The Cleveland Guardians franchise has an impressive history of its former players becoming major league managers. Some do so with the team, but others have gone elsewhere to find success.
Joe Morgan was part of the latter group. He spent two seasons as a Cleveland infielder in the early ’60s before leading the Boston Red Sox to a memorable run to the playoffs as their manager in the late ’80s.
The former Cleveland player passed away on Saturday at the age of 95.
“Joe Morgan, the former Boston manager who inspired a magical in-season turnaround of its 1988 team, died Saturday, the Red Sox announced. He was 95. Morgan, an infielder, also played 88 games in the majors, with stints with the Milwaukee Braves, Kansas City Athletics, Philadelphia Phillies (1960), Cleveland (1960-61), and St. Louis Cardinals (1964),” ESPN wrote.
Morgan’s major league debut was delayed until he was 28 years old due to his military service. He was purchased by Cleveland from Philadelphia during the 1960 season.
He played 22 games for Cleveland in that first season, and then made four appearances the following year. Morgan had a .281 batting average and .780 OPS, which would be impressive numbers these days, with his only two MLB home runs in 65 plate appearances for the franchise.
Cleveland traded Morgan to the St. Louis Cardinals for outfielder Bob Nieman during the 1961 campaign. Morgan finished his major league playing career with three games for the Cardinals in 1964, a season when they won the World Series.
Morgan became a manager in the Pittsburgh Pirates system in 1966 and joined the Boston organization in 1974. After a couple of seasons as a scout, he became a member of the Red Sox coaching staff and was the third-base coach when he was named to replace manager John McNamara, with the team underachieving at the 1988 All-Star break.
Morgan won his first 12 games as an MLB manager and 19 of his first 20. That “Morgan Magic” helped the Red Sox rally to win the AL East, and they eventually reached the AL Championship Series, where they were swept by the Oakland A’s.
He wound up managing the Red Sox for three more seasons, his only stint in the majors. Interestingly, McNamara would end up becoming Cleveland manager in 1990 before getting fired during the following season.
Gordon gave much of his life to the game of baseball, and he will be fondly remembered by Cleveland fans.
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