Haywood Cooper Sullivan (December 15, 1930 – February 12, 2003) was an American college and professional baseball player who was a catcher, manager, general manager and club owner in Major League Baseball. From May 23, 1978, through November 23, 1993, he was a general partner in the Boston Red Sox, where he parlayed a $200,000 investment into a cash out of at least $12 million. He was the father of Marc Sullivan.Sukiennik, Greg. "Former Red Sox GM Haywood Sullivan dies," The Associated Press (AP), Thursday 13 February 2003. Retrieved 21 August 2026.
Early years Sullivan was born in Donalsonville, Georgia, and raised in Dothan, Alabama. He graduated from Dothan High School on May 27, 1949. He received an athletic scholarship to attend the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, where he was the starting quarterback for coach Bob Woodruff's Florida Gators football team in 1950 and 1951, 2011 Florida Gators Football Media Guide , University Athletic Association, Gainesville, Florida, pp. 96, 148, 186 (2011). Retrieved August 31, 2011. and a standout catcher for coach Dave Fuller's Gators baseball team in 1951 and 1952.
In his two seasons as the Gators' quarterback, Sullivan threw for 2,016 yards in an era when the emphasis was on a running offense.
As a Gators baseball player, he was named to the All-Southeastern Conference (SEC) team in 1952.
He threw and batted right-handed, stood tall and weighed .
Sullivan signed a guaranteed $45,000 bonus contract with the Red Sox in 1952, a contract which would not have been available a year later under pending baseball rules changes, and thereby ended his college football and baseball career after his junior year. He was later inducted into the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame as a "Gator Great."F Club, Hall of Fame, Gator Greats. Retrieved December 13, 2014.
MLB catcher and manager Sullivan's professional baseball playing career—derailed by military service, which caused him to miss the 1953 and 1954 seasons, and back surgery that cost him the entire 1958 campaign—was largely confined to the minor leagues for its first eight seasons.
After three short stays and only eight total games played for the Red Sox (in 1955, 1957 and 1959), Sullivan finally established himself in the big leagues in at age 29. He was the starting backstop for Boston's first three games, including the then-traditional "Presidential Opener" at Washington's Griffith Stadium. However, Sullivan injured his hand in the third game of the season"Boston Red Sox 7, New York Yankees 1", Retrosheet box score (April 20, 1960) and struggled offensively afterward, hitting only .135 through June 13 and 36 games played. That day, the Red Sox acquired catcher Russ Nixon from the Cleveland Indians, and from then through the end of the campaign, Sullivan played only sparingly. He ended the season as Boston's second-most-used catcher, behind Nixon, with 50 games and innings caught. But he batted only .161 with four extra-base hits and was left exposed in the 1960 Major League Baseball expansion draft. The newly created edition of the Washington Senators franchise picked him up, then traded him to the Kansas City Athletics for pitcher Marty Kutyna on December 29, 1960.Nats trade Sullivan for Marty Kutyna
Sullivan played for seasons with the Athletics, and was the club's semi-regular catcher in 1961 and 1962, starting 78 and 80 games behind the plate. In a three-game span against his former team, the Red Sox, at Municipal Stadium from July 12–14, 1962, Sullivan had seven hits in 11 at bats, with two home runs, although Boston won all three games.1962 regular season batting log from Retrosheet For his MLB career, Sullivan batted .226 with 192 hits, 30 doubles and 13 home runs in 312 games over all or parts of seven seasons.Haywood Sullivan Statistics - Baseball-Reference.com
In 1964, Sullivan was named manager of the Athletics' Birmingham Barons farm club in the Double-A Southern League. His 1964 Barons—the first integrated team in BirminghamSouthern League, Larry Colton, Grand Central Publishing, 2013, —missed the pennant by just one game, earning him a promotion to the Vancouver Mounties of the Triple-A Pacific Coast League in 1965. After only 25 games in Vancouver, Sullivan was called to Kansas City to manage the parent Athletics on May 16, 1965, succeeding Mel McGaha. At 34, Sullivan was the youngest manager in Major League Baseball that season.Charlie Finley: The Outrageous Story of Baseball's Super Showman, p.92, G. Michael Green and Roger D. Launius. Walker Publishing Company, New York, 2010, Kansas City had lost 21 of its first 26 games and was lodged in last place in the ten-team American League when McGaha was fired, and they remained in the cellar for the rest of the 1965 season, winning 54 and losing 82 (.397) with Sullivan at the reins. Managerial record Team Year Regular season PostseasonGamesWonLostWin %Finish Won Lost Win % ResultKCA 1365482 Tenth in AL – – – –Total 136 54 82 0 0 –
Front office and ownership career
Role with Bosox' 1967 pennant winners On November 28, 1965, he was recruited by the Red Sox, who had reorganized their front office under new general manager Dick O'Connell. As vice president, player personnel, Sullivan was positioned as the top "baseball man" in the organization, and from 1965 to 1967 was instrumental in acquiring several players from the Athletics (among them John Wyatt, José Tartabull, Ken Harrelson and Bill Landis) who would help lead Boston to its surprise 1967 AL pennant. But O'Connell gradually assumed more power and took over most of Sullivan's responsibilities; Sullivan kept his title but in reality became the Red Sox' director of scouting after the 1973 death of Neil Mahoney.
Despite his decline in overall authority, Sullivan maintained very close personal ties with owner Tom Yawkey and his wife, Jean. In 1977, a year after Tom Yawkey died of leukemia, the Red Sox were put up for sale. Sullivan—reportedly borrowing $100,000 and using his home as collateral—joined an ownership group organized by former Red Sox athletic trainer Edward "Buddy" LeRoux. Because of Sullivan's close friendship with Jean Yawkey, the LeRoux offer was accepted, even though it was not the highest bid and the group did not have the financial resources of some of its rivals. The American League initially rejected the deal, but reconsidered when Mrs. Yawkey joined the group in May 1978, becoming principal owner, general partner and team president.
Co-owner and general manager Before the sale was consummated, in October 1977, Mrs. Yawkey fired O'Connell and promoted Sullivan to general manager. Overall, his first off-season as GM of the Red Sox was highly successful. Still using the resources of the Yawkey fortune, and benefitting from the depth of the Red Sox farm system that he helped to build, Sullivan acquired players Mike Torrez, Jerry Remy, Dick Drago, Tom Burgmeier and Dennis Eckersley. Buoyed by the new additions to an already strong team, the Red Sox charged into first place in the AL East race, but they would squander a game lead over the New York Yankees and then lose a one-game playoff for the division title to miss the postseason completely.
Although manager Don Zimmer is usually cast as the chief culprit for the collapse, in the six months between December 14, 1977, and June 15, 1978, Sullivan contributed to the debacle by dealing away useful players such as Ferguson Jenkins, Reggie Cleveland, Jim Willoughby and Bernie Carbo. Sullivan and Zimmer considered them to be "clubhouse lawyers"—malcontents—but in return for them, the Red Sox received only one ballplayer, journeyman left-hander John Poloni, acquired for Jenkins, and four cash payments."Transactions for 1977 Boston Red Sox." Retrosheet"Transactions for 1978 Boston Red Sox." Retrosheet Poloni never appeared in a Boston uniform, while, in 1978, Jenkins went 18–8 (3.04) for the Texas Rangers. Overall, the loss of pitching depth and bench strength was a critical factor in the 1978 Red Sox' ultimate failure.
Post-1978 decline and the "Coup LeRoux" After the 1978 season, Sullivan allowed legendary pitcher Luis Tiant to leave for the Yankees as a free agent and, as he had done with Jenkins, Carbo and the others, dumped a clubhouse dissident, lefty pitcher Bill Lee, in a giveaway trade—in this case, to the Montreal Expos for utility infielder Stan Papi. In , Sullivan raised eyebrows when he selected his son Marc, who was not considered to have early-round talent, in the second round of baseball's amateur draft; the younger Sullivan would bat a paltry .186 in parts of five major league seasons.Marc Sullivan career statistics: https://www.baseball-reference.com/s/sullima02.shtml
In December 1980, Sullivan faced the imminent free agency of Rick Burleson, Carlton Fisk and Fred Lynn—Boston's starting shortstop, catcher and center fielder, and the "up the middle" core of the ball club. The three players, represented by agent Jeremy Kapstein, had been embroiled in a contract dispute with the team in , the first year of free agency, and hard feelings still lingered between them and owners Sullivan and Mrs. Yawkey. On December 10, Sullivan was able to trade Burleson for value (young third baseman Carney Lansford and relief pitcher Mark Clear). But he then failed to mail contract offers to Lynn and Fisk by MLB's mandated deadline of December 20, unintentionally triggering a binding arbitration hearing in January 1981 that speeded their free agency. On January 23, Sullivan was forced to accept fifty cents on the dollar for Lynn in a trade to the California Angels, who signed him immediately to a multi-year contract. Then, on February 12, he lost Fisk outright when the arbitrator declared the catcher a free agent. Fisk played the rest of his Baseball Hall of Fame career as a member of the Chicago White Sox, retiring in .
From then on, Sullivan's reputation in Boston was tarnished. Harrelson, the former outfielder acquired by the Red Sox in August 1967 with Sullivan's help and now a popular analyst on the team's TV broadcasts, called him "the laughing-stock of the American League." (Like Fisk, Harrelson would soon depart for the White Sox.) Vendors outside Fenway Park sold tee-shirts emblazoned with "Haywood and Buddy [LeRoux] are Killing the Sox." Marvin Miller, head of the MLBPA, described the Red Sox' Lynn/Fisk contract snafu as "stupidity of the highest order."
After signing veteran Tony Pérez in 1980, Sullivan refused to enter the market for free agents, preferring to rely exclusively on player development. But the Boston farm system hit a dry spell resulting from poor drafts during Sullivan's tenure as GM; the only starting player drafted and signed by the Red Sox between 1977 and 1979 was Marty Barrett. The formerly high-paying Red Sox gained a new reputation for stinginess: by , the team ranked 16th among the 26 MLB teams in average salary. The decline showed on the field: only in the strike-mangled season of did the Red Sox finish within five games of first place in the AL East between 1979 and . At the turnstiles, a team that had drawn 2.4 million home fans in 1979 saw its attendance drop by 29 percent to 1.7 million by ."Boston Red Sox Team History & Encyclopedia". Baseball Reference