WORCESTER RED SOX TO ENSHRINE JANET MARIE SMITH, JP RICCIARDI, AND JARREN DURAN AS SECOND CLASS OF THE WOOSOX HALL OF FAME
Worcester City Manager, and Rich Gedman, the former Boston Red Sox catcher and current WooSox hitting advisor who is also a Boston Red Sox Hall of Famer.
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Janet Marie Smith is a leader in the sports development business with a career focused on venue design and planning. She and late WooSox Chairman & Principal Owner Larry Lucchino collaborated, starting as far back as 2017, to build Worcester’s award-winning Polar Park. The home of the Worcester Red Sox opened on May 11, 2021 and this spring will already welcome its 2,000,000th fan. Voted “Best Ballpark in Triple-A Baseball” by Ballpark Digest and USA Today, Polar Park has played to rave reviews while being the focal point for large area development in the resurgent Canal District of downtown Worcester. Smith and Lucchino first partnered to create Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore more than 30 years ago leading to a revolution in ballpark ambiance and architecture which created a unique new vision of a traditional, intimate, old-fashioned downtown ballpark with modern amenities. An innovative downtown ballpark itself, cozy Polar Park has helped revitalize New England’s second largest city. Fans love their new home and the WooSox are the only club in all of Minor League Baseball to sell more than 500,000 tickets each of the last three years. “Janet Marie is an extraordinary person, without her you wouldn’t have the most beautiful ballpark in Triple-A,” Steinberg said. “We are her second Hall of Fame stop, and I look forward to the day she’s enshrined in Cooperstown.” Janet Marie is currently the Co-Founder and Chair of Canopy Team and the Executive Vice President, Planning & Development for the World Champion Los Angeles Dodgers.
Janet Marie Smith , the renowned ballpark planner who is the Worcester Red Sox Ballpark Design Advisor, JP Ricciardi , a Worcester Major League Baseball icon, and Jarren Duran , the former WooSox and current Boston Red Sox All-Star outfielder, have been selected as the 2025 WooSox Hall of Fame inductees. The WooSox Hall of Fame was established in February, 2024 to recognize the outstanding careers and contributions of former or current WooSox players, managers, coaches, broadcasters, and executives as well as others who have been instrumental in the history of the Worcester Red Sox and Worcester baseball. This March, the second-ever WooSox Hall of Fame class was chosen by a 17-person panel, which includes club executives, print & broadcast media members, and business & community leaders. “These three represent three different aspects of baseball in Worcester. Each one has played such a key role so far,” said WooSox president Dr. Charles Steinberg. “Now that you have a half dozen people in the WooSox Hall of Fame, you’re starting to get a feel for the family that made this all happen.” The inaugural WooSox Hall of Fame class in 2024 included Larry Lucchino, the late Chairman & Principal Owner of the Worcester Red Sox who is also a Boston Red Sox Hall of Famer, Ed Augustus Jr., the former
Canopy Team is a woman-led firm headquartered in
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