Jim Bouton is no rookie when it comes to telling it like it is.
And now the former Yankee pitcher and all-star, who rocked the baseball
world in 1970 with his tell-all book, “Ball Four,” an expose
of the frat-party side of the nation’s favorite past-time, has taken
up a new cause — fighting the plan to build a professional basketball
arena in Downtown Brooklyn.
He’s coming to Brooklyn this week to talk about it.
Just last year, Bouton published his second book “Foul Ball,”
a 354-page diary of his battle to save Wahconah Park, one of the oldest
baseball stadiums in the country located near his home in Pittsfield,
Mass.
When Pittsfield leaders tried to tear down the 4,000-seat minor league
stadium and build a new $18 million park just miles away, Bouton and a
group of supporters raised a stink.
Bouton is now throwing his support behind Brooklynites opposing the plan
to build a 20,000-seat professional basketball arena at the intersection
of Atlantic and Flatbush avenues.
Developer Bruce Ratner, with the backing of Mayor Michael Bloomberg and
Borough President Marty Markowitz, announced plans to build the $2.5 billion
arena complex which would include 17 sweeping towers and 4,500-units of
housing.
While the developers would not take any public money up front, millions
of dollars of tax revenue generated from the arena — everything from
Coca Cola sales to the income tax on the player’s multimillion dollar
salaries — would be funneled back into the project.
Bouton, 64, who calls the Downtown arena plan tax abatement “corporate
welfare,” retired from baseball in 1970 and went on to become a television
sportscaster at WABC and WCBS in New York City. He made a brief return
to the sport with a knuckleball in the late ’70s, helped create Big
League Chew — shredded bubble gum in a pouch that serves as an alternative
to chewing tobacco — and now tours the country as a motivational
speaker.
When the Massachusetts resident returns to the Big Apple next week he
hopes to generate attention to the cause and show the similarities between
the Pittsfield and Brooklyn battles.
“In many respects it’s the same story,” Bouton said from
his home in Egermont, Mass., just after making several television appearances
to talk about the recent gambling confessions of Pete Rose.
“Wealthy business men are looking to have taxpayers fund their building
of these arenas. If these stadiums were good investments businessmen would
build them. But taxpayers build these stadiums because owners don’t
have to,” Bouton said.
Last month, Bruce Ratner — principal owner of Forest City Ratner,
which most recently developed a planned new headquarters building for
the New York Times in Manhattan — unveiled the plans to build a sweeping
Frank Gehry-designed arena complex including 17 office and residential
towers at the intersection of Atlantic and Flatbush avenues at the crossroads
of five neighborhoods.
Ratner is currently in the midst of a heated bidding war to purchase the
New Jersey Nets and bring them to the Brooklyn arena, which would only
get built if he gets the team.
While Ratner originally announced that only a hundred people would have
their homes taken by eminent domain, a power of the government to seize
property for public use, opponents put the number closer to 1,000.
Among their ranks are famed sculptor Louise Bourgeois, a violinmaker,
three luxury condominium buildings, two homeless shelters, a beloved prohibition-era
bar, and a feeble elderly couple who say they would not be able to survive
the move.
“This is going on in every community in the country,” Bouton
said.
Bouton will be speaking at the Hanson Place Methodist Church, at the corner
of Hanson Place and St. Felix Street, at 7 pm on Tuesday, Jan. 13. On
Wednesday, Jan. 14, Bouton will lead a walking tour of the condemned blocks
along Pacific Street at 11 am and will be signing copies of “Foul
Ball” at the Community Bookstore at 143 Seventh Ave. from noon until
2 pm.
