walks.
Carlton was released two days later.
(Fun fact! Joe Morgan is the play-by-play announcer in that clip)
Goose Gossage – 600 games finished, 1989
Right before the start of the 1989 season, reliever Rich “Goose” Gossage was released by the Chicago Cubs. A couple weeks into the season, the San Francisco Giants picked him off the scrap pile. Across his 22 year career, Gossage would play for 9 teams, and of those teams, he played the least amount of games and spent the fewest amount of time with the Giants.
Signing one of the men credited with redefining the reliever role, San Francisco didn’t have much use for the Goose as a closer. He was a 17 year veteran with an arm as cooked as a Christmas, you know, goose. He appeared in 31 games, pitched 43.2 innings, but was given just 5 save opportunities (he recorded 4 of them). The majority of his appearances came with the Giants down in the late-innings. In that low-leverage role, he posted a 2.68 ERA with opponents hitting just .212 off of him. Of the 19 runners he inherited, he allowed just six to score.
Gossage had already achieved the major closer milestone, recording his 300th career save during the previous season with Chicago. What he hadn’t checked off his list of career accomplishments was 600 games finished. When he joined the Giants in mid-April of ‘89 he needed just nine more.
I get it — games finished is not the sexiest stat in the world. Does it even qualify as a “milestone” if most baseball fans aren’t even aware that it’s a statistical category? And you know who also finishes baseball games: players like Christian Koss. At face value, finishing a game does not boast any specific pitching skill or qualification. It’s like The Clean Plate Club for relievers. A celebration of mediocrity, of doing the bare minimum. Sure you gave up six runs, but at least you finished!
That being said, I think it’s the kind of tally that accrues value through accumulation. Inevitable rough outings aside, to stay relevant and valuable and trustworthy to a Major League club long enough to reach the 600 games finished mark, you have to be doing something right and you have to be doing it right for a long time. Gossage was just the sixth pitcher to achieve the feat, and since then only 13 more relievers have added their name to the list, with Kenley Jansen and Craig Kimbrel being the most recent to do so. Filter out the pitchers without 300 saves and the list gets thinner. Gossage’s 600th finished game as a Giant meant he was just the second pitcher after Rollie Fingers, to join the 300 SV – 600 GF club.
What’s hilarious though is how Gossage logged number 600. He took the mound in the bottom of the 10th inning in a 2-2 tie against the New York Mets on May 19th. Two outs, runners already at second and first, Gossage walked the first batter he faced on five pitches to load the bases. Next batter, Darryl Strawberry (future Giant), Gossage threw four straight balls to walk in the winning run.
UNSPECIFIED – CIRCA 1989: Rich Gossage #54 of the San Francisco Giants looks into the camera for this portrait prior to the start of a Major League Baseball game circa 1989. Gossage played for the Giants in 1989. (Photo by Focus on Sport/Getty Images) Getty Images