Not wanting to have feline fans of the WooSox left out, the club took the ambitious step of hosting its first Purr in the Park night in May.
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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.
