Foul Ball [Englisch] [Gebundene Ausgabe]

Anyone who has ever read Bouton knows of his style: entertaining, self-deprecatory, perceptive and candid. This greatly broadens the appeal of what would otherwise be a book of fairly narrow interest. By the time I finished it, I was willing to collect signatures for a petition to save the place, so fully was I drawn into the story. If I ever pass through Massachusetts, I simply have to see Wahconah Park.

But what makes the story so relevant to many far from Massachusetts is its description of the constant conflict between small-town America's city governments and people. Bouton's story rings very true with me because I live in a town of similar size to Pittsfield (40-50,000), and I see locally the behaviours he has chronicled: an arrogant city government more concerned with building itself Taj Mahals and handing out fat contracts than doing the will of the people. A newspaper that works hand in glove with the city functionaries to further its own selfish interests. Legal harassment of those who dare dissent openly, and city employees acknowledging that the system is horribly corrupt but terrified to say so. And overshadowing it all, the pandering of city government to corporate greed and pressure--in the case of Pittsfield, GE and its apparent history of gross PCB spillage.

Fighting City Hall is not easy, and few do so, but Jim Bouton and Chip Elitzer had the guts to do it, for the love of baseball and history. When the original publisher mysteriously reneged on its agreement to put this book into print--gee, I wonder why--Bouton self-published it. It was well worth my money. Recommended for baseball fans, as well as anyone who has ever seen a city government wield power 'just because it can.'

In those days, $4 got you a seat in the grandstand and a few more bucks bought you a hotdog and peanuts. It wasn't fancy but it was baseball as my grandparents knew the game.

I was mesmerized by Bouton's book. Jim was talking about all my old colleagues, all my old grievances against the stodgy, secretive, illegal, classically antedeluvian gang that ran Pittsfield like a sniggering boys' club. I stayed up late reading the book in astonishment. What Bouton described in one sneaky maneuver after another constitutes a sad commentary on the priorities of a small city that used to be the county seat of a fine tourist area (Berkshire County, Massachusetts), but has lost industry, clean land, population, young people, and nearly all hope in decade after decade of counterproductive back-room deals that almost never benefit the misled, manipulated population of the city. Every other town in the county (and the one other small city) is now more desirable than Pittsfield . . . and Jim Bouton nails down the reasons in spades.

A fascinating read, and as someone who lived and worked there with the local establishment, I can say that it is a sad but all too true commentary on a community at war with itself. All Jim wanted was a viable minor league baseball team playing in a rejuvenated Wahconah Park. He had the financing, the skills, and the baseball background to make this happen. Unfortunately, all Jim got was grief and deceit. READ THIS BOOK; you won't be able to put it down.

Postscript (late October 2003): the bush-league competitor with connections who got the contract that Jim and his partners were seeking has walked away from Wahconah Park two years and two lousy seasons later, and the current mayor (up for reelection) has asked Jim to reconsider his original plan. (There is currently no baseball team signed to play in 2004--and no-one with authority to sign one--and the county will suffer financially as a result.) Once you read Foul Ball, you'll understand why Jim said no thanks to a second go-round.

Jim Bouton's "Foul Ball" is his second diary. The first, of course, is "Ball Four", the seminal account not just of the short-lived 1969 Seattle Pilots (another victim of local politics and back-room deals) but of baseball on the brink of free agency. That book turned Bouton into something of a pariah; he went from ballplayer to broadcaster within months of its release.

"Foul Ball" charts four months in 2001, as Bouton and business partner Chip Elitzer seek community and political support to renovate Pittsfield's existing stadium and attract a new minor-league franchise (after the Pittsfield Astros left town in favor of... a new stadium, out of state). Just by the fact that this book was self-published, you can guess the outcome. Bouton tracks the unfolding story town meeting by town meeting, threatening phone call by threatening phone call. As with the "Ball Four" format, the action is liberally interspersed with anecdotes and updates from old friends. Indeed, if "Ball Four" hadn't already been followed by "Ball Five", "Ball Six", and "The Final Pitch", this book could've been "Ball Seven". Or "Juuuust A Bit Outside!".

To be honest, I really felt sorry for Bouton by the end. Now in his 60s and living in the Berkshires, running his modest motivational speaking enterprise, Bouton in "Foul Ball" suffers setback after setback. Apart from being pillaged daily by the local newspaper, he had to pull his book from its publisher and go the self-publishing route. ESPN's SportsCentury feature on "Ball Four" is yanked from the schedule days before airtime. The Seattle Mariners politely refuse to hold a Seattle Pilots reunion. I kept waiting for the city of Pittsfield to trade Bouton for Dooley Womack! Bouton's September 11th experiences are in the book, too. I read that entry while riding New York City's "E" subway. Which used to go to the World Trade Center.

"Foul Ball" contains lots of blood-curdling tales of local corruption and toxic waste dumping. You may not support Bouton's near-Quixotic quest against the-powers-that-be, but this book certainly deserves to be read and heard. Then check out the website for the Berkshire Black Bears to see how Pittsfield's new team is faring under someone else's ownership.