Phillies: Great players you forgot played in Philadelphia

Joe Morgan (1983)

A second member of the Big Red Machine who joined the Phillies for a short period of time is another Reds legend, Joe Morgan.

Though Morgan is mostly remembered for his time in Cincinnati, he actually started as a Houston Astro/Colt. 45 for parts of nine seasons before his career took off.

Morgan made his major league debut at second base just a couple of days after his 20th birthday for the then Houston Colt .45’s. Over those first nine seasons of his career with Houston, Morgan was nothing more than an average hitter with a .263 average and only three seasons with double-digit home runs.

After the 1971 season, Morgan was traded by the Houston Astros with Ed Armbrister, Jack Billingham, Cesar Geronimo and Denis Menke to the Cincinnati Reds for Tommy Helms, Lee May and Jimmy Stewart.

In his first season with Cincinnati, Morgan was an MVP finalist making his first of eight consecutive All-Star teams. He would blossom into the Hall of Fame hitter he’s known as today with a .288 average, 1,155 hits, and over 400 stolen bases for one of the greatest teams in baseball history.

After brief stints in Houston and San Francisco, Morgan finally made his way to Philadelphia. The San Francisco Giants would trade Morgan and Al Holland to Philadelphia for C.L. Penigar, Mark Davis and Mike Krukow.

Now 40-years-old, Morgan wasn’t the player he once was, but he still contributed for the 1983 National League champion Phillies with 16 home runs, 18 stolen bases, and a .370 on-base percentage.

Morgan would retire one season after playing with Pete Rose in Philadelphia, and in 1990 he was inducted into Cooperstown on the first ballot.