Joseph Patrick Fitzgerald (March 17, 1897 – August 29, 1967) was an American

catcher Catcher is a Baseball positions, position in baseball and softball. When a Batter (baseball), batter takes their at bat, turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the (home plate, home) Umpire (baseball), umpire, and recei ...

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, and

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in professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

. Born in Washington, D.C., on

St. Patrick's Day Saint Patrick's Day, or the Feast of Saint Patrick ( ga, Lá Fhéile Pádraig, lit=the Day of the Festival of Patrick), is a cultural and religious celebration held on 17 March, the traditional death date of Saint Patrick (), the foremost patr ...

1897, Fitzgerald stood 5'11" (1.8 m) tall, weighed 200 pounds (91 kg), and threw and batted right-handed. Fitzgerald played nine seasons of minor league baseball (1919–27) at the Class C and D levels – spending the bulk of his career with the Waynesboro Villagers of the

Blue Ridge League The Blue Ridge League was the name of two minor league baseball organizations that operated in the first half of the twentieth century in the United States. History The first league operated for the better part of sixteen years, from 1915 throu ...

. He was out of pro baseball for the next 16 years, until he was hired as the

bullpen coach In baseball, a number of coaches assist in the smooth functioning of a team. They are assistants to the manager, who determines the starting lineup and batting order, decides how to substitute players during the game, and makes strategy decisio ...

by his hometown Washington Senators of

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

in 1944. He stayed in that role through the

1957 1957 ( MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1957th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 957th year of the 2nd millennium, the 57th year of the 20th century, and the 8th y ...

campaign. Fitzgerald remained with Washington and its successor franchise, the Minnesota Twins, as a scout until his death at age 70 in

Orlando, Florida Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County, Florida, Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Greater Orlando, Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, acco ...

References

* Spink, J.G. Taylor, publisher, ''The Official 1956 Baseball Register.'' St. Louis:

The Sporting News The ''Sporting News'' is a website and former magazine publication owned by Sporting News Holdings, which is a U.S.-based sports media company formed in December 2020 by a private investor consortium. It was originally established in 1886 as a pr ...

, 1956.
Retrosheet.org

Minor league playing record, from Baseball Reference
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fitzgerald, Joe (baseball) 1897 births 1967 deaths Baseball players from Washington, D.C. Jeannette Jays players Major League Baseball bullpen coaches Minnesota Twins scouts Newport News Shipbuilders players Reading Aces players Scottdale Scotties players Washington Senators (1901–1960) coaches Washington Senators (1901–60) scouts Waynesboro Red Birds players Waynesboro Villagers players