College Connections to the Red Sox Run Deep

With the victory at Fenway Park last night, it might be easy to forget that there were some nail-biting moments in this series. But while the Red Sox fought their way to the World Series title over the past month, members of the Holy Cross community have been with them, watching the late-night thrillers closely.

Needless to say, there is no shortage of diehard Red Sox fans on campus, but some of the interest in the Red Sox stretches beyond just being a fan.

The Telegram and Gazette spoke to Dominic “Nick” Lovullo ’16 about his father Torey, a bench coach for the Boston Red Sox. “Me being in Worcester and my dad in Boston, it couldn’t have worked out better,” Nick said. “We missed out on so much time together because he’s always been on the road. Finally, the baseball gods are giving back. It’s pretty special. The fact that all this is happening makes it even more special.” You can read the full article on the Telegram’s website.

Local television station Charter TV 3 spoke with Nick about his experience attending the World Series games, as well as with Paul Irish, associate dean of students, about what kind of reaction he expected to see on campus after the game. You can watch the video on their website.

For those who didn’t have tickets to the game, there was an opportunity to view the game in Crossroads, in the basement of Hogan, with fellow students. With the game projected on a giant screen and the Crossroads grill open for business, the excitement in the air was palpable.

While you may be thinking that the Red Sox winning the World Series would mean an economic boon for Boston, Victor Matheson, professor of economics, told WGBH that this wasn’t necessarily the case. He said that with large sporting events like this, consumers may spend money differently, but they aren’t necessarily spending more. However, said Matheson, “one of the great things about Boston is Boston has highly successful sports teams that have taken almost no public money.” Watch his interview on the WGBH News website.

Check out the other connections that members of the Holy Cross community have to the Red Sox:

• Brian Abraham ’07 was one of the men catching balls in the bullpen as pitchers warmed up to enter the game. A former catcher for the Crusaders, Abraham has been a bullpen catcher since June 2013.
• James McCloud ’06 is the vice president of sponsorship sales for Major League Baseball Advanced Media, which operates mlb.com as well as the 30 Major League Baseball club pages. McCloud was a pitcher and a first baseman for the Crusaders.
• Bradley Pearson is an athletic trainer for the Red Sox. He was an intern athletic trainer at the College in the 2000-2001 academic  year,  and his brother Todd Pearson is head coach of the men’s crew team.
• Before becoming head baseball coach at the College, Greg DiCenzo held a number of other coaching positions. One of these was with the Falmouth Commodores, where in 2004 he had a young Jacoby Ellsbury on his roster.