Long Taters

When African American first baseman George “Boomer” Scott made his debut in the major leagues in 1966, he took the field for the Boston Red Sox—the last major league team to field a black ballplayer, only seven years before. An eight-time Gold Glove Award winner, a three-time All-Star, and an important member of the Red Sox 1967 Impossible Dream American League Champions, Scott stroked 271 “taters”—a term he coined for home runs that has been memorialized in baseball lexicon. Yet throughout his career, the outspoken player faced an ongoing struggle to gain racial acceptance. This detailed biography chronicles Scott’s youth in violently racist Mississippi, his impressive 14-year professional career, and the challenges he faced off the field. Based on hundreds of hours of interviews with the former slugger, this work celebrates one of Boston’s legends and reveals the barriers that still existed for black ball players years after Jackie Robinson paved the way.

Ron Anderson has written for several publications of the Society for American Baseball Research and has been a speaker at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. He lives in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

Ron Anderson
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 308
Bibliographic Info: 52 photos, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2012
pISBN: 978-0-7864-4976-7
eISBN: 978-0-7864-8669-4
Imprint: McFarland

Table of Contents


Acknowledgments   ix

Foreword by Bill Jenkinson   xi

Preface   1

1. Pee-tuck   5

2. When the Going Gets Tough,

the Tough Gets Going   25

3. Great Scott   43

4. Mind’s Made Up—He’s Staying   52

5. Tape Measures to Goin’ Fishin’   67

6. An Irascible Sort   86

7. That Glorious Summer   101

8. Nothing But Gibson   129

9. Bewitched   140

10. Rehab   160

11. A Confident Boomer   173

12. The Key   191

13. Mentor   205

14. I’ll Never Quit   217

15. A Garden City   226

16. Bricks and Bats   237

17. Arriba King Kong   246

Notes   263

Bibliography   277

Index   284

“a good read”—At Home Plate.