Haywood Cooper Sullivan (December 15, 1930 – February 12, 2003) was an American college and professional baseball player who was a catcher, manager, general manager and club owner in Major League Baseball. From May 23, 1978, through November 23, 1993, he was a general partner in the Boston Red Sox, where he parlayed a $200,000 investment into a cash out of at least $12 million.
In his two seasons as the Gators' quarterback, Sullivan threw for 2,016 yards in an era when the emphasis was on a running offense.
As a Gators baseball player, he was named to the All-Southeastern Conference (SEC) team in 1952.
He threw and batted right-handed, stood 6 feet 4 inches (1.93 m) tall and weighed 215 pounds (98 kg).
Sullivan signed a guaranteed $45,000 bonus contract with the Red Sox in 1952, a contract which would not have been available a year later under pending baseball rules changes, and thereby ended his college football and baseball career after his junior year. He was later inducted into the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame as a "Gator Great."[2]
MLB catcher and manager
Sullivan's professional baseball playing career—derailed by military service, which caused him to miss the 1953 and 1954 seasons, and back surgery that cost him the entire 1958 campaign—was largely confined to the minor leagues for its first eight seasons.
After three short stays and only eight total games played for the Red Sox (in 1955, 1957 and 1959), Sullivan finally established himself in the big leagues in 1960 at age 29. He was the starting backstop for Boston's first three games, including the then-traditional "Presidential Opener" at Washington'sGriffith Stadium.[3] However, Sullivan injured his hand in the third game of the season[4] and struggled offensively afterward, hitting only .135 through June 13 and 36 games played.[3] That day, the Red Sox acquired catcher Russ Nixon from the Cleveland Indians, and from then through the end of the campaign, Sullivan played only sparingly. He ended the season as Boston's second-most-used catcher, behind Nixon, with 50 games and 342+1⁄3innings caught. But he batted only .161 with four extra-base hits and was left exposed in the 1960 Major League Baseball expansion draft. The newly created edition of the Washington Senators franchise picked him up, then traded him to the Kansas City Athletics for pitcherMarty Kutyna on December 29, 1960.[5]
Sullivan played for 2+1⁄2 seasons with the Athletics, and was the club's semi-regular catcher in 1961 and 1962, starting 78 and 80 games behind the plate. In a three-game span against his former team, the Red Sox, at Municipal Stadium from July 12–14, 1962, Sullivan had seven hits in 11 at bats, with two home runs, although Boston won all three games.[6] For his MLB career, Sullivan batted .226 with 192 hits, 30 doubles and 13 home runs in 312 games over all or parts of seven seasons.[7]
In 1964, Sullivan was named manager of the Athletics' Birmingham Baronsfarm club in the Double-ASouthern League. His 1964 Barons—the first integrated team in Birmingham[8]—missed the pennant by just one game, earning him a promotion to the Vancouver Mounties of the Triple-APacific Coast League in 1965. After only 25 games in Vancouver, Sullivan was called to Kansas City to manage the parent Athletics on May 16, 1965, succeeding Mel McGaha. At 34, Sullivan was the youngest manager in Major League Baseball that season.[9] Kansas City had lost 21 of its first 26 games and was lodged in last place in the ten-team American League when McGaha was fired, and they remained in the cellar for the rest of the 1965 season, winning 54 and losing 82 (.397) with Sullivan at the reins.
On November 28, 1965, he was recruited by the Red Sox, who had reorganized their front office under new general manager Dick O'Connell. As vice president, player personnel, Sullivan was positioned as the top "baseball man" in the organization, and from 1965 to 1967 was instrumental in acquiring several players from the Athletics (among them John Wyatt, José Tartabull, Ken Harrelson and Bill Landis) who would help lead Boston to its surprise 1967 AL pennant. But O'Connell gradually assumed more power and took over most of Sullivan's responsibilities; Sullivan kept his title but in reality became the Red Sox' director of scouting after the 1973 death of Neil Mahoney.
Despite his decline in overall authority, Sullivan maintained very close personal ties with owner Tom Yawkey and his wife, Jean. In 1977, a year after Tom Yawkey died of leukemia, the Red Sox were put up for sale. Sullivan—reportedly borrowing $100,000 and using his home as collateral—joined an ownership group organized by former Red Sox athletic trainerEdward "Buddy" LeRoux. Because of Sullivan's close friendship with Jean Yawkey, the LeRoux offer was accepted, even though it was not the highest bid and the group did not have the financial resources of some of its rivals. The American League initially rejected the deal, but reconsidered when Mrs. Yawkey joined the group in May 1978, becoming principal owner, general partner and team president.[10]
Before the sale was consummated, in October 1977, Mrs. Yawkey fired O'Connell and promoted Sullivan to general manager. Overall, his first off-season as GM of the Red Sox was highly successful. Still using the resources of the Yawkey fortune, and benefitting from the depth of the Red Sox farm system that he helped to build, Sullivan acquired players Mike Torrez, Jerry Remy, Dick Drago, Tom Burgmeier and Dennis Eckersley. Buoyed by the new additions to an already strong team, the Red Sox charged into first place in the 1978 AL East race, but they would squander a 14+1⁄2 game lead over the New York Yankees and then lose a one-game playoff for the division title to miss the postseason completely. Although manager Don Zimmer is usually cast as the chief culprit for the collapse, Sullivan contributed to the debacle by dealing away useful players such as Bernie Carbo, Ferguson Jenkins, Jim Willoughby and Reggie Cleveland, who were considered to be "clubhouse lawyers." None of the players fetched comparable value, and the loss of pitching depth and bench strength was a critical factor in Boston's struggles.[11]
Post-1978 decline and the "Coup LeRoux"
Sullivan then further earned the wrath of Red Sox Nation after the 1978 season when he allowed legendary pitcher Luis Tiant to leave for the Yankees as a free agent and, as he had done with Jenkins, Carbo and the others, dumped a clubhouse dissident, lefty pitcher Bill Lee, in a giveaway trade—in this case, to the Montreal Expos. In 1979, he raised eyebrows when he selected his son Marc Sullivan, who was not considered to have early-round talent, in the second round of baseball's amateur draft; the younger Sullivan would bat a paltry .186 in parts of five major league seasons.[12]
In December 1980, Sullivan faced the imminent free agency of Rick Burleson, Carlton Fisk and Fred Lynn—Boston's starting shortstop, catcher and center fielder, and the "up the middle" core of the ball club. The three players, represented by agent Jeremy Kapstein, had been embroiled in a contract dispute with the team in 1976, the first year of free agency, and hard feelings still lingered between them and owners Sullivan and Mrs. Yawkey. Sullivan was able to trade Burleson for value (young third basemanCarney Lansford and relief pitcherMark Clear), but then failed to mail contract offers to Lynn and Fisk by MLB's mandated deadline, triggering binding arbitration and unintentionally speeding their free agency. Sullivan was forced to accept fifty cents on the dollar for Lynn in a trade to the California Angels, who signed him to a multi-year contract, and then lost Fisk outright when the arbitrator declared him a free agent.[13] Fisk played the rest of his Baseball Hall of Fame career as a member of the Chicago White Sox, retiring in 1993.
From then on, Sullivan's reputation in Boston was tarnished. He refused to enter the market for free agents, preferring to rely exclusively on player development, but the Boston farm system hit a dry spell resulting from poor drafts during Sullivan's tenure as GM; whereas O'Connell in 1976 alone had drafted Wade Boggs, John Tudor, and Bruce Hurst, the only starting player drafted and signed by the Red Sox between 1977 and 1979 was Marty Barrett. The Red Sox were also ridiculed for stinginess and ineptitude, with one sportswriter claiming that the team motto should have been "don't just do something; stand there!" The contending Bosox of the late 1970s were reduced to also-rans.
Sullivan's legacy received another battering in 1983 when a long-simmering estrangement from LeRoux became embarrassingly public. On June 6, just prior to a ceremony celebrating the Red Sox' 1967 AL championship, and raising money to care for stricken former outfielderTony Conigliaro, LeRoux called a press conference to reveal that he and his limited partners had exercised a clause in their ownership agreement and taken control of the Red Sox. He fired Sullivan on the spot, and restored O'Connell—who hadn't set foot in Fenway Park since his dismissal in 1977—to the GM post. Boston sportswriters called the gambit "the Coup LeRoux." Sullivan and Mrs. Yawkey then immediately called their own press conference to announce they had filed suit to prevent the takeover.[14] A court granted them an injunction, and in a public 1984 trial that aired dirty laundry on both sides, Sullivan and Yawkey won the day again.
From GM to CEO/COO
But the damage had been done. Sullivan voluntarily gave up his general manager duties 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 chief executive, the Red Sox, with their history as the last pre-expansion MLB team to break the color line, were again criticized for anti-Black bigotry. In a 1985 public reckoning, the team was sued by former outfielder and coachTommy Harper for retaliation after the Red Sox fired Harper as a minor league base-running instructor when he shared with the media 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' Chain of Lakes Park clubhouse to invite white players and white front-office personnel to the Elks' segregated facilities.[15] The Red Sox' illegal actions, and Harper's complaint was upheld by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on July 1, 1986.
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 only began to change when the Red Sox bid aggressively (but unsuccessfully) for Kirby Puckett after the 1992 season.
In late March 1987, Jean Yawkey bought out LeRoux and, with two general partnership shares, she became the Red Sox' managing partner. 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 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.[16] On November 23, 1993, Harrington made good his word, acquiring Sullivan's share in the team on behalf of the trust; while initially reported as $12 million, later estimates placed the buyout at $30 million or more.[17]
Life after baseball
Sullivan's tomb
Sullivan then retired to the Gulf Coast of Florida, where he operated a marina and invested successfully in real estate, his name occasionally popping up (usually linked with former Commissioner of BaseballFay Vincent)[18] as a potential part-owner of another Major League club. Upon Sullivan's death at age 72 in Fort Myers, Florida, after suffering a stroke, Boston baseball observers such as Peter Gammons took a fresh view of Sullivan's impact on the Red Sox and gave him renewed credit for building the team into contenders, and keeping them there, from 1966 forward. Sullivan is interred at the Dothan City Cemetery. He was named to the Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame in 2004.
^Southern League, Larry Colton, Grand Central Publishing, 2013, ISBN1455511889
^Charlie Finley: The Outrageous Story of Baseball's Super Showman, p.92, G. Michael Green and Roger D. Launius. Walker Publishing Company, New York, 2010, ISBN978-0-8027-1745-0
Owner of the Boston Red Sox September 30, 1977 – November 23, 1993 (with Buddy LeRoux, September 30, 1977 – March 31, 1987) (with Jean Yawkey, September 30, 1977 – February 26, 1992) (with JRY Trust, February 26, 1992 – November 23, 1993)
