Fenway Gothic

[The Talented Allen Ripley]

The Tommy Harper thread got me thinking that Red Sox history has more than its fair share of twisted monsters. Racist drunkards seem to cast the longest shadow (that there are plural is probably a very bad sign), but the club is no one-trick pony when it comes to humanity's failings; ego, greed and fear have reared their ugly heads many a time as well.
 
In the Faulknerian plantation that is Fenway, Tom and Jean Yawkey loom large as flawed patriarch and matriarch, but who else rounds out the family? Imperious uncle James Lannin, who traded Tris Speaker to Cleveland after Speaker refused a pay cut? Cousin Harry Frazee, mismanaging money while dreaming of The Great White Way? Brother Joe Cronin, who as player-manager engineered a trade that sent Pee Wee Reese packing because Reese played the same position as him? And later passed on a chance at signing Willie Mays? Nephew Pinky Higgins, drinking pal of Tom Yawkey and virulent racist in his own right? And lurking in the basement, the most horrific beast of all: clubhouse man Donald Fitzpatrick, predator of young boys.
 
There are plenty of candidates to add to this rogue's gallery... Buddy LeRoux, Haywood Sullivan, Jerry/Jared Remy. Let's take this opportunity to reflect on all the fucked-up repugnant shit that's gone on in the 100+ years of this franchise. It's enough to fill a novel that you'd skip reading in your sophomore English class.
 
Vent. Feel the hate flow through you.

 

[touchstone033]

There's a wife-beating wing, with Wil Codero, Julio Lugo and Carl Everett (who also beat his kids).

 

[Pozo the Clown]

There's a wife-beating wing, with Wil Codero, Julio Lugo and Carl Everett (who also beat his kids).

 
This guy belongs in that wing: "Red Sox pitcher Wes Gardner was arrested on charges of assaulting his wife in a Baltimore hotel room in August 1989, but she dropped the charges when he agreed to attend domestic-violence counseling" http://articles.philly.com/1990-12-07/news/25924903_1_family-violence-project-domestic-violence-eagles-fans
 
.

 

[YTF]

Given that the charges were dropped I'm not sure if the player qualifies, but here's something you don't see everyday.
 
On May 6, 1983 Julio Valdez was arrested by Boston police while in the dugout during the game and charged with statutory rape. The charges were dismissed in July of that year after a grand jury refused to return an indictment. However, Valdez never played baseball at the Major League level again.

 

[Dan to Theo to Ben]

UUU attempted to kill 5 farm workers with a machete and gasoline but that was 3 years after he left the team.

 

[Lose Remerswaal]

Admitted steroid user Paxton Crawford, who is probably better remembered by "falling out of bed on to a glass and cutting himself, causing significant blood loss" (and definitely there was no hooker involved in this accident).

 

[Mugsy's Jock]

Ryan Lavarnway and Craig Breslow, who went to Yale.  [ugh.]

 

[SaveBooFerriss]

I do not want to speak with Rip, but I do not think he was concerned with mere players (whose tenure was often short), but of the institutional management that created an bad atmosphere.   He can certainly correct me if I am mistaken.   

 

[threecy]

There's a wife-beating wing, with Wil Codero, Julio Lugo and Carl Everett (who also beat his kids).

 
Unfortunately, Manny Ramirez ends up there as well.

 

[HriniakPosterChild]

/

 

[reggiecleveland]

/

Kordell Stewart did not play for the Red Sox

 

[Tyrone Biggums]

Butch Hobson- Trainwreck coke head that was the shepherd to one of the worst seasons in Sox history

Gump - see game 7 2003 ALCS

Jimy Williams - 8,134 lineups in a 162 game season.

Joe Kerrigan - just an all around dick

Jose Offerman - POS that stole 28 million and almost killed someone years later with a bat.

Matt Young/Jack Clark - yes they played here along with Otis Nixon. Matt Young was unofficially responsible for the suicide of at least 10 season ticket holders on the 1st base side.

Bobby V - Too much to put in this thread let's just say that he was a failure and keep this PG.

Charles Steinberg- The Dentist. Ridding the Sox of the cavities known as Pedro Lowe Francona etc...Mr. mudslinger indeed.

Kevin Kennedy - I actually didn't mind him as a person but he was just a shit manager in general.

 

[Yaz4Ever]

Butch Hobson- Trainwreck coke head that was the shepherd to one of the worst seasons in Sox history

Gump - see game 7 2003 ALCS

Jimy Williams - 8,134 lineups in a 162 game season.

Joe Kerrigan - just an all around dick

Jose Offerman - POS that stole 28 million and almost killed someone years later with a bat.

Matt Young/Jack Clark - yes they played here along with Otis Nixon. Matt Young was unofficially responsible for the suicide of at least 10 season ticket holders on the 1st base side.

Bobby V - Too much to put in this thread let's just say that he was a failure and keep this PG.

Charles Steinberg- The Dentist. Ridding the Sox of the cavities known as Pedro Lowe Francona etc...Mr. mudslinger indeed.

Kevin Kennedy - I actually didn't mind him as a person but he was just a shit manager in general.

Can you explain more about Kerrigan being a dick?  Not disagreeing with you, just never heard that before.  

 

[richgedman'sghost]

Can you explain more about Kerrigan being a dick?  Not disagreeing with you, just never heard that before.  

 
 

Butch Hobson- Trainwreck coke head that was the shepherd to one of the worst seasons in Sox history

Gump - see game 7 2003 ALCS

Jimy Williams - 8,134 lineups in a 162 game season.

Joe Kerrigan - just an all around dick

Jose Offerman - POS that stole 28 million and almost killed someone years later with a bat.

Matt Young/Jack Clark - yes they played here along with Otis Nixon. Matt Young was unofficially responsible for the suicide of at least 10 season ticket holders on the 1st base side.

Bobby V - Too much to put in this thread let's just say that he was a failure and keep this PG.

Charles Steinberg- The Dentist. Ridding the Sox of the cavities known as Pedro Lowe Francona etc...Mr. mudslinger indeed.

Kevin Kennedy - I actually didn't mind him as a person but he was just a shit manager in general.

Not wanting to speak for the opening poster, but I assume RIP was referring to more off the field issues. With all due respect, I think you misunderstood the meaning of the thread.  In the cases of Kennedy, Gump,  Williams and even Valentine, I do not think that they broke any laws or were arrested for any crimes. They were also never accused of being racists, sexists, wife beaters or pedophiles. So although you might have disagreed with their managerial styles,  they do not belong in this thread. Jack Clark had some issues with the I.R.S.  so he fits right in.  Although Matt Young was a disaster of a free agent pick-up, he also stayed on the correct side of the law. Finally, how do you know that Steinberg was responsible for the departures of Pedro and DLowe? He was not in baseball ops? I thought it was pretty well established even before the playoffs that Lowe was headed out the door and that the Red Sox would not match a 5 year deal to Pedro? Care to offer any evidence that Steinberg was responsible for either of those moves? 

 

[richgedman'sghost]

Ryan Lavarnway and Craig Breslow, who went to Yale.  [ugh.]

What was wrong with these guys? Care to explain? Breslow pitched very effectively for the Red Sox in the playoffs last year.

 

[Deweys New Stance]

What was wrong with these guys? Care to explain? Breslow pitched very effectively for the Red Sox in the playoffs last year.

 
Mugsys Jock is a Harvard man.  And I guess the trouble that folks are having adding to this thread is that Rip covered the most repugnant characters/episodes up front.  Cordero and Everett certainly do belong.  And noted alcoholic Joe McCarthy could be added for starting Denny Galehouse over Mel Parnell on a drunken hunch in the '48 playoff game.  And there were rumors that Tris Speaker had admitted to belonging to the Klan...

 

[John Marzano Olympic Hero]

Can you explain more about Kerrigan being a dick?  Not disagreeing with you, just never heard that before.
 

 
This is just one story that I recently heard (yesterday on Comcast Sports) from Lou Merloni. Michael Felger asked him if he ever played for a manager he didn't like and Merloni said, "Yeah, Joe Kerrigan." Felger asked him if he ever intentionally sabotaged a game because he disliked him so much (this was in reference to the Pats' O-Line and their apparent dislike for their coach). Merloni said that he wouldn't do that, because he wasn't very good and he'd get sat down for a week, but he did say there were times on a 2-0 count where Kerrigan would give the take sign and Merloni would swing, "Just to piss him off".
 
Obviously this story doesn't mean that Kerrigan was a world-class asshole, but it does illustrate that at least some of the players (I doubt that Merloni was in the minority) didn't like him.

 

[Yaz4Ever]

 
This is just one story that I recently heard (yesterday on Comcast Sports) from Lou Merloni. Michael Felger asked him if he ever played for a manager he didn't like and Merloni said, "Yeah, Joe Kerrigan." Felger asked him if he ever intentionally sabotaged a game because he disliked him so much (this was in reference to the Pats' O-Line and their apparent dislike for their coach). Merloni said that he wouldn't do that, because he wasn't very good and he'd get sat down for a week, but he did say there were times on a 2-0 count where Kerrigan would give the take sign and Merloni would swing, "Just to piss him off".
 
Obviously this story doesn't mean that Kerrigan was a world-class asshole, but it does illustrate that at least some of the players (I doubt that Merloni was in the minority) didn't like him.

Thank you.  Never heard anything negative about him before, but that doesn't mean much.

 

[touchstone033]

Marty Bergen played for the Boston Beaneaters, so I'm not sure if he counts, but he did murder his wife and two kids. So that's bad.

 

[Carmen Fanzone]

I do not want to speak with Rip

 
Who does, really?

 

[The Talented Allen Ripley]

I do not want to speak with Rip, but I do not think he was concerned with mere players (whose tenure was often short), but of the institutional management that created an bad atmosphere.   He can certainly correct me if I am mistaken.   

 
That's generally the spirit of the thread, although players are fair game. For instance, the whole Wade Boggs/Margo Adams/Delta Force thing fits the bill, I think, just because it's got all the necessary ingredients, although it borders on farce. It was absurd then, even more so now... I'd love to see what would have happened if that all occurred in today's TMZ age. Well, I wouldn't love it as a Sox fan, but it would appeal to the part of me that slows down to look at car wrecks.
 

 
 
Not wanting to speak for the opening poster, but I assume RIP was referring to more off the field issues. With all due respect, I think you misunderstood the meaning of the thread.  In the cases of Kennedy, Gump,  Williams and even Valentine, I do not think that they broke any laws or were arrested for any crimes. They were also never accused of being racists, sexists, wife beaters or pedophiles. So although you might have disagreed with their managerial styles,  they do not belong in this thread. Jack Clark had some issues with the I.R.S.  so he fits right in.  Although Matt Young was a disaster of a free agent pick-up, he also stayed on the correct side of the law. Finally, how do you know that Steinberg was responsible for the departures of Pedro and DLowe? He was not in baseball ops? I thought it was pretty well established even before the playoffs that Lowe was headed out the door and that the Red Sox would not match a 5 year deal to Pedro? Care to offer any evidence that Steinberg was responsible for either of those moves? 

 
I give Tyrone Biggums zero points, and may God have mercy on his soul.
 
Between the lines stuff doesn't belong in this thread, although Grady Little's blunder was so monolithic that a strong case could be made. Literary tragedy, after all, deals with the downfall of good men through their flaws. Zimmer's handling of the last few months of '78 could qualify. Buckner? I never really blamed Buckner in the first place.
 
Other than that, we're talking about personalities and deeds off the field.
 

 
Mugsys Jock is a Harvard man.  And I guess the trouble that folks are having adding to this thread is that Rip covered the most repugnant characters/episodes up front.  Cordero and Everett certainly do belong.  And noted alcoholic Joe McCarthy could be added for starting Denny Galehouse over Mel Parnell on a drunken hunch in the '48 playoff game.  And there were rumors that Tris Speaker had admitted to belonging to the Klan...

 
Most likely true, but I described the issues in the most cursory of ways so that if anyone wanted to explore them in a more in-depth level, there would be room to do so. There's some crazy shit that's gone down here. Although pretty much everyone in baseball was racist for a long, long time, so the Sox are hardly unique on that front, sadly.
 
I chose the Gothic analogy because we should be telling stories in this thread. JMOH's was a good example.

 

[The Talented Allen Ripley]

 
Who does, really?

 
I laughed.

 

[Tyrone Biggums]

 
 
Not wanting to speak for the opening poster, but I assume RIP was referring to more off the field issues. With all due respect, I think you misunderstood the meaning of the thread.  In the cases of Kennedy, Gump,  Williams and even Valentine, I do not think that they broke any laws or were arrested for any crimes. They were also never accused of being racists, sexists, wife beaters or pedophiles. So although you might have disagreed with their managerial styles,  they do not belong in this thread. Jack Clark had some issues with the I.R.S.  so he fits right in.  Although Matt Young was a disaster of a free agent pick-up, he also stayed on the correct side of the law. Finally, how do you know that Steinberg was responsible for the departures of Pedro and DLowe? He was not in baseball ops? I thought it was pretty well established even before the playoffs that Lowe was headed out the door and that the Red Sox would not match a 5 year deal to Pedro? Care to offer any evidence that Steinberg was responsible for either of those moves? 

Steinberg wasn't responsible. I more or less pointed him out as the guy behind all of the mudslinging with the players on the way out the door which was pretty bad in itself.

 

[Otis Foster]

Well, there was Buddy Leroux's  coupe d'etat to take over management in 1983 and expel Jean Yawkey and Hayward. Great timing. He managed to screw up a Tony C tribute night.
 
The nice thing about that shitfight is that someone had to lose.
 
There was also the business about a drunk Pinky Higgins, passing out while on the bench and knocking over a pile of bats, but that's between the lines.

 

[bankshot1]

I am more than a little surprised after skimming the posts, (and forgive if I'm wrong) but no mention of the Gerbil, Don Zimmer? As far as I know he was not a drunkard, racist,wife-beater, or child-molester, but his inability to deal and manage with talented but out-spoken players (Jenkins, Lee) and shipping them out of Boston, penalized a very very good team.

 

[mabrowndog]

I'll add a chapter from the team's broadcasting side. From my writeup on Ned Martin in the SoSH Wiki, the way the club and its radio affiliate treated this guy (and his partner, Jim Woods) was petty and embarrassing.
 

 
The straightforward and honest approach Martin and [Jim] Woods took with their work earned them a legion of fans, but not necessarily those in front office and radio station circles. [The broadcasters] eschewed being perceived as homers or frontrunners, or as putting lipstick on a pig. This irked owner Tom Yawkey and some station personnel. One station manager voiced displeasure that Martin would raise his voice equally high on home runs hit by the opposition.
 
In 1976, the flagship station for Red Sox coverage shifted up the dial from WHDH-AM 850 to WMEX-AM 1510. As reported by the Boston Globe's Jack Craig, the Red Sox "broadcast coordinator Gene Kirby was anxious to see Ned Martin fired as a team broadcaster. Trouble between the two had begun a few years earlier on opening day when Kirby objected to Martin's description of muddy conditions at home plate at Fenway Park."
 
Martin received several disciplinary memos from his bosses, some of which might seem frivolous in retrospect. One criticized him for failing to wear a necktie despite 100-degree heat. Another instructed [Ken] Coleman to bar Martin from the broadcast booth if he weren't properly attired. Ned reportedly threatened to wear a tuxedo in mock protest. "Given how many clowns he offended, it's a wonder he lasted 30 years," Clark Booth would later write.
 
Another issue the station brass had with Martin was their allegation that he failed to interact sufficiently with sponsors, something he later acknowledged. "I tried, I tried hard for a while, but I just couldn't do it. I'm not a commercial person. I just don't have that gift of gab," he said.
 
Prior to the 1978 season, WMEX owner Dick Richmond sold the station to Cincinnati-based Mariner Communications, which changed the call letters to WITS and the broadcast format to talk radio. At season's end, station boss Joe Scallan unceremoniously dropped the ax on Martin. Woods then resigned in protest, and they were replaced by Ken Coleman and Rico Petrocelli. The station's ratings plummeted in the wake of public outrage over the dismissals. As the Boston Globe's Jack Craig reported, Woods "jumped before he could be pushed, as was Ned Martin, from that job."

 
 
And from a similarly-penned Wiki entry on Woods:
 

 
Woods, wrote the Boston Globe's Jack Craig, "possessed a fearlessness consistent with a fellow who never wanted a No. 1 announcing job lest it interfere with his independence and enjoyment. Together, Martin and Woods were pure gold to the audience, but it was difficult to get any Sox official to admit it."

 

[Monbo Jumbo]

Well, there was Buddy Leroux's  coupe d'etat to take over management in 1983 and expel Jean Yawkey and Hayward. Great timing. He managed to screw up a Tony C tribute night.
 
The nice thing about that shitfight is that someone had to lose....

 
 
I remember my old man saying in the 70s that Buddy LeRoux was banging Jean Yawkey.  I've never seen that intimated anywhere in print.   It makes sense, as it explains both his meteoric rise from team trainer to part owner, as well as the extreme acrimony between them later. 

 

[bankshot1]

 
 
I remember my old man saying in the 70s that Buddy LeRoux was banging Jean Yawkey.  I've never seen that intimated anywhere in print.   It makes sense, as it explains both his meteoric rise from team trainer to part owner, as well as the extreme acrimony between them later. 

Buddy pumped her up with drugs, while Haywood banged her.
 
Haywood was JY's pet.

 

[Monbo Jumbo]

Eiffel Tower at Fenway Park?

 

[OCST]

Well, there was Buddy Leroux's  coupe d'etat to take over management in 1983 .

What engine and transmission did you have in that bad boy?

 

[Monbo Jumbo]

What engine and transmission did you have in that bad boy?

 
 
lol - I'm sure it was state of the arte, whatever it was 

 

[YTF]

More recently, there was the Francona smear campaign.

 

[Al Zarilla]

Buddy pumped her up with drugs, while Haywood banged her.
 
Haywood was JY's pet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMUEqRx-C-g

 

[runnels3]

Well, there was Buddy Leroux's  coupe d'etat to take over management in 1983 and expel Jean Yawkey and Hayward. Great timing. He managed to screw up a Tony C tribute night.
 
The nice thing about that shitfight is that someone had to lose.
 
There was also the business about a drunk Pinky Higgins, passing out while on the bench and knocking over a pile of bats, but that's between the lines.

 
It gets much worse.  [quoting from Plagues of the Sport] In 1968, driving drunk and out of control, he ran over and killed a Louisiana state highway worker and injured three others. He was charged with negligent homicide and sentenced to four years hard labor in the Louisiana State Prison. He was paroled after serving less than two months but died of a heart attack the day after he was released.