Drew Blesdoe avoided being the first person to go 0-3 in RBSF Ladder Challenges this past week when he took on Stanley Morgan. But after the votes were cast, and after using the new tie-breaker method recommended by GMAC, we were left with a tie. That puts us back to the original tie-breaker system of nobody changing places in a tie. So there was no Ladder movement this past week, and Bledsoe remains winless. This week featured a battle of local legend Harry Agganis (#67) taking on the man that signed him to play for the Red Sox, Tom Yawkey (#61). A look at this week’s contestants…
YAWKEY: Sole owner of the Red Sox for 44 seasons (1933-1976), longer than anyone in baseball history. Purchased the struggling Sox in ’33 for $1.2 million. The Red Sox won 3 A.L. Pennants under his watch: 1946, 1967 and 1975. Team reached Game 7 of all 3 World Series they reached, though lost all of them. Served as American League Vice President from 1956-73. Street Fenway Park is located on is now named Yawkey Way in his honor. Original member of the Red Sox Hall of Fame. Elected to Baseball Hall of Fame in 1980.
AGGANIS: "The Golden Greek", a Lynn (MA) native, was a football, basketball and baseball star at Lynn Classical (1944-48). Was recruited by 75 colleges, including Notre Dame, but opted to stay close to home and attend Boston University (1948-52) to play football and baseball. Played offense, defense and special teams for football team at BU. School’s first ever All-American (at QB). Finished as BU’s all-time leader in passing yards, passing touchdowns, punting average and interceptions. Drafted in 1st Round of the 1952 NFL Draft by Cleveland Browns. Opted to sign with Red Sox to play pro baseball instead, and was in the majors by 1954. Hit .251 with 11 HR, 57 RBI and 6 SB his rookie year. Began ‘55 by hitting .313 in his first 25 games. On June 27, 1955, died of a massive pulmonary embolism at the age of 26. Elected to College Football Hall of Fame in 1974. Boston University named their new athletic complex in his honor in 2005.
VERDICT: With the combination of being a Massachusetts native, starring in multiple sports in college, being good enough to be both drafted as a successor to Otto Graham on the Browns and signed to bat cleanup behind Ted Williams on the Sox, this is an easy vote for me: Harry Agganis. My only hesitation whatsoever is in trying to figure out how he ranked so low on The Ladder to begin with.
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5 comments:
I would actually like to see both of these guys move in opposite directions on The Ladder. The more I looked at Agganis the more I felt like he deserves to be up near Reggie Lewis....his pro career was not as good, but he is local and played two sports. Plus he died even younger, and at 26 Reggie still wasn't an NBA star.
Crazy to think of the "what if" for Agganis in so many ways.
Yawkey deserves credit for signing him. Paul Brown offered him a $25k bonus to sign with Cleveland so Yawkey offered him $35k to play baseball.
Yawkey passed on signing Willie Mayes and Jackie Robinson...aka...was a BIG TIME racist. Agganis is a fucking landslide in my opinion. The Sox were the last team to sign a black player who was Pumpsie Green. FYI the Red Sox STUNK during the period of Yawkey refusing to sign black players.
Not that Agganis had much of an option to sign black players....but Yawkey intentionally didn't.
Not worth even being considered. AGGANIS!
Agganis gets my vote. Could have gone anywhere to go to college opted to stay local and when drafted to the NFL by a different city opted to stay home with Boston. You dont get and more "Real Boston" than that. I say he belongs higher than the the racsist, but not higher than also i dont really think he should be too much higher on the list. Alot of people are real good in college and then play well a few years as a pro but then they go away. Agganis by your stats didnt appear to be headed that way but we'll never know.
But like JBS said Yawkey was a terrible racist that passed on some of the games best because they were black. Yawkey is rolling in his grave after tuesday.
KC Jones seems to be the early favorite to be next week's Challenger. Any suggestions as to whom he should go up against?
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