Pawtucket Red Sox

About Pawtucket Red Sox

The Pawtucket Red Sox (known colloquially as the PawSox) are the minor league baseball Triple-A affiliates of the Boston Red Sox and belong to the International League. They play their home games at McCoy Stadium in Pawtucket, Rhode Island (in the Providence market).

The first team to be dubbed the Pawtucket Red Sox debuted at McCoy Stadium in 1970 as a member of the Double-A Eastern League. After three seasons as a Double-A Boston affiliate, this franchise moved to Bristol, Connecticut, in 1973 to make room for the Triple-A PawSox. The Bristol franchise moved to New Britain, Connecticut, in 1983 and now plays as the New Britain Rock Cats, an affiliate of the Minnesota Twins since 1995.

The Triple-A team that is now the Pawtucket Red Sox was long ago the International League franchise Toronto Maple Leafs. After the American Association and its Louisville Colonels franchise folded in 1962 and the American League owners voted down Charlie O. Finley's agreement to move the Kansas City A's to Louisville in 1964, Louisville was ready for the return of baseball. In 1968 the Maple Leafs, the Red Sox' top minor league club since 1965, were bought by Walter J. Dilbeck and moved to Louisville where they became the new Louisville Colonels, the Triple-A franchise of the Boston Red Sox. While in Louisville, star players included Carlton Fisk (1971), Dwight Evans (1972) and Cecil Cooper (1972). The Louisville Colonels made the International League playoffs in 1969 and 1972. However, in 1972 the Kentucky State Fair Board, which operated the stadium where the Colonels played, decided to convert the facility to primary use for football.