What if Tom Yawkey hadn't been a racist?

[Fight_n_back]

or what if his bigotry wasn't as strong as his desire to win?

That way in 1949 when his Southern scout called and said, "I found this incredble player, all five tools, and no one else has seen him yet. I can get him for 5,000." REd Sox owner Yawkey would have said "Go for it" instead of "why should I pay that much for a bell cap?". They would have signed the centerfielder and instead of the first black Red Sox player being the immortal Pumpsie Green it would have been the plucky Wille Howard Mays.

Then two years later when the SAME SCOUT called and said, "I found another one, except this one may be a bit better hitter." Yawkey would have said, "Absolutley, I love these World Series rings". Instead of, "Quit wasting my time with these *#@@%!^". And Henry Aaron would have been peppering the Green Monster with line drives.

So the 1951 Red Sox would have had an outfield of:
Ted Williams
Wille Mays
and Clyde Vollmer

Except they probably would have been able to get a better RFer back in a trade for Dom DiMaggio. Or maybe some pitching.

Maybe they wouldn't have held off the Yankees that year...or maybe Mays wouldn't have started over the All Star Dimaggio but certainly when Aaron joined them in 1954 they could have built a good staff by packaging Jensen and Piersall and beaten the Indians. Even if they didn't they would have had a lineup the looked like this in 1955...


2b Goodman .294
SS Claus .283
LF Williams.356 28 83
CF Mays .319 51 127 24sb
1B Jensen .275 26 116 16sb (what the hell)
RF Aaron .314 27 106
3B Hatton .245 76bb
C White .261

That team would have worked out okay...

of course they still may have come up short but they would have certainly broken through in 1959 when:

Aaron batted .355 with 223 hits, 39 HRs and 123 RBI
Mays batted .313 with 34 HRs and 27SBs
Williams struggled with injuries but Jensen hit 28 HRs.

and of course Williams swan song, 1960, when he batted .316
Aaron hit 40 HRs and Mays 29. Williams goes out with the game winning homer in the Series against Frank Robinson's Reds.

As Mays and Aaron assume control of the club they break in the young Yastremski in 1961. By 1962, as Mays hits 49 HRs and Aaron hits 45, Yaz hits .296 and the Red Sox continue their dynasty by beating the Dodgers (who would have sneaked past the Mays-less Giants).

Boston would be considered the sports capital of America as the Celtics also dominate their sport. The young Bill Russell being well mannered enough to talk about how much he owed to Mays and Aaron for breaking the racial tensions in Boston.

When Yaz wins the Triple Crown in 1967 and the Red Sox win yet another Series it masks the pain of Mays' obviuos decline. Two years later when bussing is mandated in Boston, tensions are soothed by the prescence of Mays, Aaron, Russell and Yaz showing that winning breeds botherhood.

Bobby Orr brings a third championship sport to Boston and people start talking about Boston having unfair advantages as a city. People all around the country find it cool to hate the Red Sox. Why if it wasn't for the fact that the Patriots sucked people would probably burn the city down.

The town is filled with shock when Mays is traded in 1972 because he won't be there to greet Aaron when he breaks the Babes record but another division title eases the pain.

The numbers one, three and fourteen home run hitters of all time would have played in the same outfield for seven years and it would have been really cool...

...of course none of that ever happened because Tom Yawkey was a dick.

{The Mays thing is absolute fact, the Aaron story is a bit more tenuous. Mays would have been a pretty good get though, don't ya think?}

[Old and In the Way]

1. Good post........

The Sox were slow off the mark on integration. Mays in Boston, something to think about. Of course, he'd have never made "The Catch". :-)

[sir_captain]

2. That's an understatement

the Sox were by far the last team with a black player and have been historically a very unfriendly place for minorities to play. until quite recently, it was well known around the league that only white players would sign as free agents in boston.