WooSox Foundation Writers Series to hit it out of Polar Park with award-winning authors
WORCESTER — The Knights of the Keyboard, as Ted Williams once called writers, will hit it out of the park as the WooSox Foundation presents the new Great Polar Park Writers Series at Polar Park beginning May 18 with Ben Bradlee Jr.
The Saturday-afternoon luncheons will feature authors and speakers from Worcester and the world of baseball, including, besides Bradlee, Bill Ballou, Brian Abraham, Mike Barnicle and Dan Shaughnessy, Alex Speier and Doris Kearns Goodwin.
The luncheons begin at 1 p.m. in the DCU Club at Polar Park and will include a Q&A and Meet & Greets with the speakers. Doors will open at 12:30 p.m. Tickets for each session are $25 and include lunch and a donation to the WooSox Foundation. Attendees can then stay in the park for a WooSox game that afternoon at 4:05 p.m. for an additional $9.
According to an announcement, the program is modeled after the Great Fenway Park Writers Series created in 2002 for the Boston Red Sox by the late George Mitrovich. It has been the only literary series presented by a professional sports team. The unique program was a favorite of the late Red Sox Hall of Famer and Worcester Red Sox principal owner and chairman Larry Lucchino.
Dr. Ted Gallagher, a West Boylston dentist who was close friends and Princeton University classmates with Lucchino, will serve as chairman of the Great Polar Park Writers Series.
“Larry Lucchino had pleaded with me to launch this program at Polar Park. It is fair to say that it was one of his dying wishes,” Dr. Gallagher said in the announcement. "He loved that baseball has this beautiful confluence with literature, and he was thrilled with the lineup of stars we assembled. They were all friends with him as well. It is our honor to carry on his wish and his dream.”
The lineup:
May 18 — Ben Bradlee Jr.:"Spotlight on The Kid." Bradlee is the author of the biography of Ted Williams "The Kid: The Immortal Life of Ted Williams." The Pulitzer Prize-winning Globe Spotlight editor was also involved in The Boston Globe’s groundbreaking coverage of the Catholic Church that was depicted in the Oscar-winning movie “Spotlight.” His father was the legendary Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee.
May 25 — Bill Ballou: "An Anecdotal History of Worcester (& Boston) Baseball. Untold stories and Hall of Fame voting." Ballou is known for his encyclopedic knowledge of baseball and is former sportswriter for the Telegram & Gazette
June 22 — Brian Abraham: " Where we started — where we are — and where we are going. The emergence of young talent through Worcester to Boston." As Boston Red Sox director of player development, Abraham has a unique expertise of “who’s on the way.”
July 13 — Mike Barnicle and Dan Shaughnessy: "A Fair-Minded View of the Red Sox and other Cataclysms. Conversations on growing up in the shadow of Fenway." Former Globe columnist Barnicle and Globe sports columnist Shaughnessy team up to present "as sagacious and engaging a duo as journalism can provide."
Aug. 3. — Alex Speier: "Homegrown — How the Red Sox built a Champion from the Ground Up. Observations of a team in transit." Speier is a sportswriter for the Globe and covers the Boston Red Sox.
Aug. 17 — Doris Kearns Goodwin. The Pulitzer-Prize winning historian's books include "Wait Till Next Year," an acclaimed memoir of growing up in the 1950s in New York while in love with her family and baseball.
Reservations for the series may be made on woosox.com or https://fevo-enterprise.com/group/polarparkwriters.
This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Writers Series to hit it out of Polar Park with award-winning authors
