Popularity
Despite the playoff setbacks, Morgan was a highly popular figure in Boston as a "native son," a former hockey player, and a blue-collar hero. He was called "Walpole Joe" and "Turnpike Joe" in tribute to the offseason job he held for many years to supplement his minor league pay: driving a snowplow on the Massachusetts Turnpike. (The nicknames also served to prevent confusion with Baseball Hall of Fame second baseman Joe Morgan.) His phrases such as "Roger spun another beauty" (describing one of many stellar outings by his star pitcher, Roger Clemens) or the often-repeated "Six, two and even" became part of New England folklore.
In 2006, he was named to the BoSox Hall of Fame and the Walpole High School Hockey Hall of Fame. Morgan was inducted into the International League hall of fame in 2008. His record as a minor league manager over 16 seasons (1966–71; 1973–82) was 1,140 victories and 1,102 defeats (.508) with one league championship (in the Eastern League in 1968).
Read more about this topic: Joe Morgan (manager)
Famous quotes containing the word popularity:
“In everything from athletic ability to popularity to looks, brains, and clothes, children rank themselves against others. At this age [7 and 8], children can tell you with amazing accuracy who has the coolest clothes, who tells the biggest lies, who is the best reader, who runs the fastest, and who is the most popular boy in the third grade.”
—Stanley I. Greenspan (20th century)
“Here also was made the novelty ‘Chestnut Bell’ which enjoyed unusual popularity during the gay nineties when every dandy jauntily wore one of the tiny bells on the lapel of his coat, and rang it whenever a story-teller offered a ‘chestnut.’”
—Administration for the State of Con, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“The popularity of that baby-faced boy, who possessed not even the elements of a good actor, was a hallucination in the public mind, and a disgrace to our theatrical history.”
—Thomas Campbell (1777–1844)