WooSox show off their Ruby Legs for a day

Alternate identities are all the rage in Minor League Baseball. Last Sunday, the Worcester Red Sox raised the concept to a new level with an alternate identity based on a team that played locally in the 1800s.

Boston's Triple-A affiliate took the field at Polar Park as the Ruby Legs, with a temporary look and nickname that had ties to the Worcester Worcesters -- a National League club from 1880-82.

“Historians who we talked to, in researching the history of Worcester baseball, told us that there was also this alleged nickname of the Worcester Worcesters, and that was the Ruby Legs,” said WooSox team president Dr. Charles Steinberg. “It likely derived from Ruby [meaning] Red and Legs [meaning] Sox to differentiate from the Boston Braves, a National League team who wore red socks. Today's Red Sox didn't start wearing red socks until the Boston Braves gave up the red socks after 1907. … If they were the Red Sox, we were the Ruby Legs.”

Your Worcester Ruby Legs Club 9 🤎 pic.twitter.com/Rl4Wd9ZKGg

— Worcester Red Sox (@WooSox) June 11, 2023

The Worcester club flirted with the idea of becoming the Ruby Legs full time before the team moved from Pawtucket, Rhode Island, to central Massachusetts for the 2021 season. The WooSox – a similar moniker to the PawSox using a portmanteau of city name and nickname – continually won out in bracket-style feedback from fans, but the Ruby Legs held their own in the regional competition, leading Steinberg and the organization to think about ways of incorporating the appendage-based identity into future promotional calendars.

That opportunity presented itself when Worcester hosted the Rochester Red Wings, another team with a scarlet-based name. Players and coaches donned stylized white jerseys with “Worcester Ruby Legs” written in an Old English red font across the front. Dots were placed along the sides of the shirts, rather than the front, to simulate buttons, and a few players went fully Ruby Leg by wearing high stirrups exposed with hiked-up pants. On their heads were, naturally, pillbox caps.

To promote the look and event, Narciso Crook, Ryan Fitzgerald and David Hamilton posed for pictures that were edited in a sepia tone with a scratchy look, similar to what Worcester fans might find in an old trunk of 1880s-era collectibles. Even Enmanuel Rivera’s first-inning homer received the silent film-era treatment.

“[Crook] said, ‘I’ve done a lot of these, but I’ve never wanted to keep the gear before,’” Worcester broadcaster Tyler Murray noted during Sunday’s pregame coverage. “He got to keep his pillbox hat, so there’s a lot of excitement about this outfit.”

“I’m not saying that they thought this was the epitome of a fashion statement,” Steinberg added. “But they were certainly good-natured about it. I think as long as you make them look good, maybe they don’t mind looking like their great-great-grandfather.”

The attendance for the eventual 5-2 win for the home team was announced as 8,108. That isn’t uncommon for a weekend afternoon game, especially for one with a starting temperature of 78 degrees. But between those who showed up for the promotion and those who wanted a nice sunny Sunday at the ballpark, the Ruby Legs name and gear offered an opportunity to educate a baseball-hungry fan base about some local history – one that included the first Major League perfect game when Lee Richmond worked his magic for the Worcesters against Cleveland on June 12, 1880.

“Everyone in Massachusetts takes pride in the historic nature of Massachusetts, in general,” Steinberg said. “Here in Worcester, it was a hopping town in the 1880s. You think about it, and it was a Major League town with a Major League team, setting Major League records.”

Simply cannot get over how fun it was to become the Worcester Ruby Legs yesterday ⏳ pic.twitter.com/24RY0P7tjS

— Ashley Green (@agreenphotog) June 13, 2023

It won’t be the last time the International League club revisits what could have been in 2023. The club also will play as another name finalist in the Worcester Wicked Worms on Aug. 17. The WooSox name isn’t going anywhere, but it can’t hurt to dream, just for a day or two, about a different future or a very real past.

“I think [these promos] add value,” Steinberg said. “I think fans got more than they might have anticipated. I think that it elicited more than a few chuckles. When you’re going to have repeat business, when you want your fans to come over and over again, doing something that they love – but just a bit differently – keeps it fresh.”