Photo | Courtesy of Ashley Green, Worcester Red Sox
The WooSox held their first Purr in the Park this year.
Updated: 6 hours ago
The Dog Edition
WooSox embrace dogs & cats at the ballyard
Photos | Courtesy of Ashley Green, Worcester Red Sox
The Worcester Red Sox have opened their doors to four-legged fans through Bark in the Park and Purr in the Park nights.
Dogs parade on the Polar Park warning track during Bark in the Park.
Cats check out Polar Park from the warning track during the Purr in the Park parade.
Purr in the Park attracted cats of all sizes.
The WooSox held their first Bark in the Park in 2022 after starting the tradition at McCoy Stadium.
The Bark in the Park concept was created by the Chicago White Sox in 1996.
During a 2022 Bark in the Park game at Tropicana Park, the Tampa Bay Rays played doorbell noises to get the dogs in attendance to make some noise.
Worcester dogs are still waiting for their call-up to the big leagues, as the Boston Red Sox are one of a handful of Major League Baseball teams to never host a Bark in the Park event.
The WooSox gave out commemorative t-shirts to celebrate Purr in the Park.
Minor league baseball games saw a 25-minute reduction in average game time after the implementation of a pitch clock, but some pups still can't make it through a whole game without a nap.
In 1996, just one year after the end of the longest work stoppage in Major League Baseball history, the Chicago White Sox were searching for a way to entice strike-weary fans back to the ballpark. That’s when Rob Gallas, senior vice president of marketing and broadcasting for the club, had a revolutionary idea: Release the hounds.
And thus, the concept of inviting fans to bring their dogs to a professional baseball game was born, according to a 2012 ESPN article documenting the phenomena. It has since been dubbed Bark in the Park and quickly spread to ballparks across America. These nights have created memorable scenes of dogs scarfing down hotdogs and joining the gaggle of children chasing foul balls.
So it should come as no surprise that just a year after arriving in town, the Worcester Red Sox hosted their first-ever Bark in the Park in 2022, a continuation of a practice first held at their former Pawtucket home of McCoy Stadium back in 2011. The festivities include a parade of pets around the warning track.
Pets at the ballpark is something employees look forward to, said Katie Siegle, WooSox coordinator of public and community relations. Putting together Bark in the Park is a clubwide effort.
“We have a lot of input from a lot of different departments within the organization, namely our ticket sales department,” she said.
Not wanting to have feline fans of the WooSox left out, the club took the ambitious step of hosting a Purr in the Park night in May, making it one of only a handful of minor league clubs to host a similar event featuring cats. Despite some skepticism on social media that cats would enjoy such a thing, they took their night out in stride, said Siegle.
“It's so cute seeing these cats like being able to come out of their homes and be out in the wild with us and be able to enjoy the game,” Siegle said.
Expanding the pet-focused concept further, the club has begun allowing dogs in the park every Tuesday night as part of what it calls Tail Waggin' Tuesday. It’s a wise move not to host it on Friday, which is traditionally fireworks night.
“As long as fans are bringing well-behaved pets, and they’re leashed and they're making sure they keep track of droppings and stuff like that, we are welcoming pets whenever we can,” Siegle said.
Eric Casey is the managing editor at Worcester Business Journal, who primarily covers the manufacturing and real estate industries.
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