Bouton Takes on Stadium Issue

Jim Bouton, author of the baseball classic Ball Four, has signed with Public Affairs executive editor Paul Golob to do a book on the question of team owners demanding new stadiums for their teams, under threat of moving the team. It's exemplified in Wahconah Park, the story of the fight, in which the author took part, to save the oldest minor league ballpark in the country, near Pittsfield, Mass. The question of whether to replace it has pitted team owners and the local power elite against citizens whose taxes would pay for a new stadium. "I call it America's new hostage crisis," says Bouton. "It's happening all over the country." Golob signed the book, world rights, from agent Matt Bialer at Trident Media Group and will publish next spring.