Pawtucket Red Sox

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The Pawtucket Red Sox

How Rhode Island Lost Its Home Team

By James M. Ricci

 

The Pawtucket Red Sox were one of the country’s premier AAA baseball teams, and for forty-five years they called Rhode Island home. In February 2015, a group of investors purchased the team from the widow of beloved owner Ben Mondor and longtime executives Mike Tamburro and Lou Schwechheimer. The group tried to keep the team in Rhode Island and move them to a new ballpark, first in Providence and then in Pawtucket. But building sports stadiums requires vision, political will and leadership. Through a series of political and financial missteps, the various plans collapsed, resulting in the announcement in August 2018 that the team would be moving to Worcester, Massachusetts. Join author James Ricci as he reveals how Rhode Island lost its revered team..

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Background

When the Pittsfield-Berkshire Red Sox of the Class AA Eastern League moved to Pawtucket, Rhode Island in the autumn of 1969, there was scant reason to expect that a 50-year love affair between ball club and community was in the cards. Club owner Joe Buzas was a burgeoning legend in Minor League Baseball management. He would own dozens of teams between 1957 and his death in 2003. But, particularly during the 1960’s and 1970’s, Buzas was also known for moving his ball clubs around like a travelling circus. When Buzas arrived in Rhode Island in October 1969, it marked the fifth relocation of his Eastern League franchise in his twelve years of owning it.

Then there was the deplorable condition of Pawtucket’s McCoy Stadium.

“It’s just plain depressing,” complained an unnamed visiting Rochester Red Wings player to Rochester Democrat & Chronicle sportswriter Greg Boeck in 1976.⁵Boeck, Greg. “Red Sox are winning except where it counts”. The Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester, NY). July 11, 1976.

“What a dump,” was the even more succinct assessment of Ben Mondor, the retired mill owner who became the Pawtucket Red Sox’ third owner in early 1977.⁶Barry, Dan. “A City Braces for Its Ballpark to Go the Way of Its Mills”. The Times (New York, NY). February 24, 2015 But it was Mondor and his cadre of loyal staff members who would rescue the club from its 1970’s doldrums and built it into one of the finest Minor League organizations in America.

Early Years

From 1970 through 1972, Joe Buzas’ Pawtucket Red Sox competed in the Eastern League at the Class AA level. Future stars like Carlton Fisk (Pawtucket ’70), Cecil Cooper (’71) and Rick Burleson (’72) played in Pawtucket during these years. Boston maintained its top farm club in Louisville, Kentucky in the Class AAA International League.

At the end of the 1972 season, the Kentucky State Fair Board evicted the Louisville Colonels from their ballpark in order to renovate it for the University of Louisville football team. With his team homeless, Colonels owner Bill Gardner forfeited his franchise back to the league. Buzas, who had a long history managing farm teams for the Red Sox, quickly moved in and snatched up the rights to the former Louisville club for $25,000.⁷Fenlon, Dick. “If UK Sophs don’t improve … but perish the nagging thought”. The Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY). December 9, 1972 Buzas brought the International League and triple-A baseball to Pawtucket in 1973 and moved his now-displaced Eastern League club off to Bristol, Connecticut.

Junior World Series Champs

Pawtucket’s first summer in Triple-A baseball in 1973 was a successful season, in most respects. After finishing one game behind the Rochester Red Wings in the regular season race, the Red Sox won the Governors’ Cup playoffs with a 3-2 series victory over the Charleston Charlies in the finals.

But casting a pall over the championship series was the shock death of catcher Tom Maggard on the eve of Game 1. Maggard, Boston’s first round draft pick in 1968, caught 47 games for Pawtucket in 1973 before back ailments sidelined him late in the season. In late August, Maggard suffered an insect bite in Syracuse, New York that caused his arm to swell. He retuned home to California where the allergy worsened and he died at age 23 on September 9th, 1973.

After beating Charleston later that week for the Governors Cup, Pawtucket was matched against the Tulsa Oilers, champions of another Class AAA league, the American Association, in the so-called “Junior World Series”. Between 1932 and 1962, the Junior World Series was held annually to decide bragging rights between champions of the International League and the American Association. (The country’s third Class AAA circuit, the Pacific Coast League, never participated.) But since 1962, the competition had been held only sporadically on three occasions.

Pawtucket easily best Tulsa 4 games to 1 in the best of seven Junior World Series in late September. At the end of the International League season, Pawtucket pitcher Dick Pole was named the league’s Pitcher of the Year.

Dark Days

Joe Buzas sold the Pawtucket franchise to Rhode Island advertising executive Phil Anez for $150,000 in early 1975. Pawtucket reportedly had just 84 season ticket holders at the time.⁸Ballou, Bill. “Past Pawtucket Red Sox presidents are enamored with Polar Park”. The Daily News (Milford, MA). July 20, 2021 Anez ran the team in 1975 and 1976, changing the club’s name to the “Rhode Island Red Sox” for the 1976 season. By the end of 1976, the team was deeply in debt. Anez hoped to move the team to Jersey City, New Jersey. Instead, he default on debts to the International League and the franchise was seized and put up for sale.

Ben Mondor emerged from the resulting scrum with control of the ball club in early 1977. The season ahead would show just how much work needed to be done to right the ship in Pawtucket. Despite winning the regular season pennant with a superb 80-60 campaign in 1977, the PawSox finished with – by far – the lowest attendance in the 8-team International League. Just 70,344 souls passed through the McCoy Stadium turnstiles for the 70-game home schedule.

Baseball’s Longest Game

On April 18th, 1981 the PawSox hosted the Rochester Red Wings on a chilly Saturday evening at McCoy Stadium. The game featured two future Hall-of-Famers, with Wade Boggs suiting up for Pawtucket and Cal Ripken Jr. in the opposing dugout with the Red Wings. Rochester carried a 1-0 lead into the bottom of the ninth, but Pawtucket outfielder Chico Walker scored on a one-out sac fly to knot things up and send the contest to extra frames.

And there it stayed. Pawtucket and Rochester grappled through 23 more innings that night and into Easter Sunday morning. After exchanging runs in the 21st inning to move the stalemate to 2-2, the teams remained deadlocked at 4:07 AM when International League President Harold Cooper finally called a pause to the proceedings after 32 innings. After all, the two teams had a Sunday matinee to play just a few hours later. (Insanely, Rochester catcher Dave Huppert, who logged 31 innings behind the plate, caught all nine innings of the matinee that followed.)

The game resumed more than two months later, on June 23rd, 1981, when Rochester next returned to McCoy Stadium. By this point, the 1981 Major League Baseball Strike was under way and the Minor League stories were enjoying greater-than-usual attention among a baseball-starved press corps and readership.

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In Memoriam

Catcher Tom Maggard (PawSox ’71-’73), Boston’s 1st round pick in the 1968 June Amateur Draft, died on September 9th, 1973 from an allergic reaction to an insect bite. Maggard was only 23 years old.

Owner Ben Mondor (PawSox ’77-’10) passed away on October 3rd, 2010 at the age of 85. Los Angeles Times obituary.

Long-time front office executive Lou Schwechheimer (PawSox ’78-’14) died at age 62 from the effects of COVID-19 on July 29, 2020. Providence Journal obituary.

Manager Ron Johnson, (PawSox ’05-’09) died from complications of COVID-19 at age 64 on January 26, 2021. R.I.P. Baseball obituary.

Downloads

September 1973 PawSox vs. Tulsa Oilers Junior World Series Scorecard

7-14-1972 PawSox vs. Elmira Pioneers Game Notes

1972 PawSox vs. Quebec Carnavals Game Notes

8-9-1977 International League All-Stars vs. Boston Red Sox Program @ Pawtucket

Links

Eastern League Media Guides

Eastern League Programs

International League Media Guides

International League Programs

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