I WAS BORN POOR
I WAS BORN BLACK
AND I WAS BORN IN MISSISSIPPI
WHEN YOU’VE BEEN THROUGH
THAT YOU CAN DEAL WITH ANYTHING
IN THIS GROUNDBREAKING STUDY OF THE QUINTESSENTIAL AFRICAN
AMERICAN ATHLETE OF THE DEEP SOUTH, GEORGE -BOOMER” SCOTT
BORN INTO MISSISSIPPI’S RACIALLY TURBULENT DELTA AND THE SHAMEFUL
JIM CROW PERIOD OF HIS YOUTH. MANIFESTS A TALE OF HOW THIS
YOUNG BLACK MAN NAVIGATED THOSE PERIODS OF RACIAL UNREST – AND
THEY WERE NUMEROUS – WITH ITS UBIQUITOUS INEQUITIES OF RACIAL
SEGREGATION, ITS VIOLENCE, AND HOW HE OVERCAME THESE INJUSTICES
RISING TO PREEMINENCE AS AN ATHLETE IN MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
JOINING. IRONICALLY THE BOSTON RED SOX.
Long Taters
A Baseball Biography of
George “Boomer” Scott
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.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
RON ANDERSON
Ron Anderson grew up in the Boston area a devotee of their 1950s-era major league baseball teams, with allegiance initially rooted in the cross-town club, the National League’s Boston Braves, and then morphing permanently to the vicissitudes of a Red Sox team in 1953 upon the Braves departure from the city. A contributing Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) author for SABR’s Baseball Biography Project, including: ’75: The Red Sox Team That Saved Baseball; The 1967 Impossible Dream Red Sox: Pandemonium on the Field; When Boston Still Had the Babe: The 1918 World Series Champion Red Sox; Spahn, Sain and Teddy Ballgame: Boston’s almost Perfect Baseball Summer of 1948; Go-Go to Glory: The 1959 Chicago White Sox. And, his full-length baseball biography of former Red Sox All-Star first baseman George Scott – Long Taters: A Baseball Biography of George “Boomer” Scott, McFarland Publishing, released in 2012.
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I WAS BORN POOR
I WAS BORN BLACK
AND I WAS BORN IN MISSISSIPPI
WHEN YOU’VE BEEN THROUGH
THAT YOU CAN DEAL WITH ANYTHING
Long Taters
A Baseball Biography of
George “Boomer” Scott
Testimonials
Boomer was my idol with the Red Sox while I was in high school playing baseball in Massachusetts. His picture was always on my bedroom closet door. And now after 47 years I have this man again in my thoughts. “Thank you George for coming out with the book.” I am enjoying the read and enlightened by the things I didn’t realize or know about my idol.
Thank you GeorgeTJ
I highly recommend this book, very good and the price cant be beat.
Five StarsThomas R. Garcia
Author Ron Anderson did his research on this book, not only spending hours reading microfilm but also traveling all the way to George Scott’s hometown in Greenville, Mississippi and interviewing neighbors and newspaper folks there. Scott came from a a truly impoverished background. He literally picked cotton in the fields, and he started fielding using a paper sack as a glove – later winning eight Gold Glove Awards, as one of the best-fielding first basemen of all time.
Not only did he have to make his way up and out from under poverty, but he had to try to overcome racism as well. It was never an easy struggle – but he made it, and spent 14 years in the major leagues.
Anderson’s book doesn’t just skim the surface. He digs for details. It’s a dense book, and well-written. The amount of detail is impressive, informed by more than 50 interviews, and is especially strong in areas many authors skip through – the minor-league years, the years of trying to make the grade.
And he devotes time to “The Boomer’s” years playing Mexican League baseball, too.
Anderson worked closely with Scott, interviewing him on numerous occasions over the more than four years he devoted to working on Scott’s biography. But he also chased down some of those with whom Scott clashed, such as Sox manager Dick Williams. A more complete understanding of some of the issues that followed Scott through his career results, and some insight.
a deep and detailed look at Red Sox and Brewers star George ScottBill Nowlin
Baseball biographies are generally 3-star books but this is about the Boomer. If it was written on a napkin it was getting 5 stars
perhaps more of a backhanded compliment but nevertheless Richard Canale
I really enjoy books like this – a thorough biography of a very good, but not great player that many baseball fans have heard of and may fondly remember. Kudos to Ron Anderson for digging in and doing the research on the life of George Scott. The book follows a chronological path from Scott’s poor upbringing in Mississippi by his widowed mother, to the minors and finally to the Major Leagues. Anderson does a nice job of calling out key points in Scott’s life while maintaining an eye on how race impacted him. I found it interesting that Scott played (and played well) for a few seasons in Mexico after he was no longer able to find a job on a Major League roster. Of special note is Anderson’s excellent job of breaking down the Red Sox fall from grace after their 1967 season, pulling in details from a variety of resources to paint the picture of a team that was so close and then never could quite get back over the hump. Only a couple of minor problems. The most glaring is the discussion of Hank Aaron joining the Brewers following the 1974 season. Anderson notes that Aaron “signed a contract on November 2 to come back to Milwaukee.” The Brewers actually acquired Aaron in a trade with the Braves, giving up Dave May and a minor leaguer. There are a couple of typos, as well. Again, nothing major. The book is fully indexed, has end notes and a very extensive bibliography. Highly recommended for fans of the Red Sox or Brewers.
clemente_in_rightEnjoyable, insightful and well researched
I highly recommend this book, very good and the price can’t be beat.
Thomas R. Garcia
The baseball biography genre doesn’t lend itself to great literature. There was an emphasis on Scott’s difficulties in an era of transition for race relations, and a warranted emphasis on the Red Sox’s poor track record in that regard. Somethings which I thought might be in it were missing: Scott’s off-season work on his game in the company of Billy Williams and others; more than a cursory mention of his private life–some anecdotes about The Boomer’s physical presence and the times he intervened to break up confrontations. At the very end of the book it seems to suggest that Scott knew if he’d been more willing to adapt he might have had more success–that comes as an abrupt shift in tone. Generally speaking, the gifted athlete and soft-handed glove man are properly credited. George’s popularity with the fans might have been developed, and something about his relationships with his teammates might have been interesting. Still, having read a number of baseball books, they do tend to be written much the same as this one has been, and any fan of The Boomer will be interested–and sometimes saddened– to
MacKenzie Scott
Boomer was my idol with the Red Sox while I was in high school playing baseball in Massachusetts. His picture was always on my bedroom closet door. And now after 47 years I have this man again in my thoughts. “Thank you, George for coming out with the book.” I am enjoying the read and enlightened by the things I didn’t realize or know about my idol.
TJ
Author Ron Anderson did his research on this book, not only spending hours reading microfilm but also traveling all the way to George Scott’s hometown in Greenville, Mississippi and interviewing neighbors and newspaper folks there. Scott came from a a truly impoverished background. He literally picked cotton in the fields, and he started fielding using a paper sack as a glove – later winning eight Gold Glove Awards, as one of the best-fielding first basemen of all time. Not only did he have to make his way up and out from under poverty, but he had to try to overcome racism as well. It was never an easy struggle – but he made it, and spent 14 years in the major leagues. Anderson’s book doesn’t just skim the surface. He digs for details. It’s a dense book, and well-written. The amount of detail is impressive, informed by more than 50 interviews, and is especially strong in areas many authors skip through – the minor-league years, the years of trying to make the grade. And, he devotes time to “The Boomer’s” years playing Mexican League baseball, too. Anderson worked closely with Scott, interviewing him on numerous occasions over the more than four years he devoted to working on Scott’s biography. But he also chased down some of those with whom Scott clashed, such as Sox manager Dick Williams. A more complete understanding of some of the issues that followed Scott through his career results, and some insight. A very welcome book.
Bill Nowlin
I finished reading Ron Anderson’s “Long Taters” not long ago and I was very impressed with it. Anderson does an excellent job bringing to life the struggles George Scott overcame in his youth while growing up in a poor and racially-divided area of the Deep South, and again with the Boston Red Sox, the last team to integrate after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in 1947. That Anderson and Scott are friends gives the reader an up-close look at “Boomer,” who provides a first-hand account of his life and baseball career, and provides several opinions that some might not agree with. Still, I commend Anderson and Scott for telling it as they see it and I highly recommend this book even to the most casual of fan.
Seamhead
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