Published in Senior Digest on July 2004

Seventy-six-year-old Al Beaulieu worked as a manager at Standard Bolt in Cumberland for more than 30 years. He’s been a baseball fan longer than 30 years. He’s been a baseball fan longer than that, however, attending games at McCoy Stadium since the mid-1940s.

After retiring in 1991, the Lincoln resident and wife, Carolyn, 81, became Pawtucket red Sox ticket holders. During the first three and one-half years of attending local games way back when Beaulieu says he probably missed just a few match-ups. Over his 13 years of having season tickets, Beaulieu says that he’s probably missed upward to 30 games. “It’s due to a total knew replacement,” he points out, not because of a waning interest in the sport he loves.

Over the years, in addition to attending games at McCoy Stadium this Pawtucket Red Sox fan has traveled to Rochester and Syracuse, N.Y., and Scranton, Pa., to follow his team.

While Beaulieu’s loyalties lie with the Pawtucket Red Sox, he’s backed off from the Boston Red Sox. “I used to be a great Boston fan, but they broke my heart to many times. Now, I root for whatever time is in first place,” he quips.

When asked about the legacy of PawSox, owner Ben Mondor, the man who brought Triple-A baseball to Pawtucket and put the city on the map, Beaulieu responds, “The guy is an outstanding gentleman. He took a club down in the dumps and turned it into one of the top teams in the nation.”

As to the his favorite games, Beaulieu quickly talks about the time he watched Tomo Ohka pitch a no-hit shutout at McCoy on June 1, 2000. “He’s now a   starting pitcher for the Montreal Expos,” Beaulieu said.

Branson Arroyo, who now plays for the Boston Red Sox, also pitched a perfect game at McCoy.  According to the team’s media guide, the statistical bible for Beaulieu, on Aug. 10, 2003, Arroyo pitched the fourth perfect nine-inning game in the 128-year history of the International League when he beat Buffalo, 7-0.

Over the years, Michael Pappas, the former executive director of the Pawtucket Boys and Girls Club, will tell you that “Ben Mondo always did everything first class.”

Pappas, 78, who served as the public address announcer at local Pawtucket Rd Sox games in the mid-1960s and mid-1970s, remarked how Mondor “rolled out the red carpet for his fans, making McCoy Stadium family-oriented and keeping ticket prices affordable.”

Mondor’s legacy will be his community out-reach, especially to nonprofit groups, Pappas says.  According to Pappas, Mondor has supported the Boys & Girls Club for years.  That support has included sponsoring a trip to the World Series for two lucky participants in the club’s baseball program.

Ray Dalton, 79, worked for the East Providence-based Getty Oil CO. for 42 years. Residing in the Darlington section of the city for 78 years, Dalton attended baseball games at age 5 at the old Pawtucket High School field.

He played baseball in junior high school and in the Pawtucket Boys Club Summer League. With his father loving the game, Dalton caught the bug, too. Since the early ‘40s, Dalton traveled to McCoy Stadium to watch baseball and has been a season ticket holder for about 20 years.  Before that, he bought blocks of 50 tickets for the season to get the best seats available. At the beginning of each season, he would determine which games he wanted to see.

Over the years, Dalton and his son Ron, 43, have made friends with several players who were on the PawSox’s roster.

“And when they returned as members of opposing teams, we always go out of our way to welcome them back to McCoy stadium,” the elder Dalton said.

“I’ve known Ben Mondor and Michael Tamburro ever since they came on board,” Dalton said. “They are No. 1 in my book because they run the team as a family organization and have kept the prices affordable.”

Dalton said ballplayers have told him that if you can’t play in the American or National leagues, McCoy is the next best place to play. “It’s because of the way Ben and Michael treat them when they are at McCoy stadium,” Dalton said.

Dalton was at McCoy on April 18, 1981, for the start of Major League Baseball’s longest game and he watched it end when it resumed a couple of months later on June 23. While this is one of his most memorable games, Dalton likes every game he attends. “It’s the best entertainment in the state because they keep the prices affordable and create a family atmosphere. This is the philosophy of the Pawtucket Red Sox Family,” he says.

Nine of the 15 seats in the row where Dalton sits are taken by his sone, granddaughters, sister, brother-in-law and nephews. “It is really a family affair for us,” he said.