BOSTON — It was just over three weeks ago I was on the phone with Joe Morgan, and, yes, absolutely, the legendary former Boston Red Sox manager from many yesterdays ago submitted a ringing endorsement of Chad Tracy, the team’s current interim manager.“I have not had the pleasure to meet the man, but he knows what he’s doing, that’s for sure,” Morgan said. “They’re playing for him.”Who better to weigh in on Tracy than Morgan? Just as the “Tracy Turnaround” has transformed the ’26 Red Sox into playoff contenders, it was Joe’s “Morgan Magic” in the summer of 1988 that took the Sox all the way from a midsummer middle-of-the-pack malaise to the ALCS.Imagine how fitting it would have been next month, then, for Joe to throw out a ceremonial first pitch at Fenway Park, assuming the Sox landed some home playoff games. And what a memorable photo op it would have been for the 95-year-old Walpole Joe to be sharing some ancient baseball yarn with the 41-year-old Tracy.What a shame we won’t have that wonderful moment. Joe passed away Saturday night, with the Red Sox announcing the news Sunday afternoon as the team was about to take on the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards. And yet Joe Morgan’s life was, and is, so much more than a mere baseball story. Apologies in advance for the conga line of cliches you’re about to receive, but here goes: Joe’s life is a story about never giving up. It’s a story about perseverance. It’s a story about hustle. And, yes, it’s a story about being in the right place at the right time.First, some background. I was at Fenway Park on Sept. 25, 1984, when Ralph Houk, who’d just turned 65, announced he’d be retiring as manager of the Red Sox at the end of the season. A former backup-to-the-backup catcher who’d managed the New York Yankees, Detroit Tigers and Red Sox, The Major was ready to leave all that behind and spend the autumn of his years with his family. Where Joe Morgan enters the story is he was in the press box before that night’s game between the Red Sox and Toronto Blue Jays, and I could hear him tell a couple of writers, “I just came from (Red Sox general manager) Lou Gorman’s office. He told me I was the first person to apply for the job.”It would have been Joe’s dream job, of course. He was a local guy, raised just south of Boston in working-class Walpole. Though he signed with the Boston Braves out of Boston College and later made it to the big leagues after the team relocated to Milwaukee, he managed the Triple-A Pawtucket Red Sox for nine seasons. When he stepped away from the PawSox after the 1982 season, he was 51. He spent the next two seasons as a Red Sox scout.On the day Houk announced his retirement, Morgan was a couple of months shy of his 54th birthday and hadn’t been in uniform in two years. He had played in the big leagues for parts of four seasons, and in 1972, he served a season as a coach on Pittsburgh Pirates manager Bill Virdon’s staff.Men have landed big-league managing jobs with thinner resumes. It’s just that it didn’t happen for Morgan when Houk retired. Instead, the Red Sox went with a “name” manager, hiring John McNamara after Mac’s contract with the California Angels ran out.Joe was named to McNamara’s staff. In 1985, he was first-base coach. In 1986, he was bullpen coach. In 1987-88, he was third-base coach.But then, at the All-Star break in 1988, McNamara was fired. Morgan was asked to mind the shop for a couple of days, maybe a week or two, until another “name” manager could be procured. He was 57 years old, soon to be 58, and it looked like the closest he was going to come to his dream job was as a substitute teacher.So what happens? Instead of the substitute teacher’s players throwing erasers around the room and putting their feet up on the desks, they won a game the first night. And then they won another game, and another … the streak reached 12 games. The interim tag was removed. Morgan managed the Sox through the 1991 season.The Red Sox didn’t win a World Series under Morgan, and, remember, this was during the days when everything in Boston was about shaking off the “1918” catcalls that had haunted the organization for decades. But he did deliver “Morgan Magic” and two AL East titles, and he did so after he’d been relegated to the scouting department. There’s a lesson in that, one that transcends baseball.