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Red Sox Trophy Makes Stop in North Adams

Young and old lined up to have their pictures taken with the World Series trophy. Look for more photos here.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Brent Braman was well motivated to get to Greylock Bowl & Golf early on Monday afternoon.

Long before the Boston Red Sox 2013 World Series Trophy arrived for its North County appearance, Braman was up near the front of the line with his 9-year-old son, Aiden, a student at Cheshire Elementary School.

"I tried to go in '04, but by the time I got there, the line was just ... you weren't going to get to see it," Braman said as father and son waited patiently for the trophy's arrival. "We made sure we were definitely early today.

"We wanted to see it, and he wasn't too mad about getting out of school."

By a little after 3 p.m., when the trophy arrived for its two-hour stay at the sports complex, dozens of Red Sox fans young and old were liend up waiting for their chance to see the trophy and have their picture taken alongside it.

Greylock Bowl & Golf and Mingo's Sports Bar & Grill owner Osmin Alvarez, who also publishes iBerkshires.com, arranged for the trophy's appearance in the city. Earlier in the day, the trophy made a stop in Lee, and it was scheduled to head to Pittsfield on Monday evening.

Greylock Bowl & Golf General Manager Jim Shaker said the appearance at his facility is a good fit for Greylock Bowl.

"I think it's great because we're trying to make the place a real family fun place," Shaker said. "First with the bowling and then we have the golf simulators in. This room here [where the trophy was displayed] is a great event room for parties and groups.

"And the restaurant's been redone. People know it as a place to watch the game and have a good meal. When the Red Sox won Game 6, the place was packed."

And the trophy was packing them in again on Monday afternoon as residents from throughout the area flocked to North Adams for the latest Red Sox pilgrimage.

Shaker himself has fond memories of that other World Series trophy, the one in 2004 that ended the Old Towne Team's 86-year-old "curse."

"I actually got to see the trophy up close in St. Louis when they won it," he said. "I got to hug Pedro Martinez while he was holding it.

"My wife said to me after they won Game 3, 'You should go.' ... We had tickets for Game 4 and Game 5, stayed in St. Louis for a couple of days. Obviously, they won it in four. It was really something walking around St. Louis the next day. People were unbelievable, coming up to us and congratulating us for winning.

"It was kind of like a shock after being used to Boston-New York. The people in St. Louis couldn't have been nicer."

It was mostly a Red Sox crowd at Greylock Bowl & Golf on Monday, but even the occasional Yankees fan who happened by offered only the mildest, good-natured jab.

And for the Red Sox fans, the even offered an added attraction: a raffle for Fenway Park tickets benefiting North Adams Babe Ruth and Little League, Williamstown Cal Ripken Baseball and Greylock Bowl & Golf's Junior Bowling League.

In the lounge, visitors were able to see and pose with the trophy but not touch it. That rule was enforced by a pair of team personnel who accompanied the trophy on its off-seasonlong odyssey throughout New England and beyond.

"I think it's been out pretty much every day since we won," Red Sox ambassador Eli Kaufman said. "The other ones — '04 and '07 — have 'Boston Red Sox' engraved on the back. We haven't had time to get this one engraved.

"It has to go back to Tiffany's in New York, but we haven't had the time yet."

Kaufman, who has worked with the club since 2009, said the trophy has been as far away as Japan, but it was headed to Boston on Monday after its Pittsfield appearance.

The first people on line Monday afternoon were Robert Andrews and his son Colby, a student at Adams' C.T. Plunkett Elementary School.

Robert said it was a priority to get to the event early and make sure his son had a chance to see the trophy firsthand.

And was it worth it.

"Yep," Colby said, grinning from ear to ear after the pair took their turn with the trophy. "We got to see where it was engraved '2013 World Series Champions.' "

New Eagle Street Shop Has the Perfect Toppers

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
11:14AM / Saturday, August 01, 2026

Tip Top Hats sells Patricia Welch's handmade designs and more commercial products at lower prices. 

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The city has a millinery for the first time in more than 40 years. 

Patricia Welch, who has more than 60 years of hatmaking experience, recently opened Tip Top Hats at 16 Eagle St.

Welch said she has always been fascinated by hats and has seen many fashion trends. She's particularly interested in the mod movement.

"It's just something that I have a facility for and have been doing for so long, it's kind of second nature," she said. "It's over 60 years since I’ve been making hats, not all the time, but on and off for a long, long time. So I had a lot of life experience to draw from. I've seen many, many fashions come and go. Being a child of the '60s, I was heavily influenced by the mod movement, fashion movement, and it has stuck with me all these years."

Welch previously owned a shop in Gloucester before moving to New York in the late 1990s. Her work has been featured in juried shows and she's done design consulting.

While she worked in engineering and exhibiting designs, she always made her hats. It all started when she was 13 years old and had to solve a problem.

"I used to go riding on motorcycles with no hat on, no helmet, and your hair would get terribly knotted up," Welch said. "So the first time I made a hat, it was kind of a little bonnet of cotton that just tied under my chin, and it was just to keep my hair from getting tied in knots by the wind."

She came across the "for rent" sign on storefront in May and made a decision she would like to occupy it. She opened on July 1 during First Friday.  She said it was a great way for her to get out of retirement.

"Kind of impulsive, but you know I'm not young, and tired of being retired, basically," Welch said. "So this is a wonderful, fun experience, and I think it'll bring more to Eagle Street."

Millinery shops were a mainstay of women's and men's fashion well into the 1960s. At one time, North Adams had three or four independent millinery shops plus departments in some of its stores, like Roberts Co. and the Boston Store.

They began closing down in the 1960s because of owners' retirements or deaths, dislocation because of urban renewal, and changing fashions. The last ones were the Style Shoppe and Hollywood Millinery (then Hollywood Fashions) in the early 1980s. 

Welch has hats made from straw, fake fur, wool, leather, and more. Her designs can take hours to complete.

"I start by having an idea in mind for the style that I want to work on, and then I'll pull from my textiles and make a selection that would all work nicely together, so that I can I can make a particular style using various textiles from the same group, so it becomes a collection rather than just a random bunch of hats," she said.

She wants to have something for everyone, and since her one-of-a-kind hats can be pricey, she has  commercially hats that are moderately priced.

"Typically in finishing a hat, there's handwork, which is why they become more expensive. Because some hats I spend well, literally hours on," she said.