Q 13

PLAYBOY: After you retired, you kept a promise to your mother and graduated from college with a major in physical education. A Hall of Famer and two-time MVP, majoring in PE? Talk about a ringer. Didn't you feel guilty about raising the curve?

Joe Morgan: Actually I majored in business my first three years, but I could graduate sooner in PE. I learned more about business in baseball than I did in school, because business is about dealing with people, getting them motivated.

Q 14

PLAYBOY: We now have Senator Jim Bunning, congressmen Steve Largent and J.C. Watts, Governor Jesse Ventura. The jock politician concept seems to be hot. Ever thought of throwing your cap into the ring?

Joe Morgan: Actually, George Bush and I are close friends. I knew George long before he ran for president; he was just a guy in Texas. Well, he's never been just a guy. He always said I should be in politics, because we used to argue back and forth. One of our great arguments was about busing. I said the only way this country will ever move forward is for kids to have the same education and the same chance and to learn to deal with each other at an early age, before they've built up their prejudices. Eventually, I prevailed. I made him understand. We traveled together when he was running for president. One time we were campaigning right after somebody had shot at some politician, and I'm kind of off to the side, not intentionally, and George says, "Come on up here, Joe." Out of the blue, I said, "No, George, the guy's aim might be bad." We laughed about it, because he had a bulletproof vest on. I'm not a Republican--when George was vice president, I never went to see Reagan--but we had a great relationship and still do.

Q 15

PLAYBOY: You're regarded as one of TV's smartest baseball analysts. Do you have to be wary of getting into such detailed technicalities that listeners tune out?

Joe Morgan: I have to control it. I try to act like I'm sitting in your house with you, your wife, your son, maybe even your daughter. Part of the game, I'm going to talk to you; you know a lot about the game. Another part, I'm talking to your wife, who knows a little bit. Another part, I'm talking to your son, being more instructional. Another part, I'm talking to the little girl, trying to tell her why this game is fun to watch. I'm pleased that I've gotten more letters from ladies than from men, saying they understand the game better from listening to me. It's my job to make sure that I connect with all those viewers. I've had people say it's like sitting next to me at a ball game, and that's the highest compliment I can get.

Q 16

PLAYBOY: When you were first doing games for NBC, did you ever wish you had a button you could push to drop Bob Uecker into a tank of cold mush?

Joe Morgan: I think Bob Uecker helped make me a better announcer. I've always taken the game too seriously, because it was my livelihood. Bob doesn't take anything too seriously, and from working with him I think I can laugh about things, where before, I'd get mad when I saw something dumb.

Q 17

PLAYBOY: What's the most annoying thing about ballplayers you never realized until you became a broadcaster?

Joe Morgan: How slow they are, and how into themselves some of them are, putting on a show just getting to the batter's box. The game is too long now, and it's the dead time that makes it long. The catcher walking out to the mound five times for each hitter. Batters taking so much time to come out of the dugout to get the right bat. The game needs to be played at a brisk pace.

Q 18

PLAYBOY: You were manhandled by the LAPD in a case of mistaken identity in 1988, and you wound up winning a large lawsuit against the city. When O.J. Simpson was acquitted, did your experience afford you a reply to those who asked, "How could any jury find him not guilty?"

Joe Morgan: Yes. From what the Los Angeles Police did to me, how they lied and tried to change evidence, part of me said that some of them could have done some of the things the lawyers said they did. I was standing in a phone booth. They said I was running through the airport making animal noises. The only thing that saved me was a witness standing next to me who had flown on the plane with me. If I don't have his verification, I'm just another black guy they grabbed and jostled. At the trial they said they thought I was a drug dealer. They lied about so many different things. So, yes, I told my wife, "I don't know whether O.J. did it or not, but I do know that these guys will lie and do anything to get a conviction."

Q 19

PLAYBOY: What in fact happened?

Joe Morgan: I'm at the phone booth, putting the phone to my ear. A guy grabs me by the shoulder and says, "I'm LA Police and you're a drug dealer." The guy next to me at the phone booth says, "Officer, that's Joe Morgan, the baseball player. I just came down on the plane with him." His exact words to that guy were, "Shut up and get away from here before I take you to jail with him." The guy is a schoolteacher, so he stands off to the side and watches. Then the cop says, "I want you to go with us." I said, "Where?" He pointed over my shoulder, so I turned. He grabs me and puts his knee in my back, puts me on the ground. I don't fight, because I know you can't win. There's two of them. I said, "Why are you doing this?" His answer was, "I'm an authority figure. You've been up against us before." He was saying, I'm a police officer and you're black. I'm the boss.

And the things they said at the trial. My lawyer asked, "Even if he had been running through the airport, so what?" They said, "Well, that's the m.o. of a drug dealer." Calling attention to himself, running through the airport? So my guy says, "How do you distinguish which guys running through the airport are drug dealers?" He said, "I get them all." My lawyer says, "You mean to tell me that you arrest every person you see running through the airport?" He said, "Yes," because he didn't want to say he arrested me because I'm black.

It was an experience for me. The most helpless feeling was to be handcuffed with my hands behind me. When they picked me up, I asked him again why he was doing it. So to keep me from talking he put his hand over my nose and my mouth. That's their technique. You're handcuffed and you can't breathe.

Q 20

PLAYBOY: You share the view that the 1975 World Series is the best one ever played--but is it still the greatest Series if the Red Sox win?

Joe Morgan: If they win it in the same fashion. I think the fact that we came back in the seventh game, with nine outs to go, after they came back in game six with nine outs to go, put it on the map. And I think a lot of the greatness has to do with the imposing personalities that were there--Pete Rose, Carl Yastrzemski, Carlton Fisk--people who weren't afraid of the spotlight. I wanted to hit in the seventh game, ninth inning. I was hoping they'd walk Pete intentionally. Bench was probably hoping they'd walk me. That's the kind of personalities you had in that series. Fisk wanted to be the guy when he hit the home run. That World Series brought baseball back.