John Henry Wants To Change Name Of Racist Tom Yawkey Way Even Though Fenway Group Looks Like A White Nationalist Rally
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ESPN: Boston Red Sox owner John Henry has wanted the city to change the name of Yawkey Way for a while, and the current political climate might provide the right timing. Henry told the Boston Herald that he is “haunted” by the racist legacy of previous owner Tom Yawkey, who led the team from 1933 to 1976. Although Yawkey is in the Baseball Hall of Fame, he also owned the last team in Major League Baseball to integrate — 12 years after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier. Even after integrating, Boston was known as an uncomfortable place for players of color to play.
“I discussed this a number of times with the previous mayoral administration and they did not want to open what they saw as a can of worms,” Henry told the Herald in an email. “There are a number of buildings and institutions that bear the same name. The sale of the Red Sox by John Harrington helped to fund a number of very good works in the city done by the Yawkey Foundation (we had no control over where any monies were spent). The Yawkey Foundation has done a lot of great things over the years that have nothing to do with our history.”
On Thursday, a spokesperson for current Boston Mayor Marty Walsh told the Boston Herald that the mayor is supportive of renaming Yawkey Way.
Henry said he’d like to rename the street that runs alongside the ballpark “David Ortiz Way” or “Big Papi Way,” after the retired Red Sox slugger, but Henry doesn’t run the process.
“The Red Sox don’t control the naming or renaming of streets,” Henry said to the Herald. “But for me, personally, the street name has always been a consistent reminder that it is our job to ensure the Red Sox are not just multi-cultural, but stand for as many of the right things in our community as we can — particularly in our African-American community and in the Dominican community that has embraced us so fully.
“The Red Sox Foundation and other organizations the Sox created such as Home Base have accomplished a lot over the last 15 years, but I am still haunted by what went on here a long time before we arrived.”
Oh look – more white people trying to fix a problem that people of color never asked them to fix. Renaming a street in Boston should help fix racism though. I mean, the guy is a bigot by modern day standards. And we should only judge historical figures by modern day standards. For instance, most Americans agree that gay people should be allowed to get married. Anyone who disagrees is a bigot. A hundred years from it will probably be 95% of Americans who are OK with it. They’ll look back and say, “Man, people sure were homophobic bigots back then. We should erase that part of history by getting rid of monuments and memorials that celebrate anyone who ever opposed gay marriage.”
So if you EVER were against gay marriage, you should get lumped in with those people. Anyone know anyone who was ever a vocal opponent of gay marriage?
Guess this means we can’t build any monuments to Barrack Obama or Hillary Clinton, right? I mean, they’re bigots. They stood in the way of progress. Sure, they came around when Modern Family became a hit TV show and Macklemore won a Grammy, but it was easy to do it then. Plus, the Red Sox eventually came around and integrated too. But we can only judge people based on what they did at their worst. And ALWAYS judge them from a modern day perspective. Always.
Anyway, since John Henry is so progressive and is “haunted” by Boston’s past of non-integration with the Red Sox, I’m sure he’s made sure that diversifying Fenway Sports Management and the Fenway Group have been priorities of his, right? Let’s take a look at what upper management looks like:
No, this isn’t a J Crew commercial. It’s the people who are trying to change the name of a street because the man it’s named after didn’t integrate fast enough. Seriously, we went through every name listed on the Fenway Group and the entire Fenway Sports Management pages and this is what we found:
Looks like a white nationalist rally. Not a black or brown person in sight. And this guy looks like he should own a billion dollar cigarette company:
But remember, John Henry wants to change the name of this street because the Red Sox are all about diversity:
But for me, personally, the street name has always been a consistent reminder that it is our job to ensure the Red Sox are not just multi-cultural, but stand for as many of the right things in our community as we can — particularly in our African-American community and in the Dominican community that has embraced us so fully.
Translation – some of our best players are either black or speak Spanish. That counts as diversity right? We integrated our talent on the field because the black and brown guys we brought in are actually really good. So we use them to make us more money. We’re the good guys, right?
Of course it’s easy to integrate your baseball team when you have more money than anyone else and can afford to pay for the best players money can buy. They didn’t sign Pedro Martinez, David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez, and Pokey Reese because they wanted more diversity. They did it because those guys were the best players money could buy. Especially Pokey!
Meanwhile John Henry’s trophy wife is bragging about it while tweeting out links to her husband’s competitor:
John Henry says Red Sox will lead effort to change name of Yawkey Way | Boston Herald https://t.co/Ys8rMNaIix
— Linda Pizzuti Henry (@Linda_Pizzuti) August 17, 2017
First of all Linda, you have sex with a withered old man for money.
If he were not a billionaire then you would not have had sex with him, never mind married him. No one believes you are in love. Everyone knows that the only reason you and junior smokeshows like youreself marry people like John Henry, is for money. You’re basically the most expensive prostitute on earth. And no one cares what you think about anything.
Secondly, your husband owns the Globe. Probably shouldn’t be tweeting out Boston Herald links when your own newspaper also wrote a story about this.
Thirdly, where have you guys been the last 15 years? I mean, he’s owned the team for a long time. But all of a sudden he decided to make it an issue because tearing down statues has become all the rage? Very progressive of you guys.
The Red Sox have become a disgusting PC organization that only cares about selling bricks and singing Sweet Caroline. This is why Patriots are king in this town. Because their ownership completely rejects this bullshit and only cares about winning.
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24 Comment(s)
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WOW…So by your logic, because they are white, they are not being looked at as doing something good. Because they have white staff, they MUST BE racist. Because someone has money, whoever is “having sex with” them or “marry” them, they must be gold diggers. Sounds pretty unbiased and must be true since all you do is complain about everything. Yep, they are racist and nothing YOU have said here is racist in any way. Got to love the double standard. Nevermind the fact that they have been trying to do this since they first bought the team, nope. Let’s just focus on the fact that they are now getting approval due to what is going on now so that you can put your own twisted spin on things.
TY for highlighting this story line. It would be beneficial to mirror other professional sport teams who also have supporters of the same race.
Its difficult to feel empathy when there are challenges for all races.
I was raised in the city of Worcester (main south) with all races, I’m not oblivious to racial discrimination to include whites. Yes, this white girl was raised in the poorest part of the city on welfare… along with many others. Fortunately for me… .color was not the common factor… shopping at “THE MART” was…
We’ll never move forward if we continue to highlight race.
Born in the 60’s I feel the weight of history and its heavy. Story lines like this without the other versions of professional teams is narrow.
selling the naming rights of the street to dunkin donuts will go along way in repairing race relations
No, selling the rights to KFC in honor of all the offended hoodboogers is the PC thing to do I guess.
Let’s name it Jim Rice Way..
A place where you can openly be a prick, treat working people like garbage, and still get a hummer from the media after a selfie
Baseball is a waste of time. The action is slower than a 90 year old man running a marathon. Baseball continues to lose fans and viewership. Ratings are in the toilet. This just reinforces my decision to never waste money attending a sox game, or watch a sox game on television.
This is the Turtleboy I love.
Linda Pizzutti is a libkunt
How about renaming it Jersey Street? It’s old name.
Yawkey was a bigot, he grew up in SC during the Great Depression, what does everyone believe the south was full of Atticus Finches du that time.
Love the Red Sox, hate the pc consciousness of the ownership
Wouldn’t it be much easier for JH to prove his progressiveness by signing the 1st openly queer MLBer?
Done that already. David Price.
You want to change the name? Great how about Ted Williams Way. Not only was he the greatest ball player in Sox history. He was one of the greatest of all time. Not only that, he gave up five seasons in his prime to serve his country in two wars. Not selling bonds either. He was a Marine fighter pilot. Flying a prop plane in World War 2 and a jet in Korea. I realize this doesn’t fit into the PC mold. But screw em!! Give credit where credit is due
Lansdowne St. is also “Ted Williams Way” If the Sox want to change the name of Yawkey Way they should buy the streets around Fenway Park and fence them off permanently. They can build their own walls around their palace. Since traffic is blocked off to put turnstiles and metal detectors it would save the Sox $$$ by not paying rent to the city. Then they can name it whatever they want, but I think it should go to the next Sox legend to pass away.
He should divest himself of his holdings if the team’s “racist past” is haunting him.
Reparations! Chicago Bulls hats for all!
I totally forgot about Linda Pizzutti. I get sick to my stomach when I see her photo.
In the strictest sense, I have to be proud of JH, he roped in a woman 30 years his junior. Personally if it was me, I would rather have a harem of super fit high end pros in their early 20s. I don’t find her all that attractive, and if I had $1B, I think I’d land much hotter ass than that.
JH is a weird fucking dude though.
I’m curious if JH protected all his assets in trust.
But how can the city that’s the breeding ground for the Democratic party have so much racism?
SPOT ON, TB.
I contacted the Red Sox yesterday to voice my disgust with this organization –> the management team and the ownership, NOT the players (except David (over) Price.
Is the Scarecrow also going to lead the charge to renaming Fanueil Hall and Washington Street? Hell, let’s take down the Paul Revere house while we are at it.
Your blog article is the best written piece yet on why all of the renaming is pure idiotic bullshit.
These sods would never hold a candle to the 1978 Red Sox. Perhaps the yutz want to name it David Price Way, after all?
So on point re: the Patriots!
Liberals are bad. Liberal hypocrites are the worst.
That’s redundant.
Awesome take TB …… I ……., I mean the majority of people agree with you on this one
“Pokey Reese” killed me