Dick O'Connell

Richard Henry O'Connell (September 19, 1914 – August 18, 2002) was an American front office executive in Major League Baseball. He was executive vice president of the Boston Red Sox from 1961 through 1977 and served as general manager of the team from September 16, 1965, through October 24, 1977, a period during which he played a pivotal role in restoring the Red Sox to contending status, won two American League pennants, and helped make the team a flagship MLB franchise.

A native of Winthrop, Massachusetts, O'Connell attended Boston College, earning a bachelor's degree in 1937 and a master's degree the following year. He worked in private business and taught and coached athletics at Sanborn Academy, Kingston, New Hampshire, until the outbreak of World War II. While serving in the U.S. Navy, he befriended a fellow officer, Jim Britt, the radio play-by-play announcer for the Red Sox and Boston's National League team, the Braves. After the war, Britt put O'Connell in touch with the Red Sox front office, and he entered baseball in 1947 as business manager of the Lynn Red Sox, the Bosox' Class B New England League farm club.

Two years later, O'Connell joined Boston's front office in an administrative capacity. He rose through the ranks, serving as "home secretary" and director of stadium operations, then became the Red Sox' business manager during the late 1950s. It appeared that he would rise no further. Tom Yawkey, the team's owner since 1933, wanted famous former players to head his organization, and through 1960 his three general managers—Eddie Collins, Joe Cronin and Bucky Harris—were all current or future members of the Baseball Hall of Fame; Collins and Cronin were standout players, while Harris had won three American League pennants and two World Series as a field manager. With the Red Sox' great left fielder, Ted Williams, about to retire, and with the team's fortunes at a low ebb, Yawkey fired Harris in September 1960 and informally offered the GM post to Williams. But the future Hall-of-Fame hitter was not interested in an office job; he preferred to fish and teach hitting in spring training.

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