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| Haywood Sullivan | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Catcher | |
| Born:(1930-12-15)December 15, 1930 Donalsonville, Georgia, U.S. | |
| Died: February 12, 2003(2003-02-12) (aged 72) Fort Myers, Florida, U.S. | |
Batted: Right Threw: Right | |
| MLB debut | |
| September 20, 1955, for the Boston Red Sox | |
| Last MLB appearance | |
| June 30, 1963, for the Kansas City Athletics | |
| MLB statistics | |
| Batting average | .226 |
| Home runs | 13 |
| Runs batted in | 87 |
| Managerial record | 54–82 |
| Winning % | .397 |
Stats atBaseball Reference  | |
| Teams | |
| As player As manager | |
| Career highlights and awards | |
Haywood Cooper Sullivan (December 15, 1930 – February 12, 2003) was an American college and professionalbaseball player who was acatcher,manager,general manager and club owner inMajor League Baseball. From May 23, 1978, through November 23, 1993, he was ageneral partner in theBoston Red Sox, where he parlayed a $200,000 investment into a cash out of at least $12 million.
Sullivan was born inDonalsonville, Georgia, and raised inDothan, Alabama. He graduated from Dothan High School on May 27, 1949. He received an athletic scholarship to attend theUniversity of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, where he was the startingquarterback for coachBob Woodruff'sFlorida Gators football team in1950 and1951,[1] and a standoutcatcher for coachDave Fuller'sGators baseball team in 1951 and 1952.
In his two seasons as the Gators' quarterback, Sullivan threw for 2,016 yards in an era when the emphasis was on a running offense.
As a Gators baseball player, he was named to the All-Southeastern Conference (SEC) team in 1952.
He threw and batted right-handed, stood 6 feet 4 inches (1.93 m) tall and weighed 215 pounds (98 kg).
Sullivan signed a guaranteed $45,000bonus contract with the Red Sox in 1952, a contract which would not have been available a year later under pending baseball rules changes, and thereby ended his college football and baseball career after his junior year. He was later inducted into theUniversity of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame as a "Gator Great."[2]
Sullivan's professional baseball playing career—derailed by military service, which caused him to miss the 1953 and 1954 seasons, and back surgery that cost him the entire 1958 campaign—was largely confined to theminor leagues for its first eight seasons.
After three short stays and only eight total games played for the Red Sox (in 1955, 1957 and 1959), Sullivan finally established himself in the big leagues in1960 at age 29. He was the starting backstop for Boston's first three games, including the then-traditional "Presidential Opener" atWashington'sGriffith Stadium.[3] However, Sullivan injured his hand in the third game of the season[4] and struggled offensively afterward,hitting only .135 through June 13 and 36games played.[3] That day, the Red Sox acquired catcherRuss Nixon from theCleveland Indians, and from then through the end of the campaign, Sullivan played only sparingly. He ended the season as Boston's second-most-used catcher, behind Nixon, with 50 games and342+1⁄3innings caught. But he batted only .161 with fourextra-base hits and was left exposed in the1960 Major League Baseball expansion draft. The newly created edition of theWashington Senators franchise picked him up, then traded him to theKansas City Athletics forpitcherMarty Kutyna on December 29, 1960.[5]
Sullivan played for2+1⁄2 seasons with the Athletics, and was the club's semi-regular catcher in1961 and1962, starting 78 and 80 games behind the plate. In a three-game span against his former team, the Red Sox, atMunicipal Stadium from July 12–14, 1962, Sullivan had sevenhits in 11at bats, with twohome runs, although Boston won all three games.[6] For his MLB career, Sullivan batted .226 with 192 hits, 30doubles and 13 home runs in 312 games over all or parts of seven seasons.[7]
In 1964, Sullivan was named manager of the Athletics'Birmingham Baronsfarm club in theDouble-ASouthern League. His 1964 Barons—the first integrated team in Birmingham[8]—missed the pennant by just one game, earning him a promotion to theVancouver Mounties of theTriple-APacific Coast League in 1965. After only 25 games in Vancouver, Sullivan was called to Kansas City to manage the parent Athletics on May 16, 1965, succeedingMel McGaha. At 34, Sullivan was the youngest manager in Major League Baseball thatseason.[9] Kansas City had lost 21 of its first 26 games and was lodged in last place in the ten-teamAmerican League when McGaha was fired, and they remained in the cellar for the rest of the1965 season, winning 54 and losing 82 (.397) with Sullivan at the reins.
| Team | Year | Regular season | Postseason | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Games | Won | Lost | Win % | Finish | Won | Lost | Win % | Result | ||
| KCA | 1965 | 136 | 54 | 82 | .397 | Tenth in AL | – | – | – | – |
| Total | 136 | 54 | 82 | .397 | 0 | 0 | – | |||
On November 28, 1965, he was recruited by the Red Sox, who had reorganized their front office under new general managerDick O'Connell. As vice president, player personnel, Sullivan was positioned as the top "baseball man" in the organization, and from 1965 to 1967 was instrumental in acquiring several players from the Athletics (among themJohn Wyatt,José Tartabull,Ken Harrelson andBill Landis) who would help lead Boston to its surprise 1967AL pennant. But O'Connell gradually assumed more power and took over most of Sullivan's responsibilities; Sullivan kept his title but in reality became the Red Sox' director ofscouting after the 1973 death ofNeil Mahoney.
Despite his decline in overall authority, Sullivan maintained very close personal ties with ownerTom Yawkey and his wife,Jean. In 1977, a year after Tom Yawkey died ofleukemia, the Red Sox were put up for sale. Sullivan—reportedly borrowing $100,000 and using his home as collateral—joined an ownership group organized by former Red Soxathletic trainerEdward "Buddy" LeRoux. Because of Sullivan's close friendship with Jean Yawkey, the LeRoux offer was accepted, even though it was not the highest bid and the group did not have the financial resources of some of its rivals. The American League initially rejected the deal, but reconsidered when Mrs. Yawkey joined the group in May 1978, becoming principal owner, general partner and team president.[10]
Before the sale was consummated, in October 1977, Mrs. Yawkey fired O'Connell and promoted Sullivan to general manager. Overall, his first off-season as GM of the Red Sox was highly successful. Still using the resources of the Yawkey fortune, and benefitting from the depth of the Red Soxfarm system that he helped to build, Sullivan acquired playersMike Torrez,Jerry Remy,Dick Drago,Tom Burgmeier andDennis Eckersley. Buoyed by the new additions to an already strong team, the Red Sox charged into first place in the1978AL East race, but they would squander a14+1⁄2 game lead over theNew York Yankees and then lose aone-game playoff for the division title to miss the postseason completely.
Although managerDon Zimmer is usually cast as the chief culprit for the collapse, in the six months between December 14, 1977, and June 15, 1978, Sullivan contributed to the debacle by dealing away useful players such asFerguson Jenkins,Reggie Cleveland,Jim Willoughby andBernie Carbo. Sullivan and Zimmer considered them to be "clubhouse lawyers"—malcontents[11]—but in return for them, the Red Sox received only one ballplayer, journeyman left-handerJohn Poloni, acquired for Jenkins, and four cash payments.[12][13] Poloni never appeared in a Boston uniform, while, in 1978, Jenkins went18–8 (3.04) for theTexas Rangers. Overall, the loss of pitching depth and bench strength was a critical factor in the 1978 Red Sox' ultimate failure.[14]
After the 1978 season, Sullivan allowed legendary pitcherLuis Tiant to leave for the Yankees as afree agent and, as he had done with Jenkins, Carbo and the others, dumped a clubhouse dissident, lefty pitcherBill Lee, in a giveaway trade—in this case, to theMontreal Expos forutility infielderStan Papi. In1979, Sullivan raised eyebrows when he selected his sonMarc, who was not considered to have early-round talent, in the second round of baseball's amateur draft; the younger Sullivan would bat a paltry .186 in parts of five major league seasons.[15]
In December 1980, Sullivan faced the imminent free agency ofRick Burleson,Carlton Fisk andFred Lynn—Boston's startingshortstop, catcher andcenter fielder, and the "up the middle" core of the ball club. The three players, represented by agentJeremy Kapstein, had been embroiled in a contract dispute with the team in1976, the first year of free agency, and hard feelings still lingered between them and owners Sullivan and Mrs. Yawkey. On December 10, Sullivan was able to trade Burleson for value (youngthird basemanCarney Lansford andrelief pitcherMark Clear). But he then failed to mail contract offers to Lynn and Fisk by MLB's mandated deadline of December 20, unintentionally triggering a binding arbitration hearing in January 1981 that speeded their free agency. On January 23, Sullivan was forced to accept fifty cents on the dollar for Lynn in a trade to theCalifornia Angels, who signed him immediately to a multi-year contract. Then, on February 12, he lost Fisk outright when the arbitrator declared the catcher a free agent.[16][17] Fisk played the rest of hisBaseball Hall of Fame career as a member of theChicago White Sox, retiring in1993.
From then on, Sullivan's reputation in Boston was tarnished. Harrelson, the former outfielder acquired by the Red Sox in August 1967 with Sullivan's help and now a popular analyst on the team's TV broadcasts, called him "the laughing-stock of the American League."[16] (Like Fisk, Harrelson would soon depart for the White Sox.) Vendors outsideFenway Park sold tee-shirts emblazoned with "Haywood and Buddy [LeRoux] are Killing the Sox."[18]Marvin Miller, head of theMLBPA, described the Red Sox' Lynn/Fisk contract snafu as "stupidity of the highest order."[19]
After signing veteranTony Pérez in 1980, Sullivan refused to enter the market for free agents, preferring to rely exclusively on player development.[19] But the Boston farm system hit a dry spell resulting from poor drafts during Sullivan's tenure as GM; the only starting player drafted and signed by the Red Sox between 1977 and 1979 wasMarty Barrett. The formerly high-paying Red Sox gained a new reputation for stinginess: by1983, the team ranked 16th among the 26 MLB teams in average salary.[20] The decline showed on the field: only in the strike-mangled season of1981 did the Red Sox finish within five games of first place in theAL East between 1979 and1985. At the turnstiles, a team that had drawn 2.4 million home fans in 1979 saw its attendance drop by 29 percent to 1.7 million by1984.[21]
Sullivan's legacy received another battering in1983 when a long-simmering estrangement from LeRoux became embarrassingly public. On June 6, just prior to a ceremony celebrating the Red Sox' 1967 AL championship, and raising money to care for stricken formeroutfielderTony Conigliaro, LeRoux called a press conference to reveal that he and his limited partners had exercised a clause in their ownership agreement and taken control of the Red Sox. He fired Sullivan on the spot, and restored O'Connell—who hadn't set foot in Fenway Park since his dismissal in 1977—to the GM post. Boston sportswriters called the gambit "the Coup LeRoux." Sullivan and Mrs. Yawkey then immediately called their own press conference to announce they had filed suit to prevent the takeover.[22] A court granted them an injunction, and in a public 1984 trial that aired dirty laundry on both sides, Sullivan and Yawkey won the day again.
But the damage had been done. Sullivan voluntarily gave up his general manager duties toLou Gorman in June 1984, immediately after the court victory over LeRoux, and became the team'schief executive andchief operating officer. Gorman received credit for trades that helped the 1986 Red Sox win the AL championship, although Sullivan's determination to build from within helped to furnish the club with many of its key players.
During Sullivan's tenure as general manager and chief executive, the Red Sox, with their history as the last pre-expansion MLB team to break thecolor line, were again criticized for anti-Black bigotry. In a 1985 public reckoning, the team was sued by formeroutfielder andcoachTommy Harper for retaliation after the Red Sox fired Harper as a minor league base-running instructor when he shared with the media the club's practice of allowing the all-whiteElks Club ofWinter Haven, Florida (where the team heldspring training) into the Red Sox'Chain of Lakes Park clubhouse to invite white players and white front-office personnel to the Elks' segregated facilities.[23] Harper's complaint about the Red Sox' illegal actions was upheld by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on July 1, 1986.
When the Red Sox re-entered the free agent market late in the 1980s, they were able to sign All-Star catcherTony Peña, but many nonwhite players ignored the Red Sox in free agency, or included them on their "no trade" lists. This trend only began to change when the Red Sox bid aggressively (but unsuccessfully) forKirby Puckett after the 1992 season.
In late March 1987, Jean Yawkey bought out LeRoux and, with two general partnership shares, she became the Red Sox' managing partner. Sullivan and Mrs. Yawkey grew distant, and, although he still held a general partnership in the team, by the late 1980s Sullivan was consistently outvoted 2–1 by Mrs. Yawkey's two shares. (Sullivan's title of CEO/COO, meanwhile, quietly was removed from the team's masthead.) When Mrs. Yawkey died in 1992, Sullivan and her representative,John Harrington, who headed theJRY Trust, each vowed to buy the other out.[24] On November 23, 1993, Harrington made good his word, acquiring Sullivan's share in the team on behalf of the trust; while initially reported as $12 million, later estimates placed the buyout at $30 million or more.[25]
Sullivan then retired to the Gulf Coast of Florida, where he operated a marina and invested successfully in real estate, his name occasionally popping up (usually linked with formerCommissioner of BaseballFay Vincent)[26] as a potential part-owner of another Major League club. Upon Sullivan's death at age 72 inFort Myers, Florida, after suffering astroke, Boston baseball observers such asPeter Gammons took a fresh view of Sullivan's impact on the Red Sox and gave him renewed credit for building the team into contenders, and keeping them there, from 1966 forward. Sullivan is interred at the Dothan City Cemetery. He was named to theBoston Red Sox Hall of Fame in 2004.
· Baseball Almanac| Sporting positions | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Owner of theBoston Red Sox September 30, 1977 – November 23, 1993 (withBuddy LeRoux, September 30, 1977 – March 31, 1987) (withJean Yawkey, September 30, 1977 – February 26, 1992) (withJRY Trust, February 26, 1992 – November 23, 1993) | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by Franchise re-established | Birmingham Baronsmanager 1964 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by Franchise re-established | Vancouver Mountiesmanager 1965 | Succeeded by |
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