The old Pawtucket Red Sox got news that they were going to move to Worcester in 2018, after a whole year of rumors swirling that they were being located. Pawtucket tried to keep them in Rhode Island but that ultimately fell through. The last game for the Paw Sox was in 2019. There was no minor league games for baseball in 2020 because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The “Woo Sox” started their inaugural season in 2021 at Polar Park. The title of this article might be a little strong. Since it is their first season, they will have a lot of kinks to workout. I believe they will adjust accordingly throughout this season and seasons to come. There are many things Polar Park does a lot of things that I liked. Their food vendors have awesome food and selections (you have to try the barbeque place in right field), the great ticket prices (I paid $17 for mid row section 2 tickets), and the ballpark is spread out and has a “new feel”. Although all of these things are great, the negative side of Polar Park is more daunting and in your face.
Their Strikeout Sound
I didn’t know I was going to be in Hunger Games while seeing the Woo Sox game. Every time they get a strikeout, they use the Katniss Everdeen sound… I believe that this is something they have to change. Even if they steal the strikeout sound that the Boston Red Sox use (WHOOP) to sound like WOO.
The “Blue Monster”
I get what they are trying to do here, to prepare the minor leaguers for the Green Monster in Fenway. There is one problem about the “Blue Monster” in Worcester. The blue monster is in right field, not in left field. If they were going for the same thing that Boston does, I don’t get why it is in right field. Fenway South in Florida even has a little green monster in their left field.
Scoreboard Problems
The scoreboard is big and beautiful. It has video packages, lineups, player profiles, pitch counts, type of pitch, and the count on it, but there is a glaring problem. I do not know why it is in left field. The seats that we were sitting at for the game (section 2), half of the scoreboard was cut off in our view. All we could see was the right half of the scoreboard. The people on the first base side in section 1-3 will have a difficult time seeing everything on the scoreboard.
Polar Park’s Chants
There were really no chants for the Worcester Red Sox. There were no “lets go woo sox” or anything like that. The game was out of reach early that we went to, the final score 8-0, so maybe that had something to do with it. The only chants that stood out to me was the “sheesh” trend from Tik Tok. If I wanted to hear that sound, I would just go on Tik Tok during the game. They need to ditch this sound ASAP and try something more iconic. The PA announcer was a little loud at times too when calling the names and it seemed like no one had a particular walkout song. Every time a player walked up to bat, there was a different song playing, regardless if it was someone on the home or away team.
Where is the Mascot?
The Worcester Red Sox mascot is called the smiley ball. I believe that the mascot can be top 5 in all of sports. I love the smiley ball. I even bought a hat with their logo on it. I wanted to take a picture with their mascot for the memories. We decided to go look for him after the 6th inning. The mascot was no where to be found. We took a tour of the park while looking for the mascot but we couldn’t find him anywhere. He wasn’t in left field, right field, or even their “club”. Maybe they left because the game was so out of hand. We theorized that they were near the exit to say bye to the fans when they left, but they weren’t there either. As a new franchise and a new mascot, you need to be more accessible to fans, especially the younger ones, so they can have a positive experience at the ballpark to tell their friends, to create more revenue exposure and wanting them to comeback again.