Ex-Jay Morris misses Hall in '05

Case dismissed. At least, for one more season.

Jack Morris was unable to win entrance to the Hall of Fame on Tuesday, landing on less than half of the required ballots to earn induction to Cooperstown.

The onetime-Blue Jay was named on 172 of the 516 ballots, earning just 33.3 percent of the total vote. Still, that was his highest total to date, beating his next-highest (26.28) by a significant margin.

		2005 Hall of Fame   voting results
	The complete vote (516 ballots, 387 to gain election, 26 to remain on ballot):  Player  Votes   %  Wade Boggs  474  91.9%  Ryne Sandberg  393  76.2%  Bruce Sutter  344  66.7%  Jim Rice  307  59.5%  "Goose" Gossage  285  55.2%  Andre Dawson  270  52.3%  Bert Blyleven  211  40.9%  Lee Smith  200  38.8%  Jack Morris  172  33.3%  Tommy John  123  23.8%  Steve Garvey  106  20.5%  Alan Trammell   87  16.9%  Dave Parker   65  12.6%  Don Mattingly   59  11.4%  Dave Concepcion   55  10.7%  Dale Murphy   54  10.5%  Willie McGee   26   5.0%  Jim Abbott   13   2.5%  Darryl Strawberry    6   1.2%  Jack McDowell    4   0.8%  Chili Davis    3   0.6%  Tom Candiotti    2   0.4%  Jeff Montgomery    2   0.4%  Tony Phillips    1   0.2%  Terry Steinbach    1   0.2%  Mark Langston    0   0.0%  Otis Nixon    0   0.0%   Election coverage: • Wade, Ryno are Hall choices • No doubts about Class of 2005 • Boggs hits his way to the Hall • Ryno charges into Hall of Fame • Red Sox lavish praise on Boggs • Rays react to Boggs Hall call • From Beantown to Bronx to Hall • Sutter closing in on Hall of Fame • Boggs is fans' favorite to make Hall   Sights and sounds: • Boggs photo gallery • Boggs highlights: 56K | 350K • Boggs conference call • Sandberg photo gallery • Sandberg highlights: 56K | 350K • Sandberg conference call • Official announcement: 56K | 350K • HOF president Dale Petroskey   announces Class of 2005

All candidates needed 75 percent of the vote -- or appearing on 387 ballots -- to be enshrined. Two players made it over the barrier: Wade Boggs and Ryne Sandberg, who will be inducted into the Hall next summer.

Morris finished with the ninth-most votes, falling between Lee Smith (200) and Tommy John (123). The right-handed Morris was a five-time All-Star and a four-time World Series champion, winning with Detroit, Minnesota and twice with Toronto.

He was already an established winner when he became a Jay. Morris won more games (162) than anybody else during the '80s, earning 15 victories or more eight times during the decade.

His first losing record as a starter came when he was 34 years old -- before that, he reeled off 10 straight winning campaigns. And that was before the late-career renaissance: Morris went 18-12 for Minnesota in 1991 and was named the World Series MVP that October.

The next year, Morris joined the Jays and went 21-6, finishing first in wins and fifth in the AL's Cy Young Award balloting. He didn't pitch well in the postseason, but he was an integral part of Toronto's first championship just the same. The next season, Morris slumped to 7-12 and didn't pitch during the team's playoff run.

He'll still have several more cracks at the game's highest honor -- but the chance only comes once a year, and 2005 wasn't magic for Morris.