MASSACHUSETTS IS bookended by the oldest stadium in the majors, Fenway Park, at one end and one of the oldest in the minor leagues, Pittsfield's Wahconah Park, at the other. Except for a brief period decades ago when Wahconah housed a Red Sox farm team, the two had little to do with each other - until October 2004.
That was when the former general manager of the Red Sox, Dan Duquette, sold two tickets to the second game of the Sox-Cardinals World Series to Mayor James Ruberto of Pittsfield. According to the state Ethics Commission, Duquette's offer of the tickets was an inducement to the mayor to look kindly on Duquette's request to use Wahconah as a home for his team in the New England Collegiate Baseball League, now known as the Pittsfield Dukes.
The mayor paid Duquette face value for the tickets, $190 each, but the state Ethics Commission says that does not necessarily make it an aboveboard transaction, since tickets for the games were being advertised on the Internet for up to $2,000 each. A special advisory by the commission in January 2004 alerted public officials to the possibility they will violate the state's illegal gratuity law if they get "special access" to coveted tickets, even if they pay face value.
Duquette says there was no quid pro quo in the deal, but in its show-cause order, the commission says he told investigators he had offered the tickets to the mayor with the park deal in mind. "That's not true," he said in an interview Wednesday, adding that he is paying the city $10,000 annually and $300 per game, "above market value," for use of the park, which had been standing empty. In fact, the Dukes are paying more than any other team in the league for their home field. Another possible defense for Duquette is the state's antiscalping law, which prohibits sky-high prices for resale of tickets. As for the mayor, his lawyer, Leonard Cohen, says he is a "long-suffering" Sox fan who simply took advantage of a chance to see a dream come true.
The commission, which could fine the two as much as $2,000 each, must hold a hearing on the case within 90 days. In his defense, Duquette will doubtless bring up another clause in the 2004 advisory: Gifts or transactions between officials and individuals doing business with them can be OK if there is "friendship prior" to them. Duquette, a native of neighboring Dalton, is rattling off family-friend connections between the Duquettes and the Rubertos.
Whatever the commission decides, the hearing will have an only-in-Massachusetts quality to it. Where else would paying $380 for two tickets to an event be considered tantamount to a freebie?
