It's dead, Jim:(
Never saw THAT coming. The Red Sox have been sold, and the new owners immediately announced their intentions to move to a shiny new stadium away from their legendary, historic city home.
This is not The Onion. This is really happening. No, Kristen, put down that frypan. It's THIS legendary historic city home:
THE Red Sox have had their eponymous AAA affiliate based in Pawtucket, and in this beloved ballpark, since as long as I can remember. The team has long had success on the field and, despite a relatively small capacity of just over 10,000, it ranked in the middle of the International League pack last year in attendance- ahead of a shiny new stadium in Scranton, and ahead of the much newer and nicer downtown stadium in Rochester
Ah, the Red Wings. For McCoy Stadium was also the site of the longest professional baseball game ever played- between them and the PawSox in 1981. At least two books have chronicled that historic matchup: one, Scott Pitoniak and Jim Mandelaro's history of the team from the 1990's, which devotes a long chapter to it; and the more recent Dan Barry book devoted entirely to the history of that contest. There's a lot in the latter about the history of political corruption, wildly misguided marketing and the Jimmy-Hoffaesque burial of heavy equipment on the site of this ballyard.
Now, it seems certain, the heavy equipment will be returning- to demolish the old dump, because the PawSox will be no more:
Boston Red Sox team president Larry Lucchino and a group of New England investors have purchased the Triple-A Pawtucket Red Sox for an undisclosed price, it was announced Monday in a press release.
The goal of the new ownership, led by Rhode Island businessman James J. Skeffington, will be to build a new ballpark on the water in downtown Providence, according to a report by the Providence Journal. According to the report, a name change is likely and the team would be called the Rhode Island Red Sox. If everything goes according to plan, a new ballpark could be ready for the 2017 season, according to the Providence Journal.
Can you imagine the outrage if the parent club suddenly decided to move to Foxboro? Preservationists and purists would be up in arms to save the history, maintain the tradition. But this is minor league sport, which increasingly is becoming even more the neglected stepchild of the Big Boys. Franchises with long histories are being swept up and moved; successful affiliations are being severed just to bring the "farm team" into the television market of the major league one; and minor league seasons are shortened, and playoff races cheapened, just so the parent can have more access to the best players.
I wonder if they'll even put up a sign to tell fans that There Used To Be A Ballpark Here. When Rochester's even older stadium was replaced in the 90s and most of the structure torn down for an industrial park that never came, they did put one up- but it only mentions the Red Wings' history on the site in the briefest of terms, sharing the bill with Native American games played there in antediluvian times. Will anyone remember that the site of McCoy was the night of future legends- like Boggs and Ripken, along with future Met-almost-killer Marty Barrett- going inning after inning in futility, and waiting months before the final outcome was determined in an almost-instant.
When the made-up game finally ended in a half-inning walkoff, Jim and Scott report, the PA system in Pawtucket played Peggy Lee's morbid classic "Is That All There Is?" This morning, I wonder, just as morbidly, if this teardown of tradition is going to lead to that song being played for us, in time.
This is not The Onion. This is really happening. No, Kristen, put down that frypan. It's THIS legendary historic city home:
THE Red Sox have had their eponymous AAA affiliate based in Pawtucket, and in this beloved ballpark, since as long as I can remember. The team has long had success on the field and, despite a relatively small capacity of just over 10,000, it ranked in the middle of the International League pack last year in attendance- ahead of a shiny new stadium in Scranton, and ahead of the much newer and nicer downtown stadium in Rochester
Ah, the Red Wings. For McCoy Stadium was also the site of the longest professional baseball game ever played- between them and the PawSox in 1981. At least two books have chronicled that historic matchup: one, Scott Pitoniak and Jim Mandelaro's history of the team from the 1990's, which devotes a long chapter to it; and the more recent Dan Barry book devoted entirely to the history of that contest. There's a lot in the latter about the history of political corruption, wildly misguided marketing and the Jimmy-Hoffaesque burial of heavy equipment on the site of this ballyard.
Now, it seems certain, the heavy equipment will be returning- to demolish the old dump, because the PawSox will be no more:
Boston Red Sox team president Larry Lucchino and a group of New England investors have purchased the Triple-A Pawtucket Red Sox for an undisclosed price, it was announced Monday in a press release.
The goal of the new ownership, led by Rhode Island businessman James J. Skeffington, will be to build a new ballpark on the water in downtown Providence, according to a report by the Providence Journal. According to the report, a name change is likely and the team would be called the Rhode Island Red Sox. If everything goes according to plan, a new ballpark could be ready for the 2017 season, according to the Providence Journal.
Can you imagine the outrage if the parent club suddenly decided to move to Foxboro? Preservationists and purists would be up in arms to save the history, maintain the tradition. But this is minor league sport, which increasingly is becoming even more the neglected stepchild of the Big Boys. Franchises with long histories are being swept up and moved; successful affiliations are being severed just to bring the "farm team" into the television market of the major league one; and minor league seasons are shortened, and playoff races cheapened, just so the parent can have more access to the best players.
I wonder if they'll even put up a sign to tell fans that There Used To Be A Ballpark Here. When Rochester's even older stadium was replaced in the 90s and most of the structure torn down for an industrial park that never came, they did put one up- but it only mentions the Red Wings' history on the site in the briefest of terms, sharing the bill with Native American games played there in antediluvian times. Will anyone remember that the site of McCoy was the night of future legends- like Boggs and Ripken, along with future Met-almost-killer Marty Barrett- going inning after inning in futility, and waiting months before the final outcome was determined in an almost-instant.
When the made-up game finally ended in a half-inning walkoff, Jim and Scott report, the PA system in Pawtucket played Peggy Lee's morbid classic "Is That All There Is?" This morning, I wonder, just as morbidly, if this teardown of tradition is going to lead to that song being played for us, in time.