Turning on the charm in Baltimore – nicknamed the Charm City – shouldn’t have been too difficult a chore. Lucchino had collaborated previously with Janet Marie Smith on two prior ballpark-related ventures that couldn’t have proven to be any more different.
From those casual conversations last month in Baltimore, a reunion was born with Smith, once again lending her eye for design to a project spearheaded by Lucchino.
Late last week, the Pawtucket Red Sox announced that Smith was coming aboard as an adviser to the club’s planning and development sector. Joining forces once more with Lucchino – chairman of the PawSox – seemed a foregone conclusion as recent as last August, when Smith tossed a ceremonial first pitch at McCoy Stadium. Nearly one year later, a sequel has given way to a trilogy.
“Having worked with Larry twice before, there’s no learning curve,†Smith said in a phone interview. “I feel like I can jump right in and have a dialogue with him and the strong team that’s in Pawtucket about their future.â€
Smith’s arrival comes at a time when the PawSox stand at intriguing crossroads, the euphoria of laying forth plans for a new Pawtucket-based ballpark giving way to a questionable future where the club now finds itself in the position to protect itself in the event a deal with Rhode Island cannot be struck.
There’s no mystery when it comes to Smith – a self-described “ballpark junkie†– working with Lucchino. For a portion of the Major League Baseball road race that Lucchino has run in, Smith was right there, stride for stride.
A Mississippi native who presently resides in Baltimore, Smith first collaborated with Lucchino in 1989 in helping to reinvigorate Baltimore’s Inner Harbor with the addition of Camden Yards. She once again joined forces with Lucchino in Boston in 2002, and again served as a valuable ally in the pursuit to preserve and enhance Fenway Park.
Over a 10-year period, features both small in stature and highly noticeable, such as seats atop the Green Monster and placing turnstiles on Yawkey Way, were made. Smith’s fingerprints were all over everything, yet what helped in making sure those aforementioned projects saw the light of day was the cooperation the Red Sox received.
“People often use short-hand to say we renovated Fenway. There were also major additions, but government played a huge role,†Smith said. “We couldn’t have done the things we did without the neighborhood or city saying, ‘In order to keep he Red Sox at Fenway, we’ve got to think differently ourselves.’â€
