Saturday, October 31, 2009
Mr. and Mrs. Ballpark Frank
The LAT’s Bill Plaschke rips into Boston’s very own Frank and Jamie McCourt, as their pending divorce gets more surreal. … Thank goodness they didn’t buy the Sox. …
Hub Blog has my own McCourt stories.
Story #1: A BBJ colleague and I were once summoned to a meeting with the McCourts in the ‘90s, during the height of local criticism that Frank McCourt wasn’t doing enough to develop his Hub waterfront parking lots. The McCourts' dog-and-pony show was meant to reassure us how serious and dedicated they were about developing the land – and the only thing they accomplished was convincing us they were a truly batty couple who would never develop the land. And they never did. … To this day, I think it was one of the strangest interviews/media events I’ve ever attended.
Story #2: The Herald used to regularly call McCourt “Ballpark Frank” in headlines. One day word got back to One Herald Square that McCourt, then angling to buy the Red Sox, really hated his tabloid nom de guerre. So the very next day, and in nearly every story thereafter, “Ballpark Frank” was gleefully jammed into any and all headlines involving Frank.
To give Frank credit, he did 1.) Buy the Dodgers. 2.) Build a competitive team rather quickly, using a Red Sox West formula. He has a knack for creating absolutely crazy situations. But I wouldn’t count him or the Dodgers out -- not yet.
The LAT’s Bill Plaschke rips into Boston’s very own Frank and Jamie McCourt, as their pending divorce gets more surreal. … Thank goodness they didn’t buy the Sox. …
Hub Blog has my own McCourt stories.
Story #1: A BBJ colleague and I were once summoned to a meeting with the McCourts in the ‘90s, during the height of local criticism that Frank McCourt wasn’t doing enough to develop his Hub waterfront parking lots. The McCourts' dog-and-pony show was meant to reassure us how serious and dedicated they were about developing the land – and the only thing they accomplished was convincing us they were a truly batty couple who would never develop the land. And they never did. … To this day, I think it was one of the strangest interviews/media events I’ve ever attended.
Story #2: The Herald used to regularly call McCourt “Ballpark Frank” in headlines. One day word got back to One Herald Square that McCourt, then angling to buy the Red Sox, really hated his tabloid nom de guerre. So the very next day, and in nearly every story thereafter, “Ballpark Frank” was gleefully jammed into any and all headlines involving Frank.
To give Frank credit, he did 1.) Buy the Dodgers. 2.) Build a competitive team rather quickly, using a Red Sox West formula. He has a knack for creating absolutely crazy situations. But I wouldn’t count him or the Dodgers out -- not yet.
