Former St. Louis Cardinals Infielder Has Died

Joe Morgan, a journeyman infielder who appeared in three games for the 1964 St. Louis Cardinals and later became a beloved Boston Red Sox manager, died Saturday at age 95.

The Red Sox announced his passing Sunday. No cause of death was given.

Morgan was born Nov. 19, 1930, in Walpole, Massachusetts. He starred in baseball and hockey at Boston College before signing with the Boston Braves in 1952.

A left-handed-hitting second baseman, third baseman and occasional outfielder, he spent more than a decade in the minors, batting over .300 several times, but never stuck as a regular in the majors.

His big-league career spanned parts of four seasons and five teams: the Milwaukee Braves and Kansas City Athletics in 1959, the Philadelphia Phillies and Cleveland Indians in 1960, a brief return with Cleveland in 1961, and the Cardinals in 1964.

In 88 games, he hit .193 with two home runs and 10 RBIs. Both homers came in a two-week span with Cleveland in 1960.

St. Louis was his last stop. After winning International League MVP honors with Jacksonville, the Cardinals’ top farm club, Morgan was called up in mid-September 1964.

He appeared three times as a pinch-hitter, going 0-for-3 with two strikeouts. The Cardinals went on to win the World Series that fall; Morgan received a fractional World Series share but no ring. He played one more minor-league season in the organization in 1965.

Two years later, he began managing. After stops in the Pirates system he joined the Red Sox organization in 1974 and spent 18 years there as a minor-league manager (including a long tenure at Triple-A Pawtucket), scout, coach and, finally, major-league skipper. In July 1988 he took over a club nine games out of first.

The Red Sox won 19 of their next 20 games — a surge quickly labeled “Morgan Magic” — and captured the American League East. They won the division again in 1990. Morgan finished 301-262 as Boston’s manager before being replaced after 1991. He was inducted into the Red Sox Hall of Fame in 2006.

Often distinguished from Hall of Fame second baseman Joe Leonard Morgan, “Walpole Joe” was a baseball lifer who never forgot the buses and the late-season call-up that put him in a Cardinals uniform.

He is survived by four children, six grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. His wife, Dorothy, died in 2016.

Morgan’s playing résumé was modest. His connection to St. Louis was brief. The larger story is a half-century in the game that began in the Cardinals’ farm system and ended with a permanent place in Red Sox lore.