This entry was posted on 7/31/2008 8:06 PM and is filed under uncategorized.
While we're waiting for the Sox to make an announcement, here's a plug for good buddy Steve Buckley's Old Time Baseball Game. NESN analyst Lou Merloni and Channel 7 reporter Larry Ridley are the two media reps playing in the game this season -- the 15th year in the game's existence.
It seems that there will be an announcement made tonight by the Sox...it could be right up until 11 p.m. or so.
FORMER RED SOX INFIELDER LOU MERLONI TO PLAY
IN 2008 OLDTIME BASEBALL GAME ON AUGUST 21
Former major-league infielder Lou Merloni will come out of retirement to play in the 15th Annual Abbot Financial Management Oldtime Baseball Game, to be played Thursday, August 21 at 7 p.m. at St. Peter’s Field on Sherman Street in North Cambridge.
The Oldtime Baseball Game is a celebration of our national pastime, featuring college and high school players participating in a modern-day baseball game while wearing dazzling old-style uniforms.
This year’s game is being played as a benefit for the Todd J. Schwartz Memorial Fund.
The Todd J. Schwartz Memorial Fund, established in 2002, honors the life of a vibrant 19-year-old who lost a two-year battle with cancer. Funds raised by community outreach activities support the Jimmy Fund Clinic at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. It is the goal of the Todd J. Schwartz Memorial Fund to support activities for the many young patients and their families who are currently in treatment, along with supporting outgoing pediatric cancer research.
Lou Merloni, a native of Framingham, Mass., was a stellar baseball player at Providence College who was selected by the Red Sox in the 10th round of the 1993 amateur draft. He went on to play nine seasons in the major leagues. In addition to the Red Sox, he also played for the San Diego Padres, Cleveland Indians and Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.
Merloni’s best season was in 2000, when, after being re-acquired in midseason by the Red Sox from the Yokohama Bay Stars of the Japan Central League, he hit .320. Merloni is now working as a pre- and postgame analyst for Red Sox games on NESN, and is a co-host on “The Big Show” on sports radio 850 WEEI.
What makes the Oldtime Baseball Game so special is its glittering array of oldtime uniforms, used just once a year for the game. The old-style flannel uniforms represent just about every era in baseball history, from the 1901 Baltimore Orioles to the 1969 Seattle Pilots. Such long-ago teams as the Boston Braves, St. Louis Browns and Brooklyn Dodgers are represented.
The old Negro Leagues are also included, with uniforms from the Homestead Grays, Kansas City Monarchs and Baltimore Elite Giants. Such long ago minor-league teams as the San Francisco Seals, Oakland Oaks and Roswell Rockets are represented. The game features uniforms from Alaska (Alaska Goldpanners) to Cuba (Cienfuegos Elefantes).
The Oldtime Baseball Game even features the uniform of a team that never actually existed: The New York Knights, for whom Robert Redford’s Roy Hobbs character played in “The Natural.”
Lou Merloni, appearing in his first Oldtime Baseball Game, plans to wear the all-black uniform of the 1901 Baltimore Orioles.
But Merloni will not be the only former major-league shortstop to be appearing in the Oldtime Baseball Game, as, once again, the game’s managers will be a pair of local legends – Johnny Pesky and Lennie Merullo.
Johnny Pesky, who turns 89 in September, is well-known to Red Sox fans, having served the club in a variety of capacities, from player to manager to broadcaster, for more than 60 years. He played shortstop for the Red Sox in the 1946 World Series. Lennie Merullo, 91, a native of East Boston, played seven seasons in the big leagues, all with the Chicago Cubs. He was the Cubs’ shortstop in the 1945 World Series.
Admission to the Oldtime Baseball Game is free. Fans are urged to bring a beach blanket or chair and camp out along the foul lines, as it is the crowd that makes the evening so electric.
The rain date for the Oldtime Baseball game is Friday, August 22, also at 7 p.m. For more information about the Oldtime Baseball Game, visit oldtimebaseball.com or email us at
Goinyard@aol.com.
