Full Description
2019 SABR Baseball Research Award
Few people have influenced a team as much as did Tom Yawkey (1903-76) as owner of the Boston Red Sox. After purchasing the Red Sox for $1.2 million in 1932, Yawkey poured millions into building a better team and making the franchise relevant again.
Although the Red Sox never won a World Series under Yawkey's ownership, there were still many highlights. Lefty Grove won his three hundredth game; Jimmie Foxx hit fifty home runs; Ted Williams batted .406 in 1941, and both Williams and Carl Yastrzemski won Triple Crowns. Yawkey was viewed by fans as a genial autocrat who ran his ball club like a hobby more than a business and who spoiled his players. He was perhaps too trusting, relying on flawed cronies rather than the most competent executives to run his ballclub. One of his more unfortunate legacies was the accusation that he was a racist, since the Red Sox were the last Major League team to integrate, and his inaction in this regard haunted both him and the team for decades. As one of the last great patriarchal owners in baseball, he was the first person elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame who hadn't been a player, manager, or general manager.
Bill Nowlin takes a close look at Yawkey's life as a sportsman and as one of the leading philanthropists in New England and South Carolina. He also addresses Yawkey's leadership style and issues of racism during his tenure with the Red Sox.
Contents
Introduction
1. A Baseball Santa, Tom Yawkey in 1933
2. Tom Yawkey and Eddie Collins Buy the Red Sox
3. The First Season
4. The First Offseason
5. Tom Yawkey's Past
6. Yawkey at Yale
7. The First Full Season of the Yawkey Era, 1934
8. 1935-1938
9. The Kid Makes the Big Leagues, 1939
10. Before the War, 1940-1941
11. The War Years, 1942-1945
12. Postwar and the Pennant, 1946
13. Strong Seasons, 1947-1950
14. The Early 1950s
15. Doldrums Descend, the Latter 1950s
16. From Ted to Yaz, the First Sox Seasons of the 1960s
17. The Impossible Dream
18. After the Dream
19. Another Game Seven
20. Tom Yawkey's Final Campaign
21. Jean Yawkey in the Late 1970s
22. Tom Yawkey Remembered and the Jean Yawkey Years, 1980-1985
23. The 1986 World Series and the Years That Followed
24. The Passing of Jean Yawkey
25. The Estate, 1994, and Beyond
26. The Yawkey Legacy
27. Tom Yawkey and Race
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index
