WORCESTER—The wind chill might have been in the single digits, but the warmth of the baseball hot stove conjured balmy thoughts of summer on Thursday.
The Worcester Bravehearts and Worcester Red Sox continued their community partnership with a joint announcement that the 2025 Futures League All-Star Game will be played at the home of the WooSox on July 22 at 7:30 p.m.
This event brings some of the top collegiate baseball players from the northeast and beyond to Worcester for two days. A home run derby will be held as part of the festivities on July 21 at Fitton Field, the historic site of the first home run Red Sox slugger Ted Williams ever hit in New England.
“What we’re doing here in the city of Worcester could be the first of its kind in the country,” said Bravehearts general manager Dave Peterson, “when you take a look at a summer collegiate baseball team and a minor league affiliated baseball team that are working together to make the city a better place to live, work and play.”
“From the beginning, this is family,” added Matt Vacarro, Bravehearts president. “The Bravehearts are family, the WooSox are family and this community is family.”
The Vaccaro family owns the Bravehearts along with Masis Staffing Solutions. Vaccaro’s father Frank will coach his Shrewsbury Post Quaranta Post 397 team in a seven-inning American Legion baseball game at Polar Park preceding the Futures League All-Star game at 4 p.m.
“Look what we’re doing today,” acknowledged WooSox President Charles Steinberg. “We’re starting our fifth year at Polar Park. We have a good story going in the Canal District.”
An event of this nature will impact the local community not only in dollars and cents, but also in the form of word of mouth fan experiences.
“Sports have played such a pivotal role in bringing people to Worcester who maybe haven’t been here in a long time or ever,” said Tim Murray, president and CEO of the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce. “They come with family and friends and they spend dollars before and after they leave and they go back to the water cooler at work or they go back to a family event and they talk about that experience.”
Tickets can be purchased at polarpark.com/futuresleague. Fans can purchase Home Run Derby tickets for $15, or a package to both the Home Run Derby and the All-Star Game for $20. Seating for the game at Polar Park will be on a first-come, first-served basis. The rain date for the All-Star Game is July 23.
The Bravehearts are one of six teams in the wood-bat, summer collegiate Futures League while the WooSox serve as the AAA affiliate of the Boston Red Sox in the International League. The Futures League, founded in 2011, features teams in Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut and Massachusetts. Worcester hosted the 2016 Futures League All-Star Game at Fitton Field, drawing a record crowd of 4,319. The Bravehearts won the league championship in 2014, 2015, 2018 and 2019.
More than 150 Futures League players have been drafted by Major League Baseball (MLB) teams, with 24 players making their MLB debuts. Former Bravehearts Aaron Civale (Cleveland Indians), Joshua Walker (New York Mets) and Ben Rice (New York Yankees), a former Futures League MVP, have all seen time in the majors.
Mike Vigneux is a freelance writer in Worcester with more than 20 years of experience in the fields of municipal government, communications, and public relations. An avid fan of all sports, Mike enjoys telling the stories of local athletes and their teams. He holds two degrees from Clark University, a bachelor of arts in Communication and a master of science in Professional Communication. He can be reached at Mikevigs@gmail.com
