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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact:
Tom Goldstein
An Evening with Jim Bouton
SAINT PAUL, MN-Former Yankee pitcher and bestselling author Jim Bouton will be
appearing in the Twin Cities on Wednesday, April 28th at Ruminator Books in St. Paul
to receive Elysian Fields Quarterly's annual Dave Moore Award (for the "most
important book on baseball" published in 2003), discuss the current state of baseball
stadium politics, and conduct a book signing. This lively event will also include
music by Minneapolis singer-songwriter Jeff Arundel, who will perform his classic
single, "Harmon Killebrew."
Time and date: Wednesday, April 28, 7:30 PM (Doors open at 7).
Place: Ruminator Books, 1648 Grand Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55105
TICKETS: $5.00 (refundable with purchase of FOUL BALL or the current edition of BALL
FOUR.)
Seating is limited. Tickets available through Ruminator Books and Elysian Fields
Quarterly
Jim Bouton has been raising hell with the baseball establishment since 1970, when his
landmark book BALL FOUR revealed the frat-party side of the grand old game. Now, in
FOUL BALL: MY LIFE AND HARD TIMES TRYING TO SAVE AN OLD BALLPARK, he lines up against
the economic lynch pin of pro sports: publicly funded stadia (a topic that has
particular resonance for us here in Minnesota).
Pittsfield, Massachusetts, is the site of venerable Wahconah Park, home to various
minor-league teams since 1892. Bouton and most of the area's citizenry felt the
stadium should be repaired, updated, and preserved. The city government, however,
along with various business interests, wanted to build a new $18 million stadium--at
taxpayer expense.
This relatively small skirmish is portrayed by Bouton as a microcosm of the publicly
funded sports facility battles that have been fought around the country. Typically,
taxpayers foot the bill--under the pressure of team
abandonment--so owners and players can get rich. Bouton, humor intact and sense of
irony sharpened, chronicles the battle between the forces of fiscal responsibility and
those who would build the new stadium (on a toxic waste dump). The good guys win this
time, as the old ballpark is saved, at least temporarily, but Bouton paints a
distinctly disturbing picture of corporate greed and taxpayer exploitation.
Interestingly, Bouton's original publisher pulled out under pressure from pro-stadium
business interests, leaving the author to publish his expose himself.
About the Author: Jim Bouton is the bestselling author of Ball Four, a baseball
classic about his 1969 season with the Seattle Pilots that was selected as one of the
"Books of the Century" by the New York Public Library in 1995. An All-Star pitcher for
the New York Yankees, he won twenty-one games (six by shutout) in 1963, eighteen in
1964, and twice beat the Cardinals in the 1964 World Series. A successful entrepreneur
whose post-career endeavors have involved the creation of the popular Big League Chew
bubble gum and marketing personalized baseball cards (Big League Cards), Bouton is
now a motivational speaker living in North Egremont, Massachusetts, with his wife,
Paula Kurman.
The Dave Moore Award, named for the longtime Twin Cities television anchor, was
created as a remembrance of the spirit and passion that Dave Moore brought to life,
literature, and his love for baseball, and this annual award seeks to recognize the
"most important book on baseball" published each year.
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At long last, a literate and intelligent, quirky, iconoclastic,
funny, and opinionated journal for people who enjoy
great writing and truly love baseball.
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Elysian Fields Quarterly: The Baseball Review
PO Box 14385
Saint Paul, Minnesota 55114-0385
http://www.efqreview.com
651/644-8558 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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