WooSox wrap up successful second year at Polar Park, as Worcester hosted over 540,000 fans
WORCESTER — Season No. 2 for the Worcester Red Sox is in the books at Polar Park.
Even though the team entered Monday with three remaining road games in Rochester, New York, this week, the WooSox completed their 75 home-game schedule Sunday with 7,711 in attendance.
The team faced many challenges during its inaugural season in 2021, including COVID-19 and completing the entire Polar Park project, but 2022 felt a bit more normal, and the WooSox enjoyed success both on and off the field.
“We’ve got to recognize each season is both an accomplishment and a challenge for the next season,” principal owner Larry Lucchino said. “In ’23, we’ve got to make interesting, exciting, new and different, so fans will feel as though this ballpark is evolving with them.”
The WooSox finished in the top five in attendance in all of Minor League Baseball this season (out of 120 cities) as the club welcomed 546,955 fans to Polar Park. The WooSox averaged 7,493 fans per game and also enjoyed 42 sellouts in 73 openings, which equals 57.5 percent.
“We are probably one of the most prosperous, stable teams of the 120 teams in Minor League Baseball,” Lucchino said. “That’s good because the cities we’re often compared to — Las Vegas, Charlotte and Nashville — are much bigger cities than Worcester. We are very fortunate to have the market and the fans that we do. We want to say ‘thank you’ to our fans.”
In two short seasons, Polar Park has become a destination, and Lucchino plans to make the facility more appealing moving forward. The ballpark will host concerts next year, too.
On the field, it seems like forever ago since the team opened the season in Jacksonville, Florida on April 5. After dropping a 9-5 decision to the Syracuse Mets Sunday at Polar Park, the WooSox were 73-73 (.500) with the three games remaining in Rochester.
It helps that first-year manager Chad Tracy and his staff of hitting coach Rich Gedman, bench coach Jose Flores, pitching coach Paul Abbott, assistant hitting coach Mike Montville and development coach Brendan Connolly share a similar work ethic and are like-minded baseball men.
“It’s been amazing. It’s been a blast,” Tracy said of the 2022 season. “It helps that our staff gets along really, really well and that makes the season fun. It makes it go fast and really enjoyable when you enjoy the staff you work with. The players have been great, too.”
Tracy’s message to the players at the start of the season was to simply show up, work properly and act as true professionals. The WooSox also 75 players on the roster and appear in a game. Overall, they made 205 player transactions.
“The turnover and the amount of players that have come through has been crazy,” Tracy said with a smile. “It’s been a long year, and we’re all tired, but it’s been very enjoyable for all of us.”
Triple A can be a miserable place at times, especially toward the end of the season. It can be a challenge for any manager, coach or teammate when players are back and forth between the big leagues and minors. Overall, the WooSox’ season ran relatively smooth.
“Most of what occurred I expected,” Tracy said. “The goal, as a staff, was to make it an enjoyable place for guys to walk into the door every day and enjoy coming to work and our staff has done a good job of that.”
At the minor league level, many times it’s the field staff that becomes the face of the franchise just because there’s so much player turnover. Tracy quickly became a fan favorite in his first season in Worcester.
“The field staff has done a sensational job,” Lucchino said. “The quality of players has been tremendous, and we’ve sent more than 20 players to the big leagues from here. The coaching staff has been coherent and a unified group of guys and helped bring the team together.”
Something that shouldn’t go unnoticed is the fact the playing surface at Polar Park is considered state of the art and one of the best in all of professional baseball.
The WooSox had just two rainouts at Polar Park this season compared to six in 2021. Despite a heat wave this summer, WooSox field superintendent Elliot Linstrum and his crew kept the facility in pristine shape.
Along with Linstrum, assistant Ryan Lefler, Andrew Targee, Dan Turgeron, Declan Fitzpatrick, Dominick Vignato, Griffin LaPosta, Jordan Allen, Matt Antunes, Matt OConnor, Nick Karalus, Rory White, Ryan Parks and Stephen Snediker, Polar Park always impressed.
“The field presentation is outstanding,” Lucchino said. “Elliot and his crew have been a fantastic job. We want this to be a major league field. We want this ballpark, and Central Mass., to really feel like an extension of Fenway.”
Now, there are only 186 days until the WooSox open the 2023 season against the Syracuse Mets at 4:05 p.m. on March 31 at Polar Park. In fact, it will be the earliest date a Red Sox Triple-A affiliate will start a season.
Lucchino & Co. is already thinking about improvements for next season. Even before the season finale of 2022, he said there’s already a list of 12 items he’s focusing on for next season.
Since Polar Park is a year-round venue, it won’t be dark for long. Holy Cross football will host Bucknell in the EBW Classic at 4 p.m. Oct. 8.
“It’s important to keep our momentum going, because this is more than a ballpark,” Lucchino said. “We’ve said it over, and over, and over again it’s a year-round facility center. It’s a place where the community comes together. There’s very good reason for us to accelerate the use of this facility, because we want it to be a win-win proposition for the city and the community.
Once again, it’s been a successful season in the Canal District.
—Contact Joe McDonald at JMcDonald2@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @JoeyMacHockey.
This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: WooSox wrap up successful second year as Worcester welcomed over 540,000 fans to Polar Park
