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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.35706873
EAN num: 9781592288670
ISBN number: 1592288677
Label: The Lyons Press
Manufacturer: The Lyons Press
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 512
Printing Date: September 01, 2005
Publishing house: The Lyons Press
Sale Popularity Level: 128249
Studio: The Lyons Press
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
In his very first diary since Ball Four, Jim Bouton recounts his amazing adventure trying to save an historic ballpark in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Host to organized baseball since 1892, Wahconah Park was soon to be abandoned by the owner of the Pittsfield Mets who would move his team to a new stadium in another town---an all too familiar story.
Enter Bouton and his partners with the best deal ever offered to a community---a locally owned professional baseball team and a privately restored city owned ballpark at no cost to the taxpayers. It was a dream come true for the vast majority of the people of Pittsfield.
But Bouton’s plan was opposed by an elite group of power brokers who wanted to build a new $18.5 million baseball stadium---a stadium that the people had voted against three different times!
In what one reviewer called 'that same humane, sarcastic voice,' Bouton unmasks a mayor who brags that 'the fix is in,' a newspaper that lies to its readers, and a city government that operates out of a bar.
And that’s just Part l.
Part ll is the even more amazing story of what happened after this book as self published---a story in itself---in hardcover. Invited back to Pittsfield by newly elected city officials, Bouton and his partners raise $1.2 million, help uncover a document that dates Pittsfield’s baseball origins to 1791, and stage a vintage baseball game that is broadcast live on national television.
Who could have guessed what would happen next? And that this time it would involve the Massachusetts Attorney General.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
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Bouton does not quite duplicate his early successes, but he is a lively, witty, and informative writer, and makes the best of the material he has to work with. I'd like to see him tackle sometning new, like the current drug scene in baseball.
Rated by buyers 
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I teach college and have used this book many times in my political science classes. My students have really enjoyed it and learned a lot from it. It is written well and has great documentation.
The story is essentially about Bouton and his business partner (and friend) Chip Elitzer's efforts to inject openess into how political decisions are made. Unfortunately, they are met with most of the typical roadblocks to political change: needless obsfucation and endless delays justified by government procedures and rules.
What makes the story so compelling is their infectous sense of humor, core optimism and sheer drive. Just when you think all is lost (which occurs early and often), there is suddenly new hope to keep their efforts alive.
Bouton's description of the colorful characters involved makes you think you know them. He shares with his readers some of his thinking about his family, politics and life in general. These observations add to the book's authenticity.
The book is also about how political power operates in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Even though there are some large political and economic forces involved (General Electric and the commonwealth of Massachusetts), the critical actors involved are people you might recognize in many small to medium sized cities: local politicians, journalists and editors of small newspapers, small business owners, local lawyers and average citizens. This allows the reader to identify the complexity, invisibility and weight of how local political power can be exercised.
Conversely, The book also reveals a very simple bias of the author: He loves the game of baseball.
It is an inspiring book which I recommend to anyone who believes in the political transparency and how it ultimately can reform our political instituions.
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