[uvaspina]

I think he's a borderline candidate. It woudn't bother me if he got in on his fifteenth and last try. -However, I never liked the argument that he was the "best pitcher of the 80s." Usually that's based on the fact that he had the most wins during that arbitrary period. A lot of that was just a matter of coincidence, coming into his prime in 1980 almost exactly and had a very solid 10-year run. (Who has the most wins from 1972 to 1982, or 1978 to 1988? Who cares?) Arguably, Doc Gooden was the most dominant pitcher of the 80s (and a case could be made for Nolan Ryan and Roger Clemens and Orel Hershiser and Brett Saberhagen). All of those guys had at least 1 Cy Young during that time and some had just as good--if not better--ten year stretches during their careers. Morris didn't win a Cy Young (and never finished higher than third, so it's not like he was robbed 4 times or anything). I will not dispute that Morris could just as plausibly be considered the best pitcher of the 80s though.

One thing that impressed me about Morris is that he started opening day 14 times (I think) and mostly for good teams. That says a lot. He was a big game pitcher too, which also says a lot, and was able to go deep in games. With that said, I don't think it's a travesty whether he gets in or not.

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Had he retired 2 years earlier, he probably would've done himself a favor. Sure, he would've missed out on 17 winds, but his career ERA would have been 3.6 something and he would've gone out on a strong note at age 37. Instead, he pitched poorly the last 2 years to the tune of a 6.19 and 5.60 ERA in '93 and '94, respectively, with some ugly WHIPS (1.6 and 1.6).

Plus, he just looks creepy these days:

http://cmsimg.detnews.com/apps/pbcsi.dll...g-out-time