Joe Fitzgerald

Who was Joe Fitzgerald?

Joseph Patrick Fitzgerald was an American catcher, coach, and scout in professional baseball. Born in Washington, D.C., Fitzgerald stood 5'11" tall, weighed 200 pounds, and threw and batted right-handed.

Fitzgerald played nine seasons of minor league baseball at the Class C and D levels — spending the bulk of his career with the Waynesboro, Pennsylvania, Villagers of the Blue Ridge League. He was out of pro baseball for the next 17 years, until he was hired as the bullpen coach by his hometown Washington Senators of Major League Baseball in 1945. He stayed in that role through the 1957 campaign. Fitzgerald remained with Washington and its successor franchise, the Minnesota Twins, as a scout until his death at age 70 in Orlando, Florida.