Old Hoss Radbourn and Worcester

I just finished reading  Edward Achorn's book Fifty Nine in '84, which has plenty of references to Worcester and it's former National League team.  I recommend the book- I plowed through it in an afternoon.  While the jacket description highlights Radbourn's romance with a Carrie Stanhope, the book spends most of it's time recreating the Providence Greys' 1884 season.  In his prologue, Edward Achorn describes our fair hometown:

"I learned about Radbourn while growing up in Westborough, MA, a small town outside the deteriorating industrial city of Worcester.  At some point I came across the odd fact that Worcester of all places, once had a team in the National League- the National League."   -page XIV, Fifty Nine in '84, by Edward Achorn

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The Worcesters weren't very successful, nor did they last long in Worcester (they were replaced after the 1882 season by a team from Philadelphia, now the modern day Phillies).  Worcester was the site of the first perfect game in major league history on June 12th, 1882, pitched by J. Lee Richmond (while nursing a post graduation hangover.)  There's even a monument on Sever Street near the tennis courts.

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While we're on the subject of depressing descriptions of Worcester, my personal favorite is Truman Capote's quote from In Cold Blood:

"One wet afternoon the following November, a Greyhound bus deposited Perry in Worcester, a Massachusetts factory town of steep up-and-down streets that even in the best of weathers seem cheerless and hostile."

The quote is a good description of the local blogging scene lately.  There's been more grenades lobbed back and forth the past month than I've ever seen.  Perhaps the Telegram's refusal to publish anonymous comments has pushed the fighting into the blogosphere. 

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Here's a collection of references to Worcester in books and film.  It's a collection of books and films, so it omits my recent favorite song, Elvis Costello's Sulphur to Sugarcane.  (Worcester reference at 3:52 mark)