Haywood Sullivan - From GM To CEO/COO

From GM To CEO/COO

But the damage had been done. Sullivan voluntarily gave up his general manager post to Lou Gorman in June 1984, immediately after the court victory over LeRoux, and became the team's chief executive and chief 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 top executive, the Red Sox, with their history as the last pre-expansion MLB team to break the color line, were again criticized for institutional racism. Fans and media noted the Red Sox' relative lack of African-American and Latin-American players. In a 1985 public relations disaster, the team was sued by former outfielder and coach Tommy Harper, an African-American. Harper was fired as a minor league base-running instructor after he complained to the media about the club's practice of allowing the all-white Elks Club of Winter Haven, Florida (where the team held spring training), into the Red Sox clubhouse to invite white players and front-office personnel to the Elks' segregated facilities. Harper's complaint was upheld by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on July 1, 1986. (Moreover, the city of Boston itself was painted as racist after the violence surrounding its school desegregation of the 1970s and incidents such as the Charles Stuart affair in the late 1980s.) When the Red Sox re-entered the free agent market late in the 1980s, they were able to sign All-Star catcher Tony Peña, but many nonwhite players ignored the Red Sox in free agency, or included them on their "no trade" lists. This trend began to change when the Red Sox bid aggressively (but unsuccessfully) for Kirby Puckett after the 1991 season.

After 1986 and LeRoux' exit, 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 general partnership 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 the JRY Trust, each vowed to buy the other out. In November 1993, Harrington made good his word, acquiring Sullivan's share in the team for a reported $33 million.