A Globe article by Clif Keane in January 1967 underlines a great deal of mystery in the personality of Sox owner Tom Yawkey.
The piece is entitled “Yawkey Wants Fiery Manager”. If that was the case, Dick Williams certainly qualified. But that concept was something new for the Sox. Most of Tom’s choices for GMs and skippers had either been easygoing men like Steve O’Neill and Billy Herman or personal buddies like Joe Cronin and Mike Higgins. Keane even writes that Lou Boudreau, a failed Sox manager in the early 50’s, got the job by playing pepper with and “buttering up” the owner. Yawkey even admitted that he wanted to fire Herman much earlier, but could not bring himself to.
Tom, who died 35 years ago last July, comes off in this article as a rather reserved man. According to Keane, Yawkey barely knew Dick Williams, though he had been hired the previous fall. “When anyone mentioned the name Williams to Yawkey, ” Keane wrote, “the answer was ‘oh, you mean Ted.'”
The owner wasn’t even quoted directly about Dick, leaving it to GM Dick O’Connell to say “He wants a manager who is out there constantly fighting for his players on decisions. He wants a manager who will talk to the young players….he doesn’t want anyone to be soft…if the wants to fine a player let him and not talk about it.” As we all know, it all worked, at least in 67.
Perhaps the reason that there has never been a definitive biography of Yawkey is that the man was a mass of contradictions. He was often portrayed as a “sportsman”, loving the team like the son he never had and constantly spending millions to improve it. Most seasons, however, he would stay at his South Carolina plantation until midseason. He claimed many times not to be a racist, though there is lots of evidence that he was. After many of his profane outbursts, he would fine Ted Williams and force him to apologize, then refund him the money. He also had a secretive side, playing pepper with the grounds crew while the team was on the road and trying to keep it out of the papers.
Yawkey had never hired a manager like Dick Williams, and, sadly, never would again.
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