DHL Dan CCXCIX - Interim Managers

Interim Red Sox managers isn't a new thing. Shank called up Walpole Joe and got his take on the new guy:

Joe Morgan, the greatest interim manager in baseball history, knows what Chad Tracy is dealing with, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while waiting for the Super Bowl rematch when the Patriots visit Seattle Sept. 9 …

⋅ With the 2026 Red Sox wrapping their third week under “interim” manager Chad Tracy, it’s time to hear from the greatest interim manager in baseball history, Walpole’s Joe Morgan.

“What the hell happened to [Alex] Cora and all those coaches?” Morgan asked when I reached him at his home this past week. “Boston is tough, isn’t it?”

Not for Joe Morgan, it wasn’t.

Pull up a chair and listen, young’uns: Way back in 1988, the star-studded, underachieving Red Sox fired crusty skipper John McNamara July 14, and named Morgan — who’d been their Triple-A manager for nine seasons — interim manager.

Morgan’s Red Sox ripped off 12 straight wins, and 19 of 20, climbing from nine games out of first to one game back in three torrid weeks. Morgan shed “interim” six days into the surge and signed a contract extension through 1989 just three weeks after taking over.

DHL Dan CXXXIII - The Long Game

At last - some interesting material for the latest Picked Up Pieces column:

Recalling a baseball marathon and a win streak with Joe Morgan, and other thoughts

Picked-up pieces while begging for April 29 and the NFL Draft to finally get here so everyone can stop talking about it …

▪ April 18 is the 40th anniversary of the Rochester Red Wings vs. Pawtucket Red Sox 33-inning game, still the longest game in professional baseball history.

Walpole’s Joe Morgan managed a PawSox team that included Wade Boggs, Marty Barrett, Rich Gedman, Bruce Hurst, and Bobby Ojeda, all of whom later played big roles in the epic 1986 Red Sox-Mets World Series. Rochester featured a 20-year-old third baseman named Cal Ripken Jr., who would begin his streak of 2,632 consecutive big league games one year later.

The game started at 8:25 Saturday night (delayed because of a problem with the McCoy Stadium lights) and was suspended at 4:07 a.m. on Easter Sunday with the score tied, 2-2. There were 19 fans left in the stands when the game was suspended, but 5,746 (plus 140 media members) filled McCoy when the game was resumed June 23 in the middle of MLB’s 50-day work stoppage of 1981.