Bingo Has Been Called!
Greetings PawSox Fans!
5 min readMar 15, 2019
Yesterday afternoon, (Thursday)the PawSox clubhouse became a Bingo Hall. The third annual Bingo at the Ballpark benefits the PawSox Foundation. Its a very popular event, and yesterday was no exception. More seats were needed to accommodate the excited bingo players!
Growing up, we lived a 2-minute walk to the Ponta Delgada Club. It was a barroom, restaurant, banquet hall and all around fun place to grow up. My dad ran the place, and they had bingo nights filling all the halls! My mom, aunts cousins worked during the bingo nights, and I really enjoyed listening to the number caller reading the next number, and then listen to the sighs, huffing and at times, swearing!
I always wondered what it would be like to call bingo numbers. To hear for myself, the sighs, hisses, grunts, etc. with the numbers being called that didn't match the numbers of the many cards in front of them. Last year, I had my chance and was a bingo number caller, and once again this year!
The doors were scheduled to open at 4:00, however, there was a bit of a crowd gathering and Chairman Larry Lucchino went to speak with those waiting and opened the doors early.
It was truly a great group on hand. PawSox President Dr. Charles Steinberg welcomes the crowd.
It was Bingo Time! Grace and I took our seats. She would “scramble” the balls and hand them to me to call, then place them in the corresponding hole to ensure it was a “good bingo.” (That's Bingo Lingo) For the next few hours, we would share the bingo office…
It's on! Grace draws out the first numbers…
The first couple of game was just 5 in a row…Winner!
Grace delivers the winners prize!
From there the games get a bit more complex, including the Crazy T. Make a T anywhere and you win!
Happy Winner!
I then turned over the calling duty to Dennis “Oil Can” Boyd, who was a pitcher for the 1986 American League Champion Boston Red Sox…
Oil Can took time to sign autographs…
And pose for photos…
During the break, there was plenty of great food and drink. Gourmet Caterers will now be handling PawSox Events, suites, BBQ’s staff, press box, and teams. Gourmet Caters are FANTASTIC! Kristin and Owen were on hand keeping all the bingo players and staff nourished!
The food was awesome and included corn beef sandwiches…
50/50 raffle tickets were sold, with Connor, (front) and Matt sold the tickets…
The winning continued, Troy holds up the winning card…
There were couples who enjoy an afternoon of bingo…
The full card bingo, (Every number must be called) was quite the marathon! Lots of sighs, tsks, oh gosh, I need 3 more, c’mon. etc. I asked everyone to please not blame Grace or me for the number(s) not being called and requested if they wave at us, please use all fingers!
Everyone was checking the cards of those around them to learn how close they were…
Finally, Bingo was called! It was a fun afternoon/evening to have a great affordable night out to eat, drink and be merry. Every person who played bingo had a chance to win a Ceremonial First Pitch during the 2019 season. The winner was Dennis, an avid PawSox Fan, and season ticket holder! Congrats Dennis!
