Like many young boys who were raised in Framingham, Mass., Paul Linet '75 was instructed to love the Boston Red Sox.

However, for all of the treasured aspects of his beloved team, there was something that upset him-the Sox were the last team to include black players on its roster.

"It was always the one thing that bothered me," said Linet, who was six years old when infielder Elijah "Pumpsie" Green became the first black player to join the team in 1959. "I used to eat, sleep and breathe the Red Sox, but it always bothered me that they were the last team to integrate."

After the Sox won the World Series in 2004, Linet, who is manager of customs and trade at L.L. Bean, Inc., traveled from his home in Boxborough, Mass. to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y to learn more about his hometown franchise's puzzling decision to maintain segregation. The Hall of Fame directed Linet's attention toward a book titled "Shut Out: A Story of Race and Baseball in Boston" by Howard Bryant.

What Linet read surprised him.

Since the United States had just fought against barbarism in World War II, Boston City Councilor Isadore Muchnick questioned why the nation's baseball teams had to be segregated based on race. In fact, Muchnick told the Red Sox that he refused to provide a crucial vote to allow baseball to be played on Sunday unless the team gave a tryout to an African-American man.

As a result, in 1945, two years before Jackie Robinson-the first black man to play in Major League Baseball-broke in with the Brooklyn Dodgers, he had a tryout with the Red Sox. 

Three different Negro League players appeared for their tryout and a chance to make history-Robinson, who, at the time, played for the Kansas City Monarchs, Sam Jethroe of the Cleveland Buckeyes and Marvin Williams of the Philadelphia Stars. The players showed up and performed some drills before being dismissed. 

While none of those three players were offered a contract, the Red Sox decided to offer a white man named Milward "Mel" Quinn, who was on furlough from the Army, a contract with the team. 

Linet was aggrieved that Muchnick never got recognition for advocating in what he believed was just-even before Brooklyn Dodgers General Manager Branch Rickey decided to sign Robinson in November of that year. 

Six years after that fateful visit to Cooperstown, Linet decided to contact Quinn to learn more about the tryout.

Linet, whose daughters Ariel Linet '08 and Sarah Linet '10 also graduated from Brandeis, reached out to Ellen Friedland '80, a filmmaker whom he found through the Brandeis alumni network. Together, they entered an agreement to produce a documentary, which he has tentatively titled "Debunking The Curse:  Boston, Baseball and the Pursuit of Equality."

"We've begun filming," said Linet in an interview with the Justice in January. "We are still in the process at the moment, but we're definitely headed in the right direction."

One of the biggest components of the film will be a series of interviews with Quinn, of whom Linet spoke highly.

"He's a really nice guy," said Linet of Quinn, who lives in Virginia. "We've been down a few times to interview him, and so far, it's gone really well."

Despite investing time and resources into this process, Linet insists that his main purpose in making the documentary is not about personal gain, but rather to focus on a poignant chapter in the rich and illustrious history of integration in American baseball,  which he feels has been covered up.

"This process is to try to set the record straight and bring light to an episode of American history that has gone relatively unnoticed," he said.

And while the particulars of the little-known incident are of special interest to this die-hard baseball fan, his main focus is on giving Muchnick his due for going against the grain at a time in which racism was quite prevalent.

"This incident has been covered in American sport history," he said. "This is really about the issue of social justice."

In light of his alma mater's commitment to the latter, it's safe to say that Linet has used his Brandeis education to better the world.