Ex-Pawtucket and Boston manager Joe Morgan still feels he was kept down on the farm much longer than he should have been.

08:14 AM EDT on Wednesday, July 14, 2004

BY KEVIN McNAMARA
Journal Sports Writer

PAWTUCKET -- Sixteen years ago today, Joe Morgan sat by his locker at Fenway Park ready to begin batting practice as a coach with the Red Sox. A few minutes later, he saw front office people criss-crossing the tiny clubhouse and knew something was up. What he didn't know was that his life was about to change forever.

"I was sitting right by my locker and I saw Sully (general partner Haywood Sullivan) go in one door and here comes (general manager) Lou Gorman right at me and I kind of smelled a rat. They had something on their mind," Morgan said earlier this week at McCoy Stadium.

The brain trust had decided that it was manager John McNamara's time to go. Just one game over .500 and nine games out of first place, the Red Sox needed a jump-start. But the decision came with a catch.

"I didn't accept the job. I was told I was the interim manager," Morgan said with disdain still smothering the term.

Rain fell on Fenway that afternoon and forced Morgan to wait out a significant delay. The game was finally canceled about nine o'clock, setting up a doubleheader the next day to kick off the second half of the season. "Longest day of my life," Morgan said. "We had a doubleheader the next day and, of course, I had Roger (Clemens) leading off so I knew I was a winner in the first game."

The Sox opened the half with a rare 11-game homestand and Morgan saw his opportunity. His dream was to be a major-league manager, especially after spending 1974-1982 cutting his teeth in Pawtucket. Despite showing an ability to develop talent and win games with the PawSox, Morgan never received the call that every prospective manager longs for.

"I figured we had 11 games at home and the only way I would be named manager is we had to win at least seven of them. That's what I was thinking. So I won six (straight) and they named me manager," he says.

The Sox kept rolling from there, often winning in dramatic fashion. The team ultimately won 12 straight games and 19 of 20 to open the new manager's tenure in the toughest, most criticized job in New England. The press dubbed the turnaround "Morgan's Magic" and a legend was born. Morgan was a Walpole, Mass., native, quick with a line and downright lovable. As long as the Sox kept winning, of course.

Boston won the A.L. East that season but was swept by the Oakland A's in the ALCS. The Sox lost the first two games at home when Dave Stewart outdueled Bruce Hurst in the opener and the bullpen blew Game 2 for Clemens. Two years later, Morgan and the Sox won another divisional flag but Oakland swept the playoff series again. This time, Stewart outpitched Clemens in Game 1 and also won Game 4 in the infamous Terry Cooney contest. Clemens was booted in the second inning for directing profanity towards Cooney, the home plate umpire.

Morgan's tenure ended after the 1991 season when Gorman hired Butch Hobson. Ironically, Hobson had also managed at Pawtucket but for just one season. Morgan clearly still can't see the logic of the Sox hiring the inexperienced Hobson while not giving him a sniff after eight years at McCoy.

"I should've been up there a hell of a lot longer before that. That's what I think," he said. "Twelve years in the Triple-A level and I never even got an offer for a job. The first time I asked (Sullivan) for the job, he said no. The second time I came in the office and he said 'Are you here for the same reason you were in here the last time?' I said 'Yes I am.' See you later."

The front office and fans of the PawSox certainly knew Morgan could do the job in the big leagues. Morgan was the manager from 1974-82 and has some great memories of his early years.

"When we first came here we had very few fans and they were very comical because you could hear every word they said. We weren't winning too much at the time," he said. "My first year here would you believe I had the two best players in the minor leagues and we came in 31 games behind? Fred Lynn and James Rice. What more can I say. That's what you call managing. We had some other not-so-good players, I guess. But if you're around long enough you get some good teams and some bad ones."

Morgan said he noticed a big change right away when Ben Mondor bought the team and depressed stadium from Joe Buzas in 1977.

"Someone had told me that Ben had worked 20 years in the garment district down in New York, and when I heard that I said 'Everything's going to be fine here.' You know what were some of the first words Ben said to me? 'Joe, the circus has left town.' "