Sale of Boston Red Sox means end of an era after seven decades of futility

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Posted 8:31AM on Thursday, February 28, 2002

BOSTON - Fenway Park. The curse of the Bambino. The joys and burdens of a sacred New England sports trust. The Boston Red Sox were in the hands of the Yawkey family and its trust for seven decades -- an era that failed to produce a championship despite several agonizing brushes with success. Now, the franchise of futility belongs to former Florida Marlins owner John Henry and his partners, who acquired the team Wednesday for a record $660 million. Tom Yawkey, his wife Jean and their trustees made the Red Sox one of baseball's flagship franchises. Since then, 28 managers, 14 Hall of Famers (including Yawkey himself) and nine GMs toiled under the Yawkey name. All the while, it was the last major league team to integrate and often the first to disintegrate in the heat of a pennant race. "It's a little bit sad, in a way, because we spent all of our careers in the Yawkey organization," said former Red Sox infielder and manager Johnny Pesky, who remains with the team 60 years later as an instructor. "Times have changed. So far, the new people seem like they're pretty good guys and that's good enough for me." But Red Sox fans will want more from Henry, a brainy Florida financier credited with rebuilding the Marlins after they were gutted following their championship in 1997. His group, which includes former San Diego Padres owner Tom Werner, has promised changes in style and substance for a team that some believe has been cursed ever since it sold the legendary Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees in 1920. Henry has promised a more open relationship with fans and the media, and to rebuild the team's farm system along the lines of the Yankees. The new owners must also decide what to do about Fenway Park, the majors' smallest and oldest stadium, which is perhaps best known for its giant fence named the "Green Monster." They have said they would like to renovate rather than rebuild, but it will take them six months to decide on a new version of the "lyric little bandbox" that has the highest ticket prices in the game. Yawkey, a native of South Carolina who played baseball at Yale with more vigor than he studied, closed the deal on the Red Sox in 1933, on the day he turned 30 and gained control of his inheritance. "We are out to give the Boston fans the best break in the world," he told reporters that day, according to Red Sox Century, a history of the team. "It will not change in a day, a month, or even a season, but we are going through to the end." The team was in shambles, winning just 43 games in 1932 and drawing fewer than 200,000 fans. Yawkey began overpaying for mediocre talent and even then decried the state of Fenway Park, which had opened in 1912. He soon had to deal with a personality clash between the manager and general manager. Yawkey hung around the clubhouse, buddying up to the team's great stars; his friendships with Red Sox greats Ted Williams and Carl Yastrzemski lasted until the owner died in 1976. He passed the team to his wife, Jean, who died in 1992 after winning a legal battle with her former partners and putting comptroller John Harrington in charge. In October 2000, Harrington put the Yawkey trust's 53 percent stake up for sale under a complicated process designed to maximize the sale price. In the end, Henry paid more than double the previous record for a baseball franchise -- the $323 million paid by Larry Dolan for the Cleveland Indians in 2000 -- plus the assumption of $40 million in debt for the Red Sox, their ballpark and 80 percent of the New England Sports Network. The Red Sox announced the agreement with Henry's group on Dec. 20, but the deal was held up as losing bidders tried to restart the auction and state regulators investigated whether the trust would receive fair value.