After enduring three different owners, at least two threats to move the team elsewhere, and bankruptcy, the PawSox were purchased from the International League by local industrialist Ben Mondor in January 1977.

Over the next 38 years, Mondor (who died in 2010) and his heirs stabilized the franchise and turned it into a success; it was twice (1990 and 2003) selected the winner of Baseball America's Bob Freitas Award as the top Triple-A operation in minor league baseball,[1] won the 1990 John H. Johnson President's Award, led its league in total attendance three times between 2004 and 2008,[2] and captured three Governors' Cups as playoff champions.

On February 23, 2015, the team was sold to a group headed by then-Boston Red Sox president and chief executive officer Larry Lucchino and Rhode Island attorney James J. Skeffington.

Thwarted in two attempts to replace McCoy Stadium with a new facility (first in adjacent Providence, then in a downtown site in Pawtucket), the club announced on August 17, 2018, that it would move to Worcester, located 42 miles (68 km) to the northwest at the opposite end of the Blackstone Valley, in 2021.

The franchise, owned by former Major League shortstop Joe Buzas, had spent the previous five seasons (1965–69) as the Pittsfield Red Sox after playing in four different Pennsylvania cities—Allentown, Johnstown, York and Reading—over seven years (1958–64).

The Pawtucket Slaters, a Boston Braves farm club in the Class B New England League, represented the city from 1946 to 1949, when the NEL disbanded.

Following the 1972 season, the Louisville Colonels of the International League moved to McCoy Stadium and became the Pawtucket Red Sox, with Buzas taking over as owner.

The first Triple-A team was a success on the field, led by future major leaguers Cooper and Dick Pole, winning the 1973 Governors' Cup Championship in their inaugural year in the league over the Charleston Charlies.

The International League took it over, then awarded it in December 1976 to Massachusetts businessman Marvin Adelson, who renamed the team the New England Red Sox—and explored transferring it to Worcester.

[6] Although it appeared the Red Sox's stay in the Pawtucket area was about to come to an end, retired Lincoln businessman Ben Mondor stepped in and made sure the team remained in the city.

The 1984 team defeated the now-defunct Maine Guides 3–2 to win the 1984 Governors' Cup trophy for their second championship in Pawtucket Red Sox history.

[10] That day, the new owners also announced their intention to move the team out of McCoy Stadium, build a new baseball park six miles (9.65 km) to the south in downtown Providence, and begin play there as early as 2017.

In the weeks following announcement of the sale, Skeffington led a media tour of the proposed new stadium site on the Providence River and, with Lucchino, served as a point person in negotiations with state and local officials over public financing arrangements for the new park.

[12][13] However, Skeffington, 73, died from a heart attack while jogging near his Barrington home on May 17, 2015, disrupting the team's efforts to secure an agreement with Rhode Island officials.

In September, Governor Gina Raimondo told Lucchino that the riverfront parcel, consisting of public land formerly occupied by Interstate 195 and private property owned by Brown University, "was not suitable and there were too many obstacles that remained.

"[16] In the wake of the setback, Lucchino said that the team preferred to remain in Rhode Island, but neither he nor other PawSox officials immediately commented about possible alternative locations.

[17] On November 5, Skeffington's position was filled when Dr. Charles Steinberg, longtime Lucchino aide and a senior public affairs and PR executive with four big-league teams, including the Red Sox, became club president.

Tamburro remained on board as vice chairman, and Dan Rea III became the PawSox' new general manager, after Schwechheimer departed to join an ownership group that purchased the Triple-A New Orleans Zephyrs.

[21] But when the stadium project went before the Rhode Island General Assembly in 2018, the financing formula was amended to shift the risk of borrowing money from the state to investors, thus exposing them to potentially higher interest rates.

Alluding to "controversy, disagreement and opposition", apparently on the part of Rhode Island legislators who changed the Pawtucket stadium's financing formula, Lucchino said that a 35-page letter of intent had been signed with Worcester's mayor and city manager for the downtown ballpark project to house the relocated team.

The announcement capped a concerted three-year effort by Worcester and Massachusetts officials and local business leaders to woo the PawSox to anchor a downtown redevelopment that includes the stadium, new housing, a hotel, a parking garage and redesign of the Kelley Square intersection.

[28] During the 2020 Major League Baseball season, McCoy Stadium served as the alternate training site for the Boston Red Sox.

They are owner Ben Mondor, manager Joe Morgan, outfielder Jim Rice, third baseman Wade Boggs, and then-team president Mike Tamburro, now their Vice Chairman.

Several former PawSox players have also been inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, including Carlton Fisk, Boggs and Rice.

(*) = rehab assignment Johnny Pesky (from 6/27) (*= Won Governors' Cup) As of March 2020, the announcers for the Pawsox Radio Network were Josh Maurer, Mike Antonellis, Jim Cain and Steve McDonald, of URI football and men's basketball.