For the first time in probably 10 years, I went to a triple A baseball game! In my early years of college, my dad, his friend, and I would go out to Pawtucket, Rhode Island during the summer to see a Pawtucket Red Sox (PawSox) game. We’d drive there and back in the same day, or rather, same day and early the next morning, so it was always a long trip but fun.

Following the 2020 season, the PawSox moved to Worcester, Massachusetts and were renamed the Worcester Red Sox, or WooSox. For the past few seasons, Josh and I kept saying we would make it out to a game, but in typical fashion, life would get the best of us. This summer, we sat down and found a date that worked for both of us and I bought the tickets.

That night was this past Thursday. I took a half-ish day from work so that I had enough time to get ready before we left, plus we had to account for the hour-plus drive and rush hour traffic on the Mass Pike. There was rain in the forecast that night but the WooSox hadn’t posted anything on their social media about the game being delayed or postponed, so off we went.

About 10 minutes into the drive on the highway, we hit a nasty thunderstorm cell that included some small hail. If I had paid attention in the meteorology class I took my senior year of college, I could probably tell you why thunderstorms create hail, but I didn’t, so, sorry Mom and Dad. Once we got through it and started going east toward Worcester, it stopped, thankfully. When we got off the Mass Pike into Worcester, we hit another storm cell. The entire drive I kept refreshing my Weather Channel app, worried about the game being delayed or postponed.

The rain seemed to hold off once we got into the city. The day before, I pre-purchased parking in a garage about a 15-minute walk from the stadium, and that garage had a shuttle that went to and from the stadium.

Luckily, when we walked out of the garage, the shuttle was there—which was a street-legal six-person golf cart with license plates driven by someone’s grandfather. It took less than five minutes to be driven to the stadium, buzzing through the streets of downtown Worcester.

We were dropped off at the home plate gate and had to wait about 10 minutes before gates officially opened at 5:45 p.m. Getting through security and scanning our tickets were easy, and we walked through the team store. The gallery wall of team mascots was on the wall inside the main gate and I thought it was cute.

We decided to walk around the park since it was our first time there to check it out. The stadium reminds me of the size of the Hartford Yard Goats stadium—not too big but feels like a legit stadium.

Before heading to our seats, we got food and ate at a high-top table on the concourse. The rain still looked like it was holding off, but we brought our rain jackets with us just in case.

The view from our seats! The game was delayed a half hour and started around 7:15 p.m.

One perk of going to a triple A game is the chance to see some big league guys who are either rehabbing or have been optioned down to make room on the 40-main roster. I was excited to see Triston Casas (left) and Bobby Dalbec (right) in the game. (Years ago during a PawSox game, I got to see Jacoby Ellsbury rehabbing and you best bet I lost my mind.)

For most of the game, not much happened, except I guess batters and catchers can challenge the ump’s called pitch and they review it?! What kind of free-for-all are they running down in triple A? (Upon some Googling, it is in fact a thing and it’s something MLB is testing in the minors.) The ump has to announce that a certain pitch is being challenged, and I feel like that’s a hit to the ump’s ego, like he has to be like, “Hey I might not actually be good at my job, let’s all look at the big screen to see.”

All was going well, I mean the WooSox were losing 4-1 going into the bottom of the seventh, until the rain started pouring down. Everyone in the stands ran up onto the concourse and after a few seconds, once the rain got heavier, the umps signaled and the tarp was put on the field. They started showing the Patriots pre-season game on the big screens, so Josh was entertained for a bit.

The rain was supposed to stop about a half hour after it started, so we waited out most of it on the concourse. We figured there wasn’t a chance they’d re-start playing, plus we had an hour drive back, so we decided to head out around 10:00 p.m. As we went to the bathrooms, there was an announcement that the game was called for the night, so the timing ended up working out.

And, of course, once we got out of the stadium, the rain stopped. We wanted to try our luck and see if there were any shuttles around to take us back to the parking garage; after waiting a few minutes, one showed up and Josh, myself, and two other people hopped on. I was holding on for dear life as someone else’s grandfather drove us on the big golf cart through the streets of Worcester while Josh looked like he was having the time of his life.

We definitely want to go back next year, and as Sabrina Carpenter once said, please, please, please [no more rain].