Page 247 - 1975 BoSox

240 ’75—THE RED SOX TEAM THAT SAVED BASEBALL
polo, for example, and spend thousands of dollars on ponies. Some go nuts for paintings, and give half a million for a hunk of canvas in a fancy frame. But my passion is baseball. My idea of heaven is a pennant winner. Boston would go nuts over a winner, and maybe someday we’ll get all the dough back. But in the meantime, don’t let anybody tell you Tom Yawkey is a sucker.”3
At the time, both press and public were supportive. Yawkey had purchased a fading franchise and made it relevant again, without causing more than a ripple in his own substantial bank account. “ e fact is,” wrote Joe Williams in 1938, “it would be better for baseball — much better — if there were more Tom Yawkeys in it. What do you think a Yawkey would do for the dismal situation in St. Louis, as regards the Browns? When a young fellow comes along and decides to take the rubber band o the bank roll, for some reason the rst people to sco at him are the wise guys.”4
e Red Sox in the late 1930s were sometimes called the Gold Sox, or the Millionaires, and many stories written about them in this era referred to their opulent salaries. is characterization is misleading. In 1933, Yawkey’s rst year in charge, the team’s payroll was sixth highest of the eight teams in the league, and far behind the Yankees. Six years later, in 1939, when most of Yawkey’s high-priced purchases were still on the team, their payroll had risen to $227,237, only the fth highest in the league, while New York was paying out $361,471. e team’s reputation was fueled completely by the prices Yawkey paid to purchase some of his players, but was not re ected in the club’s payroll.
By the late 1930s, the Red Sox had also begun to acquire promising minor-league players, purchasing Bobby Doerr, Ted Williams, and Dom DiMaggio from the Paci c Coast League. ey also established their own farm system, controlling several of their own teams by the mid-1940s. e 1942 team, largely dominated by the three aforementioned youngsters plus rookie Johnny Pesky, nished 93-59 (its best record since 1915) with the youngest core of players in the
league. e next three years saw most major-league rosters severely depleted by service in World War II, but the returning Red Sox stars captured Yawkey’s rst pennant in 1946. e ’46 team lost the World Series in seven games to the St. Louis Cardinals. Four more years of contention followed, helped by Yawkey’s willingness to spend additional money on buying Vern Stephens, Ellis Kinder, and Jack Kramer from the Browns.
Eddie Collins’s health forced him to step down after the 1947 season, and Joe Cronin replaced him as general manager. Yawkey continued to defer on matters of players, though he apparently personally hired Lou Boudreau to manage the team in 1951. (Cronin wanted to hire Mike Higgins.) During the 1950s, as the club fell out of contention, there was much speculation as to who was making the decisions among Yawkey, Cronin, and the eld manager. Yawkey rarely spoke to the press, mainly because of an intense shyness, and never second-guessed Cronin or the manager. He primarily seemed to just provide the money.
Yawkey remained a fairly popular gure in Boston, still considered the savior of the franchise. In February 1956, both the Boston and New York chapters of the Baseball Writers Association presented him with awards for his long service to the game. From 1956 through 1973, he served as the vice president of the American League — a position whose duties were mainly presiding over meetings when the president was absent, though still indicative of his stature with his fellow owners.
Yawkey’s marriage with Elise was troubled during much of the 1930s.Tom’s interests were mainly sport- ing — hunting, shing, and baseball — while his wife loved the social whirl of New York and Beverly Hills. Tom was a very shy man, who hated parties. ey adopted a daughter, Julia, in 1936, but the couple separated not long after and lived separate lives for a few years before nally divorcing in 1944. Both remar- ried within a few weeks, Elise in an expansive high- society a air in the Hamptons, Tom before a few witnesses in South Carolina.