They say foul balls aren't fair

Malden residents complain of property damage

Louie Barrasso chucked four or five balls onto the baseball field at Maplewood Park during a game last Tuesday. He instigated a shouting match with an innocent umpire, and fussed at both Malden Catholic's coach and its athletic director so hard that they stopped the game with BC High until police were called to restore order.

Barrasso realized he probably wasn't on his best behavior.

But it was probably his best shot at bringing a six-year battle to a head.

Barrasso had a bag of balls on hand just like the ones he had thrown onto the field in the past, and he was just waiting for the right time.

"This was the boiling point," he said.

If you live near a ballpark, foul balls are a part of the package. But Barrasso didn't sign up for this. His neighborhood was there first, and since the baseball field was built in 2002, baseballs have flown over to the public housing on Bowdoin Street.

Residents have the dents in their cars, window sills, and barbecue grills to prove it. That the Lancers were close to clinching their first outright Catholic Conference title in 25 years last Tuesday when this fracas broke out didn't matter to Barrasso. This was a fight he had to pick.

This time, in just one inning, the Lancers and the Eagles shot two balls over the housing complex and into the front parking lot. They zipped by Barrasso's daughter Rebekah's head and creamed the top of the Kia Sorrento the family had owned since early April.

"Usually, I'd just bite my tongue," Barrasso said. "But this time it was just killing the car."

Malden Catholic athletic director Chris Serino tried to talk him down.

They would take care of it, Serino said.

"How?" Barrasso yelled.

Call the school tomorrow, Serino said.

"That's after the fact!"

I understand, Serino said.

But Barrasso was convinced he didn't.

"That's two dents in two pitches," Barrasso yelled.

Even the police shook their heads. One of them looked down the first-base line and saw a 60-foot net hanging to protect the housing on one side of the field, but nothing on the other side.

"I don't see why they just don't put a net on this side," said Captain John Amirault. "This is a fixable situation. A little more netting and we can definitely fix this problem."

Malden acquired the land for Maplewood Park around 1999, turning it from an illegal dump into a new open field, then a baseball field in 2002, putting in new turf last year.

"We've improved its condition and improved its appearance and its impact on the surrounding neighborhood," said Malden Mayor Richard Howard, who every year can count on a few angry residents storming into his office with buckets of baseballs.

"One of the drawbacks of living next to a ballpark is that foul balls tend to fly in different directions. It is part of living next to a ballpark. We've tried to do whatever we could for those neighbors that are having concerns."

Josh Baker, 17, has lived on Bowdoin Street the past two years.

"The way I see it," he said, "we're the projects, and they're the suburbs over there" where the net is.

Michael Solis, 43, said he wishes it were different.

"We're all people," he said. "We all count for something."

He said he had his $23,000 Hyundai for about six months before a stray ball shattered his windshield. Cards were exchanged, he said, but he never heard anything back.

"We work," Solis said. "We pay our rent and we just want to be left alone."

But city officials say the reason there's a net up along the third-base line is because that's where most of the complaints came from.

Leo Barron was the loudest voice of them all. Barron, 73, with a voice that booms through his Holloway Street cul-de-sac, made himself a regular at the mayor's office, once bringing a bucket of balls ("maybe 50") as a gift.

"I was getting sick of this," he said as he pointed out the two balls caught between the bushes by his picket fence and the pool in his backyard.

Howard, once a lawyer for the Housing Authority, said the Bowdoin Street tenants would have to voice their complaints through that office. Housing Authority head Steve Finn said he hasn't heard anything yet.

"They should understand that they should call myself or someone on the maintenance staff and we'll be glad to intervene on their behalf with the city," Finn said. "They're no less important than anyone else in the community."

Finn said the ball then falls in the lap of the Malden Redevelopment Authority, which built and maintains Maplewood Park. Steve Wishoski, the authority's executive director, said the field was designed "to provide the maximum protection for everybody around it but still allowing the game to play." The authority also went back a few times to make improvements, including adding the turf last year.

The netting on the Holloway Street side, including the nets, poles, and labor, cost $50,000. Wishoski said the netting on the Bowdoin Street side wouldn't have to be as long, so the project wouldn't be as expensive.

"For the protection of the people, if it was an issue we'd get it done," Wishoski said. "We certainly wouldn't differentiate between anybody. If you're a Malden resident you're a Malden resident."

Howard seconded.

"Whatever's reasonable we'll do," he said. "And if we've done it on one side I don't see why we wouldn't do it on the other side."

That, Amirault said, would be the simplest solution. All children, cars, and barbecue grills would be safe, and "they can still play their ball."

Of course, it's too late for the easiest solution. "They could have just built the field the other way around," Solis said. Swap home plate with center field. "They hit more foul balls than home runs, right?"

And if anybody could hit a ball that far, Barron said, "they need to be in the majors."