With the possible exception of Dallas Keuchel and certainly Marwin Gonzalez, no recently departed Houston Astros player is as missed and appreciated from a distance as Charlie Morton, by players as well as fans.

“I love the man,” Houston manager AJ Hinch told The Tampa Bay Times recently.

“I hate that he’s over there,” said Astros’ right-hander Lance McCullers, Jr.

A lot of that sincere longing may actually have more to do with his engaging, yet soft-spoken personality than his superb performances on Houston’s mound, which were numerous, as fans will fondly recall.

Morton will forever be etched in Astros fans’ memories as the pitcher who was on the mound for the clinching final out in Game 7 of Houston’s first World Series championship. Just a “regular guy,” his unintentionally hilarious “I’ve never done this before” post-game quote spotlights Morton’s humility and enviable self-awareness.

Now toeing the rubber for the Tampa Bay Rays (having signed a two-year, $30 million deal just before Christmas), Charlie “Freakin'” Morton faced his former team March 29, for each team’s second game of the 2019 season. The Astros topped the Rays, 5-1, behind Justin Verlander’s sparkling seven innings on Opening Day, Thursday.

Morton earned the victory as the Rays downed the ‘Stros, 4-2, bringing each team’s record even on the season at 1-1. Morton worked five innings, giving up three hits, two walks and 2 earned runs, while striking out eight Astros.

Clef Diving

What may be news to baseball fans in general and Charlie Morton fans, in particular, is the fact that, for years, he’s been an accomplished singer and guitar player. In fact, clearly a millennial renaissance man, Morton has a variety of life likes, as he outlined to The Tampa Bay Times shortly after signing:

“The biggest thing is spending time with my family. That’s what I love doing. But I also play guitar. I sing. I read. I play video games. I got into coffee, like actual espresso grinding and pulling some shots. A little barista action.

“I got into woodworking when I was rehabbing from TJ [Tommy John surgery in 2012 while with the Pittsburgh Pirates]. That’s something that I like doing. I’m not really like a super crafty person, but that would be something I would consider a craft that I’ve gotten into. I really like barbecue. I have two smokers. I have a nice big offset that I got last offseason that I spent a lot of time on this offseason.”

Faze the Music

Morton, now 35, started playing guitar at the beginning of his pro career, at about 19 years of age, teaching himself the instrument. While unable to read music, he has to his credit around a dozen songs he’s penned.

Morton once sang at a fellow player’s wedding, and he took the stage at a Pirates Fan Fest gathering several years ago, where the following two tunes were captured:

Record companies should have no trouble lining up to sign him should this baseball thing not work out. In the meantime, Houston’s SportsRadio610 took the opportunity, last summer, to play and critique Morton’s singing prowess on their Mad Radio podcast.

“I remember being really nervous,” Morton recently recalled to The Athletic‘s Jake Kaplan on the wedding singer gig. “They’re in front of me and everybody else is standing around them. It seemed like there were 30,000 people there. There were probably only like 100.”

The player getting married in 2006 was Morton’s former Atlanta Braves minor league teammate, southpaw Chuck James. Morton wrote a song specially for the occasion.

“Morton’s one of those guys, man, it really wouldn’t have mattered if he would’ve messed it up,” James told Kaplan. James pitched in parts of five major league seasons, primarily with the Braves, from 2005 to 2011. “It was cool to have him do it. He did really well.”

Morton counts Lynyrd Skynyrd as his favorite band, while Stevie Ray Vaughan is his all-time favorite guitarist. Two-time Grammy winner Jason Isbell is a current favorite songwriter; Morton even warms up for his starts to Isbell’s mid-tempo, blues-rocker “Palmetto Rose,” the singer’s tribute to Charleston, South Carolina.

Good Luck, Charlie (Starting Monday)

According to The Tampa Bay Times, Morton’s former teammates have had fun with him leading up to Friday’s game. Morton said that Astros right-hander Gerrit Cole, Friday’s opposing pitcher, drove by his Bradenton-area home earlier in the week and didn’t stop. Instead, Cole texted him a photo of his house as a joke.

McCullers was slightly less cloying: The Tampa native sent some [Tampa-based] Buddy Brew coffee over to Morton in the Rays’ clubhouse on Thursday morning with a note wishing him a good season.

Before the March 29 first meeting between “#CFM” and his former Astros, Hinch explained the “push-me/pull you” feelings mirrored by fans:

“I will have mixed emotions seeing him out there in a different uniform against our guys, but you’re not going to meet a better man or a nicer man or someone to root for outside of [Friday’s game].

“I’ll be the biggest Charlie Morton fan for the rest of his career.”