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.