Q 6

PLAYBOY: Are there ballplayers you'd like to whack upside the head and tell them to stop being such assholes and just be grateful they get to play this game?

Joe Morgan: I'll tell you, the most fun for me as a player was to stand around the batting cage. We'd joke around and get on each other and laugh and yell at the other team. Then, about three years ago, I noticed the players weren't having as much fun laughing and joking like they used to. I'd hear complaints more than anything else. A guy making three or four million, saying, "Man, I should be playing more. I'm sitting on the bench." The worst thing I ever heard was, "Man, the bus was late today." A guy making $5 million and the bus is five minutes late. Big deal.

Q 7

PLAYBOY: Is TV wagging the game of baseball these days?

Joe Morgan: I don't think so, because if it were, there would be better matchups. You'd have the Yankees on more. Television can't dictate who's playing on Saturday and can only use teams a certain number of times. In the NBA, you saw Michael Jordan at least once a week. Baseball doesn't do that, and I think in some cases they're wrong. Baseball is very lucky that Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa did what they did last year.

Q 8

PLAYBOY: Would you have played for Marge Schott?

Joe Morgan: Yes, because, first and foremost, I played for my family. I would have tried to change her thinking, and I would have spoken out against everything she said and stood for. But yes, I would have played, because the game is bigger than Marge Schott. I wouldn't have let her ruin my career or my team.

Q 9

PLAYBOY: We have to ask: 1998 Yankees versus 1976 Reds, who wins?

Joe Morgan: The Reds were a better team, but it's apples and oranges. Times have changed. The Reds led the major leagues in home runs that year, and we hit only 141. The Yankees hit 207 last year and they were seventh. The ball is livelier now, and the ballparks are smaller. And the pitching definitely isn't as good overall. That Reds team would probably hit 280 now, they were that good. Johnny Bench, George Foster, Tony Perez, every one of those guys would hit 45 to 55 home runs. I don't want to compare myself to anybody, but I'm in the Hall of Fame, Bench is in the Hall of Fame, Perez is going to make the Hall and Rose is a Hall of Famer, we all know that. Are the Yankees going to have anybody make the Hall of Fame? Derek Jeter has the best chance, but where else are you going to get a Hall of Famer on that team? Except now they have Roger Clemens.

Q 10

PLAYBOY: Do you think Pete Rose belongs in Cooperstown?

Joe Morgan: Pete and I were the two closest guys on the team. I lockered next to him for nine years. There's never been anyone I ever played with or against that played the way he did. He played every single game like it was the seventh game of the World Series. I didn't play it that way. There are days when you're just not all there. I never saw him when he wasn't all there. But I'm also on the board of directors of the Hall of Fame. My duty as a board member is to uphold the integrity of the game. I take that seriously, and from that standpoint Pete did not deserve to be in. Personally, I believe he needed to be punished for what he did, and he has been punished. If Pete Rose were to stand up in front of America and say, "I made a mistake and I'm sorry," then I would say yes. But until he does, I'm sorry.

Q 11

PLAYBOY: Why have Hispanics become the predominant minority in baseball?

Joe Morgan: Dollars and cents. Latin players try to get to the U.S. because this is where the money is. They have tryout camps and clinics in Latin countries that bring hundreds of kids in every day, keep them for a day or two, feed them, pick out the best ones and send the others home. The reason African Americans are disappearing is that they no longer have bird-dog scouts. Frank Robinson, Vada Pinson, Willie Stargell--a lot of guys came from the Bay Area because of bird-dog scouts who would see them and go tell other scouts. Then baseball went to the combine system. Basically, most American players now come from colleges, and fewer African Americans play baseball in college because college baseball is kind of elitist. You don't get the scholarships. Your family has to have money to pick up your tab. If they don't, you can't play college baseball unless you're there on another athletic scholarship. The African American in the inner city gets squeezed out.

Q 12

PLAYBOY: These days, kids of every race seem to want to be basketball players. What's that about?

Joe Morgan: There are fewer organized baseball games in the cities now. Basketball you can play by yourself, you don't have to be organized, you just walk over to the park and play. It takes a group to play baseball. You don't just walk to the baseball diamond and hope that somebody's there.