The Pawtucket Red Sox drew fans to McCoy Stadium with the slogan “where the dreams begin.” With the team’s decision to move to Worcester, RIPR political analyst Scott MacKay says it makes Rhode Island seem more like where baseball dreams die.
The decision Rhode Island baseball fans and most politicians feared came Friday when the Pawtucket Red Sox brass announced they would leave for a new stadium to be built in a seen-better-days section of Worcester.
As another part of old Rhode Island becomes a memory, expect the usual Ocean State reaction. We’ll be treated to yet another round of what the smallest states does best –a mélange of recrimination, regret and nostalgia.
The finger-pointing began before the ink was dry on the letter of intent PawSox President Larry Lucchino signed in Worcester on Friday. The design of the new 10,000 seat ballpark will be overseen by Lucchino, a veteran baseball executive and Janet Marie Smith, who worked with Lucchino to build Camden Yards in Baltimore and ushered the renovations to Fenway Park that have blossomed development in Kenmore Square.
In what has to nettle Rhode Island’s pols, Lucchino lavished praise on Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker and Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito. Lucchino also praised the Worcester business community and Central Massachusetts baseball fans.
Lucchino tossed a bone to Pawtucket Mayor Don Grebien, calling him an honorable public servant. Pawtucket’s the birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution, but lately it appears more a place living on fumes. The city has lost the Gamm Theater, Memorial Hospital has closed and now the Boston Red Sox top minor league team is putting the city in its rear-view mirror. Even toymaker Hasbro has announced it is seeking a new headquarters outside the city.
Gov. Gina Raimondo, who said she didn’t want the team to leave on her watch, now has the dubious distinction of explaining it as she campaigns for reelection. Senate President Dominick Ruggerio quickly released a statement defending the deal he and Raimondo agreed to that would have kept the team here.
In March, Raimondo expressed her frustration with the negotiations to keep the team during an event at the Rhode Island Convention Center. As she walked into an elevator, the governor was asked about the fate talks to keep the team. “Call Mattiello,” she blurted out, smiling ruefully.
She was referring, of course, to House Speaker Nick Mattiello, a Cranston Democrat. He refused to go along with the Raimondo-Senate taxpayer subsidy deal. Then acted as if he didn’t care whether the team left.
Mattiello is running for reelection in a conservative district that comfortably supported Donald Trump in 2016. Mattiello barely won reelection last time around. He may be confident that he knows his knows his constituents and that they didn’t want any stadium deal that carried a government subsidy. But his district also includes more than 300 building trades union members; they aren’t going to like this.
So far, Mattiello has blamed the team, saying its owners are disloyal.
The larger question for Statehouse Democrats is whether Mattiello should continue as speaker if he is reelected. Representing a Republican-leaning district is one thing, but putting his own interests ahead of the greater good of the state is quite another.
This failure of Rhode Island’s political leadership will be grist for much debate. Some will contrast this time around with the 1990s, when then-Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld offered to build the PawSox a Worcester stadium. At that time, Pawtucket and the Blackstone Valley had enough clout to approve a $12 million state subsidy to give McCoy a much-needed facelift. Attendance surged after the renovations. In those days, the governor, Republican Lincoln Almond, was from Lincoln and House Speaker John Harwood and Finance Chairman Tony Pires both hailed from Pawtucket.
The political spin cycle is swirling. But the team’s retreat only heightens Rhode Island’s reputation as a parochial state where it’s difficult to do business on anything that involves government. The team had a storied history best chronicled in New York Times columnist Dan Barry’s 2011 book, “Bottom of the 33rd,” a lyrical love letter to baseball and the city and based on the longest game in professional baseball history, which was played at McCoy in April, 1981.
PawSox attendance has dropped in recent years still but more than 400,000 went to McCoy last year. The state will also lose more than $2 million in annual taxes generated by the team. And Pawtucket will be left with a vacant, crumbling 77-year old stadium that will stand in mocking glory of what once was.
Scott MacKay’s commentary can be heard at 6:45 and 8:45 every Monday Morning and at 5:44 in the afternoon. You can also follow his political commentary and analysis at our “On Politics” blog at RIPR.org