Terry Morgan - A Rome Braves Icon
Home, it is said, is where you hang your hat.
For Terry Morgan, his hat - make that baseball cap - hangs in Rome where he is very much at home.
In his 22nd year as an employee of the Atlanta Braves organization, all working with the ballclub's low-Class A team, Morgan has become a hidden icon at State Mutual Stadium where he serves as the Director of Operations for the Rome Braves.
"This is the best job I've ever had, working for the Atlanta Braves. It didn't matter where we moved to," Morgan said as, while sitting in his small office in the warehouse at SMS, he looked back over his years with the Braves first in Macon and after the team made the move in 2003 in Rome
"But I tell you, I love Rome, Georgia. It is home," he said. "I miss the people and friends I made in Macon, but I do love Rome. It's my kind of town. I feel safe and comfortable."
Born in South Carolina and raised in Lake Wales, Fla., it took a while for Morgan to find that his niche in life was in baseball.
After graduating from high school, he moved back to South Carolina to start a career in construction, a job had him living in states throughout the South in job sites for almost a decade. But when he was working in Macon for two years, in 1976 Morgan decided to plant some roots.
"That's when I said I was tired of moving around," adding that when he decided to settle down he began to look for a job doing something that was always a part of his life - sports.
"I have always loved sports," said Morgan, who in high school played football, basketball and baseball, "and one day I walked into Willingham Sporting Goods (in Macon) and told them that if they ever needed anybody to sell, I was their guy. Two weeks later they called me."
Morgan, however, wanted to be involved even more and in 1991 was hired by Macon Braves general manager Ed Holtz on a part-time basis at Luther Williams Field where he did everything from pouring beer to working in clubhouse and washing uniforms.
Two years later, he became a full-time employee as Director of Stadium Operations - former Rome Braves manager Randy Ingle was the team's skipper that season - and after Holtz passes away following the 1995 season Morgan was kept on board by the team's new GM, Mike Dunn.
"Mike has been so good to me and to the organization," Morgan said of Dunn, who brought Morgan and some of the staff in Macon to Rome. "He's as good a general manager as there is and he keeps getting better."
"I inherited Terry when I came to Macon," said Dunn. "He was my go-to guy who showed me the ropes. We've built a great working relationship and a great friendship.
"He's the behind-the-scenes type of guy," Dunn said about Morgan, "who has the old-school work ethic who knows that you have to work as long and at any time of the day to get things done."
Morgan, who has been a high school football official since 1975, runs the official clock at Shorter University's football and basketball games and has become a familiar face in Rome's sports scene, does get a lot of things done when he's on the job.
On most days, he splits his time between the Braves' clubhouse, where he tends to the needs of the coaches and players, and his warehouse office - the walls and desk are adorned with newspaper clippings and photos of the many players and teams Morgan has been associated with - from which he makes sure before and during games that the entire stadium gets what it needs.
"When we got to see the finished stadium for the first time," Morgan said as he recalled the move from Macon and the city's aging Luther Williams Field to Rome and SMS, "I was really struck by it and what was nice is that I was involved in what the clubhouse plans. You can put it up against any minor league clubhouse."
"And honestly," he added, "the best part is being in the clubhouse."
Morgan's love and affection for the young athlete's his has crossed paths with is obvious as the list of minor leaguers who came through Macon and Rome is a long one, a list that also includes hundreds of players - the first was none other than the Hall of Fame-bound Chipper Jones in 1992 - who went on to eventually play on the Major League level.
"What been amazing to see how many have made it since we've been in Rome," he said, noting that since the Braves have been at SMS over the last 12 years nearly 100 that have come through Rome made it to the big leagues. "It's a thrill to see them make it.
"There's some you never thought would make it and have," he said, "and others who you were sure were going to be major leaguers but were among the first to leave the game. The best thing is that the majority of them still remember where they came from."
This season, however, will be the last one Morgan - he turns 66 in June - will be a full-time member of the staff as he plans to scale back his workload for the Braves, giving up his warehouse office and solely working on a part-time basis in his favorite place, the clubhouse.
Morgan, however, clearly understands that he could be called upon to help the organization in other areas that, he quickly points out, goes with the territory.
"It's going to be hard for him to retire," Dunn said, "but he knows we'll utilize his skills."
"In minor-league baseball," said Morgan, "you do a little bit of everything because there are things that have to get done."