Tom Yawkey
Best known as: industrialist, philanthropist, and Red Sox owner
Born: February 21, 1903 in Detroit, Michigan
Died: July 9, 1976 in Boston, Massachusetts
Resting place: ashes scattered around South Island, South Carolina
Full name: Thomas Austin Yawkey
Biography:
Thomas Yawkey Austin was born in 1903 in Detroit, Michigan. His parents were named Thomas and Augusta Austin, and he had an older sister named Emma. His father was a wealthy insurance executive, and his maternal grandfather, William C. Yawkey, made a fortune in the lumber and iron ore industries. Thomas Sr. died when Thomas Jr. was less than one year old. With his mother and sister, he went to live with his uncle, William H. Yawkey, in New York City. When his mother died in 1918, Tom was adopted by uncle Bill and switched his middle and last names. Sadly, Bill died just a year later.
Tom inherited $40 million from Bill but due to a clause in the will, was not allowed to take possession of the money until he turned 30. In the meantime, Tom attended Yale, where he was a member of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity and graduated from the Sheffield Scientific School in 1925. That same year, he married Elise Sparrow, with whom he would eventually adopt a daughter named Julia.
In 1933, just four days after his 30th birthday, Yawkey spent $1.25 million of his newly-acquired fortune to purchase the Boston Red Sox. His friend Eddie Collins, a former player for the Philadelphia Athletics, became the team's vice president and general manager. The Red Sox had been the bottom-dwellers of the American League for the preceding 10 years, finishing with a 43-111 record in the 1932 season, a record that still holds the distinction of worst in team history. Yawkey was determined to turn this around. In addition to going all-out in acquiring as many talented players as possible - including Joe Cronin, Jimmie Foxx, Rick Ferrell, Lefty Grove and Heinie Manush - he extensively renovated Fenway Park.
Yawkey dedicated the next 40-plus years of his life to the Red Sox. He spent countless hours at Fenway Park, conducting business in his office, acting as a mentor and father figure to players, and even taking batting practice. In the late 1930s, the team signed Bobby Doerr, Ted Williams and Dom DiMaggio. The team won the American League pennant in 1946, 1967, and 1975 but lost the World Series in seven games each of those years. Although Yawkey elevated the team from losers to perennial contenders, he never achieved his goal of winning the World Series. He spent lavishly on palyer salaries and benefits over the years, often at the expense of profits. He estimated that he lost a net total of $10 million on the team. Other team owners considered him strange because his primary motivation was not making money, but rather his love of baseball. Despite this, his fellow American League owners elected him vice president in 1956 and 1973.
In addition to baseball, another passion of Yawkey's was philanthropy. He established a partnership between the Red Sox and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in 1953 and established a fund for student athletes in 1955.
Yawkey died in 1976 of leukemia. He was 73 years old. In his will, he established a charity called the Yawkey Foundation. Among numerous other things, this charity donated $30 million to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in 2007, which went towards the creation of the Yawkey Center for Cancer Care. Additionally, Yawkey donated a chain of islands in South Carolina, which he had used as a hunting and fishing retreat, to that state's Department of Natural Resources. Today it is known as the Tom Yawkey Wildlife Center Heritage Preserve.
Personality:
Tom Yawkey was popular and well-respected by players, managers, and fellow owners. He was generous and truly loved the game of baseball, prioritizing the success of his team above his personal wealth. Ted Williams described him as "unselfish, fair, sincere and honest," with a "heart as big as a watermelon."
Fun facts:
- Nicknamed "T.A." by his friends.
- Often took batting practice at Fenway Park and celebrated whenever he hit a ball off the Green Monster.
- Was married twice; had one adopted chlid but no biological children.
- Inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1980.
Quotes:
- "Some men like to spend their dough on fast horses and other things that go fast. Some men like to go in for polo, for example, and spend thousands of dollars on ponies. Some go nuts for paintings, and give half a million for a hunk of canvas in a fancy frame. But my passion is baseball. My idea of heaven is a pennant winner."
- "I was always taught to help others; that those of us fortunate enough to be born with material abundance should do what we can for those who are not. I do what I can."
Pictures:
Yawkey around 1919 at age 16, via New York Tribune
Yawkey and wife Elise in 1938, by William C. Greene, New York World-Telegram