Rhode Island

The Pawtucket Red Sox were one of the country's premier AAA baseball teams, and for forty-five years they called Rhode Island home. In February 2015, a group of investors purchased the team from the widow of beloved owner Ben Mondor and longtime executives Mike Tamburro and Lou Schwechheimer. The group tried to keep the team in Rhode Island and move them to a new ballpark, first in Providence and then in Pawtucket. But building sports stadiums requires vision, political will and leadership. Through a series of political and financial missteps, the various plans collapsed, resulting in the announcement in August 2018 that the team would be moving to Worcester, Massachusetts. Join author James Ricci as he reveals how Rhode Island lost its revered team.

Woonsocket native Gabby Hartnett set the world record by catching a baseball thrown from a blimp eight hundred feet above him. Then he did it again. Rhode Island Baseball possesses the same knack for astonishing you time after time with stories of baseball legends you thought you knew (like Nap Lajoie) and teams you might never have heard of (like the OSRC: Orcutt's Sure Rheumatism Cure). As you slide back into an era when men and women played professional ball barehanded and a rabbit hole could change a game, you will discover how large a role America's smallest state played in the nation's favorite pastime.

For twenty-six straight seasons--from 1978 to 2003--Mount Saint Charles Academy captured the hearts of its fans and the state's high school hockey championship. Attributing the streak to a near-mystical force called Mount Pride," beloved coach Bill Belisle and his team have built the most successful hockey program in Rhode Island. In the thrilling 2013 season, they recaptured the Mount glory as state champions. Yet the high school hockey team is much more than its wins and losses--it's a culture and a family. Beginning with the earliest days when Rhode Island's four-team league took to the frozen ponds with tree branches serving as rudimentary hockey sticks, author Bryan Ethier chronicles the history of the MSC "Flying Frenchmen." Join Ethier as he takes to the ice with the great games, the star players and the unforgettable moments to tell the remarkable story of Mount Saint Charles Hockey."

This book will chronicle the history of baseball at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown has earned the distinction of being the most influential institution regarding baseball in Rhode Island. Fields, players, coaches are also included. Perhaps the most interesting parts of the book are the stories revolving around students and baseball games. Racial Integration on the ball field at Brown University is also explored, as well as women who played baseball at Pembroke College (Brown's sister college prior to integration of female and male students).