LOU MERLONI, JONATHAN PAPELBON TO APPEAR
AT 30TH ANNUAL OLDTIME BASEBALL GAME
TO BE HELD THURSDAY, AUGUST 22
GAME WILL BE PLAYED FOR THE BOSTON HOME
IN RECOGNITION OF PEOPLE WITH MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS
MERLONI NAMED RECIPIENT OF 2024 MONTALBANO AWARD
CAMBRIDGE’S ANNUAL CELEBRATION
OF BASEBALL RETURNS TO ST. PETER’S FIELD
Former Red Sox stars Lou Merloni and Jonathan Papelbon will play in the 30th annual Abbot Financial Management Oldtime Baseball Game on Thursday, August 22 at St. Peter’s Field in Cambridge. The pregame program begins at 7 p.m.
The game is being played as a fundraiser for The Boston Home, a non-profit residence and national resource for adults with advanced neurological disorders, primarily multiple sclerosis.
Merloni, whose nine-year big-league career included parts of six seasons with the Red Sox, will be making his 12th appearance in the Oldtime Baseball Game. During pregame ceremonies he will receive the 2024 Greg Montalbano Award, given in memory of the late Red Sox pitching prospect who appeared in the Oldtime Baseball Game in 1997 and ’98.
Papelbon, an All-Star closer who pitched seven of his 12 major-league seasons with the Red Sox and was a member of Boston’s 2007 World Series championship team, will be making his first appearance in the Oldtime Baseball Game. But he’s already played a role in the game’s history: In 2005, his rookie season with the Red Sox, Papelbon asked that his two younger brothers, Josh and Jeremy, both in college at the time, be invited to the game. The twins each pitched a scoreless inning in ’05.
Merloni and Papelbon have gone on to broadcast careers in Boston. Merloni calls games on NESN and 93.7 WEEI, and Papelbon has emerged as a booth and studio analyst on NESN.
Founded in Cambridge in 1994, the Oldtime Baseball Game is known for its dazzling reproductions of flannel uniforms representing virtually every era in baseball history. Used just once a year, these throwback uniforms include such long-ago teams as the St. Louis Browns, Brooklyn Dodgers and Philadelphia Athletics. Negro Leagues uniforms include the Kansas City Monarchs, Chicago American Giants, Detroit Stars and Cleveland Buckeyes. Teams from the 20th century minor leagues include the Hollywood Stars, Wichita Falls Spudders and Roswell Rockets.
The game includes two Red Sox uniforms that were worn in the big leagues by the late Jim Corsi, who played in the Oldtime Baseball Game in 2002 and ’03. For the third straight year Corsi’s son, Joey, will play in the Oldtime Baseball Game wearing one of his father’s uniforms.
This will be the second straight year in which the game is played as a fundraiser for The Boston Home. Aidan Freeburg, a former pitcher at Worcester Polytechnic Institute who has been playing in the Oldtime Baseball Game since 2015, led the move to join forces with The Boston Home. Freeburg was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis when he was 19 but it didn’t stop him from playing college baseball and earning his BS in mechanical engineering.
The Boston Home has an additional baseball connection in that its chief financial officer is Fran Murphy, whose grandfather, Lou Perini, was the longtime owner of the Boston Braves, the city’s onetime National League ball club. A 1948 Boston Braves throwback uniform is included in the Oldtime Baseball Game’s collection.
“The Boston Home is thrilled to rejoin the phenomenal organizers, players and volunteers for the 2024 Oldtime Baseball Game,” Murphy said. “Through last year’s partnership, we raised more than $80,000 to benefit the compassionate clinical care and life enhancing programs for our residents and outpatients. On behalf of The Boston Home, I extend our sincere thanks to the Oldtime Baseball Game for providing this special platform to once again swing for the fences and raise critical funds to support our mission.”
Greg Montalbano, a native of Westborough and later a standout pitcher at Northeastern University, was drafted by the Red Sox in 1999. He was only 31 when he died of cancer in 2009. The Montalbano Award is presented annually to a former player in the Oldtime Baseball Game who exemplifies Greg’s spirit, competitiveness and good nature. As has become customary, the recipient of the award — Lou Merloni — will play in the game and wear the 1926 St. Louis Cardinals uniform that Montalbano wore in 1998.
Additionally, the 2024 Oldtime Baseball Game will remember five longtime supporters who have passed away over the past year:
— Former Red Sox pitcher Tim Wakefield, who worked a shutout inning in the 2018 Oldtime Baseball Game.
— Longtime Cambridge Parks & Rec director Paul Ryder, who in 1994 made possible the inaugural Oldtime Baseball Game when he placed a live on-air call to WEEI to offer the use of St. Peter’s Field.
— Dave Leibovitz, the former owner of Royal White Laundry in Somerville who, with his wife Sue, was the longtime caretaker of our throwback uniforms.
— ESPN columnist Jim Caple, who in 2006 gave the Oldtime Baseball Game its first national exposure. Caple played in the game and wrote a feature on Wesleyan University baseball player Jeff Maier, who 10 years earlier as a 12-year-old fan made national headlines when he deflected a Derek Jeter fly ball into a home run during the American League Championship Series. (To honor Caple, Maier plans to play in the Oldtime Baseball Game this year and wear the 1969 Seattle Pilots uniform Caple wore in 2006.)
— Cambridge native Paul Monagle, who for many years did fundraising for the Oldtime Baseball Game and whose son and nephew were fixtures in the game, first as batboys and later as players.
Admission to the Oldtime Baseball Game is free. Fans are asked to bring a beach blanket or chair and camp out along the foul lines, as it is the crowd that makes the game so electric. Fans can look forward to enjoying a Wahlburger at the game as Dorchester native Paul Wahlberg and his team of A&E TV series fame provide concessions.
In the event of rain, the game will be played on Friday, August 23 at 7 p.m.
For more information, visit oldtimebaseball.com or thebostonhome.org.
Note: Lou Merloni and Jonathan Papelbon will be available for interviews before and after the pregame ceremony.
