The Salem Red Sox sold T-shirts to help nonprofits during the virus pandemic and now on Opening Day, they have free lunches for essential workers.
Baseball has forever been the least flexible, the most strident of sports, but right now during the COVID-19 pandemic, things are changing—at least in the short run.
The Salem Red Sox have no idea when their season will begin or even if they will have a season, but they’re trying to both make the best of that uncertainty and to help where the club can. Most recently the Red Sox sold “I Miss Baseball” T-shirts as an extended part of Roanoke Valley Gives.
Teaming with Press Press Merch, the Red Sox sold 130 of the T-shirts, bringing in about $1,500, says General Manager Allen Lawrence. The buyers of the T-shirts were given the opportunity to pick the nonprofit that would get the money they paid for the T-shirts and the “checks will go out in the near future,” says Lawrence.
In addition to the donations, the nonprofits will receive two non-dated tickets to a Red Sox game and two other tickets will go to a health care worker. That’s 260 game tickets that will be given out, just about a full seating section’s worth.
“Our staff [of 14] has a lot of ideas about what else we can do,” says Lawrence. “Tomorrow is Opening Day and we plan to do a curbside food pickup for $5 or free if you are a healthcare worker, first responder or grocery store worker. This is a fun way to do that instead of just giving out hot dogs. I don’t know how many people will take advantage, but we’re hoping for a good crowd.”
The Red Sox have no idea about the details of their season, if they have one and “it’s tough,” says Lawrence. “We were near the point in mid-March when we were close to being ready for Opening Day” with sales doing well for sponsorships and season tickets.
“We were ready to start selling individual game tickets. But now, we don’t know how many games we are going to lose. We don’t know what the schedule will look like—there’s talk it will be completely re-done—and we don’t know if the season will extend through September.”
But the Red Sox employees do know one important fact: They’re helping with the COVID-19 frustrations.
About the Writer:
Dan Smith is an award-winning Roanoke-based writer/author/photographer and a member of the Virginia Communications Hall of Fame (Class of 2010). His blog, fromtheeditr.com, is widely read and he has authored seven books, including the novel CLOG! He is founding editor of a Roanoke-based business magazine and a former Virginia Small Business Journalist of the Year (2005).
