Press Clippings

March 17, 2004 - Berkshire Eagle Editorial: Challenges for Bouton group

The $1.5 million that Jim Bouton and his partners plan to put into Wahconah Park will definitely make the aging ballpark a much better place, and what's not to like about Mr. Bouton's promise to do away with the blaring music that corrupts the baseball experience at ballparks around the country? The group has some major challenges ahead of it, however, before it fields a team in 2005. No amount of renovations will bring the ballpark up to the standards of affiliated baseball, which means the group will have to bring in an independent team -- assuming the group can get a team, which it couldn't do three years ago. The bottom of the barrel baseball played by the Berkshire Black Bears was rejected by knowledgeable fans, who stayed away in droves the past two summers, and more of the same will be a tough sell, regardless of how nice the food court is. To make his team a success, Mr. Bouton is going to need the support of the business community he unfairly trashed, most notably Berkshire Bank and GE Plastics, as corrupt and dishonest in "Foul Ball." Mr. Bouton had better hope the business community is more charitable to him than he was to them.