What I want after the pandemic
— Photo by Bernard Gagnon
Jersey Street at the main entrance to Fenway Park. It was formerly called Yawkey Way, after the Red Sox owner from 1933 to 1976, Tom Yawkey. But because of complaints about Yawkey’s racism in the management of the Sox, the City of Boston changed it back to its original name, Jersey Street, in 2018.
“Forget the frank, the hot dog —
Give me the Fenway sausage.
Landsdowne or Yawkey,
Just give me the street, the crowds, the carts.’’
— From “Sausage,’’ by Raymond Foss (born 1960). Trained as a lawyer, he’s now mostly a poet. He lives in Barrington, N.H.
Barrington is now a bedroom community with farms and lots of woodland.
Back in the early 19th Century its primary industry was iron-ore smelting. The Isinglass River, together with its tributaries, provided water power for grist and saw mills for many decades.
Locke's Falls on the Isinglass River in Barrington
Verizon's Boston 5G network concentrated in the Fenway area
Aerial view of West Fenway and Kenmore showing the Back Bay Fens (lower left), Fenway Park (center) and the edge of Kenmore Square (right)
From The New England Council (newenglandcouncil.com)
“As of Nov. 19, customers have been able to access Verizon’s 5G Ultra-Wideband network in various parts of Boston. The telecommunications company made a promise to bring 5G to mobile customers in more cities by the end of 2019.
“Verizon’s 5G network will be concentrated in the Fenway area of Boston, along Brookline Avenue and near Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. The service will also be available near Harvard Medical School, Northeastern University, Fenway Park, and Emmanuel College. 5G has a greater bandwidth than 4G, allowing for the transfer of more data in the same amount of time at a lower latency. The network also allows for more devices to be connected at the same time. Verizon began its rollout of 5G in Providence earlier this year.
“We are building our 5G Ultra-Wideband network to support the type of transformative breakthroughs people imagine when they think of next-generation connectivity, and we’re working to build those services with leaders in manufacturing, publishing and entertainment, and in our 5G Labs,” said Kyle Malady, Verizon’s chief technology officer.’’
Brian Wakamo: Save Minor League Baseball teams
Home of the Vermont Lake Monsters, a Minor League Baseball affiliate of the Oakland Athletics
Via OtherWords.org
Baseball had an exciting year — breakout stars, a major cheating scandal, a seven-game World Series.
And now it’s capping off the year with a disastrous idea from the owners. Led by the Houston Astros — the same Astros mired in scandals over cheating and domestic violence — Major League Baseball has proposed cutting 42 minor league teams all around the country.
Who’s on the chopping block? Teams from Quad Cities, Iowa, and Williamsport, Penn., where the Little League World Series takes place every year, to Missoula, Montana and Orem, Utah.
These places have, in many cases, been a part of the fabric of baseball in America for over a century. The Vermont Lake Monsters, in Burlington (on Lake Champlain), another team on the “hit list,” play in a stadium built in 1906, older than Fenway Park. The similarly targeted Hagerstown (MD) Suns play in one built in 1930.
These teams have provided a way for folks in rural and underserved areas to see baseball and future major leaguers for a fraction of the price of traveling to an MLB city. And they’re a way to boost the communities they play in.
Compensation for these players is often ridiculously low — around the poverty line — and they don’t have a union like their professional counterparts. It’s a cutthroat and competitive environment, with only about one in ten minor leaguers making it to the majors. And with low per diems and intensive travel, it’s an exhausting endeavor.
These issues need to be addressed not only to ensure the survival of Minor League Baseball, but to help baseball itself thrive. Players aren’t going to become their best if they’re stuck on futons in host families’ homes, living off PB&J sandwiches.
But the solution is not to destroy the teams — and the local communities — who give them the chance in the first place. No wonder the proposal has been criticized by folks all over the political spectrum.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders wrote a letter to MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred protesting the move. And over 100 representatives — from Congressional Progressive Caucus leaders Mark Pocan (D.-WI) and Jamie Raskin (D-MD.) to Trump supporters Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) and Greg Gianforte (R.-Calif.)— signed on to a letter condemning the MLB’s hit list.
MLB has tried to justify the cuts in the name of cost savings, low attendance, and stadiums that fail to meet MLB standards. In reality, it’s rooted in greed and a desire for more profits — and it will backfire.
These teams employ 1,000 players and countless more workers, and the Minor Leagues saw over 40 million fans attend their games. At a time when the MLB is wringing its hands about attendance (now at a 16-year low while young fans are tuning in to other sports), eliminating this link to 42 communities would be deeply harmful.
Even so, major league teams in relatively modest markets like Kansas City are getting sold for $1 billion, and the MLB is making record revenues thanks to television deals. Meanwhile, they have the gall to balk at requests for higher minor league salaries, while demanding minor league franchises pay for every part of their teams, which train those major leaguers.
It’s ridiculous. The MLB should be investing in these teams and players, so they’re not stuck on poverty wages and couches — and helping these historic stadiums endure for another hundred years. Baseball isn’t called America’s pastime for nothing, and these teams in locales all around the U.S. are a huge reason for that.
The MLB’s greed is wrong and destructive. Let’s build up the minor leagues, not cut them down.
Brian Wakamo is an inequality researcher at the Institute for Policy Studies.
