Joseph P. "Joey" Jason Jr.
Graduating class: 1973
Inducted into Hall of Fame: 2006
Hall of Fame Category: Athlete
Joey Jason was an outstanding baseball, basketball and football player at Fairhaven High School. There have been many athletes over the years that have contributed to their team's success at FHS. Joey Jason was one of those athletes in the early 1970's whose teams produced baseball and football championships.
In Joey's senior year he led the conference champion baseball team in batting average, runs and fewest strikeouts (3). He was singled out by his Coach Kevin Cadieux as the most consistent Devil at the plate". His numerous awards during his high school career include being named as an All-Bristol County baseball player, All Scholastic Standard-Times baseball player, as well as receiving the FHS Coaches Award for his leadership abilities.
Joey Jason went on to SMU (UMass Dartmouth) and played baseball from 1974 to 1977. He was a standout SMU second baseman and in 1976 was named to the first team judged by the coaches as the best in New England at that position. Joey is credited with helping that team make it to the ECAC tournament that year.
According to one newspaper article "the very consistent second sacker hit for a .389 average with 30 RBI which ranks as the second highest total on the club. His stats: a .971 fielding percentage (just 5 errors in 46 games). He has been in on 16 of the team's 23 double plays".
Joey was named as an all American Baseball Player in 1976. He graduated from SMU in 1977 and in 1988 was the first baseball player inducted into the UMass Dartmouth Sports Hall of Fame.
Joey then went on to play modified and slow pitch softball for the Livesey Club, Lebeau's Tavern and the Town Crier teams. He and his SMU sidekick, Gary Soares, formed one of the best double play combinations ever to play softball in these parts.
Joey played in national tournaments, state tournaments and the Livesey Memorial Day Tournament where teams from Florida, Pennsylvania, New York, New Hampshire and Maine came to play. It was while playing softball that Joey was described as a "complete player like Pete Rose".