Dick O'Connell | |
|---|---|
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| Born | (1914-09-19)September 19, 1914 Winthrop, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Died | August 18, 2002(2002-08-18) (aged 87) Lexington, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Occupation | Baseball executive |
| Years active | 1947–1977 |
Richard Henry O'Connell (September 19, 1914 – August 18, 2002) was an American front office executive inMajor League Baseball. He wasexecutive vice president of theBoston Red Sox from 1961 through 1977 and served asgeneral manager of the team from September 16, 1965, through October 24, 1977, a period during which he played a pivotal role in restoring the Red Sox to contending status, won twoAmerican League pennants, and helped make the team a flagship MLB franchise.
A native ofWinthrop, Massachusetts, O'Connell attendedBoston College, earning a bachelor's degree in 1937 and a master's degree the following year. He worked in private business and taught and coached athletics atSanborn Academy,Kingston, New Hampshire, until the outbreak of World War II. While serving in the U.S. Navy, he befriended a fellow officer,Jim Britt, the radioplay-by-play announcer for the Red Sox and Boston'sNational League team, theBraves. After the war, Britt put O'Connell in touch with the Red Sox front office, and he entered baseball in1947 as business manager of theLynn Red Sox, the Bosox' Class BNew England Leaguefarm club.
Two years later, O'Connell joined Boston's front office in an administrative capacity. He rose through the ranks, serving as "home secretary"[1] and director of stadium operations,[2] then became the Red Sox' business manager during the late 1950s.[3] It appeared that he would rise no further.Tom Yawkey, the Red Sox' owner andclub president since 1933, had historically hired famous former players to serve as his general manager, and through 1960 his three GMs—Eddie Collins,Joe Cronin andBucky Harris—were all current or future members of theBaseball Hall of Fame; Collins and Cronin were standout players, while Harris had won three American Leaguepennants and twoWorld Series as a field manager. With the Red Sox' greatleft fielder,Ted Williams, about to retire, and with the team's fortunes at a low ebb, Yawkey fired Harris in September 1960 and informally offered the GM post to Williams.[4] But the future Hall-of-Fame hitter was not interested in an office job; he preferred to fish and teach hitting inspring training.
As the GM seat lay vacant—but perhaps being kept warm for Williams, who was named an "executive assistant" to Yawkey—O'Connell was promoted to executive vice president; meanwhile,field managerPinky Higgins, who had become a friend of Yawkey's, staked out a position as the top "baseball man" in the Red Sox organization.The New York Times reported on October 1, 1960, that Higgins would assume responsibility for all player personnel decisions, Major and minor league, in the Boston organization, a role typically performed by a general manager. With this restructuring, the club spent the1961 and1962 seasons without a full-time GM. Although O'Connell is listed by the Red Sox media guide asde facto general manager, he retained the title of business manager[5] and likely focused only on the administrative aspect of the job; it is unclear (and doubtful) that he had any baseball operations role. Higgins shed his on-field responsibilities and formally became executive vice president/GM at the close of the1962 season.
During the early 1960s, Boston overhauled its farm system andscouting operation and was beginning to produce outstanding talent, but the big league Red Sox continued to struggle and attendance dwindled. Finally, during the closing days of a dispiriting 100-loss1965 season, Yawkey fired Higgins and offered the general manager position to O'Connell on September 16.
Still seen as inexperienced in baseball operations and talent evaluation, O'Connell initially shared power with vice president, player personnelHaywood Sullivan, a former Major Leaguecatcher and manager recruited from theKansas City Athletics in November 1965. They worked together to replace fading veterans with young players during another losing campaign in1966.
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But by1967 O'Connell was in full command as general manager of the Red Sox. He promotedDick Williams to manager and traded for players such aspitcherGary Bell,infielderJerry Adair andcatcherElston Howard. The Red Sox, led byMVPCarl Yastrzemski and ALCy Young Award winning pitcherJim Lonborg, stunned the sporting world by winning the AL pennant and pushing the powerfulSt. Louis Cardinals to seven games in the1967 World Series. The team's home attendance rose by 113 percent, from 811,172 in 1966 to 1,727,832. In recognition of the dramatic turnaround, O'Connell was named Executive of the Year byThe Sporting News.
The Red Sox posted winning seasons from 1968 to 1974 and continued to rank among the AL leaders in home attendance, but could not match the success of the league's dominant teams of the era, theDetroit Tigers,Baltimore Orioles andOakland Athletics. Nonetheless, Boston continued to harvest great talent from its farm system, includingCarlton Fisk,Dwight Evans,Cecil Cooper,Bill Lee,John Curtis,Lynn McGlothen,Ben Oglivie,Juan Beníquez,Rogelio Moret,Rick Burleson,Jim Rice andFred Lynn. The team also somewhat overcame its reputation for racial prejudice by increasing the number of African Americans and Latin Americans on its playing roster.
In1975, led byrookies Lynn and Rice, the Red Sox won the AL East title, swept defending world champion Oakland in theALCS, and battled another NL powerhouse, theCincinnati Reds, to the limit in a thrillingWorld Series. Setting a new precedent, the 23-year-old Lynn was selected bothRookie of the Year andMost Valuable Player of the American League. Once again, O'Connell was hailed as Executive of the Year in Major League Baseball.
But O'Connell's tenure with the Red Sox and his baseball career were about to come to an end.
Tom Yawkey had developed a close friendship with Haywood Sullivan—by 1975 playing a reduced role for the Red Sox as director ofamateur scouting—but trusted O'Connell to be his top baseball and business executive. The 73-year-old owner died fromleukemia onJuly 9, 1976, nine months after the 1975 pennant. His widow and heir,Jean, was both a strong ally of Sullivan's and an adversary of O'Connell's. She criticized O'Connell's player transactions, his willingness to negotiate with (and ultimately sign to new contracts) potentialfree agents Fisk, Lynn and Burleson, his attempted big-money purchase ofRollie Fingers andJoe Rudi from the Oakland A's in June 1976 (vetoed within hours byCommissioner of BaseballBowie Kuhn), and his signing of free agentrelief pitcherBill Campbell.
When Mrs. Yawkey put the club up for sale in1977, she chose—and ultimately joined—Sullivan's ownership group, and then, on October 24, 1977, fired O'Connell as GM in favor of Sullivan, after theRed Sox won 97 games but finished2+1⁄2 games behind theNew York Yankees in the pennant race.
The firing ended O'Connell's baseball career, although almost six years later, on June 6, 1983, a bizarre postscript was added. A power struggle broke out among the Red Sox owners, and one of thegeneral partners,Edward "Buddy" LeRoux, staged acoup d'état. LeRoux announced a takeover of the Red Sox, and fired Sullivan, his fellow general partner, from the GM role. Surprisingly, he unveiled O'Connell, now 68, as his choice to lead the team's front office[6] — marking the first time O'Connell had set foot insideFenway Park since his 1977 dismissal. But LeRoux' "coup" was halted by court order, and Sullivan remained in power. LeRoux eventually sold his share of the club in 1987, Mrs. Yawkey died in 1992, and Sullivan sold his general partnership late in 1993.
Over time, O'Connell and the Red Sox mended fences and he was admitted to theBoston Red Sox Hall of Fame in 1997. Pundits hailed him as the architect who most helped to createRed Sox Nation by bringing the team back from near-irrelevance in 1967.
By the time of his death, at age 87 on August 18, 2002, inLexington, Massachusetts, O'Connell was recognized as one of the most important men in Red Sox annals. He was praised by authorHoward Bryant, who stated in a 2004 interview with The Hardball Times, "To me, Dick O'Connell is the most underrated person in Red Sox history. He was the first Red Sox executive to look at the club and make baseball decisions and not crony decisions."[7]