Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Question of the Week

Frank, Colorado Springs, CO
Subj: On the road again
Hey Ryan, who holds the Major League record for having played with the most franchises?

That honor belongs to Mike “Suitcase” Morgan, a well-traveled righthander who played with 12 teams during his 22 years in the Big Leagues. Far from an unwanted castoff, Morgan was actually a teenage phenom who made the jump from high school to the pros in 1978 with the Oakland Athletics. Over the next two decades this nomadic hurler was selected to one All-Star team and he compiled a respectable career record of 141 wins and 186 losses. Of course, the numbers are only half of the story. Morgan was also on the losing end of Dennis Martinez’s perfect game on July 28, 1991 and he served up Mark McGwire’s record-tying 61st home run seven years later on September 7, 1998. Thankfully he put those dubious distinctions behind him in 2001 when he appeared in his first World Series as a member of the Arizona Diamondbacks. "You watch the World Series year after year at home on television and yes, you start to think that maybe it's just not meant to be," he reflected at the time. "I mean, you see Derek Jeter, and he's 25 or so and he's been in it five times. I've been playing about as long as he's been alive. But that's what keeps you going — the hope that someday you might make it."