Lynn Red Sox

The Lynn Red Sox, based in Lynn, Massachusetts, were a Class B farm system affiliate of the Boston Red Sox from 1946-48 in American minor league baseball. The club played at Fraser Field and was a member of the New England League.

The Lynn Red Sox finished in first place during the regular seasons of 1946-47-48, but each year faltered during the playoffs, as the Nashua Dodgers won the NEL playoff championship for three consecutive seasons. Nashua was the first NEL team to break the baseball color line and, in 1946, ugly confrontations were reported between the Nashua and Lynn clubs. Future Brooklyn Dodger star starting pitcher Don Newcombe integrated the NEL in 1946, along with eventual Hall of Fame catcher Roy Campanella.

“I remember one game against the Lynn Red Sox," Newcombe recalled in 2007. "Their manager, [Thomas] ‘Pep’ Kennedy, was all over us, yelling all kinds of [racial] things at us, and Mr. [Buzzie Bavasi| [Buzzie] Bavasi] [the Nashua general manager and future Dodger chief] got him into the office and said, ‘They can’t fight you, but I can. If you have any guts, you’ll say to me what you said to them.’ Of course, he didn’t say a word." [The Nashua Telegraph, Sept. 2, 2007]

In 1947, Lynn received an upgraded management team when future Bosox general manager Dick O'Connell took over the front office, and former major league pitcher Mike Ryba became manager. After one season, Ryba was succeeded as pilot by Eddie Popowski in 1948.

But the Red Sox pulled out of Lynn after a 1948 season in which only 49,000 fans turned out at Fraser Field -- despite another first-place ballclub. The Essex County city fielded a Detroit Tigers farm club -- the Lynn Tigers, managed by Kennedy -- for the first three months of 1949 but withdrew from the league July 27. The NEL itself shut down at the end of the season.

References

* [http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070902/NEWS01/70902006 Nashua Telegraph]
* Johnson, Lloyd, and Wolff, Miles, eds., "The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball," 3d edition. Durham, N.C.: Baseball America, 2007.