$90,000 awarded to nine nonprofits on the 90th anniversary of Tom Yawkey’s 1933 purchase of the Boston Red Sox
DEDHAM, February 23, 2023 – To commemorate the 90th anniversary of Tom Yawkey buying the Boston Red Sox, initiating 68 years of continuous Yawkey ownership of the team, the foundation perpetuating his legacy is awarding nine $10,000 grants to nonprofits that provide access to opportunity for youth, particularly through baseball and softball programs.
A native of Detroit and raised and educated primarily in New York City and Connecticut, Yawkey grew up around the game but was a newcomer to Boston when he bought the underperforming team on February 25, 1933, just four days after his 30th birthday. He adopted Boston as his home for the rest of his life – 43 baseball seasons – and upon his death in 1976, his widow Jean Yawkey continued the Yawkey ownership legacy for 25 more years until the team was sold in 2002.
A private man, those who knew Yawkey would attest to the understated yet significant ways that he left indelible imprints within the walls of Fenway Park and beyond, reflecting his lifelong passion for the game, a loyalty to the players and staff members, and a deep commitment to building a team that would instill hope and pride among Red Sox fans.
Yawkey had bought a team in 1933 that was in disarray, coming off a 14-season losing streak, and immediately began investing in the franchise and in Boston itself, earning the moniker of “Baseball Santa’.
Fenway Park had fallen into disrepair, and within months of purchasing the team, Yawkey began the process of restoring and expanding the ballpark in what is considered the second-largest contracting project in Boston during the Depression era, after the Tobin Bridge project. Yawkey’s investment in improving the ballpark provided employment opportunities to a reported 700 workers, prompting the Boston Globe to note that Yawkey was “certainly doing his part to aid in the recovery from depression.” The new Fenway Park was hailed as “The Last Word in Baseball Settings” upon its opening in April 1934 and was developed and nurtured over the 68 years of Yawkey family ownership into America’s most beloved ballpark.
Yawkey also began investing in top talent. Among the players recruited in his inaugural year of ownership was the first Mexican-born player in the major leagues, center-fielder Baldomero Melo “Mel” Almeda, who played for the team from 1933 to 1937. Yawkey went on to build a diverse roster with the signing of several Black players to minor league contracts – including infielder Piper Davis (1949), pitcher Earl Wilson (1953), and infielder Elijah “Pumpsie” Green (1955) – and the assembling of the 1967 “Impossible Dream” team.
Included among the “90 for 90” recipient nonprofits is the Jimmy Fund Little League, whose mission of defying childhood cancer was very close to Yawkey’s heart. Dr. Sidney Farber’s Children’s Cancer Research Foundation, otherwise known as the Jimmy Fund, had been the official charity of another Boston baseball franchise, the Boston Braves, since 1948.
When the Braves moved to Milwaukee in 1953, Yawkey designated the nonprofit as the official charity of the Boston Red Sox, establishing a partnership supporting the Dana Farber Cancer Institute’s mission that has lasted more than 70 years. (Coincidentally, the Braves and Red Sox are playing a spring training game on the date of the 90th anniversary of Yawkey’s acquisition of the team.)
The nine “90 for 90” $10,000 grants were awarded to the following organizations:
- Jimmy Fund Little League
- Boston Park League
- Jackie Robinson Museum
- Cape Cod Baseball League
- Ron Burton Training Village
- The BASE
- Special Olympics Massachusetts
- Boston Slammers
- Brockton Baseball
The Yawkey Foundation is dedicated to perpetuating the philanthropic legacy of Tom Yawkey and Jean Yawkey, whose eight decades of quiet generosity supported individuals and families in the communities that were closest to their hearts — Massachusetts and Georgetown County, South Carolina. Having awarded more than $550 million to date in charitable grants to organizations focused on health care, education, human services, youth and amateur athletics, arts and culture, and conservation and wildlife, the Yawkey Foundation is committed to preserving and sustaining the charitable values of the Yawkeys by investing in nonprofits that provide resources, opportunity, and dignity to the vulnerable and underserved. For more information, please visit www.yawkeyfoundation.org, or follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook for the latest announcements.
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