A reputation is hard to shake.
Regardless of what your individual opinion on the matter may be, however, the Yawkey name carries the weight of a significant amount of circumstantial evidence pointing toward at least some degree of racism. And the Boston Red Sox share that burden to this day.
That’s not to say that the current iteration of the franchise is run by or employs racists. In fact, the 2018 roster has a great deal of diversity with just 15 of the 28 players to make an appearance this season being white.
The team’s biggest stars include Mookie Betts, Xander Bogearts, J.D. Martinez, Hanley Ramirez, Jackie Bradley Jr., and Rafael Devers — not to mention Alex Cora at the helm. But the team cannot simply ignore its past and current owner John Henry understands that.
So the driving force behind the name change is clear. What’s less clear is whether this is the best way to proceed if the goal is to heal the city and the fanbase — to bring people together. In many ways, this is no different than the decisions to remove Confederate statues in cities across the nation. The same arguments are had, the same divisions among the populace exist.
Pump the brakes.
Some argue that to remove these monuments, whether a statue or a street name, is an attempt to ignore or erase our history. And to do so is to risk repeating it. Others argue that holding previous generations to current standards is unfair.
On the other hand, if we wish to memorialize a segment of our history with a street name or a statue, why not replace one which is offensive to a large group of people with something that honors someone who was doing good or is emblematic of the change that was in the process of happening at the time?
For the Boston Red Sox, that could have been Pumpsie Green, the utility fielder who officially desegregated the Red Sox in 1959. Or perhaps Sam Jethroe who was the first black MLB player in Boston, who integrated the Boston Braves in 1950. In the end, the decision was made not to honor anyone with the renaming.
Another argument against the removal of Yawkey’s name from the street is that the Yawkey Foundation, founded through Tom Yawkey’s will, has done an enormous amount of good since his death and that the street name honors the foundation as much as the man.
Unfortunately, the foundation cannot divest itself of the Yawkey legacy while continuing to brand itself through the use of his name. And removing his name from the street does not remove it from the many buildings and institutions the foundation has been integral to.