2005-08-10 - 1:07 p.m.
For my last full day in Providence, I wanted to go to a PawSox game. I�d never been to see the Pawtucket Red Sox, Boston�s AAA team. I felt like a bit of a poser because I�ve written several papers at school about the impact on civic pride and economics of sports teams and about the financing of stadiums (whether municipal bonds should be floated to build them is an ongoing debate).
Interestingly, minor league teams in small cities are often seen as presenting more of an overall benefit to urban life. Large cities often get bullied by major league teams into giving them public financing and other concessions. Big teams essentially threaten that the city had better give them what they want or they�ll move to a new location! If some smalltime team tries the same game with their host town, there�s really just no leverage. The city can more easily say �sorry you�re not happy here; goodbye and best of luck to you!�
Small towns are less likely to be financially shaken down, but they also may get a relatively greater benefit to their image. Philadelphia would still be Philly without the Eagles. But as a city councilman or something from Trenton once said: �We were known as the armpit of New Jersey. With the Trenton Thunder, we�re the place where Nomar Garciaparra cut his teeth.� Such a seemingly small victory can mean a lot.
So I�m a big small ball fan in theory and yet I�d never gone to see the local minor league team (of course, I don�t really know whether AAA baseball fits more towards the big or small team/city relations end of the spectrum). I thought going to a game was a very appropriate and Providence way to go out. Plus, getting rock star seating at ballgames is one of the few perks of disability. Six of us went in three cars.
At first I had planned on taking the bus there. I figured it would be my first and last trip in a wheelchair on Rhode Island public transit. But I couldn�t find directions to the stadium by bus anywhere. Is the thinking that if you can�t afford a car, you obviously can�t afford the $6 admission? I�m not surprised that Brown students, for whom cars are uncommon, rarely go to games. Or maybe it�s just another sign of the place not having its act together.
It was a beautiful evening to be outside, not too hot at all. Our seats were right in the front row of the section. They were off towards third base, but the park is pretty small anyway. McCoy Stadium, built as a WPA project in 1942, is a funny ballpark. The seating is elevated, so the field has a sunken look and there are good views from everywhere. Because of this two level structure, passing things to the dugout to be signed requires lowering them on a string, but I unfortunately didn�t notice anyone doing this while I was there.
The game itself was a little weird. They�d recite stats and put up cheers on the scoreboard for �famous� players, except they were AAA and not people I had ever heard of. Boston players who get hurt are occasionally sent down to play for the PawSox for a bit while they recover, like Kurt Schilling most recently. And Mark Bellhorn, who played for the championship Boston team last year, is now getting big cheers in Pawtucket. But one Kevin Youkilis hit several homers and every time he did, there would be a video read-out and ensuing bellows of �Youk!� Uh, who?
The game was ridiculously long and high scoring. The PawSox ended up winning like 15-9 or something. The third inning went on for almost an hour. I suspect that at the AAA level, batting just outpaces pitching. Most games end up being slugfests. I wonder if old-time baseball was like this, nineteenth-century games when guys routinely batted over .400 and they just sent any old player who could get the ball over the plate out to pitch. A good entertainment value for your ticket dollar, I guess.
According to my commemorative soda cup, the most extreme example of this was in 1981. Right there in McCoy Stadium, the Pawtucket Red Sox battled the Rochester Red Wings for a total of 33 innings over three days. The first two days were in April (it apparently lasted from 8PM to 4AM the next day) and the game must have been called and rescheduled because the last day was in June. Interestingly, it was rather low-scoring. The PawSox took it 3-2. But was anyone left watching by the end? Did you have to pay for a ticket again if you went to the final day?
Our game wasn�t that long. Still 9 innings took 4� hours. But it was a lot of fun. I did get the idea though; I don�t like wish I had gone to more games in the past. I usually get peanuts at baseball games, cause I feel like you�re supposed to. But they didn�t have them, so I decided that Cracker Jacks would be an acceptable substitute. And sadly, they don�t serve a very good hot dog; no Fenway franks here. You can�t have everything.
We got lost in Pawtucket on the way home, another novel experience for me. I had thought I�d also go to Waterfire later that night (they light logs in bowls on the river) to go out in full-on Providence style, but it felt really late and I was tired. I slept hard for my last night in town.
I got up early to go out for breakfast with Jill. A RUE graduate the year before me (she runs a non-profit housing development company now, to which you should donate) she was the first person I ever met in Providence and I really wanted her to send me off. We sat at a table outside at a Greek place, probably the last time I�ll see Thayer St. No great loss, really. I thought it was so cool at 18, but by a decade later it just seemed like a third-rate knock off of Harvard Square or some other cheesy college/tourist trap.
Then I loaded my chair and a couple bags into another friend�s car and he gave me a ride to Logan Airport in Boston. My plane was late, but they gave me a free first class upgrade! I flew out here to Denver and N. and the rest of my life. I�ve done a lot already and I�ll write more about it soon. Life goes on; it�s pretty incredible.
� 2005 Geoff Gladstone
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