The URI Rams are Rhode Island’s winter pastime
I don’t put much faith in Punxsutawney Phil and I don’t live so close to the land that the actual weather makes much practical difference to my life. For me, winter officially ends in the Ocean State when URI plays their last basketball game of the season. There’s still snow on the ground but, as […]
Protesting protest: Love, respect and burning stuff
Maybe Shane was right. Maybe this protest wasn’t about racism and Trump. Maybe this protest was all about love and respect. But it was also about anger. And burning stuff.
South Providence little league team struggles to afford World Series trip
After winning both the state and New England tournaments, the Providence Washington Park Cal Ripken little league team has an invitation to be one of 10 teams from across the nation to compete in the World Series in August. But first the predominantly Hispanic group of 12-year-olds from South Providence has to raise $12,000 to […]
PawSox are still looking for money and one fan is not happy
He’s a lifelong unionized worker, has gone to PawSox games for the last four decades, and knows cities intimately as a former telephone worker. Dan Murphy also went to every Listening Tour stop last summer when owner Larry Lucchino was trying to get a new stadium built by the taxpayers in Providence as one of […]
Imam Farid Ansari on the death of Muhammad Ali
The Champ is gone. On June 3, 2016, Muhammad Ali, considered by many to be the greatest boxer to ever step into the ring, died in Arizona at age 74 following a long battle with Parkinson’s contracted from head trauma sustained in his career. Since his retirement in the early 1980’s, Ali had shied away […]
Lover come back: Will Pawsox, fans kiss and make up
In the iconic movie about minor league baseball, Bull Durham, the hotcha Susan Sarandon plays Annie Savoy, a diehard fan who worships at the “Church of Baseball,” the home park of a low minors team, the Durham Bulls. She is in essence a sophisticated baseball groupie. Every year Annie welcomes the new roster of the […]
Opening Day (and Red Sox?) blues
“Whoever wants to know the heart and mind of America had better learn baseball.” – Jacques Barzun, noted historian. What a nice sentiment. Unfortunately, not so true today as it was in the past. Instead of the elegant prose of an insightful Frenchman, in today’s sports world it would be more correctly expressed on a […]
St. Patrick’s Day, 1989: The biggest upset in college basketball history almost happened in Providence
This isn’t the first time the NCAA tournament and St. Patrick’s Day came crashing together in Providence, Rhode Island. The last time was 1989, and it turned out to be the show of all shows.
Baseball was built in cities like Pawtucket
While they never really left Pawtucket, to many of us it sure seemed like they did. Last year was a difficult year for the community. We learned about the Pawtucket Red Sox seeking another home only to abandon McCoy Stadium and Pawtucket. We were told there was no use discussing anything – the Pawtucket Red […]
On the new PawSox management
The recent announcement of the new management team of the Pawtucket Red Sox, with Dr. Charles Steinberg as president, Dan Rea III as senior vice president/general manager, and Jeff White as treasurer, struck all the activists who spent the summer stirring up a protest about the proposed construction of a new stadium in Providence as team […]
Elorza makes a PASS: new program pairs cops with kids as sports coaches
Mayor Jorge Elorza announced a new program that pairs inner city students with police officers as after school sports coaches. It’s called PASS, or the Police After School Sports program. “This is a great day for the city,” Elorza said on Friday at Gilbert Stuart Middle School. “This is something … many folks have been […]
PVD City Council may still get vote on PawSox stadium proposal
While it’s been widely reported that PawSox ownership’s dream of playing in a riverfront stadium on I-195 redevelopment lands in downtown Providence is dead, the Providence City Council may still get to drive the final – and conclusive – stake through its heart. The Stop the Stadium Deal group announced today in a press release […]
Anti-stadium groups keep the pressure on in Providence
In a rally at the corner of Hope St and Doyle Avenue in Providence, 25 people turned out over the course of two hours to hold signs in an event that was described as not “a protest of any kind, just outreach the public!”
PawSox Stadium opponents film music video outside McCoy
Director Murray Scott lead the crowd in singing the song, from cue cards, four times as volunteers stopped traffic. Surprisingly, none of the drivers of any of the cars evidenced anything but support for the effort, despite the inconvenience of being stopped. instead drivers honked horns, waved, or gave thumb’s up to the efforts of the singers.
Is this the end of Lucchino’s field of dreams?
By Friday evening, the opponents of the PawSox proposal to build a stadium in Providence were ecstatic. After a ruling by the federal government that the I-195 land must be sold at fair market value, a well-attended and media-friendly party on Monday at the proposed site, followed by reports that Brown refused to sell their […]
Stadium opponents hold a concert in future public park
This time the PawSox owners didn’t make any attempt at countering the event. This time the media showed up in force, with Channel 10 doing a live remote. The What Cheer! Brigade played four rousing selections and storytellers Len Cabral and Mark Binder (who has contributed to RI Future) entertained the crowd with stories. Kites were flown, games were played, children danced and the promise of a public park was glimpsed, if imperfectly.
Speaker Mattiello swings early at Pawsox second pitch
Perhaps there is something in the water on Smith Hill that infects speakers of the Rhode Island House with hubris. Perhaps it’s a side effect of suddenly being called, “The most powerful politician in Rhode Island.” Keeping in mind that the speaker is not elected to his office by the citizens, but anointed by his […]
Despite promises, sports stadiums are not ‘revenue neutral’
I have previously written about PawSox owner Larry Lucchino’s public/private partnerships’ in building PetCo Park for the San Diego Padres and Camden Yards for the Baltimore Orioles. These are the two major projects that Lucchino’s spokesman Dr. Charles Steinberg boasts about on the so-called ‘Listening Tour’ the team has been holding across the state. I […]
Lucchino’s bad business in Baltimore
Previously I posted a story about PawSox owner Larry Lucchino’s luck in San Diego with PetCo Park, host venue of the Padres. But make no mistake, San Diego was no aberration. A simple Google search shows that Camden Yards, also touted by PawSox Listening Tour doyen Dr. Larry Steinberg as a stellar success, has been […]
Larry Lucchino’s losing record in San Diego
Last week when I sat down to talk with Dan Yorke, one point he brought up was that stadium opponents have their hands tied until Speaker Mattiello releases the terms of the new deal he is working with the PawSox ownership. I agree with that, but with one caveat: there is always the paper trail […]
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