The Red Sox are declining to comment on a call to revise the Hall of Fame plaque of former team owner Tom Yawkey.
Yawkey was inducted into the Hall in 1980, several years after his death. His record on racial issues has come under increased scrutiny in recent years.
Occidental College political science professor and baseball historian Peter Dreier wants Yawkey's plaque in Cooperstown to reflect that record.
"Tom Yawkey's plaque is there in the Hall of Fame, and I'm not saying it should be dismantled or torn down or eliminated," Dreier said in an interview Monday. "But I do think it should be revised to account for probably his biggest accomplishment in baseball — unfortunately — which was that the Red Sox were the absolute last team to have a Black player on its roster.
The Sox were the final major league team to integrate, in 1959 — 12 years after Jackie Robinson joined the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Dreier made his case in a column published last weekend by the CommonWealth Beacon. He wants current Red Sox owner John Henry to urge the Hall of Fame to agree to the change. He points out Henry successfully lobbied for the renaming of Yawkey Way outside Fenway Park a few years ago.
Dreier — a former Boston resident who taught at Tufts and worked for Mayor Ray Flynn — noted Henry previously said he was "haunted" by the team's past.
"If he's still haunted by it, then he ... has the power to encourage the members of the board of the Hall of Fame, who are ... mostly other owners and executives of baseball teams, to do the right thing," Dreier said.
Asked about Dreier's request, a Red Sox spokesperson said Tuesday the team would not be commenting.
The Hall of Fame itself did comment, sending a statement that drew a distinction between the plaques and the museum that surrounds them.
"Enshrinement into the National Baseball Hall of Fame reflects the perspective of the voters at the time of election," the Hall of Fame said in an emailed statement. "Hall of Fame plaques recognize Members for their accomplishments in the game at that particular time, while the exhibits in our Museum, as well as our Library archives and educational resources, address the totality of their impact on baseball."
The Hall of Fame acknowledges what it calls Yawkey's "complicated" legacy on its website, at the end of an otherwise laudatory biography.
"Despite his alleged readiness to sign quality ballplayers regardless of race, Yawkey repeatedly accepted his scouts’ claims that they could not find Black ballplayers good enough to play in the majors," the biography says. "As the sole owner of the Red Sox, Yawkey ultimately bears the responsibility for the inaction of his franchise."
The nonprofit founded by Yawkey and his wife, the Yawkey Foundation, did not answer requests for comment. But the organization has long denied Yawkey was a racist, saying team executives tried many times in the 1950s to sign a Black major leaguer. And the foundation said its charitable contributions go to help "people in need, regardless of their color."
