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JOURNAL
November 2004
THE BOSTON RED SOX — BLEACHING THE TRUTH
The Red Sox team of 2004 deserves every bit of success it earned. Unlike the regal, perfectly sculpted, handsome Yankee players, our scrappy team — a motley crew of homely, beer-bellied, hirsute and injured men — gives hope to all who have not been blessed with perfection. The success came about through hard work. It's the American Dream.
When owner Harry Frazee sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees in 1919, a year after the Sox's previous World Series title, Bostonians cried like their very historic landmarks had been stolen. In protest, they plastered "For Sale" signs on Fanieul Hall and the Boston Public Library.
From then on, The Curse was born, perhaps fueled by Yankee fans themselves. It became a great marketing tool through the years, for both the Red Sox and their foes. In fact, in Game 7 of the ALCS between the Yankees and the Red Sox this year, the Yankees, losing by several runs in the late innings, played as if they still believed in The Curse rather than in their own talent. The looks on the Yankee fans' faces after the loss spoke volumes.
The truth is, there was no curse. The truth is, the Red Sox probably could have won a World Series title in the '40s or '50s. The truth is, as you'll see, more sinister than The Curse of the Bambino.
As described in Peter Golenbock's book, Fenway, "Beginning in 1947, when Jackie Robinson broke the color line and starred for the Brooklyn Dodgers, the talent of black ballplayers was demonstrated to America . . . You didn't have to be a genius to see how disadvantaged were teams that continued to exclude blacks." Robinson, along with Roy Campanella and Don Newcombe, led the Brooklyn Dodgers to several pennants from 1947-54. In that same period, Willie Mays, Monte Irvin and Hank Thompson had similar success for the New York Giants. In 1948, the Cleveland Indians, with Satchel Paige and Larry Doby, won a pennant by beating the Boston Red Sox in a playoff game.
The truth is, the Boston Red Sox, then under the ownership of Tom Yawkey, had first dibs on both Robinson and Mays. They passed. Despite growing criticism by the Boston press over the next several years, the buck-passing between management and ownership continued, without a satisfactory answer as to why the Sox had not signed any black ballplayers.
In 1950, 1953 and 1955, three black players were signed to minor league contracts with the Sox: Piper Davis, pitcher Earl Wilson, and outfielder Pumpsie Green, respectively. Still, as late as 1955, Sox manager Mike "Pinky" Higgins, a Texan, was alleged to have said, "There'll be no niggers on this ballclub as long as I have anything to say about it." In 1958, "The Boston chapter of the NAACP called for an investigation of Tom Yawkey and his racial practices." (Golenbock)
Finally, in July 1959, the Red Sox, then in last place, called up Pumpsie Green. While there was a flurry of publicity upon his arrival, Green mostly sat on the bench for four years before being traded to the Mets.
Earl Wilson became a regular part of the Red Sox rotation in 1962, and performed pretty well for four seasons. In 1966, the Sox signed two more black players, John Wyatt and Jose Tartabull. Wilson supposedly joked to his roommate, Lenny Green, also black, that one of them would have to go because there were now too many blacks on the team. The next morning, Wilson was informed he'd been traded to Detroit. In 1967, Wilson won 22 games for Detroit, the winningest pitcher in the major leagues. Many New Englanders never forgave the Sox for trading Wilson.
Certainly, by the time the close-but-no-cigar World Series match-up with the Cincinnati Reds in 1975, the painful playoff game with the Yankees in 1978, and the unforgettable Red Sox collapse against the Mets in 1986, the Red Sox were an integrated team.
Tom Yawkey — a trust fund baby who used his wealth to own the Red Sox from 1936 until his death in 1976 — was known as a man of gentle demeanor, and helped raise millions for the Jimmy Fund. Near the end of his life, he said he "tried to provide jobs, to give pleasure, to treat human beings like human beings." At least in his own mind, he was not a racist.
Still, whoever lies at fault for keeping the Red Sox white for a few decades, by not doing the right thing at the right time, the Sox have only themselves to blame for not winning at least a pennant, if not a World Series title. So much for The Curse.
Congratulations, team 2004.
[I'd like to acknowledge my Dad, Herschel Hall, for the idea and for some of the historical background for this column; also, Peter Golenbeck's Fenway]
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KevScoHall@Verizon.net