He Is No All-Star, but This Morgan Isn’t Ordinary Joe, Either : Just Call This Guy a Winner

Often confused with a former major league all-star of the same name and even more often passed over as a managerial prospect, Joe Morgan has suddenly emerged from the shadows.

“I’ve been on TV, radio, everything in sight,” said the manager of the Boston Red Sox. “It’s been mass confusion for 12 straight days.”

The reason for all the attention, of course, is the surprising success of the Red Sox, whose 12-game winning streak came to an end Tuesday night, 9-8, against the Texas Rangers at Arlington, Tex.

The Red Sox’s streak, which had started when Morgan replaced the deposed John McNamara on July 15, was their longest in 40 years and vaulted them from 9 games out to within 1 1/2 games of the division-leading New York Yankees in the American League East. Boston is now 2 1/2 games behind New York.

The resurgence of the Red Sox, who were 43-42 under McNamara, has prompted two major responses, both of which relate to Morgan’s former anonymity:

Isn’t it great that a black manager has been so successful?

Who is this guy?

For starters, he’s not that Joe Morgan. This Joe Morgan was not a two-time National League most valuable player. In fact, he played only 88 games in the major leagues.

This Joe Morgan is white, was born 57 years ago in Walpole, Mass., played 2,562 fewer major league games than the more famous Joe Morgan and wasn’t hired as a major league manager until midway through his 37th season in professional baseball.

That was two weeks ago, when he was named as an interim replacement for McNamara.

Boston’s game against the Kansas City Royals that night was rained out, but a doubleheader sweep of the Royals the next day sent the Red Sox on their way.

Eight games into the streak, the Red Sox removed the interim from Morgan’s job title, talked of offering him a multiyear contract after the season and more than doubled his salary, which had been $45,000 in his fourth season as a Red Sox third base coach.

Two years ago, when the Red Sox put together an 11-game winning streak to take control of the race in the American League East, second baseman Marty Barrett kept a crystal ball in his locker.

It’s gone now.

“I don’t need a crystal ball,” Barrett told the Hartford Courant. “We’ve got Morgan Magic.”

Morgan, though, said there is no secret to his success.

“I just told the players that they weren’t playing nearly as well as they could and I think that they realized that and decided to do something about it,” he said.

Those close to the team, however, say that Morgan has exhibited his leadership in subtle and effective ways.

Last week, he was involved in a dugout shoving match with Jim Rice after sending Spike Owen out to pinch-hit for Rice in a one-run game against the Minnesota Twins.

After the two were separated, Morgan reportedly screamed at Rice: “I’m the manager of this team. I’m the manager.”

Morgan, apparently in response to an accusation by some of his team’s younger players that McNamara ran a caste system that favored veterans, had told the players in his first meeting with them that they would be treated equally.

In his dealings with Rice, who was suspended for three games, he backed up his words with action.

Downplaying the incident, Morgan said: “It just showed that when the manager had to do something, he did it. That’s all.”

Morgan also has shown a knack for managing by whim. Last week, he started right-hander Mike Smithson on three days’ rest--with a one-inning relief stint in between--and Smithson came within eight outs of a no-hitter.

Such moves--along with the success of the team, of course--have made Morgan a popular figure in New England.

He still lives in Walpole, which is 17 miles from Fenway Park.

“I’ve lived there all my life and I hope to die there,” he said.

Even as he bounced around the minor leagues for 15 seasons as a player and 16 more as a manager, Morgan returned each winter to Walpole, where he spent 10 years driving a snowplow until a World Series share two years ago enabled him to take the last two winters off.

The second of five children born to William and Mary Morgan of County Clare, Ireland, Morgan grew up less than a mile from where he now lives.

A shortstop in the summer and a center man on the ice in the winter, Morgan said he was a better hockey player than he was a baseball player. He earned a partial scholarship to Boston College, where he played hockey. When he told the coaches there that he also played baseball, they offered to pay for his books, too.

“Hockey was easier for me,” he told the Boston Globe. “In hockey, it seems like you can always find something to do. In baseball, you can stand around all day and not get a ball hit to you.”

A former coach and longtime friend, Bernie Burke, told the Boston Globe that Morgan would be a first-round National Hockey League draft choice if he came out today. In those days, however, the NHL was a six-team league and most of the players were Canadians.

Morgan opted for a career in baseball, which would have been spent in even more obscurity than it was if not for the other Joe Morgan.

In four major league seasons, spent with five teams, Morgan hit 2 home runs and drove in 10 runs. The Joe Morgan people recognize had 268 home runs and 1,134 RBIs.

Still, autograph-seekers often get the two confused.

“Not in public, of course,” said Morgan, who nevertheless once received a check in the mail that was intended for the former second baseman and is forever receiving bubble-gum cards with the other Joe Morgan’s likeness on them.

“I’ve signed a ton of his cards,” Morgan said. “I’ve got his signature down pretty good.”

Morgan, who spent almost a decade as manager of the Red Sox’ triple-A affiliate at Pawtucket, R.I., sent a group of players to Boston (Rice, Fred Lynn, Rick Burleson, Butch Hobson) that were the foundation of the Red Sox’ powerful teams of 1975-80. In the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, he turned out another crop that included Barrett, Wade Boggs, Rich Gedman and Bruce Hurst.

Still, he was passed over in 1980 when the Red Sox fired Don Zimmer and hired Ralph Houk. He had also been passed over in 1974, when the Pittsburgh Pirates seemed to label him as a “developer” of talent more than as a managerial prospect.

In fact, when the Red Sox promoted Morgan to their major league staff in 1985, they did so for the most part because he needed to serve 1 1/2 years to earn his pension, said Haywood Sullivan, who was the Red Sox’ general manager at the time.

Morgan, though, said he wasn’t surprised to get the nod from Boston management two weeks ago.

“I was in the right place this time,” he said.

The Red Sox won’t disagree. They talk now of conquering the East.

“We’re in contention,” Morgan said. “That’s the best thing about the winning streak. We came from nowhere.”

What else has the streak meant to the Red Sox?

“This team has no problems anymore,” said left fielder Mike Greenwall. “Everything that everybody said was a problem has died away.”

And to Morgan?

“All the hype isn’t that great, believe me,” he said. “It’s wearing on the old mind. I can see how Roger Maris felt when he tried to beat Babe’s record. It’s unbelievable. You don’t have a second to yourself.”

At least, however, he can be himself.

After 37 years, this Joe Morgan has established an identity apart from that Joe Morgan.

Even if it has been tiresome.