• Home
• Who is Larry Upton?
• "Upton on Sports" Blog
• Contact Me

Share on Facebook

Recent articles...

"FANS" - (bigger story than game itself)....................
05/20/2013 @ 08:38 AM
You've heard the cry, "get into the game"- a few fans out there literally "get into the game" and become in one way or another as much a part of it all as the players themselves.

Sports "DUMBEST" ......................
05/19/2013 @ 09:28 AM
Which pro sports has the "DUMBEST" athletes? That the question I wanted n answer to......

OZZIE'S "MISTAKE"....................
05/17/2013 @ 08:48 PM
Former Marlin manager Ozzie Guillen said it was a "BIG MISTAKE"taking the Miami managers job.....he wants a job back in baseball.....

MLB - "JERK OF THE YEAR"..................
05/13/2013 @ 05:19 AM
Second rate New York Yankee pitcher takes offense at Mariano Rivera for being asked to tone the noise down while the star reliever was being interviewed in the dugout.....

"OUT OF SIGHT - OUT OF MIND"................
05/10/2013 @ 05:47 AM
An out of work NFL quarterback topped Forbes' list of America's Most Influential Athletes in 2013......weird.....

"THE CLOCK'S RUNNING OUT"...........................
05/09/2013 @ 02:49 PM
Police made it official...soccer in Europe and around the world's in serious trouble...the sports been corrupted with match-fixing....

Youth Sports - "HIJACKED" forever........
05/07/2013 @ 08:33 AM
Youth sports leagues across the country have been "hijacked" by grown-ups and it's time to throw them out of our parks and playing fields.....but with billions involved it can never happen.

"DEADLY CALL" ........................
05/06/2013 @ 09:52 AM
A ref in a recreational league soccer game in Utah is dead today because a 17-year old he called a foul on punched him in the head...

"BROTHER CAN YOU SPARE A DIME?"..........
05/05/2013 @ 08:33 AM
Florida politicians on Friday said "NO" when the Dolphins asked for tax-payer money to refurbish their stadium......

"FORE" - on tax-payers dime......................
05/04/2013 @ 08:44 AM
Did you know the Pentagon runs a staggering 234 golf-courses with your tax dollars? They also run a ski lodge in the Bavarian Alps for non-golfers. Did you know that?

Sports - "SEX SCANDALS"......................

Posted on 06/23/2012 @ 06:13 AM

Before Jerry Sandusky - before he used the Penn State football complex to commit sex crimes with young boys - before the University spent more than a decade covering up his sins - before the grand-jury report revealed the appalling details of his abuse of children - before the campus rioted over legendary coach, Penn State "hero" football coach Joe Paterno lost his job - there was another man, the longtime clubhouse manager of the Boston Red Sox, "Donald Fitzpatrick" who lured more than a dozen young African-American boys into two decades of systematic sexual abuse. While it happened in another era, another sport, the two cases are strikingly similar. Both men seduced their victims with the lure of big-time athletics. Both bribed them with tickets, gifts, equipment and other swag. Both men, Sandusky and Fitzpatrick knew what it took to attract young impressionable youngsters. Both were "experienced" hunters - and both were "protected" for years by the institutions they worked for.

Fitzpatrick served as the Red Sox clubhouse man from the 1960's until 1991. His sex abuse dated back to 1971, and was quite open. One victim told Red Sox home team clubhouse manager Vince Orlando that Fitzpatrick in the 1970's had sexually abused him the previous three seasons. Orlando fired the boy. Two sources said a Red Sox player caught Fitzpatrick sodomizing a boy in the shower, much like then Penn State graduate assistant Mike McQueary did Sandusky. The player reported the incident to team officials but not police. Fitzpatrick kept his job. He was a favorite of team owners Tom Yawkey and his wife Jean. When Yawkey died in 1976 after owning the club for 44 years - his wife's continued employment of Fitzpatrick concerned many in the Red Sox front office. Players for years had told young boys - especially African-Americans - to stay away from Fitzpatrick. Higher-ups in the organization tried to isolate him from any possible social setting. Despite their concerns Jean Yawkey wouldn't fire him.
Donald Fitzpatrick's secret sex abuse world came crashing down when toward the end of batting practice before a Red Sox game on August 25,1991,in Anaheim, California, a man leaned over the Red Sox dugout and held up a large printed sign that said - "DONALD FITZPATRICK SEXUALLY ASSAULTED ME!" His "secret" revealed for the first time in 30 years of Red Sox employment. Four days later "Fitzie" as friends called him, disappeared from Fenway Park, never to return. The Red Sox paid the victim $100 thousand dollars in an out-of-court settlement.

The day after 9/11, more than a decade after the facade on Fitzpatrick cracked, seven men filed a lawsuit seeking $3.15 million in damages. All the men were from Winter Haven, Florida - Polk County Florida officials launched a criminal investigation. Finding witnesses to corroborate the Winter Haven seven's stories was near impossible. Many players refused to speak with police. Ted Williams was asked to talk with police but was too ill and died soon thereafter - "nobody" from the Red Sox claimed to know what happened. Very similar to Penn State officials circling the wagons. The Polk County investigation ended with Fitzpatrick being charged with four counts of attempted sexual battery between 1975 and 1989. He accepted a plea deal. When the court asked him why he was accepting the plea deal, Fitzpatrick replied,"BECAUSE I'M GUILTY!." The date was May 16,2002.
Fitzpatrick, age 72,would serve "NO JAIL TIME." He was allowed to return to his Randolph,Massachusetts home, with a 10-year suspended sentence and 15 years of probation. Fitzpatrick died three years later in 2005 having "never" served one day in jail for sexually abusing African-American children, some as young as 10 years of age.

So why was Fitzpatrick "protected" by Red Sox officials for so many years? Why was Jerry Sandusky protected by Penn State for so many years?
Different era's - different sports - different individuals, one a "no-name" - the other a college football Icon - same behavior. Why did people who should have known better remain "silent?" Will sex scandals in sports end with the jury finding Jerry Sandusky guilty? I doubt it.
What has to end is people's insistence to "deny"-"deny"-"deny" that sex abuse exist in the sports world....or anywhere else for that matter................

Larry Upton
"Upton on Sports"-source: postgame/huffingtonpost/