As a lifetime Red Sox fan who will probably never get back to Fenway I would nevertheless like to add my two cents to this discussion. Basically Tom Yawkey had a lot of money and did pretty much what he wanted with the team because of that fact. Should wealth negate stupidity and should some charitable acts make people overlook overt bigotry? I'll not throw in the implicit political comment but will hope that Yawkey's name is removed and replaced by that of a player who actually contributed something on the field which has provided so many thrills and heartaches. Papi would be fine with me but I would go with any player deemed worthy by those New Englanders who will actually tread the street with regularity.
This post sorta speaks to my thinking in that, with any monument, the after the fact "Should we just tear
everything down then??" hand-wringing generally strikes me as a secondary concern to what we should be focusing on:
Why was the monument put up in the first place?
Yawkee was a special moment for me growing up in this regard. Specifically, it's when I as a young boy learned they'll name crap after you just for being rich. I was... not impressed.
And see, the thing is: I had been looking to be. I had expected to be impressed. I remember learning that Fenway Park was on Yawkee Way. Who was this Yawkee to have such an honor? He had owned the team! And they renamed the street for him! Surely he must be great.
So it was with great eagerness that this Red Sox obsessed child went and looked up this alleged titan Mr. Yawkee and found... like, nothing. I was utterly miffed for a bit--I mean, so what?
There really isn't a good reason to have that street named after Yawkee, except that someone decided to do it in the wake of his death. And this isn't a big deal
per se... except that it seems incongruous for a city with so much to celebrate and a team that means so much to that city.
I mean, where does Yawkee really fit into the history of the city, of the team?
Some contributions have been raised, and some black marks on his legacy. But, seriously, when I look at the history of the Red Sox's return to glory, the Yawkees don't occupy a particularly noble position. Like, I see years and years of meh management, a long time discussion of moving the team out of the cathedral it plays in, and hiring practices that hurt both the quality of the on-field team as well as the reputation of the city that there is reason to believe affected the competitiveness of the city's other teams.
Then a new ownership group comes in, throws money behind the team, applies science to roster construction, revitalizes Fenway F@*#ing Park, makes inroads with the long neglected city communities including people of color, and brought how three championships.
For anyone intrigued by the exorcism of curses and how they pertain to the Boston Red Sox, I would suggest it wasn't
really about the sale of the Babe, eh?
Boston has much to celebrate. The Red Sox has much to celebrate. I just don't see how Yawkee rates--we can do better; indeed, we should have done better in the first place. But hey, we can learn--that's fine too.
