Yawkey moved from the Navin thread
 

I figured I'd move this out of the Navin thread, as it was getting that one just too far away from the original topic, but was interesting enough to continue.

We'd been discussing Tom Yawkey and why he should or shouldn't be in the hall. Moot point since he's already in, but it's officially winter, (That begins whenever baseball ends and we briefly move on to other sports right? ) so it's as good a topic as any.
We started around post 8, and got to the point where we'd covered that He wasn't at all good on integration, and harbored a pedophile. (indefensible, and not the point here, we don't really need to go much further do we?)
He also did a lot of good though, pretty much saving theSox, a franchise that was failing, and rebuilding and modernizing Fenway. It's possible neither the RedSox or Fenway would exist without him. Plus the Yawkey foundation, willing his SC estate as a wildlife sanctuary, support for Dana-Farber etc.

Packs made an interesting point, that the Sox didn't sign any African American free agents until 1992.
That's not exactly the case, but it's really close. I went through the rosters from about 1970 to 1992, and the free agents who might qualify are.

George Scott amateur free agent 1962
Roger Moret amateur free agent 1968 (Puerto Rico)
Bob Veale bought from Pirates 1972 released 73 signed as a free agent before the 74 season. (In context, that sounds awful doesn't it?)
Orlando Cepeda signed as a free agent 1973 (Puerto Rico)
Dana Williams signed as an amateur free agent 1983
Billy Hatcher - released and resigned 1992
Herm Winningham 1992

With what we know as free agency starting in 76, a couple of these extended into the limited free agency where a player was released making them a free agent.
Still all in all a pretty poor record.
Of the seven, three were signed into the farm system as amateur free agents.
Two were from Puerto Rico, which may be considered different by some - they are Americans, so I counted them.
Two were their own players who came to the team in a trade and later were released and re-signed.
Indeed, for a simple straight free agent signing of someone from the continental US, you have to get to Herm Willingham in 1992.

My recollection was that the Sox didn't sign many free agents at all between the start of modern free agency and the early 90's. But sometimes I'm terrible at searching and couldn't find a list of free agent signings.

And, since it'll probably be a bit controversial, I'm guessing Leon will want names here.

Steve Birmingham