Mostly by James Murphy | From BayLines Express, April, 2022
Dear BSCB:
On Saturday October 2nd, after last year’s baseball season ended, the Central Mass. Chapter of BSCB took a tour of Worcester’s shiny new Polar Park, the new home of the Red Sox Triple-A team, the Worcester Red Sox (WooSox). They are the highest level of the Red Sox minor league system. (They had played in Pawtucket, Rhode Island as the PawSox for about fifty years.) At any given time, players from the Red Sox might be playing at Polar Park to get ready to return to Boston after an injury. Many of tomorrow’s Red Sox players will play for the WooSox.
We learned that the city of Worcester has a long baseball history. Ted Williams hit his first home run in a Red Sox uniform at Holy Cross’s Fitton Field. The first perfect game was hurled at the Agricultural Field Grounds in 1880. Home Plate has its pentagon design thanks to Worcester Umpire John Gaffney. Who knew!!!
Access to and within Polar Park is excellent. The park is a ten-minute walk from Worcester’s historic Union Station, the hub for commuter trains to Boston and many bus lines. We entered the park through the main doors behind home plate with the elevators directly in front of us. Plaques and memorabilia line the walls.
Food, beverages, and libations are available. Favorites include Wonder Bar Pizza and Coney Island hot dogs. Other Worcester restaurants, including Russo’s, Lock 50, BT’s Smoke House, Akra (African restaurant), Chashu Ramen, and more provide more great dining opportunities.
Left field has a lush green lawn and a playground, perfect for picnics and for kids to run amok. Bring blankets or lawn chairs to sit out there on the berm. There is a large video board. Right field has a mini Green Monster (something of a mirror image of Fenway Park’s left field wall) with seating on top, including tables and chairs. There is also dugout-level seating, luxury climate-controlled seating, and traditional ballpark seating. They have netting around much of the park that will protect you from being hit by foul balls. Tickets start at around $10 (on the berm) and rise to around $40 (behind home plate – much cheaper than Fenway). it is a very walkable stadium, which is built on hilly terrain and has lots of ramps. For tickets or information call the WooSox Ticket Office at (508) 500-8888 or email ticketoffice@woosox.com
Back to our visit! All of a sudden, things got weird!!! Mary and Nona suddenly rushed onto the field singing the Carl Yastrzemski song! They were promptly tackled and tased. On the upside, they were presented with a beautiful matching set of commemorative bracelets courtesy of the Worcester Police Department. Russ and his wife Julie somehow had welding equipment. They were found at the loading dock with their rented U Haul and the Ted Williams statue. They too also were presented with WPD bracelets. Sharon dispatched our treasurer Jim for bail money. Red Sox President Larry Lucchino provided a trolley ride to the hoosegow. Our felons were later released unharmed.
I assume I’ll be reprimanded for this version of events; hence I go with an alias.
Questionably Yours – a little late for April Fool’s Day,
Sivan Borgstral (AKA Jim Murphy) You can contact Jim at moedad@icloud.com