WORCESTER—It probably has to do with technology, but things happen faster these days.
Take Halls of Fame, for instance.
It was 62 years between the time Major League Baseball commenced and the creation of its Hall of Fame. The Worcester Red Sox are doing it in their fourth season.
“There are those who will say that the fourth year is too soon to create a Hall of Fame,” team president Dr. Charles Steinberg said, “but we’ve learned along the way that there are founding fathers and mothers who deserve our eternal gratitude and we’ve learned that it’s best not to wait to say thank you.”
Steinberg is co-chair of the Hall of Fame Committee with Bill Wanless, the team’s vice president of communications. The group met for the first time Thursday afternoon at Polar Park and included Worcester Red Sox chairman Larry Lucchino, who is not a committee member.
The group is an expansive one that includes 19 people, all of them with Worcester, WooSox, or Boston Red Sox connections. Peter Freund, the CEO of the WooSox’s new ownership group, Diamond Baseball Holdings, is a member.
When the idea was first suggested, Freund was asked about the timing and said, “Do it now,” according to Steinberg.
Others on the committee include Worcester native Brian Abraham, Boston’s director of player development; retired city Police Chief Steve Sargent; Spectrum 1 Sports Director Kevin Shea; radio talk show hosts Hank Stolz, Ben White and Sherman Whitman; Cumulus Radio general manager Bob Goodell; longtime PawSox and WooSox official scorer Bruce Guindon and Bill Ballou of the Worcester Guardian.
Also on the list are WooSox Ambassador and former scout Kevin Hartigan, Boston 25 meteorologist Kevin Lemanowicz; Telegram & Gazette Sports Editor Jim Wilson; Worcester school teacher Meghan McGuirk; MassLive reporter Katie Morrison; Kate Myshrall of the Seven Hills Foundation; Dan Shaughnessy of the Boston Globe and Gabrielle Starr of the Boston Herald; and former City Councilor Sean Rose, now President/CEO of Thrive Support and Advocacy.
While the WooSox are only going into their fourth season, their roots go back to the Pawtucket Red Sox in the 1970s and have become intertwined with Worcester’s long baseball history.
Thursday’s meeting did not lead to any voting or planned inductions. It outlined what a WooSox Hall of Fame might look like, and even where it might be located.
Steinberg suggested it might have four aspects, similar to a baseball diamond. It could include a specific WooSox Hall of Fame, continue the tradition of the Pawtucket Red Sox Hall of Fame, create a section to celebrate Worcester’s long history with the game, and have a “great moments” section.
A basic guideline for the process would be, “The person’s contribution to the WooSox and/or our National Pastime in Worcester and Central Mass. that merits eternal gratitude.”
Given the region’s rich history, they might have to put a second deck on Polar Park to include all the plaques.
The Pawtucket Red Sox Hall of Fame had five classes before Covid-19, then the move to Worcester, put it on hiatus. Members of the PawSox Hall of Fame include players Wade Boggs, Jim Rice, Carlton Fisk, Mo Vaughn, Fred Lynn, Roger Clemens, Nomar Garciaparra and Jason Varitek.
It also includes executives Ben Mondor and Mike Tamburro as well as manager Joe Morgan.
Initial discussions for the WooSox Hall of Fame would have it include both uniformed personnel as well as off-field contributors.
An issue with any Hall of Fame involving the minor leagues is what are the guidelines for players? Baseball’s player development model has changed so much through the years that very few players stay with the same team for more than a couple of seasons. Will they be honored for their performance with the WooSox or for their major league resumes? In the PawSox Hall of Fame, for instance, Boggs spent two very successful seasons at Triple-A before his Hall of Fame career in the majors and that would never happen today.
In contrast, Clemens pitched a total of eight games with Pawtucket and compiled a 2-3 record.
Beyond the WooSox, the city’s baseball heritage is ancient and honorable. It features events like the first perfect game. It includes Cooperstown players like Jesse Burkett and Sliding Billy Hamilton, college baseball’s premier coach in Jack Barry of Holy Cross, cameo appearances by Babe Ruth, Ted Williams and Satchel Paige, the managerial debut of Casey Stengel, etc.
One of the issues the committee faces as things develop will be how many people and moments to honor each year and where to put the plaques. The hardest task won’t be figuring out who and what to include. It will be who and what not to include.
Bill Ballou covered the Red Sox for the Worcester Telegram from 1997 through 2018. He has covered pro hockey in Worcester since 1994 and currently does a weekly column for the Worcester Red Sox. Ballou can be reached at vetgoalie@aol.com
