PAWTUCKET, R.I. — The Pawtucket Red Sox lease with McCoy Stadium doesn’t run out until January 31, 2021, but right now, the sun is fast setting on the team’s half-century at McCoy.
The Paw Sox final game at McCoy was supposed to be played on Labor Day, but COVID-19 changed everything and canceled the season.
On McCoy’s field, a “taxi squad” of players are keeping their skills sharp, staying ready for possible September call up to Boston.
But there are no fans in the stands, only piped in crowd music played over the Park’s PA.
Not only did the COVID-19 pandemic kill the season, but it also finished off the team’s plans to commemorate this final season at McCoy.
“We really expected to have a fitting farewell season here in Pawtucket McCoy Stadium,” Pawtucket Red Sox Communications Vice President Bill Wanless told me. “But that didn’t happen.”
The team had big plans for summer fireworks, concerts, giveaways, and, a special honor for McCoy’s best known historic fact: the longest baseball game in history, 33 innings, was played here in 1981.
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The Pawtucket Red Sox won.
“We were going to bring back the two-third basemen in that game. They were Hall of Famers: Wade Boggs, and Cal Ripken. They played for Pawtucket and Rochester in 1981. We wanted to invite them back, share their memories with fans, and celebrate the longest game,” Wanless said.
A farewell to McCoy Stadium after 50 years. The Pawtucket Red Sox are moving to Worcester. A look back. My story @boston25 5/6PM pic.twitter.com/e2TGlwtvuc
— Bob Ward Boston 25 (@Bward3) September 4, 2020
In Pawtucket, where McCoy sits snuggled in a neighborhood of single-family homes, apartment buildings, and small businesses, neighbors are already feeling the loss.
I asked Dottie Murby what she thought about losing the Pawtucket Red Sox.
“It’s going to be hard on everybody,” Murby said. “People enjoy coming here.”
Steve Cox could watch Paw Sox fireworks from his backyard.
He told me, “It was noisy at times, but I enjoyed, looking from my yard over at the Stadium. I’m going to miss the Fourth of July.”
McCoy Stadium is mostly silent now.
Team officials are trying to figure out what will be saved from McCoy and what will be auctioned off.
The huge player murals of Paw Sox greats like Roger Clemens, Jody Reed, and Sam Horn are still hanging on the Stadium’s walls. Some of those murals are badly weathered.
But we know one-time pitcher Steve Lyons is trying to hang on to his McCoy Stadium mural.
This place holds special meaning to the players, too.
Forty-seven miles away, over the state line in Worcester, a new stadium, Polar Park will welcome the Triple-A Red Sox, soon to be renamed the Woo Sox.
But now, in these fleeting days of summer, McCoy Stadium remains home to the Pawtucket Red Sox.
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