The Integration of Fenway Park

On July 21, the day was marked, as it is most years, with stories describing the anniversary of the 1959 debut of the Red Sox first black player, Elijah Jerry "Pumpsie" Green.  That event is remembered yearly because it happened an astounding twelve years after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in baseball in April, 1947. Many writers took this opportunity to vilify the ghosts of Red Sox past for being at the lead of discrimination in a racist institution. Others allowed the shame to be passed on to the citizens of Boston at the time for not demanding a rapid change.  Regardless of where the blame belongs, the sad truth is that instead of Green’s place in history being celebrated as an accomplishment, his belated promotion in 1959 marks the end of the segregation era for Major League Baseball, and leaves the Red Sox with the appalling distinction of being the last team to field a black player. That fact should not be seen as an indictment of Sox fans or the city in general.  Many Bostonians were eager to see equality finally come to baseball, and were actively campaigning to achieve it. When the first black Major Leaguer came to the plate at Fenway Park on this day in 1947, he was greeted as no visiting player was before. He was applauded every inning.

Hall of Famer, Willard “Home Run” Brown was 32-years-old and had a reputation as a slugging outfielder for the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro National League, when he was chosen to be one of four black players signed by the St. Louis Browns in 1947. St. Louis was desperate for homeruns and home fans, and they thought that Brown could help them with both.  He made his Major League debut against the Red Sox in St. Louis, on July 19, but it wasn’t until July 25 that he integrated Fenway Park by being the first black Major Leaguer to play there.  When he came to bat in the second inning, 34,059 fans stood to applaud him.  Brown responded with a line-drive double off of the center field wall. When he trotted out to right field at the end of the inning, they applauded again. And again, when he batted for the second time, they applauded. Brown smashed his second double of the night (the second of his career). With each plate appearance, and each time he took his position in right field, the Fenway faithful greeted Willard Brown with cheers which grew as the game progressed. 

According to Jack Barry of the Boston Evening Globe, "[Brown] received a fine ovation from the crowd as he trotted to his right field position at the close of each round." 

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported, "Willard Brown, the cat-walking Negro rightfielder of the Browns, who runs like a hurried panther, last night earned some of the loudest cheering Boston has given to a visiting ball player here in years."

Jack Malaney of the Boston Post was equally impressed: "The crowd received him almost as they would Doerr or DiMaggio so far as applause was concerned, and credit for something done." 

The overwhelming turnout and warm welcome given to Willard Brown at Fenway could have been interpreted by Red Sox ownership as a clear sign that integrating the home team would not result in low attendance.

In fact, Dave Egan, the firebrand of Boston sportswriters, writing in the July 28 Boston Record, seized on the fanfare and prodded the baseball owners of the town to integrate the sport locally.  He dared them to not allow Boston to be “traitors to our heritage.” He even noticed how perfect a fit Brown’s right-handed swing would have been for Fenway’s wall, and wondered if Sox owner Tom Yawkey heard the applause.  Perhaps, he hadn’t.

Although the Boston Braves were among the first teams to integrate, the Red Sox languished nearly twelve years after Willard Brown’s historic debut at Fenway.  When Pumpsie Green made his own debut in Boston on August 4, 1959, the fans were true to form that day, receiving him as they had Willard “Home Run” Brown, with loud applause and appreciation. He too answered the standing ovation with a base hit.

Adrian Gonzalez-san

Kampai! Gonzalez,conjured his inner Ichiro in belting this three-run homer.
Read here.

Radioactive Item Found in Boston

Update:  This turned out to be a link from some old surveying equipment.

This is the only news I've seen of it so far:

AlertNewEngland Steve 

@ 

@tplants From the BFD radios.

9 minutes ago Favorite Retweet Reply

AlertNewEngland Steve 

Boston, MA: u/d Radioactive item is isolated at 10 Causeway St (Federal Building), command requesting response be upgraded to a Level 3.

$9 Flights to Boston?

Johnny Went to Boston.
Johnny Went to Town.
Watch out Johnny-wait a minute. Johnny paid 9 bucks? Ok, you can't fly to Boston for $9, because you have to buy a return trip ticket to Newark. Hell, blow off the flight back if you want and it's $18 for one-way.

Today only this deal is available here (Wicked Good Flying Deal).  Fly from Newark, NJ to Boston, and back for less than $20.  Have fun!

If you buy this, let me know. I still don't believe it.

RED SOX ANNOUNCE PREPARATIONS FOR 2012 CELEBRATION OF FENWAY PARK’S 100TH ANNIVERSARY

For Immediate Release

April 20, 2011

RED SOX ANNOUNCE PREPARATIONS FOR 2012 CELEBRATION OF

FENWAY PARK’S 100^TH ANNIVERSARY

Club Invites Fans and Community to Join Planning Effort

BOSTON, MA—The Red Sox today provided fans with a preview of preparations for the celebration of Fenway Park’s 100^th Anniversary in 2012.  As preparations begin, the Club invited all Red Sox fans to join the planning process by sharing their ideas, suggestions, stories and memorabilia.  The announcement was made 99 years to the date of the first Major League baseball game played at Fenway Park, on April 20, 1912.

2012 will mark the 100^th anniversary of America’s Most Beloved Ballpark, the oldest operating Major League facility in the United States.  The celebration will highlight Red Sox history over the past hundred years and will also commemorate the wide range of other sports, music, civic, philanthropic, and community events that Fenway Park has hosted during its first century. 

“Fenway Park’s 100^th Anniversary will be an unprecedented and historic celebration,” said Red Sox Principal Owner John W. Henry. “From Day One, the preservation of this ballpark has been an issue of paramount importance to our ownership group. Without a doubt, Fenway Park is renowned for its architectural and aesthetic charm. But the character of this ballpark has always been a reflection of the fans who call it home, and we encourage citizens of Red Sox Nation to share their stories and thoughts about what an appropriate celebration should entail.”

“From the moment we assumed stewardship of this franchise and ballpark, our ownership group made a sacred commitment to preserve all that’s good about Fenway Park,” Chairman Tom Werner said. “Now that our decade-long series of major, annual Fenway improvements has concluded, it’s only appropriate that we formally kick off our preparations for this historic anniversary. With a celebration built around the sentiments and ideas of our fans, we plan to honor this iconic ballpark’s connection to New England and a Nation.”

“Fenway Park’s scope of sports and civic history is virtually unparalleled,” said President/CEO Larry Lucchino. “Through jubilation and heartbreak, victories and near-misses, this jewel of a ballpark has not only endured but thrived.  Now, after more than $285 million in total investment over the last decade, we stand on the eve of a momentous occasion and celebration.  We are deeply grateful for the help of Mayor Thomas M. Menino and our friends in the Fenway neighborhood who have worked collaboratively over the last 10 years to preserve and protect this ballpark for generations to come.  As we commemorate this living museum’s past, we look forward to a celebration of America’s Most Beloved Ballpark that both citizens of Red Sox Nation and baseball fans will find fitting.”

As part of the first phase of preparations, the Club today unveiled four major elements of the 2012 celebration:

·        Official Fenway Park 2012 logo:  The Fenway Park 2012 logo was officially unveiled at today’s announcement.   It is a look that is timeless, contemporary and with a simplified direction that takes into consideration all the various elements inherent to Fenway Park.   The keystone from the original 1912 façade that sits above Gate A acts as the primary backplate, and serves as a metaphor to speak to the relationship between Fenway Park and the Red Sox.  The “FENWAY PARK” font and location are taken from the façade, and other fonts in the logo are taken from various signage around the park.  The “100 YEARS” is housed in a backplate inspired by the Green Monster scoreboard. 

The logo was designed by Michael Mikulec, an independent creative director and graphic designer, and a lifelong Red Sox fan.  Michael’s career began at ESPN television, and his previous work has included developing brand identities for ABC, MTV, the CW and the NFL Network and, perhaps most notably, Michael's logo was selected as the official mark for NBC's coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.  He recently worked with the Red Sox production team to help develop their strategy for the new HD videoboards at Fenway Park.   

·        Official Fenway Park 2012 website: The official Fenway Park 2012 website (www.fenwaypark100.com), designed in conjunction with Major League Baseball Advanced Media (MLBAM), features information and images on Fenway Park’s history, including the ballpark’s architecture and changes over time, information about current and former Club owners, managers and players, and video clips about special features that make Fenway Park unique.   The site, which is the first of its kind for a Major League ballpark in terms of depth and breadth of information, already includes more than 450 unique pages, 90,000+ words of text, over 160 photos and 36 videos, and it will continue to expand over the next two years to include more historical and current content generated by the Club and our fans.

·        Fenway Park 100^th Anniversary Brick Program and Seat Sale: The Boston Red Sox today announced a special opportunity for fans to literally put their mark on the historic ballpark.  Fans will have the chance to have a brick with a personalized message placed in the Fenway Park concourse area inside Gate B and Gate C.  Bricks will be available in two sizes – 4”x8” and 8”x8” – and each purchase will also include a replica brick and display case. The bricks will be sold for $250 and $475, respectively, plus applicable taxes and fees.  The sale of the bricks begins on Thursday, April 28, 2011, and more information is available online at www.fenwaypark100.com. 

The team also announced the final opportunity for fans to bring home a pair of authentic seats from Fenway Park.  Since 2002, the Red Sox have made annual offseason improvements to Fenway Park. One major component of the 2010-2011 offseason improvements was the replacement of the seats in the lower Right Field seating bowl.  From these seats, fans have watched the 2004 and 2007 World Series games and witnessed other historic events such as Dave Roberts’ 2004 legendary steal of second base, Carlton Fisk wave the ball fair in 1975, several no-hitters, as well as the 2010 NHL Winter Classic, Frozen Fenway College Hockey Doubleheader, Football at Fenway, and many memorable concerts.  Seats are from the Right Field Box, Loge Box, Field Box and Dugout Box locations, and are red plastic with either blue or red metal frames.  Quantities are limited.  More information can be found online at www.redsox.com/seats and by calling 617-226-6800.

·        Open invitation to fans to join in the Fenway 2012 celebration planning: The Red Sox are encouraging fans to get involved in the anniversary preparation by submitting celebration ideas, sharing personal memories and stories, as well as their memorabilia of historic value.  Fans can provide their input and ideas on the 2012 website (www.fenwaypark100.com), by sending an e-mail to fenwaypark100@redsox.com or sending a letter to Fenway 100, 4 Yawkey Way, Boston, MA  02215.   

Throughout the 2011 season, the Club will continue preparations for the anniversary celebration, which will include a variety of baseball and other events in 2012, as well as the production of various collectible items to commemorate Fenway Park’s rich history.  The anniversary celebrations are expected to highlight a range of historical objects and images, multimedia presentations, and exhibits at Fenway Park and other locations.  Along with fans and the general public, the Club’s owners, corporate sponsors, neighborhood organizations, government and civic leaders, current and former players, and Major League Baseball staff are expected to participate in the planning. 

Additional information about Fenway Park’s 100^th Anniversary celebration plans will be released over the course of this year, along with recognition of additional dates that have historical significance.

Happy Jackie Robinson Day

On this day, in 1947, Jack Roosevelt Robinson made his Major League debut, playing first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers, at Ebbetts Field in front of 26,623 fans, against the Boston Braves, breaking the color barrier in baseball.

Shortstop Dick Culler led off for the Braves by hitting a ground ball to third baseman Spider Jorgensen, who fielded it, and tossed it to Robinson at first base for an easy out. The crowd was enthusiastic, but tentative in its open support. 

It was the first out of an historic season that would end in a National League pennant for Brooklyn, and with Robinson winning baseball’s Rookie of the Year award.

Goodbye Professor Thom's

“The Party’s Over”, “End of the Road”, “Breaking Up is Hard to Do”, “Is This The End” (yeah, I have to have New Edition) --- Oh, sorry.  You caught me in the middle of making a mix tape for my latest breakup…

No, my marriage is fine, better than ever, in fact.  The breakup I’m referring to is between me and that tempestuous girlfriend of mine named Professor Thom’s.  She kept me up many a boozy night, even carried on with anyone that came in the door, and I kept coming back.  But no more.  The party’s over, Doris Day.

As of last Friday, April 1, I have left Professor Thom’s.  I sold my ownership and moved on. Some of you, I’m sure, are shocked.  Some of you are thinking, “Who the hell is this guy?”  Well you’re both right. 

I was the guy behind the bar who forced you on to this email list.  (To be clear, I am not pictured above. That is Pez.) I am the guy who cannot buy garden shears from a garage sale in New Jersey because they think I keep saying “garden chairs” and want to sell me two beat-up blue folding chairs for 10 bucks.  “Oh, you mean the SHE-AIRRRSS.” I painfully digress.

Truthfully, I stayed a year longer than I should have.  The only thing that was keeping me there was the terrific staff and customers new and old in the bar every night.  I learned more about being a New Englander in the five years since I opened Professor Thom’s than in the 20 years I spent growing up in Boston. 

I found across the bar in most of you a mild recalcitrance in common, some dogged unwillingness to completely open up until it was safe to do so.  And the bar sure was safe.  I learned from you that my guilt-obsessed, overly reserved, insecure, mistrustful personality was not just an awkward vestige of my Calvinist forbearers, but a true, not so subtle mark of being a New Englander. We’re guarded and then some.  And we’ll be damned if we let on how we feel. 

When you ask a New Englander, “How are you?” Generally, “OK” means fine, “Fine” means “great”. And “Great” means “terrible but I don’t want to burden you with my problems.” That is, until you become close to the person. At that point the answer is always “terrible”.

Furthermore, and most important, I now know where some of the Massachusetts suburbs are in relation to Boston. Whitman is south and South Hadley is west. 

I know that Everyone from Brookline lives in New York City. Most of Newton too.

People from New Hampshire will never tell you which town they’re from because they assume you’ve never heard of it, even though we have all driven through almost the entirety of New Hampshire.

Rhode Island is small.  People from there do all know each other.  They just need five minutes (and three beers) sitting at the bar to work out how.

Mainers are nuts.

People who say they are from Lowell are from Haverhill, unless they say they’re from Haverhill.  In that case, they’re from Dracut.

If you tell someone in New York you’re from Boston, you will be asked if you are from Southie. [Editors note: Since the release of “The Town” and its subsequent popularity, some have replaced the assumption of Southie with Charlestown.  Same thing.] However, until the Afflecks do a movie about Brighton (where Old Benny boy shot “Zoom” as a tot) no one will understand that Brighton is part of Boston.

Those are but a few of the takeaways for me.

This isn’t meant to be negative. I already miss every single detail listed above.

I understand that not everyone that came into Thom’s was from New England, and, gasp, not everyone was a Sox fan. That’s what made Thom’s work.  No matter where you were from, you could feel at home.

Also, I take with me terrific memories of Sox games and Celts and Pats games which are immortalized on YouTube and on DVD. Among other highlights were Clamapaloozas, a kick-off for Narragansett 3 years before they came to New York and dozens of Harpoon events. How about Bill Lee’s birthday party and Luis Tiant’s film premiere party?  How about Freddy Lynn just hanging out at the bar drinking?

Although, I am not at Thom’s I still retain the honor of being Governor of Red Sox Nation for the state of New York.  As such, I will host watch parties all season and a World Series Trophy party as season’s end.

Follow this occasional newsletter or my blog for updates on Sox parties and some of the writing I’m doing about baseball.  Hell, follow me on Twitter.

If you have questions or comments about any of this, feel free to email me or post it on the blog or on Twitter.

Thank you sincerely for the past 5 years.

Chris

Is this the end? are you my friend? 

It seems to me, you ought to be free.

You used to be mine when the chips were down.

You used to be mine when I weren’t around.

- Jonzun, Michael; Starr, Maurice

RIP Lou Gorman

Boston.com is reporting that former Red Sox GM Lou Gorman passed away this morning.  Best wishes to his family.

I'll try to dig up some interviews I did with him a few years back.

Red Sox vs. Yankees: This Time It's Impersonal

This is big. Really big. Like Tron big. Yeah, that's it, Tron big.  It's a lot of bling and build-up and TV special effects, which ultimately will give way to a hackneyed storyline.  No, it's not Senior Tiger Blood's Charlie Sheen Circus.  I'm talking about Red Sox versus Yankees in a game I like to call "Spring Training".  And you can see it all tomorrow night at Thom's.

Think of all of the money you saved by not schlepping down to boring, sunny Florida for this otherwise meaningless game.  So, come to Thom's tomorrow and spend some or all of that money!  Yeah!  Meaningless? Who said meaningless? This is a blood feud.  Come to Thom's and get your drink on and get angry.  'Member what they did to us that time? Me too!  It is on! Oh man, it is on.  It may not be the first game of the year, but it's the first one that matters.  See you there.

Who wrote the book of love?  Harvey Frommer did.  Didn't you know?  Oh yeah.  A few days ago the long awaited release of "Remembering Fenway Park" finally happened.  Now you can own a book brave enough to feature both me and Triviamaster John Quinn among its interviewees.  All Tron aside, this book is great and dang purty.   The pre-sale price is still good on Amazon, so snatch it up while you have a chance. Harvey will be at the bar in a couple months to sign your copy and talk about the book.

Need more Sox scribbling? Read this little "once upon a time" about your favorite team. It's a doozy.

Triva answered: When did the Red Sox first wear Red Socks?  Here's the answer and then some.

Tell me, tell me, tell me

Oh, who wrote the Book Of Love

I've got to know the answer

Was it someone from above

(Oh, I wonder, wonder who, mmbadoo-ooh, who)

(Who wrote the Book Of Love)

-Warren Davis, George Malone and Charles Patrick

“Otey and Jackie: An Unlikely Rivalry”

“I was really curious if you remember anything about the tryout at Fenway for Jackie Robinson?”
“Yes, I know about that.”
“Do you remember it happening?”
“Yes, Cronin chose me - because I had good control - to throw batting practice to Robinson.”
“Oh, is that right?”


The first time I heard of Jackie Robinson’s 1945 tryout for the Red Sox, I was surprised that it had taken me so long to learn about it.  I was a Sox fan. I had read plenty about my team and its history. On top of that, I had read loads about baseball history; somehow I had just missed this episode.  I wasn’t alone, though.  I asked around and was surprised to find that there were plenty of heavy-duty baseball fans who didn’t know about it either.  



I learned some more about the Boston tryout and I found myself a tad proud.  Sure I would have been prouder if the Sox had signed Robinson.  But they didn’t. Neither did they sign the other two Negro Leaguers who tried out with him: Sam Jethroe and Marvin Williams.   Isadore Muchnick, an official representing the city of Boston, my home town, made the tryout happen, though.  I liked that. I didn't get caught up in the guilt of the Red Sox not signing Robinson on the basis of his race.  To me, that was long in the past, a product of the time. Sure my team missed a historical opportunity and the chance to pick up a Hall of Fame player.  But so did every other team in the league, and every team in the other league, too - except the Dodgers.



What interested me most was an obscure baseball story about a long-ago era in American history. I saw in Muchnick an ambitious, right-thinking man who acted without regard for his image or reputation, who became an integral link in the chain of events that led to baseball’s integration.



The coincidence that Jackie Robinson, the man who almost exactly two years later broke the color barrier in baseball, was one of the players there for a tryout has long since elevated this story from mere historical footnote to a significant, if not too widely known parable. However it has been repeated, the moral has always been the same: the Red Sox were racists. They could have had Jackie Robinson, but they didn’t want him because he was black.



This was the front bookend on a long shelf of evidence of the hiring bias of the Boston Red Sox. I thought such a cut and dried view of the tryout was too easy. That was another thing that always got me.  It was a story that seemed to have been told wrongly for a long time. I decided I needed to find out more about what happened at that tryout.



The date and place I knew:  Fenway Park, April 16, 1945.  Why it happened and who was there was another matter.



The short of it was that some Boston politicians had pressured the local clubs on the issue of the color line. They rallied behind a City Councilman named Isadore Muchnick to compel the local Major League baseball teams (the Braves and the Red Sox) to audition black players while the color barrier still existed in baseball. The hope was that it would be a first step in breaking down that barrier. The Red Sox begrudgingly agreed, and the tryout happened. None of the three players were signed by the Red Sox. At its essence, that much of the story was mostly agreed upon.



In some versions Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey was there, in some he wasn’t. Those that had general manager Eddie Collins there usually had him indifferent to the whole affair.  Most of the accounts included manager Joe Cronin, but only to say he had his back to the field.



There were supposedly white players trying out that day too. And, depending on whose account you read, they numbered as many as fifty.



I was fascinated by the mystery of it all.  No one could agree on everything that happened. How could such an important event become so poorly understood? The official record of the tryout was so sparse that later accounts understandably offered conflicting and wildly differing descriptions. Even the Negro Leaguers themselves remembered few facts from that day or the week they spent in Boston leading up to the tryout. I quickly assumed that since there were so many different versions of what had happened that none of them could be true. I set out to find out what really happened.



I read every contemporary newspaper and magazine account of the tryout and came to the conclusion that only one of the writers was actually there.  Wendell Smith of the Pittsburgh Courier was instrumental in organizing the tryout, and likely wrote the only firsthand account of the day. To me his version was likeliest to get the facts right. Other versions of the story, many of which contradicted Smith’s account, were based on second-hand retellings and probably not as accurate.



Next, I read what baseball writers had written about it more recently, and found that nearly nobody had found a witness to the event.  This omission seemed strange to me. After all, people - lots of them - were there.  Of course the principals were long dead, but there had to be someone alive who remembered being at Fenway Park the day it happened. Or at least someone was alive who remembered talking to people who were there when it happened. Thus, I began my search for witnesses.



I asked just about anybody I could find associated with the Red Sox or baseball in general in 1945 and had learned nothing.



“Do you remember the tryout for Jackie Robinson at Fenway on April 16,1945?”  I asked Dave “Boo” Ferriss, the 1945 rookie sensation, who won 21 games on the mound for the Red Sox that year, what he knew about it.  He never heard of it.  He wasn’t called up until April 29, two weeks after the tryout. So he wasn’t around and he swore no one ever mentioned it to him.



I asked teammates Bobby Doerr and Johnny Pesky what they had heard of the tryout. Nothing again. They weren’t back from the war yet at that time. And if they had known anything about it, they had long since forgotten.



I asked former Fenway office boy, Monsignor Thomas Daly. He knew the ins and outs of everyone and everything that went on at Fenway Park in the mid-forties. He could still recite the address of almost every employee of the ball club in 1945 (including Lefty Grove’s in Lonaconing, Maryland).  Daly had attended the Negro League exhibitions at Fenway in the mid-forties, but he had never heard of Jackie Robinson auditioning for the team.



I even asked former Yankee General Manager, Lee MacPhail, now 93-years-old, who started working for the Yankees in 1945 when his father Larry became a co-owner of the team.  All I received back was a curt, non-memory of the event. “No. I never heard of that.”



When I finally dialed the number of the oldest living Red Sox player, and one of only two players from the 1945 Red Sox roster still living, I wasn’t expecting much.



My modest expectations were completely blown away with what I found.  Here was a 95-year-old, cup of coffee, war call-up named William Otis “Otey” Clark of Boscobel, Wisconsin, not just telling me that he had heard of the tryout, but describing important details of the day he threw to the Kansas City Monarchs shortstop and future trailblazer, Jack Roosevelt Robinson. He said, “Joe Cronin would say ‘take a little off’ and all of that.”



I recoiled.  I actually pulled the phone away from my ear and stared at the receiver, wondering if I had heard him right.  I wanted to believe Otey, but I had spoken to too many elderly former players, who remembered their careers frozen in great moments, and then filled in the missing details in no predictable order.  I have heard players say they saw plays while playing for teams they never played on.  I’m not being mean or even cynical.  They weren’t lying. They were aging. And age plays a funny trick on memory.



Over the years, there were minutiae of their days in the bigs they never even imagined someone else would care about. Why should they have remembered it all? So some obsessed fan, who called himself a writer, could call them up and ask them for instant recall, decades after these trivial things passed? Selfishly my answer was “yes”. I needed to know very obscure things about their playing days.  



To their credit, the men I spoke with always did the best they could, and very few said no.  But verifiable facts from them could be difficult to gain.



Truthfully, to be fair, just a few years ago, many of their stories could have easily entered the lore of baseball history - an old trunk full of dusty myths we love to hear and tell. In fact, lore was just what many of the stories of the Robinson tryout were based upon. Their most important details were misfitted hand-me-downs, reprinted on faith alone.



But with the recent advent of the internet, research has blown the dust off that trunk forever.  When I did these interviews last year, any story from a 1945 issue of the Pittsburgh Courier could have been read from my home. Hell, I could have read it on my phone! Facts were checkable, and many of the great old stories were now, sadly, being shown to have been inaccurate. The myths were being busted.



That was, at essence, why I began studying the tryout.  The mythology surrounding it had been taken as fact for so long, that the facts had been long ignored.  And here was a fact on the other end of the line:  Otey Clark pitched at the tryout for Jackie Robinson at Fenway Park in 1945.



My doubts about Otey faded; he seemed so sure. He described why he was there and at what time he came to the ball park.  He remembered talking with a black reporter and how Jackie hit.  He was right. He was there!  Otey got only one year in the majors, the highlight of which was beating Bob Feller at Fenway Park. A neat happenstance, though, gave him another very notable performance.  



Otey told me that his manager, Joe Cronin, called him up the day before and asked him to be at the ballpark at 10 am.  He explained, “Cronin chose me because I had good control.” When he got there, he dressed and went out to the bullpen to warm up.  According to Otey, Robinson hit well, but didn’t have a strong enough arm to play shortstop.  He said, “I didn't think he could throw from the hole behind third.”



What was Otey doing there? Later accounts of that day mostly had high school players and other amateurs on the field with Robinson, Williams and Jethroe.  Robinson even said later that he took it as a slight that he was made to try out with kids.  But Robinson didn’t even recognize the “old man” giving him tips in the batting cage, Hall of Famer Hugh Duffy. It’s very possible he would not have known who some of the current Sox players were.  



Wendell Smith’s story said that the Negro Leaguers shared the field with seven white aspirants, not high school kids. Could some of them have been Red Sox players? If so, it was unlikely that Smith would have recognized the Red Sox wartime call-ups either, since many of them had never played a major league game.  

Otey was the pitcher Smith described in his story as “an impressive, ambitious recruit”. He may have been trying to exaggerate the hitters’ performances by elevating the pitcher’s ability.  But at a month shy of thirty-years-old, Otey was still very ambitious to be a major leaguer, and he had some great games ahead of him.  Officially, he wasn’t a major leaguer, yet.  He wouldn’t be one until the next day, when he took the mound for the Sox in the seventh inning of the season opener at Yankee Stadium. There he pitched one-and-two-thirds no-hit innings with a strike out. His long aspirations were finally fulfilled.



As for being impressive, Otey impressed the Red Sox coaches well enough the previous fall. While pitching for the Red Sox AAA affiliate in Louisville, he threw thirteen innings with a dislocated kneecap he had suffered after being hit by a line drive from the first Baltimore Orioles batter he faced that day. “I’ve had worse than this playing football,” he said to his manager, Harry Leibold.



In 1945, he showed the Red Sox a flash of that toughness, when he beat Bob Feller 2-1 at Fenway Park on September 6, then shut out the A’s, also at home, on September 19. Both wins were complete games. In his next appearance, he gave up no earned runs in six and one-third innings of relief against the Yankees. Otey finished the 1945 season with four wins to four losses and a respectable 3.07 ERA.



In 1946, Otey found himself back in the minors, pitching with Louisville.  Louisville had won the American Association title, which meant they played the champions of the International League in the Junior World Series.  As fate would have it, in 1946 the International League champions were the Montreal Royals, whose star second baseman, Jackie Robinson, was just a year from being called up by the Dodgers.  I asked Otey if he exchanged any words with Robinson when they met again.  “Just hello,” he said.



Otey continued to play baseball for the next ten years or so, but never made it back to the majors.  At the age of ninety-five, he had very few memories of his only season with the Red Sox, aside from  pitching to Jackie Robinson and beating Bob Feller.



I was thrilled to find Otey and called him several times. Usually, he didn’t notice when I tested his memory by repeating the same questions. He just gave me the same answers every time.



Not only was Otey the oldest living Red Sox player, he was also the oldest living major leaguer born in Wisconsin. So, I contacted the Brewers in the hope of getting Otey a day of recognition at Miller Park.  It didn’t happen.  Otey politely declined to have anyone come to his home.



I last interviewed Otey on June 23.  On October 20, he passed away at his home in Boscobel, Wisconsin.  When I heard of his passing I felt terrible that I had never told anyone Otey’s story.  For some stupid reason, I thought I had time.






Please leave questions or comments, or let me know if you’d like a copy of Wendell Smith’s article about the tryout emailed to you.



This isn’t meant to be the story of what happened at the tryout; that will come later. I only wrote this to introduce Otey to baseball fans who might not yet know him.


I’m writing a book about integrated baseball in Boston, for which I will give periodic updates here. Please follow the blog or check in occasionally.  I happily welcome all feedback and new information.