You’ll walk the floor,
the way I do
You’re cheating heart
will tell on you -- Hank Williams
If it had been Christmas, Josh Solomon, the owner of the New Britain Rock Cats – soon to be renamed the Hartford Rock Cats – might have found a
lump of coal in his stocking. But it’s August, and the fiercely patriotic Mayor
of New Britain, Erin Stewart, contented herself with a “Dear John” letter
requesting a payment of back taxes owed and announcing the end of a once great
romance.
Ms. Stewart’s letter is a study in smoldering rage. She
begins in a business-like manner by advising: “The lease agreement between New
Britain and the Rock Cats is clear that they are responsible for these taxes.
... But, if the Solomons continue their refusal to pay their taxes, Berlin can
hold New Britain responsible for this payment since we are the property owners.
I am not about to let them rack up late fees on the backs of our taxpayers.”
Then comes the hammer: “I am deeply disturbed by the pattern
of utter disrespect that this ownership group has shown to their home city over
the past few months. In June, they went public with their dalliance with
Hartford, which hasn’t turned out to be quite the “done deal” that some made it
out to be. Since then, they have continued their radio silence with New
Britain. Now they are stiffing the taxpayers of Berlin and New Britain on their tax
bill.”
The breakup between New Britain and the Rock Cats, a Double-A minor
league baseball club, has not been amicable. Worse, it was first a hidden
then a very public divorce. And New Britain, it is clear, does not like being
jilted by money grubbing baseball gigolos.
For months, the owners of the Rock Cats ball club had been
engaged in a secret romance with Mayor of Hartford Pedro Segarra and other city
fathers – but not, Governor Dannel Malloy hastened to point out in this
contentious election year, anyone associated with the governor’s office. Mayor
Stewart of New Britain is a Republican who recently upset the Democratic
applecart in New Britain, and Mr. Malloy is a sort of Huey Long progressive
Democrat whose political thumb is buried in nearly every political pie in the
state.
Consider the history of the Rock Cats many “dalliances.” The
franchise began in Pittsfield, Massachusetts (1965-1969), and then moved to Pawtucket,
Rhode Island, where it dallied for three years. The franchise then moved to
Bristol, Connecticut and played at Muzzy Field for ten seasons (1973-1982). In
1983, owner Joe Buzas moved the team, the New Britain Red Sox, to New Britain. When
Beehive Field in New Britain began to show signs of age, the owner of the
franchise toyed with the idea of moving the team to Springfield, Massachusetts,
but his heart remained with New Britain; whereupon the Red Sox re-affiliated
with the Trenton Thunder in New Jersey, and owner Buzas signed a new
development agreement with the Minnesota Twins. New Britain Stadium opened in
1996, and the team name changed in 1997 to the current New Britain Rock Cats.
There are, it will be noticed, lots of musical chairs on the
good ship “Rock Cats” – lots of petting and pawing and romancing and cheating
and broken hearts and wailing by rudely rejected politicians. Ms. Stewart is by
no means the first politician to whom the owners of the Rock Cats have pledged
their troth. Nor, judging from the flighty franchise record, will she be the
last.
When the Rock Cats, following months of closed-door
negotiations, officially announced that the team was straying from New Britain
to Hartford, the good people of Hartford vented their disapproval at a town
meeting. Why was the city of Hartford so anxious to divert to this new
venture tax money that might have been used to repair roads, improve schools,
stock libraries with books, purchase the service of more police to monitor gang
activity in the city and provide the amenities that any livable city should
afford their citizens? A lonely rebel at the town meeting – not a politician,
of course – wondered aloud whether the Hartford-Rock Cats deal ever could turn
a profit. It was a raucous meeting.
One casualty of the political crunch, lately endorsed in a Democratic primary run for the State Senate by the Hartford Courant,
was Hartford City Council President Shawn Wooden, who appeared early on to
approve the Rock Cats move to Hartford. Much later, after the town meeting
dust-up, Mr. Wooden qualified his endorsement of the move: He still supports the
relocation effort, but he’d like someone other than the city of Hartford to assume
the bulk of the resettlement costs.
At the present time, it looks like Ms. Stewart is one of the
few politicians blighted by the Rock Cats’ cheating heart who still has her
head above water. Most of the rest of them – with the exception of Mr. Malloy,
who wisely decided to step away from all the smooching and petting – are blowing
bubbles.
Comments
Hartford is basically a black and Puerto Rican ghetto. Its budget is revenued to a very large extent by the State. (Granted, in my view the schools should be 100% funded by the State in every jurisdiction, but the point is that Hartford has no money.) But the pols like to think of it as a real city, if not a city-state. So, over the years we've boycotted South Africa. We've established "sister city" relations with towns in Nicaragua. We have asserted that we won't enforce federal immigration laws. I don't think that the our mini-muni-pols are so much cynical in promoting a baseball stadium, as deluded about their personal significance, the City's grandeur, and about the ability of governments, even competent ones, to do business. True, our guys are particularly ridiculous, but frankly, I'd vote for Segarra over our present malevolent National Executive. He's far more honest, and far less aggressively anti-American. And, what's with Malloy giving away State money as if it (our kids) didn't have to borrow it? My Viet-vet suburban friend can't be laughing quite so enjoyably.
But, God Bless Ms. Stewart, and God Bless the New York Yankees.
I recently bumped into this Van Morrison version. Kinda wet, but not overly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_SM52nskR0