It Was Never About the Babe: The Red Sox, Racism, Mismanagement, and the Curse of the Bambino

by Jerry M. Gutlon

For years, Red Sox fans were told that their team was cursed because the Sox sold Babe Ruth to the hated Yankees. But as Jerry Gutlon reveals in It Was Never About the Babe , there is much more drama to Red Sox history than the “Curse of the Bambino.” The truth is more shocking than any myth.

With the thorough research of a seasoned journalist and the zeal of a lifelong Red Sox fan, Gutlon explains why the Sox came up short season after ownership chose managers and players not based on their talent, but on whom they drank with; before and after baseball integrated, personal and institutional racism affected their decision-making; and their teams consistently lacked the talent, leadership, chemistry, and luck needed to win championships.

Most fans don’t know that Babe Ruth was sold not just to produce a Broadway play, bust also because commissioner Ban Johnson was trying to run Sox owner Harry Frazee out of baseball and because Ruth was a major disruption in the Sox clubhouse. They will be surprised to learn that Jackie Robinson tried out at Fenway Park and shocked to learn that much-admired Tom Yawkey, along with owning the Red Sox, also owned a brothel for decades.

Covering the early Red Sox championship dynasty of Ruth, the never-good-enough teams of Ted Williams, Carl Yastrzemski, and Carlton Fisk and Curt Schilling, It Was Never About the Babe is an eye-opening read for every baseball fan, and a must-own book for every fan in Boston.

Genres: Baseball, Sports, Nonfiction

336 pages, Hardcover

First published March 9, 2009

Reviews

[Jimmy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great history of the Red Sox. I enjoyed it up until the last sentence of the final Afterword. At that point, Mr. Gutlon thanks his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, for helping him write the book. No wonder the world is in so much shit when Jesus can't think of anything better to do than help some dude write a history of the freaking Red Sox.

Other than that, it brought back a lot of memories from my childhood. Baseball is the greatest game ever.

[Kam · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book could have been so much better. It was so thin. Research was done, but there was no depth. I'll try Shut Out or some of the other books in the bibliography that might give me more depth to the Yawkey years.

[John W · Rating 4 out of 5]

When browsing books at the local library in Massachusetts one book stood out to a young red sox fan, a book explaining why the Red Sox were awful for so long. If you ask any fan from Boston why the Red Sox were bad for so long 99% will answer by saying it was the curse of the Bambino, but this book is telling us that “it was never about the Babe.” This should be eye-opening.


Everyone knows about the phrase “The Curse of the Bambino”, but very few know who first coined the phrase. In 1990, Boston Globe writer Dan Shaughnessy said the famous phrase that would be abused until 2004. The Curse was never the problem however, the problem was management. The real reason why great players such as Bobby Doerr, Carlton Fisk, Carl Yastrzemski and the great Ted Williams never won a ring was because of the stubbornness of management. The short answer to the question “why did the Red Sox not win during this time” is Tom Yawkey. In the book it is shown that Tom Yawkey was the reason why the Red Sox missed out on key free agents and invested in managers that had no business managing a pro team. Tom Yawkey was the owner of the Red Sox from 1933 until 1976 and his reign was 100% the reason behind the clubs lack of success in the 20th century. One key example of his insane racism was the fact that Yawkey did not sign future Hall of Famer Jackie Robinson. Not only did he not sign Jackie Robinson, he is quoted on saying, “Get those n***** off the field”, while he was scouting from the stands. He also had the chance to sign future Hall of Famer Willie Mays since he had the option to sign a player from the Birmingham Black Barons from the Negro League. He refused by saying, “we have no use for the boy.” This hatred blinded Yawkey and this hurt the Red Sox the most. If it wasn’t for pressure from the city of Boston, Yawkey would have never signed an African American ball player and would’ve prolonged the fact that the Red Sox were the last team to have an African American played on it. He also hired managers who were his buddies and would drink with him all the time. You can more on that and why many said playing for the Red Sox during this time was like “working on a plantation.”

I believe that introducing someone that we can put the blame on really helped the book. After you find out who was the problem you can later find out why he was the problem. Racism and hatred drove Tim to be the main reason why the Red Sox could not win the coveted title.

I wish that there was less referencing in the book and more of a voice. I feel like if Jerry Gulton explained what transpired more clearly it would be a better read. I feel like it is more facts piled on facts rather than a sturdy story.

[Tommy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gutlon showed flashes of brilliance in this book and chose a great topic to address although I think his style and execution wasn't the best.

On a side note this book should have been titled "Dan Shaughnessy is a big fat idiot: Why there is nothing mystical about a poorly run team failing to win"

Anyway, back to the book. I like that Gutlon goes through the entire history of the organization because there is quite a lot of justification to be done when you don't win for that long and there has to be a reason in any given year, or period of years, that the Red Sox would not be the best.

Gutlon may have spent too much time on early history and funny coincidences like Hall of Fame players almost acquired. But a lot of the pre Babe Ruth stuff did set the stage of Ban Johnson and Harry Frazee very nicely so I guess it was warranted to a degree.

I do think that Gutlon was too detailed in specific game descriptions (especially in the current Epstein ERA). It's nice to know for story arc purposes about trades and GM philosophies but I don't care that Mark Bellhorn won Game 1 of the 2004 world series by hitting a two run homerun.

Other notes:
- Gutlon, in my opinion, seemed to not acknowledge anything done right prior to the John Henry ownership period. It's a subtlety and maybe I'm blowing it out of proportion but the Sox did some things right...just like 1000 monkeys with 1000 typewriters could write Shakespeare.
- Surprising number of typos (Julio Tavarez, Jay Peyton)

[RICK "SHAQ" GOLDSTEIN · Rating 4 out of 5]

RICK “SHAQ” GOLDSTEIN SAYS: “RACISM… ANTI-SEMITISM… ALCOHOLISM… AND BAD MANAGEMENT… WAS THE CURSE!”
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Every die hard Red Sox fan will never forget the seventh game of the 2003 American League Championship Series… when manager Grady Little refused to remove pitcher Pedro Martinez from the game… thereby blowing a 5-2 lead… which would have probably… ended up with a win… that would have propelled the Red Sox into the World Series… instead… the ensuing loss… not only cost the Red Sox a trip to the Series… but it added on another year… to the previous EIGHTY-FIVE-YEARS… without a World Championship… and as most Sox fans would vociferously state… it also… rightfully cost Little his job.

When you have an author that writes the following: “LITTLE STUBBORNLY REMAINED IN THE SOX DUGOUT UNTIL THE GAME WAS TIED AT 5-5. BY THEN, THOSE OF US OLD ENOUGH TO REMEMBER BUCKY (“BLEEPING”) DENT’S DYING-QUAIL HOME RUN OFF MIKE TORREZ IN THE INFAMOUS 1978 ONE-GAME PLAYOFF AGAINST THE YANKS WERE FRANTICALLY SEARCHING FOR THE NEAREST EXHAUST PIPE TO SUCK ON. I WAS HAVING FLASH-BACKS TO 78.”… You know you have a true… die in the wool… Red Sox fan… who just happens… to also be a writer! That is the case with author Jerry Gutlon… and since the reader becomes aware of this early on in this story… it makes the historical… pain and anguish… along with some ups and downs... that the author shares with the reader… on a literary journey… through the history of the Red Sox… a little easier to take… because you are made to feel… like you’re sitting in a local bar… commiserating with a fan just like you… who has had the same EIGHTY-SIX-YEAR “cursed-trip”… that was passed down from Father to son to son.

In 1990 Boston Globe sportswriter Dan Shaughnessy “penned his 1990 fairy tale, “THE CURSE OF THE BAMBINO”... and since it was a catchy phrase… it was repeated with religious like fervor throughout baseball. After all… it made great headlines. Jerry Gutlon’s sole goal in this book… is to disprove this… and show the reader… that rather than a curse… the greatest enemy of the Red Sox during the EIGHTY-SIX-YEAR-DROUGHT… was their own ownership and management. The fact that it was a racist organization is hard to dispute… since they were the absolute last team in baseball to have an African American player… and that wasn’t until 1959. They had a manager… Pinky Higgins… who “swore that no African-American would play for the club while he was managing.” And he certainly didn’t use the term African American. In fact due to local pressure from a Boston City Councilor… on October 23, 1945… ONE-HUNDRED-NINETY-ONE-DAYS before Jackie Robinson signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers… the Red Sox gave a private tryout to three black players. One was future Hall Of Famer Jackie Robinson… and another was Sam Jethroe… who would win the National League Rookie Of The Year award in 1950. The Red Sox showed absolutely no interest… and during the tryout… in a near empty stadium… a voice from up in the stands yelled… “Get those N***’s off the field!” In fact… manager Joe Cronin sat up in the stands and turned his back on the players most of the time. If that wasn’t enough… in 1950 the Red Sox had “options” on any player on the Birmingham Black Barons… a Negro League team… and a scout told… now General Manager… Joe Cronin… about a “five-tool-player”… by the name of Willie Mays… Cronin supposedly remarked, “We have no use for the boy at this time.”

From 1933-1976 the Red Sox were owned by Tom Yawkey… whose drinking… along with his racism… created much bigger obstacles to winning a World Championship… than any curse ever did. He tended to hire mangers and general managers… that liked to drink with him. He also overpaid ballplayers… and tended to prolong his contractual mistakes. Playing for the Red Sox in the Yawkey days… was described from racial terms… as being on the “plantation”… and from an overpaid side… as being at a “country club”. “Baseball historians have confirmed that the bigotry that beset the franchise emanated from the very top” “The funny thing about the Yawkey regime is that they didn’t like anybody,” asserted Clark Booth. “They didn’t like blacks. They didn’t like Catholics. They didn’t like Jews. The Anti-Defamation League brought a suit against the Red Sox in 1959 for discriminating against Jews.”

The author set out on a goal of disproving the misguided catch-phrase… “The Curse Of The Bambino”… and in my opinion… he succeeded.

[Rick · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a superficial history of a well known topic. Yes there was a vivid history of racism within the Boston Red Sox. What Jerry Gutlon does is tread on the much better book "Shut Out" by Howard Bryant which tells the story with much more detail. Gutlon does do a great job of detailing the cronyism and alcoholism that was two other major contributing factors of the Red Sox futility.

But he seems so hell bent on proving the negative aspects of the history that he ignores the really good ones. Pedro Martinez barely gets a mention. The amazing three game comeback and any other
good aspect of the club is relegated to the back pages. Any positive support for the team is attributed to blind faith among the fans. God is David Ortiz even mentioned. I will give him points for destroying that hack job called "Curse of the Bambino."

All in all this is a poor book on Red Sox history and you're better off ignoring it. Read "Shut Out" instead

[Chris Schaffer · Rating 1 out of 5]

Just amateur dog poop. Bashes Curly Shaughnessy a bit.

[Drew Cook · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cursed city

[Drebbles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Until their historic World Series win in 2004, many Boston fans considered the Red Sox to be under a curse, the Curse of the Bambino, a curse some claimed started after Red Sox owner Harry Frazee sold Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees. In "It was never about the Babe" author Jerry Gutlon shows that the Red Sox were never cursed by the Babe but were denied a World Series win for over 80 years by a combination of many factors: ignorant owners; poor management; players with big egos; the loss of players who fought in the war; passing over players who became superstars for other teams; fighting amongst players; and some truly tragic events.

"It was never about the Babe" is a comprehensive, informative look at the history of the Boston Red Sox. Author Jerry Gutlon does an excellent job of looking at both past and current owners of the Red Sox and how the early owners mismanaged the team. He also tackles past and current sports writers (he's clearly not a Dan Shaughnessy fan) and credibly argues that they were partially to blame for not writing about some of the transgressions of the owners and managers. Much of what he writes is eye opening - the bigotry in baseball including Tom Yawkey who passed on both Jackie Robinson and Willie Mays; boneheaded trades - not only did the Red Sox trade Babe Ruth but later on Cy Young; how the Red Sox let managers like Joe Cronin stay on too long; how players instead of managers ran the team (interestingly enough Yaz doesn't come off too well in the book). Gutlon of course covers the major players past and present - Ruth, Ted Williams, Yaz, Luis Tiant, Manny Ramirez, David Ortiz - and all the World Series the Red Sox were involved in (Gutlon does an especially excellent job with the 1975 World Series). He also talks about two of the major tragedies that affected the Red Sox - the death of Harry Aggannis and the beaning of Tony Conigliaro. And he effectively puts any talk of the Curse of the Bambino to rest by pointing out how quickly the Red Sox won the World Series under the current ownership.

"It was never about the Babe" is very informative. It is not perfect - I found two errors - it is the Boston Globe and not the Boston Herald that is in financial difficulty and it was Julian Tavarez not Julio Tavarez who played for the Red Sox. However, as a lifelong Red Sox fan I discovered a few things I didn't know about the Red Sox which is what I want in a book like this. Well done.

[Red Heaven · Rating 2 out of 5]

A so-so sophomoric effort which cribs way too much from other sources. The breadth of the book might be comprehensive, but the depth is shallow. Multiple times the author will tell you something happened, or someone did something, and you want to know WHY but the surface of such things are barely scratched.

Some reviewers have raised issues of accuracy with some of the facts presented in the book. Most alarmingly, the author asserts as fact that Ty Cobb assaulted a number of black people, and that he stabbed and shot some of them. The veracity of these assertions is at best in doubt, and were likely lifted verbatim from Al Stump's discredited biography of Cobb.

All in all, a quick and shallow read which is OK if you just want a bare bones history of the team's self-inflicted woes.

[David Lucander · Rating 3 out of 5]

Builds on Bryant's Shut Out: A Story of Race and Baseball in Boston, which is a must for every Red Sox fan who reads books. Gutlon adds a bit about broader Red Sox history, but his basic thesis is that Yawkey mismanaged the team on so many levels. The book's conversational tone was a bit too informal for me, but I'm a professor.

[Jeff Raymond · Rating 3 out of 5]

A somewhat factually challenged but still competent history on Red Sox mismanagement over the years. Not a lot of new stuff here for diehards, but still a good read.

[Jim Noyes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Straightforward, informative book on Red Sox history. Doesn't pull any punches, a good read

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable read through Red Sox history laying to rest that 86 years between World Series' championships was related to the sale of Babe Ruth to the NY Yankees.