For the second straight summer, LeLacheur Park is as quiet as a library. In 2020, there was no minor league baseball due to COVID-19. This summer it's because the Lowell Spinners are no longer in existence after Major League Baseball's reorganization of the minor leagues following the 2020 season.
It's sad on many levels. The Spinners were the Class A short-season affiliate of the Boston Red Sox from 1996-2020. Lowell played at Stoklosa/Alumni Field in 1996 and 1997, then moved over to the sparkling Edward A. LeLacheur Park for the 1998 season.
To say the Merrimack Valley embraced the franchise would be a gross understatement. The Spinners set a minor league record by selling out every home game during the 2000 season, starting an incredible stretch which saw Lowell sell out 413 straight home games, a streak broken on Aug. 30, 2010.
I was the assistant sports editor at the time for The Sun and had a front row seat for those golden years.
Mookie Betts, Jackie Bradley Jr., Jacoby Ellsbury, Jonathan Papelbon, Hanley Ramirez and Kevin Youkilis played for Lowell.
Among my top memories: The night a vicious storm deposited the bouncy house into the right field corner, seconds after the last child was evacuated; GM Shawn Smith asking me to walk backwards next to a goat onto the field prior to a game to break my curse (it always rained when I covered a game); watching the kindness of owners Drew and Joann Weber up close; serving as an analyst next to WCAP play-by-play announcer Ryan Johnston for one summer.
But my favorite moment came as a fan. A friend offered three tickets. I took two of my daughters, Lyndsay, 8 at the time, and Erin, then 5.
A local bank handed out books to all the children. Lyndsay, a ferocious reader, dove into the book. Erin, no sports fan, turned around to check out the crowd. As luck would have it, I was sitting next to Ed LeLacheur, the man for whom the park is named after. It was about the fourth inning. Noting Lyndsay's nose in her book and Erin's decision to not watch a single pitch, Ed turned to me and said, "Hey, Barry, I see your daughters are big sports fans."
We both laughed.
Lowell is diminished without a baseball franchise. May LeLacheur Park again be filled with laughter - and applause - beginning in 2022.
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