The Pawtucket Red Sox Are Moving to Providence and Some Fans Are Not Happy

Associated Press

The PawSox no longer?

Donald Grebien, the mayor of Pawtucket, Rhode Island, told WPRO that Pawtucket’s Triple A baseball club will leave the city, and neither the mayor nor many fans of games at McCoy Stadium sound too happy about it. The PawSox (as they are called … for now) were sold to a group of Rhode Island business leaders who plan to move to the team to a new stadium on the downtown Providence waterfront, according to RIPR.org. So, say hello to the ProSox?

Pawtucket has had one of the better performing Triple-A teams in recent years. Their proximity to the Boston Red Sox seems to yield a deeper connection between the two clubs and makes logistics of promoting and demoting players pretty easy. That, of course, doesn’t change by moving the team to Providence. But their history of playing in Pawtucket, which stretches back to the 1970s when businessman Ben Mondor bought them, does of course come to an end. Mondor died in 2010 and his widow sold the team this year to the new group of owners.

While the new owners may not be sentimental about the city of Pawtucket, the first round of reactions to the news revealed a lot of fans who are partial to the place.

I called countless @PawSox games as a visiting & home broadcaster. If you truly love the game, there’s no place better than McCoy. Sad day.

— Bob Socci (@BobSocci) February 23, 2015

Moving the Pawsox out of Pawtucket is a travesty. Why change what works? What a shame.

— Mike From Attleboro (@MikeFromATown) February 23, 2015

Sox moving pawsox out of Pawtucket is a down right disgrace. I love McCoy and they are that city

— Rob (@BobbyNeil79) February 23, 2015

On the other side of the coin, of course, are those who see a new Providence stadium as a chance to pump energy into the franchise and the new neighborhood. Here’s a Providence Journal column pitching the idea. Tradition, it seems, couldn’t stand up to the lure.