Sully Baseball... your go-to source for the Yawkey's racism

I have never been shy about expressing my disgust at the Yawkey family.



As a Red Sox fan, I have nothing but venom towards Tom and Jean Yawkey, the two who controlled the team from 1933 until 1992 and then kept it in the family until 2002.

They controlled it for a period of time when the Red Sox won a grand total of zero World Series and decided not to be pioneers of integration and instead kept the stench of racism (and an inferior product) hovering over the Sox until both were long dead.

But I already slammed the Yawkeys when I openly questioned the sanity of Red Sox fans for HONORING him! 

And I did so again when saluted Pumpsie Green.

But a throwaway comment I made in my Home Grown vs. Acquired post for the Dodgers has given me a great moment of pride.

After praising former Dodger Dixie Walker who came to terms with his racism and was turned around by the greatness of Jackie Robinson, I talked about Reggie Smith.



I wrote:



"Well we go from Dixie Walker's eyes being opened to the wrongs of racism to Reggie Smith... a product of the Red Sox farm system.

The Red Sox had a switch hitting, power hitting All Star Gold Glove winning outfielder with speed... and they traded him.



Hmmmm. Why would the Yawkeys trade a player like that?

I wonder!



Smith became a staple in the Dodgers line up finishing in the top 5 of the MVP two times and hit three homers in a losing cause in the 1977 World Series.



If only Tom or Jean Yawkey had a Dixie Walker moment. (Then again Yawkey was the one who turned down Willie Mays.)"



Not my greatest passage... but I can never resist slamming the Yawkeys for what they did to my team all of those years.

Well friends, I checked on my Blog Tracker and evidently I've been linked to the Tom Yawkey wikipedia page!

Someone, and I swear to the ghost of Josh Gibson it wasn't me, included the following sentence in the "Charges of Racism" section of the entry.

"Even after integrating, racism was believed to play a role in moves made by the Red Sox, notably the trade of star outfielder Reggie Smith in 1973."

That sentence is footnoted and linked to the Sully Baseball - Home Grown vs. Acquired Dodgers entry.

I couldn't be more proud.

Not only will I continue to hate the Yawkey family, but I have become a reference!

Hopefully some kid will be writing a term paper on the Yawkeys and use my site as a source. It would be an honor.

(In my days we couldn't cut and paste! We had to plagiarize from the World Book!)

Sully Baseball Honors... PUMPSIE GREEN

There is nothing I can say about Pumpsie Green better than Gordon Edes in his terrific column for Yahoo Sports.

But I wanted to salute Pumpsie myself.

I can't imagine what it must have been like to break the color barrier in Boston during the 1950s.

And most of all, to do it with that horrific franchise destroyer, Tom Yawkey, at the helm. 

Red Sox manager Pinky Higgins vowed that "there will be no n-ggers on this ball club as long as I have anything to say about it." Yawkey was so offended by that sentiment that he kept him on the payroll for nearly 20 years.

It was bad enough playing for a Yawkey in the 1980s (when Tommy Harper won a racial discrimination suit against the club.) The 1950s must have been unbearable. And he deserves all of our salutes.

By why did we have to honor Pumpsie Green? Shouldn't he be a kind of obscure middle infielder on the Red Sox of the 1950s?

If the Red Sox are going to honor which of their players broke the color barrier, shouldn't Willie Mays be throwing out the first pitch? They had a shot to sign him?

Shouldn't Tom Yawkey, the man his apologists claim would do ANYTHING to win a title for Boston, have signed Ernie Banks? Or Frank Robinson? Or Hank Aaron?

The Red Sox famously had the first shot to sign Jackie Robinson and be not only a pioneer but MAKE THE TEAM BETTER!

Instead they waited until Jackie Robinson had retired and the Dodgers left Brooklyn before reluctantly bringing Pumpsie Green in as a pinch hitter. 

And once again, this wasn't just about social justice. Did you notice the Jackie Robinson played in the 1947, 1949, 1952, 1953, 1955 and 1956 World Series?

Do you know how many pennants the Red Sox won in that span? 

Zilch.

Yes, honor Pumpsie, but let's also use this as once again a forum to DISHONOR the Yawkeys.

Most of the 86 seasons of the curse took place under their watch. Maybe like most superstitions, the Curse was focusing on the wrong cause.

Yes the Red Sox didn't win the World Series for decades after Ruth was dealt, but isn't a more relevant cause for such a downturn be the people actually running the team?

Here's a reason they didn't win all of those years:

They honored Pinky Higgins over Jackie Robinson.

Here's a sign that it had more to do with the Yawkeys:

The family had control of the team from 1933 to 2002.

They sold the team before the 2003 season.

The Red Sox have won 2 World Series since then.

I hope Pumpsie went over to the Green Monster to take a leak.
Not inside the Monster like Manny... I hope he pissed on those Morse Code symbols on the wall that honor Tom and Jean Yawkey... the two people most responsible for keep the Red Sox without a championship for 86 years.

WHY ARE THE YAWKEYS LOVED IN BOSTON???

Oh... you will hear lots of great things about Tom Yawkey and the Yawkey family in Boston. Tom owned the Red Sox from 1933 until his death in 1976. His wife ran the team until she died in 1992 and the family continued running it until 2002. The city of Boston named one of the streets adjacent to Fenway after them. You will also hear about how lavishly Tom spent on players, raided small markets for superstars like Jimmy Foxx and Lefty Grove. And you hear how beloved he was and how badly he wanted to win a title for the city of Boston.

And you can equate all of that with the substance pushed out of a bull's rectum.

Tom Yawkey and the Yawkey family did more to ruin the Red Sox than anyone and the greatest thing to ever happen to my team ridding themselves of the Yawkey stench.

They should change "Yawkey Way" back to "Jersey Street."

Anyone notice the vast bulk of the 86 year title drought was under the Yawkey watch? Anyone notice that passion to bring a title to Boston failed EVERY SINGLE YEAR this family owned the team?

And oh yeah... anyone notice that desire to win in Boston included a caveat... make sure the team remains lily white?

The Red Sox had the first chance to sign Jackie Robinson... and passed. Instead of being the first team to integrate, they became the last with utility infielder Pumpsie Green.

And I'm not just talking about social justice here. I'm talking about tanking the team! The Red Sox could have signed Willie Mays. They passed because he wasn't their "type of player." Yeah, they couldn't squeeze in the greatest player of all time. It might mean benching Clyde Vollmer.

Yawkey would do ANYTHING to win a title... except sign Hank Aaron.

So all through the 1950s and 1960s the Red Sox didn't sniff a single pennant race and attendance dropped... but thank GOD they passed on Ernie Banks!

And don't think this is isolated to the distant past. Coach Tommy Harper filed and WON a racial discrimination suit in 1985! There are still players playing from that year.

And the stigma of racial tension went all the way through the early 1990s. Ask Jim Rice how fun it was being sometimes the only black player on the team. Remember how quickly they dumped players like Don Baylor, Lee Smith and Ellis Burks?

And that doesn't even mention Latin America. When other teams were raiding the Caribbean for infielders, the Sox gamely trotted out the Glenn Hoffmans, Spike Owens and Jody Reeds of the world. When Dan Duquette came to Boston in 1993, he was stunned to find out the Sox didn't have a single scout in the Domincan.

Only after Mrs. Yawkey's death in 1992 did minority players start to flourish on the Red Sox. First with Mo Vaughn. Then with Pedro Martinez. Then the team was owned by someone other than the Yawkeys in 2002... and in 2 short years Henry delivered the title Tom Yawkey couldn't buy.

They were led by a trio of black Domincan players: David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez and Pedro Martinez.

No doubt Yawkey would have labeled them "not my type of players."

JACKIE ROBINSON DAY!

It's Jackie Robinson Day... the day we celebrate Jackie's courage, Branch Rickey's vision and the deliverance of baseball from racial bigotry and boring station to station baseball.

I for one think if everyone and anyone wants to wear #42 today they should...
If a parent is at a game with their kid and the kid asks "Why is everyone wearing 42?" then that can only lead to a healthy and productive discussion.

Yahoo's Big League Stew doesn't exactly agree with me... and maybe they are right. Maybe we are celebrating Jackie TOO much. (Cue eye roll.)

Last year I talked about how Jackie Robinson made the baseball talent pool deeper than ever.

And I refuse to let the Yawkeys off the hook. Tom Yawkey had the chance to be a pioneer... and instead he extended the "Curse" for 2 more generations. Explain to me why Yawkey is revered in Boston!

But enough negativity!
This is Jackie's day!

(Imagine him in a Red Sox uniform!)