By Megan Fraser and Amanda Carswell
The histories of Northeastern University and the Boston Red Sox have been connected since the turn of the 20th century.
“[The trophy] is a symbol of the campus and a reminder that the first World Series was played here,” said President Richard Freeland during a press conference in the Ballroom Monday.
The World Series trophy was on display for students in the Cabot Center after the press conference, joining Northeastern and the Red Sox together once again in a partnership that, like the 1903 World Series, is the first of its kind in Major League Baseball.
Red Sox General Manager Theo Epstein spoke of the team’s future training program, Mentors in Violence Prevention (MVP), with the university’s Center for the Study of Sports in Society.
“I think it’s been obvious to us the more we get to know about Northeastern University, the more we get to know about the Center, that we share a lot of core values,” Epstein said. “Red Sox values are the same values promoted by the Center. We were looking for a program that would benefit not only the Red Sox, not only the Center and Northeastern, but the community as a whole and I think we’ve found it.”
The Director of the center, Peter Roby, explained the aims of the program.
“What we do at MVP is we try to provide critical thinking skills to the participants, so when they get bombarded with messages around masculinity and relationships between men and women, we’ll give those participants the skills to challenge what they see and think clearly for themselves.”
The programs will use the “inherent leadership abilities of athletes to make a difference with their peers,” Roby said.
During the 2005 spring training, all Red Sox minor league players will be trained using the MVP Playbook. The Playbook is filled with possible situations between men and women. Players will then discuss how to appropriately deal with these situations.
Several troubling statistics from The Playbook were used in the press conference. A 1990s survey of 11-to-14-year-olds showed that 31 percent of boys and 32 percent of girls believed that sexual assault was okay if the couple was married. Making more of an impact was the fact that 65 percent of boys and 45 percent of girls also said that rape was permissible if the couple had been dating for six or more months.
“I found a lot of the statistics they brought up to be surprising,” said Jon Bragg, a sophomore communications major who attended the press conference. “I think it’s a great thing … I’m glad to see Northeastern and the Red Sox reach out to the community because I think it will improve our relationship with the community. It’s good for everyone.”
Epstein said the staff would also eventually like to integrate the program training with the major league athletes. In time, he said, the minor leaguers will work their way through the ranks and “the training will manifest itself throughout the entire team.”
“It is going to send a powerful message to all the young people out there who idolize the Red Sox,” Roby said. “We know that sports play a significant role in our society and athletes in particular are looked at as influential people, and when used in the proper way, athletes can have a profound impact on our society.”
At Northeastern, President Freeland said the Red Sox should serve as a positive example.
“I think one of the messages in this is that when you become successful in this world, as the Red Sox are, you have a heightened responsibility to be a leader and a role model,” Freeland said. “I hope this is an example for our students to give back.”
