Massachusetts (officially, A Commonwealth of Massachusetts) is a state in the New England region of the United States of America. Its nickname is the Bay State. More nicknames come a Old Colony State, & less unremarkably a Blue state & a Baked Bean state. In December 18, 1990, a Legislative decided that the population of the Commonwealth would become intended when Bay Staters.

A United States Postal Service abbreviation for Massachusetts is MA and its traditional abbreviation is Mass.

Seven ships of the United States Navy have been named USS Massachusetts in honor of this state.

History

Early settlement
Various Algonquin tribes inhabited the region before European class action settlement. In a Massachusetts Bay metropolitan area, the Massachusett resided. Touching a Vermont and New Hampshire borders and a Merrimack Flow of any stream vale was a traditional front yard of the Pennacook tribe. Cape Cod, Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, and southeast Massachusetts were the home of the Wampanoag, who the Pilgrims met. A extreme prevent of the Cape was inhabited per closely related Nauset tribe. Lot of a central part & the Connecticut River valley was home to the loosely organised Nipmuc peoples. A Berkshires were a at home of each the Pocomtuc and the Mahican tribes. Spillovers of Narragansett and Mohegan from Rhode Island and Connecticut, respectively, were too present. A Massachusetts Bay Colony was named when a autochthonal people, a Massachusett, whose name means "a large hill place" around information to the little mountain known now when "Blue Hill" (placed on the boundary of Milton and Canton, just south of Boston). A Massachusett were all however wiped out by a plague shortly fallowing the arrival of Captain John Smith in 1614. A Pilgrims from the Humber region of England established their settlement at Plymouth in 1620, arriving on the Mayflower. Until 1691 after it merged, Massachusetts Bay Colony & Plymouth Colony were separate colonies.

Massachusetts Bay Colony period (1629-1686)
A Pilgrims were before long followed per Puritans from a River Thames region of England, who established a Massachusetts Bay Colony. Although a Puritans come to Massachusetts for religious freedom, it were non particularly tolerant of any more religion than theirs. Pilgrims, besides when Anglicans, Quakers, & the handful of more denominations were grudgingly accepted around the Puritanic communities for the instance, although Quakers were banned, and in 1660 four were hanged on Boston Common (see Mary Dyer). Humans like Anne Hutchinson, Roger Williams, and Thomas Hooker left Massachusetts and went To the south because of the Puritans' want of religious tolerance. Williams ended higher founding a colony of Rhode Island and Hooker founded Connecticut. King Philip's War (1675-1676), the bloodiest Indian war of the early colonial period, included major campaigns in the Pioneer Valley and Plymouth Colony. It took several years for the colonies of southern New England to recover from either a results of the war.

Dominion of New England (1686-1692)
Around Could of 1686, a Massachusetts Bay Colony come to an prevent, when Joseph Dudley became President of New England under the commission of King James II. He established his authority later on around Future Hampshire & a King's Province (section of now's Rhode Island), maintaining this position until Sir Edmund Andros arrived to become a Royal Governor of the Dominion of New England. Dudley continued in as a member of Governor Andros' council.

At a news of the accession of William and Mary, the Boston colonials rebelled. Andros & his officials were held in Castle Island and then sent back to England as prisoners. Andros was exonerated & went in to get Governor of Virginia (1692–98).

Royal Colony of Massachusetts (1692-1774)
Notable governors in the time of this period were Thomas Hutchinson, Sir Francis Bernard, and Thomas Gage. Gage was a go British governor of Massachusetts.

Revolutionary Massachusetts (1760s-1780s)
Massachusetts was a foremost colony to revolt against British rule, & so a instigator of the American Revolution. In February 9, 1775, the British Parliament declared Massachusetts to be around rebellion, & sent extra troops to restore the correct sequence to the colony.

Around Bostin on March 5, 1770, an African-American named Crispus Attucks, from Framingham, was killed (along by using quaternity more Our contries settler) at an event that became called a Boston Massacre; Attucks is often considered a 1st casualty of the Western Revolution.

Many early Radical battles took place around Massachusetts, including a Battles of Lexington and Concord (where a far-famed ''shot heard 'round the world was fired), the Battle of Bunker Hill, and the Siege of Boston.

Commonwealth of Massachusetts (1780-present)
The Constitutional Convention drew higher the Constitution drafted mainly by John Adams, and a populatiin ratified it on June 15, 1780. At that period, Adams along sustaining Samuel Adams, and James Bowdoin wrote in the Preamble to the Constitution of the Commonwealth, 1780'':

"We, therefore, the people of Massachusetts, acknowledging, with grateful hearts, the goodness of the Great Legislator of the Universe, in affording us, in the course of His Providence, an opportunity, deliberately and peaceably, without fraud, violence or surprize, on entering into an Original, explicit, and Solemn Compact with each other; and of forming a new Constitution of Civil Government, for Ourselves and Posterity, and devoutly imploring His direction in so interesting a design, Do agree upon, ordain and establish, the following Declaration of Rights, and Frame of Government, as the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts."

Now, these are a oldest functioning written constitution in the globe.

Other notable history

John Hancock was the foremost governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. On February 6, 1788 Massachusetts became a sixth state to ratify the United States Constitution. According to the 1790 census, Massachusetts had the zero people of slaves. On March 15, 1820 the area of Maine wwhen separated from Massachusetts, of which it experienced been a non-contiguous a share, & entered a Union as the Twenty-third State. Basketball wwhen invented in Massachusetts, as was Volleyball. A earliest information to Baseball was also inside Massachusetts, in the city of Pittsfield. Battles of Lexington and Concord, Siege of Boston, Bunker Hill, and Shays' Rebellion Massachusetts contains numerous historic houses (See Historic houses in Massachusetts for more details).

Geography

Massachusetts is approach the northerly by New Hampshire and Vermont, on the west by New York, on the south by Connecticut and Rhode Island, and on the east per Atlantic Ocean. At a southeastern corner of the state occurs as big, arenaceous, arm-shaped peninsula known as Cape Cod. A islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket lie to the south of Cape Cod. Massachusetts is referred to as a Bay State because of the many big bays that give its coastline its distinctive shape: Massachusetts Bay and Cape Cod Bay on the state's east coast, and Buzzards Bay to the south. Two or three cities & towns on the Massachusetts–Rhode Island border come likewise adjacent to Narragansett Bay.

Boston is a largest city, placed at a inmost point of Massachusetts Bay, at the mouth of the Charles River, the hanker flow of any stream completely inside Massachusetts. Virtually all of the people of the Boston metropolitan area (approximately 5,800,000) doesn't sleep in a city; eastern Massachusetts tout ensemble is fairly densely populated & largely suburban. Western Massachusetts is more rural & sparsely populated, especially in the Berkshires, the branch of the Appalachian Mountains which forms the american border of the state. A virtually all populated a share of american Massachusetts is the "Pioneer Valley," alongside the Connecticut River, which flows across American Massachusetts from either northerly to south.

Economy
[http://www.bea.gov/ The Bureau of Economic Analysis] estimates that Massachusetts's aggregate state product within 2003 was $297 billion. By the capita portable income inside 2003 was $39,50Little joe, 4^th in the united states.

Its farming outputs come seafood, nursery commodity, dairy farm products, cranberries, & vegetables. Its industrial outputs come machinery, electrical devices, scientific instruments, printing, & publication. Thanks largely to the Ocean Spray cooperative, Massachusetts is the second vaccinium macrocarpon producing state in the union (when Wisconsin). More sectors vital to the Massachusetts economy include higher education, health care, financial services and tourism.

Look at a listing of Massachusetts places by per capita income

Demographics
Population

A people of Massachusetts inside 2004 was 6,416,505 based on data from a US Census Bureau. There were 881,400 foreign-nonnative residents sleep inside the state in 2004. Since 1990 the people has increased 400,000, a incubation of Hexad.7%

A bulk of the state's people surrounds Greater Boston, with close to 5,800,000 humans, & a North and South Shores. Historically, a coast has been very much further urban than Western Massachusetts, which is very rural, save for the cities of Springfield and Worcester.

Race and Ancestry
A racial makeup of Massachusetts: 81.9% White 6.8% Hispanic 5.4% Black 3.8% Asian 0.2% Native American 2.3% Mixed race

A 5 big reported ancestries around Massachusetts come: Irish (22.5%), Italian (13.5%), English (11.4%), French (8%), German (5.9%).

Massachusetts is the virtually all Irish state in the united states & the merely state where population of Irish ancestry (especially in the Boston suburbia) come a plurality. Massachusetts Yankees of English ancestry still have heavy presence around the state, including in Cape Cod, Nantucket, & Martha's Vinery. Franco-Bay Staters come a big class action inside lot of american & central Massachusetts. Boston has the big African-Western people & its big immigrant class action is Haitians. Fall Flow of any stream & Future Bedford on the in the south coast develop big populations of population using Portuguese and Brazilian heritages, with the growing Brazilian people in the Boston metropolitan area. Nose count numbers get less dependable due to the big, part undocumented Brazilian people, forecasted by a few studies to approach 250,000 around Massachusetts. Nose count information doesn't account for this important section of the community because of confusing nomenclature, when Brazilians speak Portuguese and often don't assume themselves specifically Hispanic, Latino, White or even African Western. Lowell, in the northeast of the state, is home to the 2nd big Cambodian (Khmer) community in the country, outside of Long Beach, California. Although virtually all of the Indigene Americans were decimated by disease & warfare, the Wampanoag tribe maintains a reservatiin at Aquinnah, on Martha's Vinery & the non-recognized reservation at Mashpee. A Nipmuc maintain 2 state-recognized reservations in the central a portion of the state.

Religion
Although Massachusetts was ab initio founded & settled by halt Protestants (Puritan separatists) in the 17th Century and remained the majority-White Anglo Saxon Protestant state for virtually all of its history, it has since turn into a 2nd most Catholic state within the Union (second lone to next-door Rhode Island in its percentage of Catholic people) due to massive Catholic immigration (especially from either Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Quebec, Puerto Rico) over a years. Christian Science began in Massachusetts. In todays world about half of the residents of Massachusetts come Roman Catholics & Protestants produce higher less than a single-third of the state's people. A descendent of a Puritans come the Congregational/United Church of Christ members, who remain large in the state. Massachusetts besides has one of a united states's big Unitarian Universalist populations. Two one denominations come noted for their heavy trend lines of social justice, civil rights, & moral issues, including hard & early protagonism of abolishment of slavery, women's liberation, & legal recognition of gay marriage, though this will differ from either their historical practices.

A religious affiliations of the population of Massachusetts (when of 2001) come shown in the table in the image below:

Christian – 79% Catholic – 47% Protestant – 31% Congregational/United Church of Christ – 4% Baptist – 4% Episcopal – 3% Methodist – 2% Pentecostal – 2% Other Protestant or even general Protestant – 16% Other Christian – 1% Jewish – 2% Unitarian – 1% Other Religions – 1% Non-Religious – 17%

Government
Understand As well: Massachusetts Constitution, List of Massachusetts Governors

A capital of Massachusetts is Boston and the todays governor is Mitt Romney (Republican). A state doesn't maintain an official governor's home. Massachusetts's two U.S. senators are Edward Kennedy (Democrat) and John Kerry (Democrat); as of the 2001 redistricting, Massachusetts has ten seats in the United States House of Representatives (all Democratic), giving Massachusetts the largest one-party delegation in Congress (i.e. twelve Democrats). A state legislature is formally styled the "Great and General Court"; the supreme court is the "Supreme Judicial Court."

"Commonwealth" or "state"?
Massachusetts is officially termed "the Commonwealth of Massachusetts" (rather than "State") by its constitution. These are one of four U.S. states that use the name "Commonwealth;" the others are Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Kentucky. This is distinct from either a U.S. federal government's utilize of the term "commonwealth" to refer to the status of certain insular areas such as Puerto Rico.

In the era initiate to 1780, when a state Constitution was ratified, a word Commonwealth was the favorite term among political writers for even a completely body of population constituting a united states or state. There will apply been occasionally anti-monarchic sentiment informing a use of the word Commonwealth, which was likewise wont to mean "republic."

A title "Commonwealth" for Massachusetts may be traced to the 2nd draft of the state Constitution. A former draft of a Constitution, & 100% acts & resolves as much as 1780, got utilized the title "State of Massachusetts Bay." A 2nd draft was written by John Adams and ratified in 1780. Around Adams's draft, "Part Two, Frame of Government," states, "…that the people… form themselves into a free, sovereign, and independent body politic, or state by the name of The Commonwealth of Massachusetts." Inside his "Life and Works," Adams wrote: When a adoption of a Constitution, the state has universally been officially known as A Commonwealth of Massachusetts, although residents usually refer to that each when "the state" & when "the Commonwealth." E.g., in March 22, 2005, one Boston Globe story said that opponents of a proposal saw it when "burdening the state with more law schools than it needs," when a second published a equivalent day noted that "the Commonwealth faces difficult spending choices."

Legal holidays observed
|- bgcolor="#CCCCCC" | Date || Holiday |- | January 1 || New Year's Day |- | Three^rd Monday within January || Martin Luther King Day |- | Three^rd Monday around February || Washington's Birthday |- | March 17 || Evacuation Day* |- | Three^rd Monday around April || Patriot's Day |- | Go Monday inside Could || Memorial Day |- | June 17 || Bunker Hill Day* |- | July 4 || Independence Day |- | One^st Monday inside September || Labor Day |- | Ii^nd Monday inside October || Columbus Day |- | November 11 || Veteran's Day |- | Tetrad^th Thursday inside November || Thanksgiving Day |- | December 25 || Christmas |} If the holiday falls on the Sunday it is observed on the charted Monday.

* Celebrated exclusively inside Suffolk County (Boston, Chelsea, Revere, Winthrop)

Politics
Liberal reputation
Massachusetts hwhen the reputation as existence the politically liberal state, and is typically utilized as an original of liberalism in the U.S. These are a house of the Kennedy family of political fame, and habitually votes for the Democratic Party in federal elections. As of 2005, it is by far a big U.S. state represented by sole 1 person in the U.S. Congress. Although Republicans have held the governor's professional day and night from either 1991 to the present, many one (especially William Weld, a number 1 of the recent lineage of Republican governors) come considered among the virtually all progressive Republicans in the united states. Both one governors, Paul Cellucci and Jane Swift took office whenever their predecessors resigned to choose more positions.

the liberal tendencies of Massachusetts extend throughout Our contries history: in the 19th century, Massachusetts was a center of abolitionism, having been a delaware to abolish slavery by law. When you took a Colonial period, Massachusetts was one of the leading states in the fight for independence.

Inside presidential elections, Massachusetts supported Republicans until 1912, from either 1916 across 1924, around the Fifties, & in 1980 & 1984. From either 1988 across 2004, Massachusetts has supported Popular presidential candidates, rendering native boy John Kerry his big margin of triumph among states by using the Twenty-five percentage point margin & 61.9% of the vote. Each county in a Commonwealth supported the Popular candidate.

But then, in a period of a number one half of the 1900s Boston was quite socially conservative, & strongly under the influence of Methodist minister J. Frank Chase and his New England Watch and Ward Society, founded in 1878. Inside 1903, a Old Corner Bookstore was raided & fined for selling Boccaccio's Decameron. Howard Johnson's got its start when Eugene O'Neill's Strange Interlude was banned in Boston, and the production had to be moved to Quincy. Within 1927, works by Sinclair Lewis, Ernest Hemingway, John Dos Passos, and Sherwood Anderson were removed from either bookshop shelves. "Banned in Boston" on a book's handle may actually boost sales. Burlesque creative person like Sally Rand needed to modify their act after performing at Boston's Old Howard. a filtered version of a performance utilized to become referred to as the "Boston version." By 1929, the Keep an eye on & Ward society was perceived to become inside decline whenever it failed inside its attempt to ban Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy, but when late when 1935 it succeeded in forbidding Lillian Hellman's play The Children's Hour. Censorship was enforced by city officials, notably a "city censor" inside a Boston Licensing Section. That position was held per appropriately-surnamed Richard J. Sinnott from either 1959 until a professional was abolished in March 2, 1982. Around modern days, yet, this is no elongated admittedly, though a select few puritanical social sir thomas more persist.

Defamation of the Commonwealth
Around 2002, Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania partially blamed the Roman Catholic Church sex abuse scandal on Boston saying "...it is no surprise that Boston, a seat of academic, political and cultural liberalism in America, lies at the center of the storm." These remarks resurfaced around July of 2005 after an newspaper column in the Boston Earth republished Santorum's comments. Although he was heavy criticized for his remarks, Santorum nin merely refused to apologize, however, on August 1 2005 he complained that Senators Edward M. Kennedy & John F. Kerry of Massachusetts "did nothing" just about sex crime inside the Catholic Church in 2002. "They spoke nothing. They sat by and let this happen," Santorum said.

In a period of a 2004 Presidential Election, Massachusetts was the target of numbers of GOP regionalist attacks along the campaign trail. After informed that a Democratic National Convention would be within Boston, House Majority Leader Dick Armey remarked, "If I were a Democrat, I suspect I'd feel a heck of a lot more comfortable in Boston than, say, America." When campaigning in the american section of the united states, President Bush would typically jab, "My opponent says he's in touch with the West, but sometimes I think he means Western Massachusetts." A stump speech that he utilized at numerous of his campaign blocks involved numbers of such derogative, one-sided remarks directed at Massachusetts & Just released England generally.

Contemporary political issues
Below the November 2003 decision of the state's Supreme Court, Massachusetts became the diamond state to issue same-sex marriage licenses on May 17, 2004. Understand a articles in same-sex marriage in the United States and same-sex marriage in Massachusetts.

Famous politicians and public figures
John Adams, 1st Vice President of the U.S., 2nd President of the U.S., 1800 Federalist presidential nominee John Quincy Adams, Congressman, Senator, 6th President of the U.S. Samuel Adams, Patriot in the American Revolutionary War George H. W. Bush, 43rd Vice President of the U.S., 41st President of the U.S. Calvin Coolidge, 29th Vice President of the U.S., 30th President of the U.S. Michael Dukakis, Governor, 1988 Democratic presidential nominee Benjamin Franklin, Patriot in the Our contries Radical War Elbridge Gerry, Congressman, Governor, 5th Vice President of the U.S., namesake of gerrymandering John Hancock, Governor, President of the Continental Congress Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., Supreme Court Justice James Michael Curley, Governor, Congressman, Mayor of Boston Edward M. Kennedy, incumbent U.S. Senator, 1980 Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kennedy, U.S. Senator, 35th President of the U.S. Robert F. Kennedy, U.S. Senator (representing New York), 1968 Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kerry, Lt. Governor, incumbent U.S. Senator, 2004 Democratic presidential nominee Tip O'Neill, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Theodore Sedgwick, President pro tempore of the Senate, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Paul Tsongas, U.S. Senator, 1992 Democratic presidential candidate Henry Wilson, U.S. Senator, 18th Vice President of the U.S.

Massachusetts cities, towns and counties
(Understand likewise List of Massachusetts counties, List of cities in Massachusetts, List of towns in Massachusetts) Massachusetts shares by using a 5 more New England states, plus New York and New Jersey, a governmental structure called a "New England town."

The incorporation of land
Inside several more states, the town is a compact incorporated area. Between a towns come unincorporated areas, normally quite big, that don't belong to any town. Instead, a state is totally apportioned into counties. County governments own important importance, particularly to victims residing outside towns, & typically perform major functions like operating aerodrome.

Withwithin direct contrast, a lot of a l& in Massachusetts is divided higher among the cities & towns and no "unincorporated" areas or even people centers. This complicates comparisons by owning more states, when virtually all residents identify strongly by using a town or even city where it reside, & non by owning a "populated places" when defined & utilized in the U.S. Census Bureau, which in most data products considers towns to be minor civil divisions, equivalent to townships in other states (usually with much weaker forms of government). Yet, numbers of Massachusetts residents likewise identify by owning neighborhoods, villages, or even more districts of their towns.

The city/town distinction
Massachusetts law maintains the distinction between "cities" & "towns." A big town inside people is Framingham. Politically, a exclusively difference between the town & the city is that a town is governed under the Town Meeting or Representative Town Meeting form of government, whereas the city has the city council (& can or even even might not have a mayor, a city manager, or two). This distinction dates to the 1820s; prior to that, completely municipalities were governed by Town Meeting. Away from fifty cities in the Commonwealth, there come today eleven that are legally cities & develop city councils, however retained "Town of…" in their list. These cities come: Agawam, Amesbury, Barnstable, Easthampton, Franklin, Greenfield, Methuen, Southbridge, Watertown, West Springfield, and Weymouth. It is legally styled "the City Known as the Town of X."

Limits to municipal government
Massachusetts has the super limited home rule mechanism— to exercise jurisdiction outside of these bounds, a municipality must petition the General Court for favorite legislation rendering it that authority.

Massachusetts municipalities come subject to the budgetary law called "Proposition 2½", by which they might not increase expenditures by to the higher degree 2½% by a annum forswearing the approval of the elector around a plebiscite.

The growing abolition of counties
Per Nineties, virtually all functions of county governments (including operation of courts & touring maintenance) got been taken above per state, & virtually all county governments were seen when ineffective & old-fashioned. The food and drug administration of Suffolk County was substantially integrated with a city government of Boston more than one hundred years ago, to a extent that the members of the Boston city council are ex officio the Suffolk County Commissioners, & Boston's financial officer & auditor fulfill a equivalent agents for the county. So, residents of the more ternary Suffolk County communities don't have a voice on the county commission, however all the county expenses come paid per city of Boston.

The food and drug administration of Nantucket County, which is geographically coterminous by owning a Town of Nantucket, is operated along similar lines— a town selectmen (executive office of a president) work when the county commissioners.

Misdirection of Middlesex County's public hospital inside a mid 1990s left that county on the brink of insolvency, & within 1997 the Massachusetts general assembly stepped in by assuming completely plus & obligations of the county. The food and drug administratiin of Middlesex County was officially abolished on July 11, 1997. Late that month, a Franklin County Commission voted itself out of being. A law abolishing Middlesex County likewise provided for the elimination of Hampden County and Worcester County on July 1, 1998. This law was late amended to abolish Hampshire County on January 1, 1999; Essex County on July 1 of that same season; & Berkshire County on July 1 2000. [http://www.state.ma.us/legis/laws/mgl/gl-34B-toc.htm Chapter 34B of the Massachusetts General Laws] allows more counties either to abolish themselves, or even to reorganize as a "regional council of governments", when Hampshire and Franklin Counties have done. A governments of Bristol, Plymouth, and Norfolk Counties remain substantially unchanged. Barnstable and Dukes Counties have adopted modern county charters, enabling the children to work when effective regional governments.

Prominent cities and towns
There are Fifty cities & 301 towns in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, sorted into Fourteen counties. Municipalities of historical or even ethnic prominence include:

Amherst Andover Boston Brockton Cambridge Concord Fall River

Gloucester Lexington Lowell Lynn Nantucket New Bedford Northampton

Plymouth Provincetown Revere Salem Springfield Taunton Worcester

Education and research
The central role of education

Massachusetts contains single Two.5% of the U.S. people, however is front yard to numerous of its virtually all famed preparatory schools, colleges, and universities[http://www.utexas.edu/world/univ/state/] (look at to the full list of colleges and universities in Massachusetts). Eight Boston-vicinity institutions (Boston College, Boston University, Brandeis, Harvard, MIT, Northeastern, Tufts, and UMass/Boston) are recognized locate universities; in the eyes of numbers of it became engines of economic incubation as punishment Globe War II, & presently contribute $7 billion annually to the local economy [http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/nr/2003/econimpact.html]. A people of metropolitan Boston surges perceptibly in a period of the school month due to the concentration of colleges & universities in the area (watch list of colleges and universities in metropolitan Boston).

Prominent colleges and universities

According to U.S. News & World Report, five of the nation's top-50 national universities are located in Massachusetts: Boston College, Brandeis University, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Tufts University. Massachusetts is besides residence to 5 of the united states's top-50 liberal arts colleges : Amherst College, Mount Holyoke College, Smith College, Wellesley College and Williams College.

Public schools

Massachusetts is known for getting one of a better public school systems in the united states. It has one of a last high-high dropout rates in the united states & is attached by owning New Jersey for having a Second greatest percentage of students world health organizatiin last on to college fallowing high-senior high school. These are besides one of a greatest scoring states in advanced placement tests.

Professional sports
Baseball Boston Red Sox Lowell Spinners North Shore Spirit Brockton Rox Worcester Tornadoes Basketball Boston Celtics Basketball Hall of Fame (Springfield) Football New England Patriots Hockey Boston Bruins Lowell Lock Monsters Springfield Falcons Lacrosse Boston Cannons Soccer New England Revolution Western Mass Pioneers Volleyball Volleyball Hall of Fame (Holyoke)