NEW YORK -- Last month, when former Major League Baseball All-Star Torii Hunter said he had been called the N-word "a hundred times" at Boston's storied Fenway Park, the Red Sox were quick to back him up with a promise to fight racism.
"Torii Hunter's experience is real," the team said in a June 10 Twitter post, adding that there were at least seven incidents as recently as last year in which fans used racial slurs. The team promised to do a better job dealing with racism: "As we identify how we can do better, please know we are listening."
Those words rang hollow for more than a dozen Black men who have spent the past several years trying to get the Red Sox to listen to their claims that they were sexually abused by a former Red Sox clubhouse manager who died in 2005.
The former clubhouse manager, Donald "Fitzy" Fitzpatrick, pleaded guilty to criminal charges of attempted sexual battery in 2002, admitting that he used Red Sox team memorabilia to lure young, Black clubhouse workers into secluded areas of the team's Florida spring training facility, where he abused them. Fitzpatrick did not admit to abusing young boys in other ballparks.
Since then, a growing number of men have stepped forward to allege that they, too, were abused by Fitzpatrick at Fenway Park and at major league stadiums in Baltimore and Kansas City when the Red Sox were playing on the road. Because their claims date to the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, they are too old to be included in civil lawsuits, and the men say their requests for out-of-court settlements have fallen on deaf ears.
Gerald Armstrong, 65, said he believes the team knew that Fitzpatrick, who worked for the Red Sox for decades, was molesting boys hired as bat boys, ball boys and clubhouse attendants. "You can't tell me that you can have 30 or 40 guys traveling around with him and observing his behavior and not know what he was doing," Armstrong said.
Armstrong said former Red Sox first baseman George Scott, known as the "Boomer," frequently told him to "stay away from Fitzy." Scott died seven years ago.
"It was another slap in the face for me," Charles Crawford, a 45-year-old Black man from Taunton, Massachusetts, said after hearing the most recent Red Sox statement about combating racism at Fenway Park. Crawford alleges that Fitzpatrick abused him in a locked storage room and in the team showers at Fenway Park when he was 16 years old in the summer of 1991.
"Now would be a good time for the Red Sox to show everyone they mean what they say," said Armstrong, who claims that he was the first Black youth hired in the visitors clubhouse by the Kansas City Athletics -- only to be allegedly abused by Fitzpatrick multiple times in a stadium storage room and the historic Muehlebach Hotel in downtown Kansas City.
When contacted by The Associated Press, Daniel Goldberg, an attorney for the Red Sox, reissued a statement that the team released in 2017, noting that Fitzpatrick pleaded guilty to criminal charges under the team's previous ownership.
"The Red Sox have always viewed the actions -- which date back as long as six decades ago -- of Mr. Fitzpatrick as abhorrent," the team statement said. "When the team, under prior ownership, became aware of the allegations against Mr. Fitzpatrick in 1991, he was promptly relieved of his duties."
Mitchell Garabedian, an attorney representing 21 men -- 15 of whom are Black -- who claim they were abused by Fitzpatrick, has been pushing for out-of-court settlements with the Red Sox, three other teams and Major League Baseball for years -- but to no avail. Recently, following the death of George Floyd and statements about combating racism issued by the Red Sox, Major League Baseball and several teams, Garabedian has tried again to open negotiations.
"It's inconceivable to me that they wouldn't want to help these victims in this day and age," said Garabedian, who is known for his work representing victims of Catholic clergy sex abuse, including those who took part in a 2002 settlement with the Archdiocese of Boston.
Forbes Magazine recently pegged the value of the Red Sox at $3.3 billion, third among the 30 major league ball clubs. In a recent ranking of billionaires, the magazine estimated principal owner John Henry's net worth to be $2.6 billion.
Today's Red Sox, led by Henry, who owns The Boston Globe, have labored to shed the team's racist past since buying the franchise in 2002.
Under the late Tom Yawkey, the team's former owner, the Red Sox were the last major league team to integrate, signing infielder Elijah Jerry "Pumpsie" Green in 1959, more than a decade after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier by signing with the Brooklyn Dodgers. The Red Sox had a chance to sign Robinson before he went to the Dodgers, and they also took a pass on signing Hall of Famer Willie Mays.
Two years ago, the Red Sox tried to step away from the team's racist legacy when they asked the City of Boston to drop Yawkey's name from a street that runs alongside Fenway Park. The request ignited opposition from a group of civic leaders who said the move would tarnish Yawkey's record of charitable giving. But the Red Sox prevailed, and Yawkey Way has reverted to its original name, Jersey Street.
Crawford and Armstrong, who have long accused Fitzpatrick of abuse, said the former clubhouse manager used official team caps and baseballs to draw them and others into private settings in major league ballparks and other locations.
Garabedian said three of the 21 alleged victims claim that Fitzpatrick molested them after showing up at Little League games in Boston and nearby Brockton and telling them that he was a scout for Major League Baseball.
"He was very active," Garabedian said.
Garabedian is seeking $5 million for each of the 21 alleged victims.
Armstrong said that he is speaking out in large part to encourage all Black men who are victims of child sexual abuse to overcome the shame or embarrassment they might feel so that they can acknowledge what was done to them and get the counseling they need.
"I think a lot of Black men have been molested, and for cultural reasons, they just don't come forward to deal with it," he said. "And if you don't deal with it, you're looking at a lot of emotional problems."