Brockton Rox Returns to Pro Baseball With Jim Rice at the Helm
The Brockton Rox are only 100 days away from the launch of their “revival season” and return to pro baseball. Brockton Mayor Robert Sullivan proclaimed Wednesday, Jan. 29, as Major League Baseball and Boston Red Sox Hall of Famer Jim Rice Day.
Rice, who attended the press announcement at Brockton City Hall, is part of the new ownership team leading the revived professional baseball team, complete with its new logo and mission.
“When you go to a game as a family, you don’t have to go to Fenway. You don’t have to pay for the parking at Fenway,” Sullivan said. “Come right to Brockton and see unbelievable professional baseball.”
“As a Massachusetts resident, I am thrilled to be part of a professional baseball organization in my own backyard,” Rice said. “The thing about bringing baseball back to Brockton, and bringing it back to the young generation, it’s being able to say, ‘Maybe one day I can be on that field.’”
The revamped Rox will open its 2025 season on Friday, May 9, against the Tri-City Valleycats in Troy, New York. The team’s first home game will be on Friday, May 16, at Campanelli Stadium against the New York Boulders.
The Enterprise reported Friday, Jan. 24, that the Brockton Rox, previously a college ball team in the Futures League, will overtake the New England Knockouts as a professional baseball team in the Frontier League. The Futures League folded at the end of last year’s season.
According to a Jan. 29 Enterprise report, the Brockton Rox will retain all of the New England Knockouts players, including manager Jerod Edmondson, without relying on an expansion draft to shape its roster.
Rox co-owner Shawn Reilly said the ownership group’s priority is fielding a quality team in 2025. After this season, the group will consider hosting non-baseball events, such as festivals and concerts, at Campanelli Stadium in 2026.