Meet the Massachusetts man (and lifelong Red Sox fan) who designs and delivers the team's beloved T-shirts

Boston Globe

5 hours ago

Consider it a physical manifestation of the camaraderie and vibes that have developed over the summer.
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'I feel like we lead the league in T-shirts right now,' said hitting coach Peter Fatse, something of a ringleader in this accidental trend. 'It's one of those morale boosters over the course of a season. It's a long year. When you have things like that that rejuvenate the guys, they see something new in their locker, it's fun.'
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Jarren Duran said: 'Those kinds of T-shirts mean something happened to have us make those T-shirts. So we all know the joke behind it or the story behind it.'
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And Trevor Story: 'It's kind of our brand of baseball. We're telling a little story through the shirts. Paul does an amazing job of making that come to life. It's something cool that I think a lot of guys love to rep, and we appreciate it.'
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The origin centers around Procopio and Fatse.
Procopio, 36, long has known the Fatse family through Western Mass. baseball circles, and he has known Peter specifically for more than a decade, since he helped outfit Fatse's teams at his former local training facility with uniforms and gear.
During spring training, Fatse reached out to Procopio, who last year turned his screen printing/embroidery company, Primo Products, into a full-time gig. Fatse sought stuff displaying his '9-on-1' philosophy — nine batters against one pitcher — for his hitters, and Procopio came through.
That was the first of at least eight shirts in the Procopio/Red Sox partnership. Pitching coach Andrew Bailey has requested a couple, including a Crochet-inspired iteration that says 'Beast,' which is the ace's catch-all nickname for his teammates (and, in turn, their fitting nickname for him). Justin Willard, director of pitching, had Procopio fashion shirts that read 'Fuego' on the front and feature Pedro Martinez on the back, a trophy of sorts for any pitcher in the organization who reaches 100 miles per hour with his fastball.
'I've just become known,' Procopio said in a telephone interview, 'as Pete's guy.'
In early July, when Gonzalez described himself — fairly — as feeling 'tremendously locked in' at the plate, Story loved it. He decided that such a sentiment needed to be commemorated. Working with Procopio to turn it into a shirt, they settled on Miami Vice-style pink and blue lettering (a nod to Gonzalez's hometown) for that quote across the front, plus Gonzalez's No. 23 on the back.
Romy Gonzalez said the "Tremendously Locked In" T-shirt was the first time he had been celebrated in a clubhouse like that.
Courtesy/Paul Procopio
Gonzalez, a role player enjoying by far the best of his five seasons in the majors, said it was the first time he was celebrated in such a way by his club.
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'There's different ways to build up your teammates. That's a way that I've found,' Story said. 'It's just a way to make him feel good, but also it's part of our team. It's a little bit of a mantra, too. It came about organically and that's the best part about it.'
Gonzalez said: 'I thought it was sick.'
A few weeks later, Procopio hit Fatse with a question: 'What is going on in the clubhouse right now?' What was buzzy? What would make for a fun shirt?
'Everybody,' Fatse told him, 'is saying, 'Turbulence.' '
The team's plane ride from Boston to Minneapolis on July 27 was fraught. Bad weather forced the team to land in Detroit. Many players got sick. The effects impacted them and others into
That infamous flight, harrowing in the moment, has become hilarious in hindsight.
'One of the funniest things is Greg Weissert . . . on the crazy plane ride,' Duran said. 'We were about to land and then we had to re-circle around for like 30 more minutes. He just kept talking about, 'I love the grind. Keep giving it to me. When you think you're done grinding, you're still grinding.' That kind of stuff is funny. People are dying, people are throwing up, people are running to the bathroom. He's over there just absolutely loving every bit of the chaos.
'Little stories like that is what makes teams really close. Even though we were on a crazy plane ride, we have some stuff to laugh about.'
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Then it became a rallying cry — and an on-base celebration, players extending their arms like plane wings and pretending to teeter after a hit.
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Procopio got to work. His final design featured 'Turbulence' written across the front, an outline on each side of a player doing the arms-out call to the dugout, and, naturally, the head of Wally the Green Monster.
About 48 hours later, he made the two-hour drive to Fenway Park to hand-deliver the fresh product.
'I don't know how he does it, but he gets it within two days to us,' Fatse said. 'Boom.'
For Procopio — who normally works with youth, high school or college teams, and a wide range of other companies who need branded apparel — this has been good business, sure. But it also is sort of unreal.
He always has been a big baseball guy, playing at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in North Adams and helping coach his alma mater, Taconic High in Pittsfield, to three state titles. He was in high school for the 2004 and 2007 championships.
And now the Red Sox are wearing his stuff? Every day? It is so popular among players that on Thursday he sent out another batch of Beast shirts for the hitters and Turbulence shirts for the pitchers. Each group was envious of the other.
'When was the last time you saw Jarren Duran in just a classic Red Sox baseball shirt? He's always wearing different crazy things,' Procopio said. '[In conversation with Fatse] I'm like, dude, Trevor Story makes like $20 million a year. There's no way he's like, 'Man, I love this Turbulence shirt,' right? The experience I've had is holy [expletive], he is right, these guys are wearing it everywhere. It's all they wear.'
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There may well be more to come. Procopio didn't want to spoil too much — or jinx it.
'If the Sox make the playoffs,' he said, 'there are some things in the works.'
Tim Healey can be reached at