Haywood Cooper Sullivan (December 15, 1930, Donalsonville, Georgia - February 12, 2003, Fort Myers, Florida) was a catcher, manager, general manager and club owner in American Major League Baseball. From 1978 through 1993, he was a general partner in the Boston Red Sox, where he reportedly parlayed a $100,000 investment into a $33 million cash out.
Sullivan attended the University of Florida where he was a football quarterback and a baseball standout. He signed with the Red Sox in 1952, but his career was derailed by military service and a severe back injury: Sullivan missed the entire 1958 season after surgery. Finally, in 1960, he made the big leagues as Boston's third-string catcher, then held on as a semi-regular with the Kansas City Athletics from 1961-63. Overall, Sullivan (a righthanded hitter) batted .226 with 13 home runs in 312 games over all or parts of seven seasons.
In 1964, Sullivan was named manager of the Athletics' Birmingham Barons club in the AA Southern League. His team just missed the pennant, by one game, earning him a promotion to the AAA Vancouver Mounties of the Pacific Coast League in 1965. But Sullivan earned a quick call-up to manage the A's on May 16, 1965, succeeding Mel McGaha, with Kansas City lodged in last place. They remained there under Sullivan, winning 54 and losing 82 (.397).
At season's end, 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 was instrumental in acquiring several players from the Athletics (such as Jose Santiago, John Wyatt, Jose Tartabull and Ken Harrelson) who would help lead Boston to its surprise 1967 American League pennant. But O'Connell gradually assumed more power and took over most of Sullivan's responsibilities; during the early 1970s, Sullivan kept his title but in reality became the Red Sox' director of scouting.
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 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 as a third general partner in 1978.
Before the sale was consummated, in October 1977, Mrs. Yawkey fired O'Connell and promoted Sullivan to general manager. 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, he acquired players such as Mike Torrez, Jerry Remy, Dick Drago and Dennis Eckersley. Buoyed by the new additions to an already strong team, the Red Sox charged into first place in the 1978 AL East race. Famously, the Red Sox would lose a 14 1/2 game lead over the New York Yankees and a one-game playoff that season. Although manager Don Zimmer is usually cast as the chief culprit for the collapse, Sullivan contributed to the debacle by dealing away useful players such as Bernie Carbo and Ferguson Jenkins who were considered to be "clubhouse lawyers." Neither player fetched comparable value, and the loss of pitching and bench strength was a critical factor in Boston's struggles.
Sullivan further endured the wrath of Red Sox Nation after the '78 season when he allowed legendary pitcher Luis Tiant to leave for the Yankees as a free agent and, as he had done with Jenkins and Carbo, dumped lefty pitcher Bill Lee in a giveaway trade to the Montreal Expos. In December 1980, Sullivan failed to mail contract offers to All-Stars Rick Burleson, Carlton Fisk and Fred Lynn by the mandated deadline. The three - Boston's starting shortstop, catcher and center fielder, and thus the "up the middle" core of the ballclub - were declared unrestricted free agents. Although Sullivan somehow was able to trade Burleson for value (young third baseman Carney Lansford), he accepted fifty cents on the dollar for Lynn and lost future Hall of Famer Fisk outright.
From then on, Sullivan's reputation in Boston was tarnished. He refused to enter the market for free agents, preferring to rely exclusively on player development, but the Boston farm system hit a dry spell and the Red Sox were ridiculed for stinginess and ineptitude. Fans also criticized the club, with its tortured racial history, for its relative lack of African-American and Latin-American players. The contending Bosox of the late 1970s were reduced to also-rans.
Sullivan's legacy received another battering in 1983 when a long-simmering estrangement from LeRoux became embarrassingly public. On a June night celebrating the Red Sox' 1967 AL champions, and raising money to care for stricken outfielder Tony Conigliaro, LeRoux called a press conference to reveal that he and his limited partners had exercised a contract clause and taken control of the Red Sox. He fired Sullivan on the spot, and restored O'Connell - who hadn't set foot in Fenway Park since his dismissal in 1977 - to the GM post. Boston called it "the Coup LeRoux." Sullivan and Mrs. Yawkey then immediately called their own press conference to announce they had filed suit to prevent the takeover. A court granted their injunction, and in a public 1984 trial that aired dirty laundry on both sides, Sullivan and Yawkey won the day again. LeRoux was bought out and Jean Yawkey became the majority general partner.
But the damage had been done. Sullivan voluntarily gave up his general manager post to Lou Gorman in June 1984 and became the team's chief executive and chief operating officer. Gorman received credit for trades that helped the 1986 Red Sox win the AL championship, although Sullivan's determination to build from within helped to furnish the club with many of its key players. Moreover, Sullivan and Mrs. Yawkey grew distant, and, although he still held a general partnership in the team, by the late 1980s Sullivan was consistently outvoted 2-1 by Mrs. Yawkey's two shares. When she died in 1992, both Sullivan and her representative, John Harrington, vowed to buy the other out. In November 1993, Harrington made good his word, buying Sullivan's interest for a reported $33 million.
Sullivan then retired to the Gulf Coast of Florida, where he invested successfully in real estate, his name occasionally popping up as a potential investor in another major league club. When he died in February 2003 after suffering a stroke at the age of 72, Boston baseball observers such as Peter Gammons took a fresh view of Sullivan's impact on the Red Sox and gave him renewed credit for building the team into contenders, and keeping them there, from 1966 forward.