Pawtucket Red Sox memories: Ballyard sale, auction draw lots of interest

The fifth and final ballyard sale held by the Pawtucket Red Sox has proved popular with the fans. This story that I wrote, which ran Dec. 9 in The Sun Chronicle of Attleboro, MA, has all the details. There  may be some sale items left, and if you act before midnight on Thursday, Dec. 10, you can still bid on the auction items at pawsox.com.
Pawtucket Red Sox diehards searching for Christmas gifts have ample items to choose from to create their own version of the “12 Days of Christmas” by participating in this week’s fifth and final virtual ballyard sale and auction.
While there are no partridges, pear trees, turtle doves, golden rings or swimming swans up for grabs, fans who go to pawsox.com can shop for plenty of inexpensive souvenirs, ranging from $5 bobbleheads and $3 replica jerseys to $2 hats and 25-cent mugs, cups and water bottles --- more than enough bargains to inspire a new carol: “The 12 Days of a PawSox Christmas.”
The sale --- which began Saturday and will continue through Thursday --- features nearly 1,000 authentic player jerseys, as well as thousands of other items. Those include game-used batting helmets, signed framed player photos, bobbleheads depicting David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez, Keith Foulke, Jackie Bradley Jr. and Xander Bogaerts as well as a treasure-trove of PawSox memorabilia and McCoy Stadium artifacts.
The response to the sale from the fans was immediate and shattered the team’s hopes for the sale, Bill Wanless, the team’s senior vice president of communications, said in a phone interview Monday.
“We sold 25 percent of the items in the first hour that we were on Facebook and Twitter (on Saturday, when the sale went live at 10 a.m). It’s just amazing that fans went to those channels and that they wanted their pieces of PawSox history,” Wanless said, adding there are still items for sale at pawsox.com.
“This was beyond expectations. We can’t thank the fans enough,” he said.
The fans’ hunger for all things PawSox led to a particularly unusual hot item on the opening day, Wanless said: the padded chairs that sat next to the lockers. “We had 30 of them, and those went quickly,” he said. They were followed in popularity by game-worn jerseys and bobbleheads.
Wanless, of North Attleboro, credited team principal owner and Chairman of the Board Larry Lucchino for creating the concept of the ballyard sale five years ago, but this event is proving to be the most popular --- one that he said wouldn’t have been possible without the work of Hannah Butler, the team’s director of McCoy Stadium events.
The sale and a companion auction are being held virtually this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, and it’s a bittersweet event, as it follows the PawSox’ final season without games at McCoy Stadium.
The 2020 schedule, of course, was snuffed out by the pandemic and with the Boston Red Sox Triple A team moving to its new home, Polar Park, in Worcester in 2021, PawSox officials viewed this sale as a way to thank the fans for their loyalty, especially after the cancellation of the season also wiped out plans for a season-long celebration at McCoy.
“We all recognize that McCoy Stadium has not only been the home of the PawSox for 50 years; it has (also) been the home of PawSox fans for 50 years,” team Vice Chairman Mike Tamburro said in a news release.
Tamburro, a Seekonk resident, has been with the club in various capacities, including team president, for more than 40 years, and readily acknowledges the deep bond between the PawSox and their fans, going back to the days when he and the late owner Ben Mondor resurrected the then-moribund franchise and turned it into one of the best minor league teams in the country.
Tamburro emphasized that the sale and related auction will allow “fans to keep a piece of PawSox history in their homes. We are all filled with emotion, and we thought fans might enjoy having some of these small baseball treasures to cherish, especially in the holiday season,” he said.
Wanless, who has been with the team for 35 years, echoed those sentiments.
“This is still our market. We’re still in the heart of Red Sox nation. We want fans from Rhode Island to come and see us in Worcester,” he said.
“The memories here in Pawtucket will last forever; now’s the time to make some new memories.
“We had 19 million fans over 50 years (at McCoy). It’s been an amazing time for PawSox history. We have a relationship with the Boston Red Sox and our fans, and now we look forward to the future and hopefully 2021 will a better year,” he said.
The auction, which will benefit the PawSox Foundation, offers fans a chance to bid on 22 keepsake items on pawsox.com through midnight Thursday, with the winning bids being revealed Friday. By clicking on the auction tab after clicking on the ballyard sale on the team’s homepage, you’ll see the highest bids in real time for each item.
Auction items include a T-shirt jersey autographed by Red Sox and Baseball Hall-of-Famer Pedro Martinez, baseballs autographed by PawSox, Red Sox and Baseball Hall-of-Famers Wadge Boggs and Jim Rice, as well as by PawSox and Red Sox Hall-of-Famer Roger Clemens, several bobbleheads autographed by Pawsox players --- and one red box seat.
“We’re leaving the seats in the ballpark, obviously,” Wanless joked, but added the team wanted to sell one seat as a keepsake item.
The foundation’s key role in the auction is notable in that its proceeds will continue to benefit the greater Pawtucket and Rhode Island communities in the years ahead, despite the move, team officials announced.
“The club intends to sustain its foundation and continue its charitable and community outreach in Pawtucket and Rhode Island in the years ahead,” the club said in a statement.
Fans who buy items will get an email from the team asking them to either pick them up curbside at McCoy Stadium at an assigned time or have their purchases, with some exceptions, shipped to their homes.

STORY LINK: Here’s the link to the story on The Sun Chronicle’s website:
https://www.thesunchronicle.com/news/local_news/get-your-bobbleheads-here-pawsox-selling-off-pieces-of-history-to-loyal-fans/article_b00c6ecf-17cb-5870-be91-3047ef02d705.html

Larry Kessler is a retired Sun Chronicle local news editor and can be reached at larrythek65@gmail.com. He blogs at larrytheklineup.blogspot.com