Little Fenway, Travis Roy Foundation WIFFLE Ball Tournament Recognized By Sports Illustrated

Posted on December 20, 2013

Tourney and its site recognized in Sportsman of the Year issue as a 2013 Everyday Sportsman of the Year Ordinary Hero

ESSEX, Vt. — The record-breaking 2013 Travis Roy Foundation WIFFLE Ball Tournament held last August and its site, Little Fenway, are featured in the December 23rd edition of Sports Illustrated, the nation’s leading sports magazine. The tournament and the backyard WIFFLE Ball field of Pat and Beth O’Connor are recognized in SI’s annual Sportsman of the Year issue as one of 2013’s Everyday Sportsman of the Year Ordinary Heroes, noted by the magazine as ‘gestures large and small that quietly remind us how good our games can be.’

Little Fenway and the tourney are featured in an article by Sports Illustrated Senior Writer Alexander Wolff titled, ‘Small Park, Big Heart’ that describes the success of the tournament, Travis Roy’s leadership and inspiration and how the O’Connor’s Little Fenway, the quarter-scale replica of Fenway Park in Boston, is philanthropic to the Travis Roy Foundation and several other causes. A Cornwall, Vt. resident who participated in the 2013 tournament, Wolff aptly states in the article: ‘The hope is that someday Travis plays in the tournament’. He also associates the successes at Little Fenway with the karma at ‘Big Fenway’ of the Boston Red Sox 2013 World Championship.

STAN GROSSFELD/GLOBE STAFF

STAN GROSSFELD/GLOBE STAFF

A two-page photo of Little Fenway by Pulitzer Prize-winning photo journalist Stan Grossfeld of the Boston Globe accompanies the story.

The 2013 Travis Roy Foundation WIFFLE Ball Tournament raised a record-shattering $502,150 to benefit the foundation that benefits and creates awareness for people with spinal cord injuries named after the former Boston University men’s hockey player. The first dozen years of the tournament have raised nearly $2.5 million dollars for the foundation.

The 2014 tournament will be held August 15-17, 2014 at Little Fenway and Little Wrigley in Essex, Vt. A third field, Little Field of Dreams, a replica of the baseball field in Dyersville, Iowa from the movie Field of Dreams, is slated to open this summer.

For more information on Sports Illustrated, log on  (The December 23, 2014 issue is currently available in only digital form for SI subscribers)

For more information on the Travis Roy Foundation WIFFLE Ball Tournament

Information on Little Fenway