Red Sox Postseason Heartbreak, WooSox Success Stories and Why Baseball “Breaks Your Heart”
Worcester Red Sox Show: Charles Steinberg Reflects on Red Sox Postseason Exit
By-Hank Stolz
Graphic-Radio Worcester/ Photo: Worcester Red Sox
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Worcester, MA-In this episode of the Worcester Red Sox Show, Hank Stolz and Dr. Charles Steinberg, president of the Worcester Red Sox, reflect on the Boston Red Sox postseason elimination by the New York Yankees.
They discuss the emotional aftermath while finding positives in the season, drawing parallels to “Morgan Magic” of 1988 and praising contributions from former WooSox players including Nick Sogard, Wilyer Abreu, and standout pitcher Peyton Tolle.
The conversation explores the evolution of baseball decision-making, from managers’ autonomy to modern “organization decisions” involving analytics, and recounts the history of pitch counting from Steinberg’s early days with the Orioles.
They also celebrate former WooSox players finding success elsewhere, including Ryan Fitzgerald’s career year in the Dodgers organization and Xander Bogaerts’ postseason performance with the Padres.
The episode features a musical segment, “It Breaks Your Heart,” setting Bart Giamatti‘s famous meditation on baseball’s melancholy end to Steinberg’s original composition, performed by Ellis Hall.
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Who Was Bart Giamatti?
A. Bartlett “Bart” Giamatti was a scholar, university president and baseball executive who served as the seventh Commissioner of Major League Baseball in 1989.
Before entering professional baseball, Giamatti built a distinguished academic career. A scholar of Renaissance literature, he joined the faculty at Yale University and eventually became president of Yale, serving from 1978 to 1986.
His lifelong love of baseball led to an unusual career change. Giamatti became president of the National League in 1986 and was elected MLB commissioner in 1988, taking office in April 1989.
Giamatti’s brief tenure as commissioner is most closely associated with the Pete Rose gambling investigation. In August 1989, Rose agreed to permanent placement on baseball’s ineligible list following an investigation into allegations that he had bet on baseball games.
Just eight days later, on September 1, 1989, Giamatti died of a heart attack at his vacation home on Martha’s Vineyard. He was 51.
“It Breaks Your Heart”
Giamatti was also known for writing eloquently about baseball. His celebrated essay “The Green Fields of the Mind” captures the particular sadness baseball fans experience when summer ends and the baseball season disappears with it.
Its most famous passage begins:
“It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart.”
The essay’s meditation on baseball, summer, loss and renewal has become one of the best-known pieces of writing about the emotional connection between the game and its fans.
In this episode of the Worcester Red Sox Show, Dr. Charles Steinberg’s original composition “It Breaks Your Heart,” performed by Ellis Hall, draws upon Giamatti’s famous meditation on baseball’s melancholy end.
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