But after the 1964 season, Joe Buzas, owner of the Reading Red Sox, Boston's Double-A farm team, announced plans to move his franchise to Pittsfield.
Led by Scott, who won the league's Triple Crown, and left-handed pitcher Billy MacLeod, a Gloucester, Massachusetts, native who had a perfect 18–0 season, the Red Sox won 85 of 140 games and nipped the Elmira Pioneers (a Baltimore Orioles farm team managed by Earl Weaver) by a game for the EL pennant and league championship.
Three years later, Pittsfield enjoyed another banner season when the 1968 Red Sox, managed by Billy Gardner, won 84 of 139 games and the regular-season title before falling to the Reading Phillies in the finals of the playoffs.
Attendance rose to a peak of 79,000 fans in 1969, but Buzas and the Red Sox decided to locate their Eastern League franchise closer to Boston, and moved the club to Pawtucket, Rhode Island, and McCoy Stadium in 1970.
But in 1985, the Buffalo Bisons moved up from the EL to the Triple-A American Association, creating a need for an eighth Eastern League franchise, and the Chicago Cubs placed their Double-A affiliate in Wahconah Park.