Renewing my love affair with baseball --- and the PawSox

"Walpole Joe" Morgan shouts "Play Ball!" at PawSox Heritage Day.

WooSox employees with longtime PawSox connections are honored at PawSox Heritage Day.

Larry Kessler's ticket to the final PawSox game on Sept. 7, 2020 that never was.

CUTLINES:
1. "Walpole Joe" Morgan, a former PawSox and Red Sox manager, shouts "Play Ball!" at PawSox Heritage Day at Polar Park in Worcester on Saturday, July 9. (Worcester Red Sox photo)
2. Worcester Red Sox employees with long tenures at the Pawtucket Red Sox who were honored in a pregame ceremony during PawSox Heritage Day at Polar Park on Saturday, July 9 are, from left: WooSox Vice Chairman Mike Tamburro of Seekonk, WooSox Senior Vice President of Communications Bill Wanless of North Attleboro and Senior Vice President of Corporate Partnerships Michael Gwynn. (Worcester Red Sox photo)
3. The author's ticket to what would have been the final game in PawSox history on Monday, Sept. 7, 2020. That game, and that season, never happened because of the COVID-19 pandemic. (Larry Kessler photo)


As anyone who knows me, I’m a baseball lifer. I went to my first Boston Red Sox game at the age of 5 in 1957 --- they played the Detroit Tigers, but my Dad and I left in the fifth inning after a bad thunderstorm scared the hell out of me.
That was the beginning of a lifelong love affair with baseball. The happiest all-time summer growing up and for years later was the magical Impossible Dream one of 1967. I cheered on Carl Yastrzemski, the man they call “Yaz,” and I was in the stands at Fenway Park on the fateful night of Friday, Aug. 18, when the Sox’ talented right fielder, Tony Conigliaro, was beaned by a pitch from Jack Hamilton of the-then California Angels.
So it was predictably very, very tough when I had to take three years off from seeing baseball in person due to the interminable COVID-19 pandemic. I endured the cancellation of the final season of the Pawtucket Red Sox in 2020 --- when I had plans to attend 20-25 games at McCoy Stadium --- and I didn’t feel comfortable attending the Worcester Red Sox games in 2021 at their new Polar Park home.
So, when I had the chance to attend PawSox Heritage Day at Polar Park on Saturday, July 9, I jumped at it. It was my first in-person baseball game in almost three years.
This column, which I wrote after the game, was published Wednesday, July 13 in The Sun Chronicle of Attleboro, MA. The link follows the column.

*****
Mike Lyons didn’t mince words when we chatted outside the DCU Club at Polar Park moments after he was one of several Worcester Red Sox staffers with strong ties to the Pawtucket Red Sox to be honored in pre-game ceremonies during Saturday’s PawSox Heritage Day.
“This is a very emotional day,” Lyons, who worked for the PawSox for 10 years before moving over to the WooSox last year, said. A member of the WooSox corporate and partnerships staff with a specialty in veterans affairs, his Rhode Island roots run deep.
Lyons, who will turn 80 next month, said he worked at all three Rhode Island TV stations, starting in 1976, and lived in Seekonk for 20 years.
He stressed that he and other longtime PawSox executives  --- including WooSox Vice Chairman Mike Tamburro, whose PawSox history can be traced to the mid-70s working with late owner Ben Mondor to resurrect what had been a moribund Triple A franchise --- wanted the new stadium to be built in Rhode Island.
“We worked very hard to keep this ballclub in Pawtucket,” he said.
But that wasn’t to be.
The proposal for a new stadium at Slater Mill in Pawtucket failed to pass the Rhode Island House of Representatives after then-House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello changed the deal passed by the Senate --- and that proved a deal-killer.
That left the door ajar for Worcester, and Polar Park, built for $86 million, opened up last year. Lyons said the stadium is the top minor league park in terms of revenue and sponsorships, and attendance has been robust; Saturday’s game was a virtual sell-out.
There was, however, some unfinished business for the WooSox after the COVID-19 pandemic cancelled the 2020 PawSox season, its final one: Saluting Pawtucket’s fans, and that’s how PawSox Heritage Day was born.
“We felt that this was our chance to say thanks” to PawSox fans, Tamburro, a longtime Seekonk resident and a member of the PawSox Hall of Fame said. As the afternoon unfolded, the WooSox embraced the team’s Pawtucket connections, including its many Attleboro area fans:
* Lyons and Tamburro joined North Attleboro’s Bill Wanless, the senior vice president of communications, and several others during the on-field pre-game ceremonies. Also honored were Michael Gwynn, the senior vice president of corporate partnerships; chief ambassador Rick Medeiros, whose smile greeted McCoy fans for decades; vice president of ticket operations Samantha Saccoia-Beggs; senior vice president and assistant general manager Brooke Cooper and several ushers from McCoy.
* The national anthem was sung by the barbershop quartet Private Label, who sang it more than 40 times at McCoy. The group includes Bob Fabiano of Warwick, Jim Berger of Cranston, Brian Bill of South Kingstown and Steve Barrett of Norwood.
* Scout troops from the Narragansett Council present for a post-game sleepover included these from the Attleboro area: the Attleboro Tigers, Mansfield Pack 13 and the Den 5 Bears from Rehoboth.
* Three youngsters from North Attleboro --- 10-year-old Brayden Tryon and siblings Colton and Lyla --- brought the game ball to the mound.
* Joe Morgan, a member of the PawSox and Red Sox Halls of Fame and a former Red Sox and PawSox manager, including during the PawSox’s historic Longest Game in 1981, performed a critical job. Morgan, 91, known across New England as “Walpole Joe” in honor of his hometown, enthusiastically declared: “Fans, thanks for coming. Let’s play ball!”
* Even the in-between inning activities included two young Attleboro area fans: Charlie from Rehoboth caught two of three balls thrown to him as part of the Table Talk Pie promotion and, in another promotion, William from Rehoboth hit a ball off a tee in a bid to hit one over the left-field fence.
The game itself was, like the decision to leave Pawtucket, a heartbreaker.
The WooSox, wearing PawSox uniforms and called the “PawSox” on the stadium’s scoreboards, took a 2-1 lead against the Scranton Wilkes-Barre RailRiders, the New York Yankees’ farm team, in the bottom of the eighth. Their edge, however, quickly disappeared when Zack Kelly, closing because the PawSox’ regular closer Kaleb Ort had been sent to the Red Sox due to their rash of pitching injuries, surrendered two runs in the top of the ninth.
But even that disappointing 3-2 loss couldn’t spoil this fan’s sheer joy of seeing baseball in person for the first time in almost three years.
I hadn’t been to a PawSox game since Aug. 30, 2019, and to a Red Sox game since Sept. 19, 2019. In 2020, I planned to attend about 20 PawSox games, including what would have been the franchise’s final game at McCoy on Labor Day, but the pandemic nullified those plans.
Last year, I was still skittish about hanging out in large crowds, and didn’t go to any games, so when I learned about PawSox Heritage Day, I had to be there. That’s because my family were McCoy regulars for almost 25 years and 10 years ago I had thrown out one of the least impressive first-pitches in PawSox history.
I thankfully didn’t have to toss any hardballs Saturday, but I enjoyed my first visit to Polar Park, and I’ll be back.
But it was nonetheless a bittersweet day, because instead of having a 15-minute trip up Route 1A to my North Attleboro home, my friend and I had a 45-minute ride up Route 146. I can’t help wondering how nice it would have been to enjoy the new stadium closer to home had Rhode Island’s politicians found a way to play nice.
Pawtucket’s loss was definitely Worcester’s gain.
Larry Kessler is a retired Sun Chronicle local news editor and can be reached at larrythek65@gmail.com. He blogs at larrytheklineup.blogspot.com


Here's the link to my PawSox-WooSox column in The Sun Chronicle on Wednesday, July 13.
https://www.thesunchronicle.com/sports/kessler-an-emotional-day-in-worcester-for-this-baseball-fan/article_49890647-b955-54d4-beed-843370c28dcc.html