The Boston Red Sox family lost one of its own Sunday when the club announced the death of former manager Joe Morgan. He was 95.
“We are deeply saddened by the passing of Red Sox Hall of Famer and former manager Joe Morgan,” the Red Sox announced in a statement Sunday. “He was a truly beloved fixture of the Red Sox, spending nearly two decades with the organization. We send our love to the Morgan family.”
Morgan was a Walpole, Massachusetts, native who never really left New England in spirit even after bouncing around the majors as a player. He appeared in parts of four seasons from 1959 to 1964 with the Milwaukee Braves, Kansas City Athletics, Philadelphia Phillies, Cleveland Indians and St. Louis Cardinals.
He hit .193 with two home runs in 88 games. Those modest numbers as a player never defined him here. What mattered to Red Sox fans was what he did after he hung up the spikes.
Morgan spent eight seasons managing the Pawtucket Red Sox, Boston’s top farm club, from 1974 through 1982. He knew the organization inside and out by the time he joined the major league coaching staff in 1985.
He stayed on that staff until the 1988 All-Star break. That was when the Red Sox turned to him as interim manager after letting John McNamara go. What followed still lives in Fenway lore.
The team immediately caught fire. A winning streak included 20 straight victories at Fenway Park. Fans and writers started calling it “Morgan’s Magic.” The Red Sox went on to win the American League East that year.
They fell to the Oakland Athletics in the AL Championship Series. Still, the interim label came off. Morgan became the full-time manager of the Red Sox.
He guided the club to another AL East title in 1990. Once again the Athletics ended the season in the ALCS. After the 1991 season the Red Sox moved on from him as manager.
Morgan stayed close to the organization anyway. He made occasional trips back to Fenway Park and always seemed at home there. In 2013 he threw out the first pitch before a game that marked the 25th anniversary of Morgan’s Magic.
Asked that day how he would do if he managed in the current era, he said, “I’d be dynamite. What else would you expect?”
That was classic Morgan. Straightforward, a little cocky, and completely at ease with the Red Sox identity he helped shape.
Morgan and his wife, Dottie, raised four children: Catherine, Joseph Jr., William and Barbara Jean. They also had six grandchildren. The Red Sox made clear Sunday that the entire organization feels the loss with the family.
For a club that prizes its history and its local connections, Morgan represented both. A kid from Walpole who worked his way through the system, took over a struggling team in midsummer, and gave Fenway a stretch of winning that people still talk about decades later.
The Red Sox will remember him as more than a manager who posted two division titles. They will remember the man who spent nearly 20 years in the organization and never stopped being one of them.
