Pumpsie Green: Renaming Yawkey Way after Ortiz 'a very good choice'

Pumpsie Green, the first African-American player in Boston Red Sox history, hopes the organization will use the potential renaming of Yawkey Way to continue to honor a more recent club icon.

Red Sox owner John Henry admitted Thursday he hopes to rename the Boston street neighboring Fenway Park because he's "haunted" by former owner Tom Yawkey's racist legacy, and suggested a name related to retired slugger David Ortiz would be a suitable alternative, according to the Providence Journal's Tim Britton.

Green, who debuted for the Red Sox in 1959 - 12 years after Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color barrier - supports the idea, saying that "naming the street after David Ortiz is a very good choice," in a statement through his daughter, Keisha Green Joyner, to the Providence Journal.

It wouldn't be the first Yawkey-named street in Boston to be renamed in honor of Ortiz.

In June, mayor Marty Walsh announced the city was renaming Yawkey Way Extension to "David Ortiz Drive." Ortiz also had the Brookline Avenue Bridge behind the ballpark renamed in his honor in 2016.