Bravehearts Take Home League-High Three Awards at Futures League Meeting

'Hearts Awarded Best Community Partnership, Best In-Game Promotion, Broadcaster of the Year Honors

The Worcester Bravehearts are excited to announce the team received three awards at the Futures League Meetings last Thursday. The organization received honors for “Best Community Partnership” for their collaboration with the Worcester Red Sox, “Best In-game Promotion” for their “Twister the Tornado” evil mascot gimmick, and “Broadcaster of the Year” award, given to Bravehearts broadcaster and Southborough-native Jake Klein.

In February 2024, the Bravehearts and Worcester Red Sox struck a first-of-its-kind partnership, bringing together two teams of the same sport, in the same city, to offer community programming to help grow the game. The partnership was activated throughout the summer when the two teams hosted free community baseball clinics at Polar Park, Fitton Field, and local Little League fields throughout Worcester.

“The Vaccaro family and the Bravehearts organization have been a pleasure to work with,” said WooSox President Dr. Charles Steinberg.  “We share a love of baseball, and we share a love of our common purpose:  to help children fall in love with baseball—at all levels.  This past year was a first step, but we share visions of how to elevate our role in the community to even greater heights.  We thank the Vaccaro’s for their commitment to our National Pastime, and for their commitment to our Worcester community.”

The partnership was extended by teaming up for non-baseball community events such as the Woo Sox “Rage in the Cage,” the Bravehearts “Jake or Treat” event, and more.

“When we met with the WooSox back in February, this was the impact we envisioned in the community,” said Bravehearts Team President Matt Vaccaro. “We’re looking forward to building on this partnership while continuing to invest in this great city. I’d like to extend a thank you to all of the staff members from both organizations who helped make this partnership possible.”

The Futures League “Best In-Game Promotion” was awarded to the Bravehearts for their activation of “Twister the Evil Mascot.” Returning in 2023, “Twister the Tornado” was the mascot of the now-defunct Worcester Tornadoes. The team created a storyline last season that Twister was upset the city turned their back on his beloved Tornadoes, and from then on plotted against the Bravehearts.

In 2024, the Bravehearts built on that storyline, bringing in local Clark University Student Brady Kershaw to play the role of Twister’s Manager. In character, Brady would trash-talk fans with Twister, rooting for the opposing team. Often they would be found in the opposing teams dugout, or on the microphone pleading their case with fans to turn against the Bravehearts.

“On the entertainment side, we took a ton of time studying the art of storytelling in wrestling promotions,” said Bravehearts Assistant General Manager Donny Porcaro, who runs the entertainment for the team. “Bringing in Brady took this idea to a whole new level. Brady was the heel manager, and just like in wrestling, he would engage with the crowd and try to create a sense of emotion- good or bad.”

The Bravehearts would also like to acknowledge Doherty-High Graduate and current Assumption University Student Brett Neuman, who played the role of Twister for a majority of the season.

The third and final award the Bravehearts were honored with was “Broadcaster of the Year” given to Bravehearts broadcaster Jake Klein. Coming over from the Cape Cod Baseball League, Klein spent 3 seasons with the Chatham Anglers as a Broadcast Producer and Media Assistant. With the Bravehearts, he broadcast both home and away Bravehearts games, and gave the Bravehearts fans a new way to listen on the road by creating the Bravehearts very own Mixlr radio channel.

This marks the second consecutive season the Bravehearts press box has had a staff member honored, as last year Bravehearts Social Media Intern Elijah Green received “Intern of the Year” honors. Both Green and Klein are Syracuse University students.

“Jake spent more hours at the ball-park than any other non-full-time staff member,” said Bravehearts General Manager Dave Peterson, who is also a Syracuse University Graduate. “He always came to the ballpark prepared. He arrived around six hours before every game just to collect information for our broadcast.”

“These honors show the true colors of the Bravehearts Family,” said Vaccaro, “It shows the importance of recruiting local talent not only on the field, but also off the field. The staff members we’ve mentioned are from the Central Mass area. I think that’s a big piece of our build. We’re honored to be recognized by the Futures League, and we appreciate all the Bravehearts staff members who helped make this possible.”