Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
SALT LAKE CITY — Before former Tigers pitcher Jack Morris won four World Series, he was the right-hander on the BYU baseball team with the funny accent from Minnesota.
On Sunday, he became a Hall of Famer.
Morris, the five-time all-star who played at BYU in 1975-76 before being drafted No. 5 overall by the Detroit Tigers, was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday in a group that also included Atlanta's Chipper Jones, Detroit's Alan Trammell, Montreal's Vladimir Guerrero, San Diego's Trevor Hoffman and legendary Cleveland Indians star Jim Thome.
"I'm so honored to be part of something so special," Thome said during his acceptance speech. "Baseball is beautiful and I am forever in its service."
Morris is the first BYU baseball player to be inducted into Cooperstown.
If Sunday was the greatest moment of Morris' career, he shared possibly his most humbling during his Hall of Fame acceptance speech.
It began with what Morris called “his toughest out.” During his first trip with the Tigers to play the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park, he came face-to-face with hall of fame Carl Yastrzemski. After introductions, he started his windup.
"My first-pitch fastball, on the corner, down and away, perfect pitch: ball one. Second pitch, slider: ball two," Morris recalled. "The next pitch was a fastball, another perfect pitch: ball three. I just shook my head and wondered if this was the way it was going to be. Then, whack; a perfect hit off the Green Monster.
"I turned around and saw the home plate umpire coming up to me. He said: ‘Ron Morris, that’s Carl Yastrzemski. He’s one step away from the Hall of Fame … Welcome to the Big Leagues.’ That was the toughest I’ve ever had to endure, but it was nothing compared to facing George Brett for years. I'm pretty sure every guy behind me got a few hits off me."
Born May 15, 1955, Morris spent two seasons at BYU and won 10 games. Highly recruited as a basketball player, he and his brother Tom played baseball in Provo, where Jack Morris was 4-6 with a 4.72 ERA in 12 appearances as a junior in 1976.
One of his career highlights was a 1-0 win over Utah, a victory that came off the bat of Kim Nelson's sacrifice fly, scoring Vance Law for the game's only run in the first inning.
Morris pitched 18 seasons in the majors, mostly with the Tigers, but also with Minnesota, Toronto and Cleveland en route to four championships. His crowning achievement was a 1-0 complete-game victory in Game 7 of the 1991 World Series for his hometown Twins. Former Minnesota manager Tom Kelly wanted to take him out after nine innings, but the 36-year-old Morris convinced him not to.
Kelly was among those he thanked in his acceptance speech.
