Baltimore, MD and Pasadena, CA that specializes in large-scale sports projects, urban revitalization, and community-driven developments, as well as smaller projects like museums, retail spaces, and public parks. She is also the Executive Vice President of Planning & Development for the Los Angeles Dodgers and has served in a similar executive capacity for the Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, Atlanta Braves, and Turner Sports and Development. At Dodger Stadium, Smith has overseen the modernization of Dodger Stadium including the creation of the Centerfield Plaza in 2020, Dodger Stadium’s first-ever “front door,” featuring new fan amenities and improved accessibility with escalators, elevators, and bridges. Highlights of her career also include overseeing the renovation of Fenway Park from 2002-2009 and the creation of Baltimore’s Oriole Park at Camden Yards, which set a new standard for ballpark design when it opened in 1992. Smith’s non-sports projects include Battery Park City in New York and the redevelopment of former industrial buildings along Baltimore’s harbor. A native of Jackson, MS, Janet Marie holds a degree in architecture from Mississippi State University and a master’s degree in urban planning from City College of New York. She has an honorary doctorate from Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles and has been the Edward P. Bass Visiting Professor at Yale University. Smith has received numerous awards including the ALDS Visionary Award, CUNY Townsend Harris Medal, and has been inducted in the State of Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame. She is also featured in the National Baseball Hall of Fame “Diamond
Dreams” exhibit in Cooperstown, the “Women in Baseball” exhibit at Fenway Park, and is in the Inaugural Class (2011) of the Sports Business Journal’s Women in Sports.
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Local baseball legend JP Ricciardi “retired” from an acclaimed 43-year career in professional baseball in the winter of 2024. A Worcester native, Ricciardi is former teammates with WooSox and Red Sox Hall of Famer Rich Gedman as the two starred on the great St. Peter-Marian High School baseball teams in the late 1970’s. JP went on to play at St. Leo University and then as an infielder in the New York Mets Minor League system playing for Single-A affiliates, Little Falls in 1980 and Shelby in 1981. He began his post-playing as a coach in the New York Yankees Minor League system before joining the Oakland Athletics as a Minor League instructor and scout in 1986. By the early 1990’s he had risen to the rank of East Coast scouting supervisor and later national crosschecker, but his big break into the front office came in 1996 when he was promoted to A’s Assistant General Manager, first under Sandy Alderson and then under new GM Billy Beane in 1997. Ricciardi’s reputation grew during his successful stint with Oakland and it led to him being named General Manager of the Toronto Blue Jays in 2001. As Blue Jays GM from 2001-09, JP kept his teams competitive in the challenging American League East led by stars like Roy Hallady and Carlos Delgado. “JP embodies Worcester baseball in the same way Rich Gedman does,” Steinberg remarked. “He’s done so much for so many people in Worcester while also rising to the heights of Major League Baseball. I don’t think you can think about Worcester baseball without thinking about JP Ricciardi,” JP spent the 2010 season as an analyst on ESPN’s Baseball Tonight. He returned to the front office as the Mets Asst. GM from 2011-2019 and more recently was the San Francisco Giants Senior Advisor from 2019-2023. During the 2024 and 2025 seasons, JP has joined the WooSox broadcast crew providing color analysis for WooSox telecasts on NESN & NESN+. Ricciardi and his wife Diane live in West Boylston, MA. Their son Dante is currently a scout with the Boston Red Sox (and was their Scout of the Year for 2024) while
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