Former North Fork Osprey star Richie Palacios set to take field on baseball’s biggest stage
The World Series will have some North Fork flavor when it begins Friday night as former Osprey star Richie Palacios and the Tampa Bay Rays take on the Milwaukee Brewers.
Mr. Palacios lived with a Southold family when he played for the North Fork Ospreys in 2016, setting a single-season record with 60 hits in 173 at-bats. The Brooklyn native batted .347 with eight home runs, 24 RBIs and 26 stolen bases.
His splendid season was capped with the Hamptons Collegiate Baseball League’s MVP award and a spot in its All-Star Game.
“He’s a complete player,” Ospreys manager Bill Ianniciello told former Suffolk Times sports editor Bob Liepa during Mr. Palacios’ historic summer. “He’s an all-tools guy. He runs the bases. He flashes the glove in the field. He swings the bat.”
The Ospreys are one of six teams in the Hamptons Collegiate Baseball League, which ran from June to late July this year, with additional clubs in Riverhead, Westhampton, Sag Harbor, Southampton and Shelter Island.
Janet Dickerson, an Ospreys supporter and general manager of the team at the time Palacios was on the roster, urged local baseball fans to cheer him on when he takes the field.
“Enjoy the World Series,” she wrote in a post shared on the North Fork of Long Island, N.Y., Facebook group. “Go Rays!!!”
Mr. Palacios, who was attending Towson University when he played in the summer league, was drafted by Cleveland in the third round in 2018 and made his major league debut with the team in 2022. He later played for St. Louis before joining Tampa Bay.
Through five major league regular seasons, the 5-foot-8 second baseman has batted .238 with 204 hits, 22 home runs, 107 RBIs and 44 stolen bases. He also represented the Netherlands in the 2023 World Baseball Classic alongside his brother, Josh, according to the MLB player profile.
The scrappy star helped the Rays clinch their third American League pennant with a clutch two-run double against the team that drafted him. The small-market heavy hitters, who won the AL East this season, swept the Yankees in the best-of-5 Divisional Series during their dominant run to the Fall Classic.
Tampa Bay lost its two previous World Series appearances, falling to Philadelphia in 2008 and the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2020.
The Rays open this year’s series in Milwaukee for Games 1 and 2, which slated for Saturday, before it shifts to Tampa Bay for Games 3 and 4 on Monday and Tuesday, respectively. Game 5, if necessary, is also in Tampa on Wednesday. The series would return to Milwaukee for Games 6 and 7, if needed, on Oct. 30 and 31. All games are scheduled for 8 p.m.
The Brewers, featuring flame-thrower Jacob Misiorowski, also have never won a World Series in franchise history. In their only previous appearance in 1982, the Brew Crew lost to the St. Louis Cardinals.
But the city did celebrate the crown nearly 70 years ago when the Milwaukee Braves, with a young Hank Aaron on the roster, beat the Yankees in seven games in 1957. The Bronx Bombers got their revenge the following year against the Braves in seven games.
The franchise moved to Atlanta after the 1965 season and Mr. Aaron would go on to dethrone Babe Ruth as the all-time home run king in 1974, finishing his career with 755 dingers – a record later broken by Barry Bonds.
