PAWTUCKET – The city’s two-week-long auction selling off multiple pieces of local baseball history has raised approximately $48,000, with the bulk of it to support local charities and the creation of a new park honoring the former Pawtucket Red Sox owner, the late Ben Mondor.
City spokesperson Grace Voll confirmed Tuesday to Providence Business News that the McCoy Stadium memorabilia auction brought in significant funds from multiple bidders. The auction,
which ran from July 15 into early August, made available rows of stadium seats, signs, photos and various memorabilia from the 82-year-old, city-owned stadium that was home to the PawSox.
The team moved to Worcester, Mass., in 2021 and the PawSox's final season in Pawtucket was canceled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. McCoy, first built in 1942, has sat vacant since.
The items were auctioned off to prepare the stadium for demolition – which is tentatively scheduled for either this fall or this coming winter – as a new unified city high school is planned to be built on that site. A new combined 482,500-square-foot high school will replace the aging Charles E. Shea and William E. Tolman high schools. Voters back in November 2022
overwhelmingly approved a $330 million bond for the project.
Voll said about $15,000 was brought in on the rows of seats – approximately 75 rows were sold at $200 per row. The highest-priced item sold was a banner showing the box score from the longest game in baseball history at McCoy – the 33-inning game in 1981 where the PawSox defeated the Rochester Red Wings 3-2 – that went for $3,000. A soft serve ice cream concession sign, showing the “Paws” mascot, was sold for $1,000.
Two “Thank you for visiting” banners went for $950 and $900, respectively. The “starting lineup” write-on board near the stadium’s main entrance went for $910 and a “Welcome to McCoy Stadium” banner sign above the main entrance was sold for $900.
Several player murals aligning the stadium’s circular ramp entrances ranged from $120 to $575. A mural of the late Red Sox knuckleball pitcher Tim Wakefield was sold for $575 and a mural of the late Tony Conigliaro went for $500.
Of the money raised, $38,000 will be donated to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Pawtucket, the Pawtucket YMCA, Little Sisters of the Poor, Pawtucket Soup Kitchen and the creation of Ben Mondor Park honoring the late former PawSox owner. Voll said the city may have one of the fields at the new high school named after Mondor or have the city’s public works department look for “an alternative location” in the city to dedicate that park to Mondor.
“We think the best-case scenario would be [the Mondor park] be part of the new high school’s athletic complex, but [the public works department] is looking for other spaces if that is not possible,” Voll said.
About $10,000 from the auction will cover labor costs to remove the memorabilia from the stadium for pickup, Voll said. Regarding pickup, Voll says the auction winners of the signage will receive emails asking people to reserve a pickup time at McCoy either on Aug. 14 or Sept. 14. Payments for the items will be finalized after pickup of the items, Voll said.
For the rows of seats, pickup dates are Aug. 21 and Sept. 19, Voll said. She also noted that those purchasing seat rows must have them purchased by Aug. 21.
James Bessette is the PBN special projects editor, and also covers the nonprofit and education sectors. You may reach him at Bessette@PBN.com. You may also follow him on X at @James_Bessette.
