Two people who were influentially involved in my life passed away on the same day last week, Thursday, October 10.
Nephew Mike Greenwell (62), who starred for 12 years as the Boston Red Sox’s regular leftfielder, died in Boston where he was undergoing experimental treatment for medullary thyroid cancer.
One of my former bosses, Oscar Wyatt (101), the irascible pugnacious founder and Chairman of the Texas-based energy company, Coastal Corporation, passed away in Houston the same day.
The contrast between the two men couldn’t be more distinct.
Mike was a gifted athlete, a dedicated and loyal family man, and a hero to Boston fans and residents of Lee County, Florida, where he was a high school baseball standout and later served as a member of the Lee County Commission. He was the embodiment of the term “Florida Man” earning the nickname “Gator” in high school for wrestling alligators.
Wyatt, who was married four times, reneged on contracts, left municipalities short of power, raided corporate rivals, attracted numerous lawsuits, conducted hostile takeovers, paid fines and civil misconduct penalties, left a long trail of enemies, and served nine months in a federal prison. He also make hundreds of millions of dollars.
Here’s a brief look at the two.
Mike had an extraordinary baseball career with Boston playing from 1985 to 1996, retiring with a lifetime .303 batting average, and ingrained among baseball fans as one of the fourth best leftfielders in Boston history along with Ted Williams, Carl Yastrzemski, and Jim Rice.
His post-baseball career included a stint at NASCAR racing, a real estate business, theme park ownership, and as Lee County Commissioner in Florida. He was appointed to the Commission by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in July 2022, was reelected and held the position until his death last week.
The public is welcome to attend a celebration of life for Mike at JetBlue Park on Fenway Drive in Ft. Myers tomorrow, Saturday, Oct. 18 at 1 p.m. The park was offered by the Red Sox, and a number of team officials will speak as will family and friends.
A 22-year-old Mike got his first major league hit in his eighth game September 25, 1985. He came to bat in the 13th inning of a 2-2 game between Boston and Toronto. Bill Buckner had led off the inning with a double, and Mike belted a 2-run homer off John Cerutti. His second major-league hit came the very next day, and it was another 2-run homer off Blue Jays pitcher Doyle Alexander. His third hit didn’t come until October 1, when Mike smashed a long solo homer off Baltimore’s Eric Bell, making Mike the first player to have his first three major-league hits all home runs.
Mike started 1987 in the majors in a pinch-hitting role but by the end of the year, he batted .328 with 19 home runs, 89 RBIs and 31 doubles. He finished fourth in the Rookie of the Year vote (Mark McGwire and his 49 homers won the award) and left no doubt that he was a starter. The next year, he showed that he was a star.
In 1988, he hit .325 in 158 game, had 39 doubles, 8 triples and 22 home runs among his 192 hits. He scored 86 times and drove in 119 runs, and he drew 87 walks while striking out just 38 times in 590 at-bats. He was a Top Five hitter in almost every offensive category and led the AL with 18 intentional walks.
He was named to the AL All-Star team and did something special when he moved Rice from LF to DH. Left field was a special position for the Sox, having been transferred seamlessly from Ted Williams to Carl Yastrzemski to Rice — three Hall of Famers. Now, the role went to Mike
Mike’s leadership helped spur the Red Sox to a late-season surge. He was named a Silver Slugger after the season, and he finished second in the MVP vote to Jose Canseco.
It was an extraordinary year, and 1989 began with Mike bearing the mantle of “The Red Sox Left Fielder” and he made the All-Star game again.
Rumors of a trade to Atlanta ended in the 1990-91 offseason, when Mike and the Red Sox agreed on a four-year contract. He hit an even .300 in 1991 and drove in 83 runs.
On June 1, a photo of Greenwell driving around Seekonk Speedway in his stock car ran in the Boston Herald, raising questions about whether he had violated the terms of his new contract. GM Lou Gorman put an end to that hobby, for the time being.
Mike had an exceptional 12-year career with the Red Sox from 1985 to 1996, retiring at 33 with a lifetime .303 batting average. His post-baseball career included auto racing, theme park ownership, and a stint at NASCAR driving, and Lee County commissioner in Florida.
He lived a live his family can point to with pride.
***
In December 1990 Coastal Corporation Chairman Oscar Wyatt and one of his board members, former Texas Governor John Connelly, flew to Iraq in an attempt to free U.S. hostages being held by dictator Saddam Hussein to discourage a U.S. military attack.
The trip ended with the pair delivering medical supplies to Baghdad in exchange for 25 of the hostages that Wyatt brought back to Houston on his 168-seat private jet. It also generated rumors that Wyatt was currying favor with Saddam, since his Coastal Corporation was one of the United States’ largest importers of Iraqi oil. The trip wasn’t sanctioned by the George H.W. administration that Wyatt frequently and harshly criticized for its Mideast policies.
In a late January 1991 speech to the Corpus Christie Chamber of Commerce Wyatt, a former World War II bomber pilot in the far east, denounced sending U.S. troops “to be the white slaves of an Arab republic.” He said Kuwaitis “think they can buy their liberty with our blood.”
Many people in the audience got up during the talk and walked out. Media accounts were scalding, and the city’s mayor said she was “appalled and embarrassed.”
A month later, March 1, 1991, I was appointed Vice President of Corporate Communications, responsible for Public Relations, Community Affairs and Advertising for Coastal. I was ultimately fired by Wyatt after almost three years, the fastest, most tumultuous, and most interesting three years of my career. Many Coastal executives didn’t survive that long. I was shown the door following the departure of the company’s CEO J.R. Paul.
I was the spokesman for a Texas-based oil company and its chairman and founder that a Texas Monthly Magazine cover story labeled “Meaner than a junkyard dog” and had a CEO named JR. It sounds like a novel or a TV series and could have been.
As Texas Monthly said last week following the death of Wyatt at 101, “I’m sure there are a lot of folks who will only attend Oscar Wyatt’s funeral to make sure he’s dead. The Houston oilman made plenty of enemies.”
In my brief period there I weathered a variety of media storms generated by Wyatt including a law suit against his brother-in-law; a suspicious fire at the company’s Houston headquarters, a lawsuit against the Houston Chronicle for its reporting of it; alleged illegal dealings with Libya, U.S. Treasury Department investigations, and more.
I realized early on that life at Coastal wouldn’t be easy but it would sure be interesting. During one of my first visits to Oscar’s office one of his secretaries stuck her head in the door saying: “Mr. Wyatt Governor (Ann) Rice is on the phone for you.” He responded saying: ”Tell her I’m busy talking to Dave Scott.”
After she left I said to Wyatt: “Ann Rice doesn’t know me from Adam’s housecat.” He grinned and replied: “She does now.”
Years before the collapse of Houston-based Enron, Wyatt casually mentioned to me and one of my staff: “Those guys at Enron are building a house of cards over there that will soon come tumbling down on them.” He was right.
I fended off requests by “60 Minutes” and Sam Donaldson and many other national outlets for interviews with the outspoken and unpredictable Wyatt. I was obliged to inform him of the requests along with my recommendations to decline. “I can handle them,” he barked. “Maybe,” I told him. “But they have something you don’t… editing methods that can make you appear anyway they want.” He reluctantly agreed for me to decline for him.
The only person that the then 67-year-old Wyatt appeared to fear was his mother, Eva, a resident of Corpus Christi.
Newsweek wrote an article about Wyatt, reporting that he grew up in an impoverished area of that city. Wyatt’s mother was furious. Wyatt called me and told me to call Newsweek and have them print that the area was prosperous in those days.
When I explained the magazine wouldn’t do that, he gave me a phone number and said: “OK, you call my mother and explain that to her.”
I did and during my tenure at Coastal Mrs. Wyatt and I had several conversations, mostly about her complaining about the local paper’s negative coverage of her son. I suggested that she stop writing letters to the paper, which encouraged them to respond and repeat their previous allegations. She was a delightful lady and a very protective mother of a cranky, Texas rogue.
Wyatt was jailed on two occasions in Texas. Once in 1960 for disturbing the peace in Abilene; and again in 2005, when he was charged with violating US economic sanctions against Iraq. He consequently served nine months in a prison camp near Beaumont where he taught mathematics to other inmates.
When I joined the company it was a multibillion dollar Fortune 50 corporation with 6,300 oil wells, seven refineries, more than 800 retail outlets, and 19,500 miles of natural gas pipelines and its coal properties produced more than 33 million tons of coal. It eventually merged with El Paso Corporation in 2002.
Oscar Wyatt was the prototype for TV’s J.R Ewing.
Dave, condolences on the loss of your nephew. He was one of my favorite players. He embodied what we looked for in Red Sox players; gritty, tough, not flashy – one of the best to man ‘The Monster’.
Dave, sorry for the loss of your nephew Mike Greenwell. Although I am not much of a Red Sox fan, I know he was a great ball player for them. The three homeruns in his first three at bats is a pretty cool statistic. Also, second in MVP race behind McGuire is pretty impressive. As for your former boss, Oscar Wyatt, I can see how working for him may of helped elevate your game a bit. He sounds like a tough guy to work for, but you probably gained something from it. Sounds like you and his mom were pretty close. lol.
And how many lives has Dave Scott enlightened?
Keep up the great work.
You have had an interesting life Dave – great story and keep up the good work you always do
The BoSox are my favorite baseball team. (I was born in Cambridge but moved south when I was ten. Doesn’t make any difference. I am a true Southerner.) I LOVED Mike Greenwell. I had no idea he was your nephew. Actually, I can see the resemblance.
Great story. Two men………opposite sides of the spectrum.
May Their Memories Be Eternal……
I was privileged to have seen nephew Mike play in Fenway a couple of times. I have friends in New Hamster and Vermont. When I visit in the summer we always include a trip to Fenway, a baseball shrine and one of my favorite places on Earth.
Mike was a good hitter and defender who had a tough act to follow in left field for the Sawks. With Ted Williams, Yaz, and Jim Rice, left was in the hands of three of baseball’s distinguished from the late thirties to Mike’s time in the late eighties. Yaz, of course, was the best defender in the quirkiest corner in baseball. What with the Green Monster and only about a foot of foul territory, odd caroms are the rule there. Yaz was a master at playing these. The entire Fenway outfield reflects how the original Major League ball yards were built to fit into existing urban neighborhoods. The entire outfield line, from the Pesky Pole in right, through that odd cutout in center beyond the Sawks bullpen, on to the Green Monster, it covers roughly the path one might run if being pursued by a lunatic with a Weed Whacker.
I became a Sawks fan in the seventies, before Mike’s time with them. I lived and worked as a reporter in Winter Haven where the Sawks trained in the spring. They trained there largely due to the efforts of Winter Haven city councilman Andy Ireland, who lured the spring Sawks from Arizona to Winter Haven. Andy later became the congressman representing that district and my employer. Andy remained one of the world’s foremost Sawks fan until the end, which came for him last fall at the age of 94.
RIP Andy, and RIP Mike.