PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) – Rhode Island public high school seniors have a new reason to celebrate the Boston Red Sox.

Ten teens who excel academically and show a commitment to community service will be awarded each year with scholarships.

“We are continually gratified by the loyalty and support of our fans in Rhode Island, and we are pleased to honor Rhode Island students who not only work hard in the classroom, but also in their community to open doors of opportunity for others,” said Red Sox Principal Owner John Henry.

Governor Chafee is pleased with the announcement.

“I encourage graduating seniors to apply and I look forward to the award recipients being honored on Rhode Island Day at Fenway Park,” said Gov. Chafee.

The Red Sox Scholarships which are primarily funded by the Red Sox Foundation – will be awarded each spring to one graduating high school senior at each of the following 10 public schools:

1. East Providence High School
2. Woonsocket High School
3. Cranston High School
4. North Kingstown Senior High School
5. Mount Pleasant High School
6. Chariho Regional High School
7. South Kingstown High School
8. Westerly High School
9. Portsmouth High School
10. Smithfield Senior High School

Eligible students must be pursuing a four-year or two-year degree college, university or trade school.

Students awarded with 2012 scholarships will be awarded on Rhode Island Day at Fenway Park which will be held on Sunday, June 24.

Click here for applications and guidelines for the Red Sox Scholarship program. Application materials should be inserted in one package and need to be postmarked by Friday, March 9, and sent to:

Rhode Island Red Sox Scholarship Program
Red Sox Foundation
4 Yawkey Way
Boston, MA 02215

Lamont last to interview for Red Sox manager job

(AP Photo/Bizuayehu Tesfaye)

By JIMMY GOLEN

AP Sports Writer

BOSTON (AP) It’s not as if Gene Lamont suddenly decided he wanted to manage again.

“It’s kind of a burning desire. It always has been,” Lamont, who hasn’t managed in 12 years, told reporters at Fenway Park on Saturday after interviewing for the job as Terry Francona’s replacement with the Red Sox. “Baseball is a passion.”

Lamont was the fifth and – for now – final candidate to interview for the Boston managerial job, following Torey Lovullo, Pete Mackanin, Dale Sveum and Sandy Alomar Jr. General manager Ben Cherington said he hopes to narrow the field and talk to the finalists next week at the GM meetings in Milwaukee, with the goal of making a hire by Thanksgiving.

“All five guys, I could envision being the manager of the Boston Red Sox,” Cherington said. “We’ve got to pick the right one.”

Lamont, who turns 65 on Christmas Day, is the only one of the candidates who has had a full-time managing job; he managed the Chicago White Sox from 1992-95 and the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1997-2000. Waiting 12 years for another shot wasn’t his idea.

“I’ve wanted to manage all along,” he said. “I guess I just didn’t toot my horn enough. I didn’t necessarily do that for this, either. But I told them: `Every game I watch, I manage.’ If there’s a better opportunity than this, I don’t know where it would be.”

The Red Sox have been looking for a manager since parting ways with Francona when the team’s 7-20 September record left it out of the playoffs for the second straight year. Like the other candidates, Lamont was asked by reporters how he would heal the ballclub after the season disintegrated amid allegations of beer-drinking and chicken-eating in the clubhouse during games.

“I think I have the presence because I have managed. But you have to show them,” said Lamont, who was 48 games over .500 with the White Sox and 57 games under with the Pirates.

“Me managing in Pittsburgh, I don’t think that gives me a lot of presence,” he added with a smile.

Lamont was added to Boston’s short list when Cherington said he wanted to have at least one candidate with major-league experience. Lamont, who has been the third base coach for Detroit since 2006, said he would probably handle games like current Tigers manager Jim Leyland.

But he brings a different personality than his gruff and sometimes hard-edged boss.

“I think I’ve learned a lot from him. I think he’s the best,” Lamont said. “But they’re not … getting another Jim Leyland. They’re getting Gene Lamont.”

Lamont was the Red Sox third-base coach in 2001, when Jimy Williams was fired. Cherington said he didn’t have much interaction with Lamont back then, but he was pleasantly surprised with how well they hit it off on Saturday.

“He has a strong voice. He’s confident in his opinion,” Cherington said. “All the things he’s done give him a strong voice.”

Updated November 12, 2011

This article was reported by Colman M. Herman, Stephen Kurkjian and Callum Borchers of the Initiative for Investigative Reporting at Northeastern University. It was written by Borchers.

For the average Red Sox fan, finding a parking spot near Fenway Park means cramming the family car into a congested lot and paying $25 or more. But for some lucky few with connections, it means pulling into a gated parking zone next to Fenway’s redbrick façade and handing the keys to a valet.

The VIP service might be nothing but a kind gesture by the Red Sox — except that the gated parking area is actually a segment of Van Ness Street, a public way, which the club commandeers hours before each of its 81 home games without paying a penny to the city of Boston.

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The Red Sox set up temporary barriers at both ends of Van Ness and assign security guards to admit and park about 40 vehicles on both sides of the street, and even on the sidewalk. A reporting team that visited the ballpark on multiple occasions found some of the cars belonged to players. Others were registered to team staffers and friends: a physical therapist, a dry cleaner, and a former marketing executive of a Red Sox nonprofit.

Neither the Red Sox nor the city could produce a document authorizing such use of Van Ness, but both sides defended the practice.

Dot Joyce, spokeswoman for Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino, cited the city’s traffic rules and regulations, which exclude vehicles from Van Ness Street beginning three hours before Red Sox home games and ending two hours after they conclude. In practice, however, one Red Sox security official said the team typically shuts down the street seven hours before the first pitch.

When the Boston Transportation Department added Van Ness to its list of streets that could be regularly closed for traffic, in 1993, it included no provision for Red Sox parking. But Joyce said the city does not object to team personnel parking on the street.

“We close it off for public safety reasons,” she said, to benefit both players and public. However, she would not address questions about non-players who park on the street.

Red Sox spokeswoman Susan Goodenow said the team is entitled to free game-day use of Van Ness Street, thanks to a decades-old pact between former owner Thomas Yawkey and the city. She said Yawkey once owned the land beside Fenway Park that was used to extend Van Ness Street to its current length. Yawkey sold the property to the city for $1 in 1940, Goodenow said, and “a condition of this sale was that the Red Sox would be allowed to close the street to the public during baseball games.”

Suffolk County Registry of Deeds records tell a somewhat different story. In 1945, records show, the city’s Board of Street Commissioners took land owned by the Red Sox and three other companies via an easement, and used it to pave a Van Ness Street extension.

There is nothing in land records to suggest the Red Sox have a right to use the street on game days, according to real estate experts who examined documents on behalf of the Initiative for Investigative Reporting.

Other public ways closed by the Transportation Department are narrow passages, such as Beach Street in Chinatown Park, or streets where pedestrian traffic is unusually heavy, like a segment of Summer Street near Downtown Crossing. Among the 12 city streets where vehicles are banned, Van Ness is the only one used to benefit a single, private entity such as the Red Sox.

Melissa Tabeek, an intern at the Initiative for Investigative Reporting, contributed to this report.

BOSTON (AP) — The Boston Red Sox have interviewed Philadelphia Phillies bench coach Pete Mackanin for their vacant managerial job.

Mackanin is meeting with the media at Fenway Park on Monday night.

The Red Sox are also scheduled to talk to Milwaukee Brewers hitting coach Dale Sveum this week.

Mackanin is looking to replace Terry Francona, who parted ways with the team after its unprecedented September collapse. Mackanin also spent time in the Expos, Pirates, Reds and Yankees systems.

He was an interim manager with the Reds in 2007 and the Pirates in 2005, going 53-53 in the two temporary gigs. He is also 917-849 in 13 years as a minor league manager.

Also Monday, the Red Sox declined contract options on relievers Dan Wheeler and Scott Atchison.

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