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25 years
of pro ball in New Britain
By Ken Lipshez
Herald Staff |
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Return to History |
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The city's baby boomers
will cringe at the thought but the Eastern League and New Britain celebrate their
silver anniversary this season.
Yes, it's already been 25 years since the Red Sox Double-A farm club
bid good-bye to Bristol and made their new home in Willow Brook Park.
The Red Sox moved their affiliation from New Britain after the 1994
season, opening the door for the Minnesota Twins and the birth of the New Britain
Rock Cats. Ironically, the Red Sox moved their affiliation to Portland, Maine, in
2003 after eight seasons in Trenton. What makes it ironic is that the current New
Britain franchise came within an eyelash of moving to Portland in 1982 and leaving
central Connecticut out in the cold.
For 10 seasons prior to the 1982 move from Bristol to New Britain,
former owner Joe Buzas operated the franchise at quaint Muzzy Field, a picturesque
pine-tree rimmed ballpark in Rockwell Park. As the summer of 1982 came to a close,
Buzas and the City of Bristol were at odds over financial terms of their contract
and physical improvements to the ballpark. By September 23, Buzas was focused firmly
on greener pastures for his team ? but where?
New Britain mayor William McNamara, sports-minded aldermen and the
New Britain Parks and Recreation Department yearned to put their city on the baseball
map. Parks and Recreation chairman Paul Shaker, the point man in the city?s initiative,
made contact with Buzas and his general manager Edward Kenney, Jr. in 1981.
Gerry Berthiaume, who served as general manager of the New Britain
franchise from 1983-1999 under Buzas, was business manager of the Bristol Red Sox
at the time. "Talking to (Kenney), it was obvious they wanted to move", said Berthiaume,
who still lives in the area. ?He took me aside one day and said if anybody asked,
be cautious what you say. He said they were talking to the City of New Britain but
there may be some other possibilities."
Unbeknownst to McNamara, Shaker and the New Britain contingent, Buzas
was also negotiating with civic leaders in Portland. In fact, Buzas and Portland
were so close to a deal in October, 1982 that he and then-Portland mayor Linda E.
Abromson posed for a photo holding up a t-shirt that read, "Property of Portland
Red Sox Baseball Club."
On Sept. 29, The Herald reported that Buzas and Portland had reached
a three-year agreement in principle. There was, however, one hurdle left that Portland
officials believed was just a formality- the city council vote.
Portland city manager Steven T. Honey told The Herald, "I will be doing
everything in my power to see that it passes and I know it has strong support here.
I would assume it will pass Monday night." He projected that all the contracts would
be signed Tuesday morning.
Paul Shaker heard the stunning news second-hand. "I was hurt. (Buzas)
didn't have the heart to tell me he was going to Portland," Shaker said. "I heard
it from a radio station. I was meeting at City Hall with people about the stadium
and there was a phone call. A guy from a radio station said Joe Buzas was on his
way to Portland. There had been a rumor about it. "There was egg on my face. I went
back to the meeting and said we have a problem. We don't have a team now."
Shaker had been approached by the DiVito family of Waterbury, which
operated that city's franchise and was on the lookout for a new home. But before
Shaker and New Britain had a chance to put out any "For Rent" signs, destiny intervened.
On October 4, the Portland city council met to cast the ballots that
would alter the course of New England sports history. The meeting went into the
wee hours of the next morning. Seven votes were needed for passage from the nine-member
body. The final tally was 6-2. Without the nays from councilors Barbara Reidman
and Joseph Casale, and an abstention from J. Donald MacWilliams, New Britain Stadium
may well still be a softball field.
Berthiaume, who hails from the Portland area, had gone to bed as fate
was encroaching on his home state?s baseball dream. Like everyone else, he figured
it was a done deal after speaking to Kenney earlier in the day.
Said Berthiaume: "Eddie said, 'If we're in, I won't call you. Obviously if
we're not, I'll give you a call." I can remember lying in bed at 1 o'clock in the
morning and saying to (my wife) Jenny, "We're going to Maine." Ten minutes after
I said that, the phone rang."
New Britain residents got the news in The Herald's lead story which
shouted, "NB in driver's seat for Bristol Red Sox." Herald sports writer Gary Grabowski
quoted Portland city manager Honey saying the deal was dead.
Kenney, who attended the meeting, was stunned. "I'll be as quick getting
out of Portland as I was getting here," he told The Herald. "I'm confident now that
Portland will never have a minor league baseball team."
Speculation was that aspiring baseball entrepreneur Jordan Kobritz
- an attorney from Bangor, Maine - had a hand in the decision. According to a story
in The Herald, Kobritz had informed the council that he had options to purchase
Charleston, West Virginia's Triple-A team, and that "Triple-A baseball is definitely
better than any Double-A baseball, even Boston Red Sox baseball." Councilors reportedly
were told that he had plans to build a stadium with private funds rather than rebuilding
existing Hadlock Field with public monies.
Berthiaume said, "Jordan Kobritz was in that whole mix. He was evidently
sending messages to Barbara Reidman, passing notes like a kid in school. He was
trying to blow everything up and he got the ear of Barbara Reidman who cast a decisive
'no' vote."
Kobritz achieved his dream, but it quickly became a nightmare. He built
a mosquito-infested stadium called The Ballpark in woodlands along the seashore
at Old Orchard Beach. His Maine Guides lasted from 1984-88. The Ballpark, weed-ridden
and in total disrepair, remains a ghostly monument to the past.
The word that trickled back to New Britain offered Shaker and company renewed hope
for Eastern League baseball in 1983. "I went to a park board meeting that night,"
Shaker said. "I leave the meeting for a couple of beers with two or three commissioners
and it was announced that the Bristol Red Sox were in Portland and there was a problem
with the vote."
"I went to bed that night thinking that the Bristol Red Sox were going
to Portland. I woke up in the morning and my wife said, 'Congratulations.' They
had to come back to New Britain. We sent (Reidman) flowers because she voted it
down." The magnanimous gesture Shaker made that morning makes him the hero
of the story. "I remember going to the office the next day, sitting at Eddie's desk
and the phone ringing," Berthiaume said. "It was Paul Shaker, and he said, 'I want
to let bygones be bygones. We don't think you negotiated with us in good faith.
You went off to Portland, Maine. All that said, we want to re-negotiate. Can we
open the doors again?' They were upset but they still wanted us."
Long-time Herald sports writer Gary Grabowski captured Shaker?s thoughts
at the time in asking whether he thought New Britain would retain interest after
getting jilted. "It's hard to answer because your emotions run high," Shaker said.
"But this is a business deal. You can't let pride get in your way. A lot of people
would like to see them come here, and I will do everything I can to see that it
happens." Shaker knew that among the people who wanted Buzas' team in town were
the 15 members of the Board of Aldermen and the six who made up the Board of Finance
and Taxation. Both boards would be meeting on October 20.
Having been dusted by one city council, Buzas and company were skeptical.
How many of those 21 people bore contempt from his back-door courtship with Portland?
Shaker was ready to supply proof that solidarity reigned in New Britain. "How about
if I take it to the aldermen and get them to sign it?" Shaker told Buzas and Kenney.
"I went to each alderman and all 15 signed it." The finance board vote went through
6-0 the afternoon prior to the council meeting. The verdict soon became official
at the council meeting. Grabowski authored a colorful account of the proceedings.
"(Mayor William J. McNamara) started at his left with Alderman Brendan Kennedy and
briskly worked his way around the room. "Within 12 seconds, McNamara had made his
way through the horseshoe-shaped common council chairs. Fifteen aldermen, 15 affirmative
replies.
"The gavel in McNamara's hand came down. Joe Buzas' shoulders and chest dropped
six inches as he let out an audible sigh. Finally he had a place to call home."
Just two weeks earlier in the wake of Portland's rejection, Buzas was in a quandary.
He didn't want to go limping back to Bristol. He didn't think New Britain would
react so well after being spurned. But Grabowski told him during a phone interview
that New Britain was ready for baseball.
"Whew! What a relief!" Buzas exclaimed. "They said that, huh? It picks
you right up. I thought New Britain wouldn't care anymore."
Shaker remains proud of the role he played and the long-lasting
effect Double-A baseball has had on his beloved city. He became good friends with
Buzas, who died at 83 in 2003, three years after selling the New Britain franchise
to a partnership headed by Coleman B. Levy and William F. Dowling. "Joe was strictly
business but we became good friends." Shaker said. "I had a lot of respect for him.
It was good for the city. We were in tough shape at the time and the team kept people's
minds off it."
Berthiaume, too, perceived the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
"(Buzas) liked McNamara and got close with (Shaker), too," he said. "Things worked
out for the best for both (sides). It might have been the best (contract) in the
history of minor league baseball. I think at the time that New Britain was willing
to do just about anything to secure the team. They fought hard for it. They could
have easily said go pound sand, stay in Bristol, and it was Paul who initiated contact."
Berthiaume recalls the repercussions. "We were moving, what, 10 miles?
And when I went back to Bristol to try to solicit businesses, they would basically
shut their doors," he said. "It was really bitter."
Peter Lis of Bristol was the Muzzy Field public address announcer from
1976-78 and served as news and sports director at a Bristol radio station. He cited
the hostility of Bristol's amateur baseball programs -- primarily the American Legion
-- as the motivating factor for his city's hard-line stance. "I think the town of
Bristol was pretty much divided," said Lis, who attends Rock Cats games regularly.
"The Red Sox were very popular being the Red Sox but by the same token you had others
in town, namely the amateur baseball leagues and the park board, who were very strongly
in favor of using Muzzy Field for amateur use. They were not able to do so because
the Red Sox had so many dates locked up. It resulted in scheduling conflicts and
a fair amount of animosity." Twenty-five years later, most have buried the hatchet.
Thanks to the marketing acumen of president and owner Bill Dowling, vice president
and general manager John Willi, vice president Evan Levy and their staff, the Rock
Cats have made thousands of friends all over the state and into Massachusetts. How
has the franchise grown in 25 years? The Bristol Red Sox, who had players like Jim
Rice, Fred Lynn and Wade Boggs, drew 576,081 fans through their decade of existence.
The Rock Cats have attracted 666,093 over the past two seasons. With 25 years in
the books, New Britain is second to only Reading in terms of consecutive years in
the Eastern League. The Reading franchise, which was also owned by the Buzas family,
has been competing for 41 years. The Rock Cats have assured that the seeds planted
by Joe Buzas, Bill McNamara and Paul Shaker will flourish for years to come. Coleman
Levy and Bill Dowling signed a 10-year extension with a 10-year option prior to
last season. From humble beginnings, the New Britain Rock Cats have established
themselves as the pre-eminent professional sports franchise in state history and
only nostalgia will encourage them to look back.
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05/10/2007 |
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