Segregation Games

Name: Segregation Games
Price: 69.99 AUD
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ISBN: 9781625349286

Boston, Busing, and the Making of Red Sox Nation

David Faflik

$69.99

Paperback

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English

University of Massachusetts Press
01 May 2026

History of the Americas; Ethnic minorities & multicultural studies; Sports teams & clubs; Baseball

Series: Sport for Social Change

A cultural history of race, resistance, and representation in a city divided by politics and play

When outfielder Bernie Carbo joined the Red Sox in 1974, he brought with him a toy gorilla named Mighty Joe Young that became the team’s unofficial mascot for several players and many in the local press. This seemingly innocent stuffed animal was introduced within a baseball team notorious for its stubborn discrimination, and during a particularly fraught era of racial discord in Boston. That June, after years of activism from the city’s Black community, Judge W. Arthur Garrity Jr. ruled that Boston must address the segregation of its schools through redistricting and busing. The ensuing racial animus to these policies led some of the city’s white residents to throw bananas and chant monkey sounds at African American students as they integrated the predominantly white South Boston High School. In this agitated atmosphere, cultural symbols like the Red Sox’s Mighty Joe Young mirrored and amplified the heightened racial tensions of Boston’s busing crisis.

Situated at the intersection of US cultural and social history, Segregation Games examines the surprising ties in 1970s Boston between the racial segregation of the city’s schools and the racial controversies expressed on and off the field of “Red Sox Nation.” “I found out in the black community why they don’t come out [to Fenway Park],” explained Black player Reggie Smith of his experiences with the Red Sox and the city during this period. “The team was the last to get Black players, and some of the things I hear out in the stands make me sick.” To understand these connections, Faflik erases the lines between politics and sport, which routinely blurred in a city suffused with an anti-Black racism that was both deceptively subtle and fiercely overt.

Drawing upon deep archival research from sources that have largely been ignored, such as the Black press of the time, Faflik offers a carefully nuanced portrait of Boston’s cultural life at a pivotal moment in the city’s history.

By: David Faflik
Imprint: University of Massachusetts Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 15mm
Weight: 313g
ISBN: 9781625349286
ISBN 10: 1625349289
Series: Sport for Social Change
Pages: 192
Publication Date: 01 May 2026
Audience: College/higher education , General/trade , Further / Higher Education , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Red Sox Baseball and Busing in Boston 2. Sports Culture in Boston’s Schools under Busing 3. Baseball, Busing, and Institution Building in Boston Notes Index

David Faflik is professor of English at the University of Rhode Island. His books include That Futebol Feeling: Sport and Play in Brazil's Heartland and Transcendental Heresies: Harvard and the Modern American Practice of Unbelief.

Reviews for Segregation Games: Boston, Busing, and the Making of Red Sox Nation

""Much remains unwritten about the Boston Red Sox and busing. Few are willing to confront the controversies from the late 1960s and 1970s to now. David Faflik courageously addresses that period. As a college professor, he wrote his book with the hope that society learns from its past to build a better future—a lesson we should all learn.""—Bay State Banner ""Fascinating. . . . Faflik's book is a ground-breaking, illuminating examination of the intertwining of sport and society in Boston during the 1970s.""—Charlie Bevis, Bevis Baseball Research ""Faflik wisely uses the Bay State Banner—the city's long-running African American newspaper—to understand how Black Bostonians viewed the Red Sox and their relationship to Red Sox Nation in a way that hasn't been done before. A significant contribution.""—Zebulon Miletsky, author of Before Busing: A History of Boston's Long Black Freedom Struggle