JOSEPH "JO-JO/JOE" MORRISSEY (Athlete, Charter Class of 1998, Posthumous)

Joe Morrissey was (and continues to be) the only Warren resident to have played major league baseball.

First playing with the town baseball team in 1920, Joe hit .300 in two Warren versus Bristol Baseball Little World Series that mostly featured major leaguers and high-level minor leaguers.

He attended Providence College for a year and then transferred to Holy Cross, where he was elected president of his senior class and from there signed by New York Giants manager John McGraw in 1926.  He played major league baseball for the Cincinnati Reds in 1932 and 1933 and the Chicago White Sox in 1936.

His minor league career extended from 1926 to 1939 and was hindered by a broken jaw, an Achilles tendon injury, and a concussion that eventually ended his career.  He played for Hartford, Connecticut, Scottsdale, Pennsylvania, Binghamton, New York, Clarksburg, Pennsylvania, Evansville, Indiana, St. Paul, Minnesota, Toronto, Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington.

While with St. Paul, Joe was named the Triple A American Association’s best shortstop.

Joe was the nephew of famed Warren educator Mary V. Quirk.

*Rhode Island Author and SABR member Skip Tuetken writes in his book a note about Jo-Jo Morrissey.

“While Caldwell was playing his last major league games in 1932, Joseph “Jo-Jo” Morrissey from Warren, Rhode Island, and a Holy Cross College graduate, was playing his first.  Jo-Jo was a 28-year-old rookie for the Cincinnati Reds that year and was often used as a late inning replacement at shortstop for Leo Durocher.  The following season he played in 148 games, mostly as the team’s second baseman.  Regrettably, he batted only around .230 with no power and landed back in the minors.  When he finally worked his way up to the Chicago White Sox three years later, he broke his cheekbone after only 17 games and that basically ended his big league career.  A subsequent Achilles tendon injury caused him to leave baseball.”