THE BATTLE FOR PITTSFIELD WAS LOST ON ITS EMPTY PLAYING FIELDS
BY DAN VALENTI
PLANET VALENTI NEWS AND COMMENTARY
(FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE, TUESDAY,MAY 10, 2016) — THE PLANET enjoyed an urbane breakfast yesterday at the Red Lion Inn with one of Pittsfield’s greatest native sons, Chuck Garivaltis. After solving the world’s (and the city’s) problems, Chuck and THE PLANET discussed the comment made by Pittsfield police chief (acting) Mike Wynn that kids don’t play outside because they don’t have equipment.
Chuck produced a folder with two 8×10 photographs. The first showed his neighborhood’s baseball team. The mid-1940s photo depicted 15 or so rag-tag kids from Chuck’s neighborhood posing for a team photo. Chuck’s brother, the catcher, is the only one with a semblance of decent gear. The other kids are in T-shirts, worn dungarees, and cobbled footwear. The gloves and mitts, like the clothes, are mostly beat up but well-broken-in. A couple of bats lie in the foreground. One looks like it’s held together with U-nails, electrical tape, and spit, a remedy for lumber that carried to THE PLANET’s days of sandlot ball in the late 50s and through the 60s.
Fun and Games Don’t Need Equipment
Equipment, or lack of it, didn’t prevent these kids from going “outside.” That’s where you could most always find us — outside. In winter, we played King of the Hill and Kill the Guy with the Ball, we had snowball fights, and we made forts. In fall, we played tackle football. In spring and summer, we enjoyed all versions of sandlot and pickup baseball, never with a regulation number. We played hide-and-go-seek, tag, dodge ball, army, red light, roly-poly, run the bases — and endless succession of games, most of them made up with scant few rules, tons of imagination, and little or no equipment.
Garivaltis’ other picture shows the champion basketballers from Pomeroy School, then a junior high, just post-WWII. It’s a great shot evoking the patina and presence of old school gyms, places with dim light, caged widows, dark wainscoting, and smells of sweat and rubbing alcohol. The kids pictured include a melting pot of blacks, Greeks, Polish, German, Italian, and Irish, sons of immigrants who came to the country legally and assimilated into Americans ASAP. They didn’t expect a cent in welfare. They only wanted an opportunity — to begin at the bottom for pennies an hour. They broke stones, stoked fires, manned machines. Their sons and daughters were expected to master English, get an education, and become productive citizens.
The Pomeroy cagers wear their school silks, but the sneakers, socks, and other dressing is nondescript with that hand-me-down look. Chuck tops everyone by sitting in his basketball uniform wearing street shoes and socks. Obviously, photo-ops came suddenly in them days. Here’s the point: These kids did’t have equipment. They had creativity, heart, and hustle, virtues of the playground until video games and smart phones swooped down and turned the young into docile, pampered brats.
An Irrational Fear
Chief Wynn’s statement only perpetuates the myth that kids need adults on-hand 24/7, not to give them love and discipline but to organize their every waking minute. Parents’ fears only confirm an awful self-fulfilling prophecy. They hesitate to send their kids outside unsupervised because of an irrational phobia that Lewis Lents wait in white, windowless vans on every street corner and in every park. The less they lets kids out to play, the more the unsavory elements have the streets and parks to themselves. The schools are even worse, with their fear of lawsuits. Kids cannot touch one another. There goes tag, King of the Hill, football, and a load of other games.
With dreaded “good intentions,” Pittsfield adults have failed their children. The irony is that they’ve done it in the name of providing for “The Children.” Go to Deming Park on a weekday when school is out and the weather glorious. You will find no pickup games. You will, however, see two baseball diamonds — Little League and Babe Ruth League — with padlocked gates. You will find locked batting cages and a parking lot that consumes what used to be play space.
The irony is that the more and expensive great equipment they give “The Children,” the less kids play and have fun. Chuck Garivaltis, one of the great schoolboy athletes ever to come out of Pittsfield, reminded us yesterday morning of Wellington‘s great quote after defeating Napoleon at Waterloo. Wellington said Waterloo was won “on the playing fields of Eton.”
Pick-up sports and unsupervised play keeps kids fit, lets them work out situations on their own, and gives them lessons that last a lifetime.
Chief Wynn, you got it all wrong.
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“Winners never quit, and quitters never win.” — Vince Lombardi
“OPEN THE WINDOW, AUNT MILLIE.”
LOVE TO ALL.
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In our neighborhood baseball games, we had all we could do to come up with enough gloves for the team in the field. Usally only one ball and two bats if we were lucky. It never stoped us from playing even if left field didn’t have a glove. The Chief is full of horse feathers.
In our neighborhood also Paul. We would just leave the gloves in the field. Both teams used the gloves. We would go to Wahconah Park and wait for foul balls and homeruns. We would also sneak into the park and turn ourselves in to Pittsfield Rangers GM, Big Pat Mckernan, and he would give us odd jobs to do. From visiting teams bat boy to crawling under the stands to retrieve someones keys or wallet. He would pay us $2.00, a hotdog and soda, and most importantly all the cracked bats. Our families couldn’t afford the equipment then, but we still found ways to play and more importantly how to share.
I too retrieved foul balls at wahconah park and if we had enough we could trade them in for cracked bats. Growing up I played sandlot ball using bats cracked by the likes of Carlton Fisk, George Scott and both Conigliaros. Bases were made out of cardboard pinned down with rocks when it was windy. Too much coddling these days.
Is Chief Wynn speaking from his personal parenting style ? How many children does he have (From biological fatherhood) ?
Wynn is full of spit. He’s bought into the progressive naratiive 100%.
The problem with Pittsfield is the same as in any American city. LBJ’s Great Society destroyed famlies. Nit wits like those in Pittsfield haven’t been able to figure it out.
“Unlike the old New Deal, which was a response to a severe financial and economic calamity, the Great Society initiatives came just as the United States’ post-World War II prosperity was starting to fade, but before the coming decline was being felt by the middle and upper classes. President Kennedy proposed an across-the-board tax cut lowering the top bracket marginal Income tax in the United States by 20%, from 91% to 71%, which was enacted in February 1964 under President Johnson (three months after Kennedy’s assassination). The tax cut also significantly reduced marginal rates in the lower brackets as well as for corporations. The gross national product rose 10% in the first year of the tax cut, and economic growth averaged a rate of 4.5% from 1961 to 1968.[3]
Johnson’s tax cut measure triggered what one historian described as “the greatest prosperity of the postwar years.” GNP increased by 7% in 1964, 8% in 1965, and 9% in 1966. The unemployment rate fell below 5%, and by 1966 the number of families with incomes of $7,000 a year or more had reached 55%, compared with 22% in 1950. In 1968, when John Kenneth Galbraith published a new edition of The Affluent Society, the average income of the American family stood at $8,000, double what it had been a decade earlier.”
Massive tax cuts caused what exactly?
would some of that growth occurred anyway? we had a war going on, the boomers were aging and creating new demand, and we had not yet outsourced our manufacturing to the lowest cost producers.
tax cuts may have helped – but a certain amount of that growth was inevitable.
we also have a resident poster who is an economist I believe, Mr. Trezinka. What does he think?
Very interesting SHH, thanks for the information. How soon we Americans forget our history.
It is off Wikipedia. take it with a grain of salt.
So what John what does that matter
Growth. Just like under Ronald Reagan who had the biggest post war growth
What up? if I’m John then what is my last name? I tell you what, you put your real name in a post, along with John’s last name, and then you two can decide how wrong you are about who I am.
TO ALL WHO CALL HIM “JOHN”
Only two people know the identity of SHAKES — THE PLANET and SHAKES. We don’t reveal identities. That being said, we can attest, certify, and absolutely swear on a stack of Bibles, Korans, Physicians Desk References, and Baseball Encyclopedias that SHAKES is not “JOHN.” Please stop the nonsense of referring to him as “JOHN.” We are trying to police the comments section into a higher bracket. We ask that you guys cooperate in this effort. You have better things to say. If SHAKES is wrong on the issues, argue with him on the merits, but please stop with the pot shots.
I think they are stuck in the opening of “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas”
i suspect posters are by and large fed up with the individual who claims not to be John.
This individual is know for smarmy insulting and often vile posts.
So people starting name calling and use the highly insulting name John. How could they be so insensitive?
I don’t know who this individual is but really, I wonder why you feel compelled to defend him/her and I’d like to know how calling someone by the most common male name in the western world is taking a pot shot.
All I’m saying is that his or her name is not “JOHN.” I’m not defending him or her. We are asking everyone to just back off from the precipice. Keep the conversation at a higher level. If anyone feels posts are smarmy, insulting, or vile, and they are not redacted (though we are becoming more vigorous in that regard) the solution is not to return in kind. It’s to respond at a higher level. THAT is the best way to handle it.
Now you can call me Ray, or you can call me J, or you can call me Johnny, or you can call me Sonny, or you can call me Junie, or you can call me Junior; now you can call me Ray J, or you can call me RJ, or you can call me RJJ, or you can call me RJJ Jr, but you doesn’t hasta call me Johnson!”
Seriously though, i try to avoid any exchanges with this person
Like I said you haven’t been able to figure it out.
Like I said you haven’t been able to figure it out.
The huge problem is fatherless families. You can have all the BS programs in the world but until poor families go back to a 2 parent structure Pittsfield like most American cities will decline and the main job of politicians will be to manage the decline and to create useless feel good programs that attempt to create father substitutes, but it will not work.
Pittsfield politics should fund recreational programs for its youth. The Boys & Girls Club and Girls Inc are 2 good institutions that invest in local children.
Pittsfield politics main attractions are its 2 jails. Juvenile Resource Center on 2nd St. and the county slammer on Cheshire Rd.
I don’t see the average middle class family looking favorably at the JRC and county slammer.
No equipment but they have very expensive smart phones with expensive contracts. $100-$200 sneakers but who would want to get them dirty playing in them. How much does a skate board cost? And most of them seem to have money for weed. So if there is a lack of equipment it is not because there is a lack of money.
Perhaps these kids need someone from the school committee to help with managing their budgets.
Skateboards run into the hundreds. No equipment I hope was a quip and not to be taken seriously. Problem is the chief meant it. Example of (another one) of how out of touch city officials are.
The problem in America is corpoations are anti american and have left every small city in the state of Ma.in decay ,drugs like no generation has ever experienced and people confused as to what has really happened. Herion is cheap and 20 times stronger,we need the death penalty for drug dealers.
You know your city is failed when your house goes down in value and taxes go up.It will take tremendous courage by the mayor to cut the budget, she may like all other mayors say it takes courage to raise the budget.Also blame student testing for crazy school budgetd
I can blame corporations for some environmental damage especially here in Pittsfield, but not for the decay and social and financial breakdown of an entire city. There are many organizations that should share blame including our politicians and even the medical profession. Doctors rely on much more powerful drugs than are needed to treat pain. Politicians, especially the progressives, create environments where lazy behavior is rewarded. We need motivation to be rewarded.
This article nails it! Pittsfield born and raised, now 77!!
Growing up I don’t remember having any “equipment”. Most of the time we used our imagination and invented games. We could play outside for hours on just our invented games alone. The most expensive thing we ever had, and it wasn’t that expensive, was a small inflatable pool for the summer that fit maybe 2 or 3 kids at a time. We were a group of some 5 or 6 kids so we would take turns using the pool which taught us cooperation and sharing. We eventually did get bicycles but not super speed bikes or expensive trail bikes just your average “banana” bike as they were called in those days.
I think the biggest problem kids face today especially here in Pittsfield is poverty, but not because they can’t go out and buy expensive “equipment” to play. Poverty is a problem because it creates tension in the home between parents. Lots of fighting by parents, if the kids even have parents that is, creates kids who are depressed and don’t have hope for the future. Kids growing up without responsible adults in their lives is another problem. Kids don’t need “equipment”, but they do need people who care about them and love them even if that is just one person in their lives. The family unit needs to be repaired and brought back to life here in this city and country. We need to reward loving and responsible parents who stick with their kids and their families despite problems.
Very good topic today- The neighborhood parks were everything to us when I was young. We needed the bare essentials -no coaches or referees just show up and get involved.our paper routes and mowing and shoveling for the elderly kept us busy and kept a few cents in our pocket for penny candy anda trip to the club on friday nights to see the movies at the club. A BAG OF STALES FOR 5 CENTS FROM THE BAKERY KEPT US ALL SATISFIED DURING THE MOVIE. Yes those were the days. The best of days that modern kids will never experience. SAD? YES-vERY SAD
Pat is right on. There are great problems in the U S, many,many problems. Being Homeless is an epidemic in this Country that is underrated,next to drugs,as an immediate crisis. Young people are taking there lives and suffering everyday, due to despair, many turn to drugs and crime as an escape. We need to create jobs in this Country, now! Young people aren’t lazy like people think, they’re willing to work. You hear the pension
slobs, from the Public Sector getting fat pensions saying that many of our young adults are sucking the government dry? Not true, many are way below the poverty line, while these retired Fat Cats get fatter. Some of the Fat Cats get 50 to over 100g a year from the Public sector. Priorities in this Country and City are to get aliens drivers licenses, transgender bathrooms and smoking cigarettes. We keep hearing everything has been vetted before it is voted by the City Clowncil? By whom, not by the majority of the taxpayers who are footing the Bill.
With all due respect the playing fields of Eton were never pickup games or unsupervised. In the mid forties the country was barely out of the depression and WW II had just ended. As a teammate of Chucks in the Midget league I well remember our lack of equipment. The best part of not having the equipment was that we didn’t know we didn’t have it because nobody had it. The teams were formed from the neighborhoods, Clapp Park, Pecks, Lincoln St. area, Benedict, Elm St. and spawning ground that mass produced all stars, Lakewood. Around 1950 Little League ended all of that. Parents got in on the act, uniforms were issued and the kids got to play in front cheering fans who occasionally were at times downright insulting to the 12 year olds. Fences were put up so home runs could be hit just like the big leagues. Had Chuck Garivaltis been 5 years younger they would still be chasing his home run record.
Every day, first at Egremont, then at Deming in the snowless weather. Baseball, football, basketball. Whether it was a full fledged game or run the bases, playing with invisible men, or just a pass if there were only two of us.
A game of HORSE at a friends house til his mom got sick of hearting the ball bounce off the garage.
Hockey on Goodrich Pond and practicing goal shots in the driveway. Learning how to re-glaze the windows we broke.
Though I grew up in Pittsfield, that scene was not unique to us. Nor is it unique to Pittsfield that kids only know how to play if adults organize it. We have ruined childhood. We have, by organizing every game taught our kids that they don’t have to learn to negotiate, solve their own problems, or “figure it out” How many times did you toss a bat to the opposite team to start the hand maneuvering to choose sides?
Those skills are lost on kids today – but to blame them is pointless since we did all the hard work for them. that is true in Pittsfield, Fargo ND or Plano TX.
At Deming, the “volunteers” took control of the fields – and the padlocks represent their ownership of their labors. they forgot for whom they fixed those fields and in reality it is not for the kids, it’s for the adults trying to re-live their youth.
Great article Dan. Just 30 years ago, Pittsfield was doing just fine. Then the massive layoffs began at GE and the city was in the toilet within 5 years.
I have to weigh in on this one. I have a 4 and a 7 year old. I am of the old school line of thought where I would love to kick my kids out of the house in the morning, call them for lunch and then dinner.
Alas, I cannot. This helicopter fear based parenting of now not only enables parents to hover over their wee ones 24/7 quickly scooping them up should they fall on the rubberized ground below but encourages them to speak out and call dss should I choose to let my children play in the front yard unattended, choose to read a book while they fall off the swingset and realize all by themselves that they are indeed just fine. Should I choose to go to the farmers market IN A PARK I am spoken to in unkind tones if I let my kids play at the sprayground (less than 100 yards away) while I chat with grownups and pick up some healthy dinner.
I being my brash self, often push these boundaries. Other’s of a softer nature are unable to handle the wrath of a self righteous do gooder
We live in a society that out of one side of its mouth bemoans the loss of secret forts in the woods and from the other side berates the parents that try to allow the freedom of independent play to the upcoming generations.
Gee, I wonder which political party pushed all the crap on us and members of that party are the first to complain.
Do you have anything to add to the conversation or are you just here to troll?
Ms. Lloyd I merely pointed out a political fact of life. Refute if if yiu want to try but you’ll find that liberal democrats are the ones pushing all these regulations on us. They drive business away and their answer is to put even more regulations on the books.
What’s the difference between Chuck playing neighborhood sports and Skate Boarding today over on East Street? Oh, they want to shut it down.
In an article in todays Eagle I see this in reference to the building of the Berkshire Innovation Center. “construction costs and prevailing wages have skyrocketed and materials are up”. Sounds like they are talking about the last three years. Uh oh,,,,does this mean the cost of the new school will skyrocket as well?
There may not even be money for Johnny to play organized school sports if this is the case. He may have to play in the park with a cover less baseball and grandpas old mitt.
Playing with the wiffleball until it split in half, playing tennis with a racket with 2 strings broken, putting tape on the wooden bat so you wouldn’t get a hand full of slivers……good times. At least I wasn’t the lefty that had to wear the glove backwards because noone had a left handed glove.
Ah yes dusty, when the stitches started unraveling the game was soon to end.
I remember playing with a pine tarred Carmen Franzone broken bat from the Pat McKernan bater program of foul balls for broken bats program..he he he…..bum bum bum bum fat Pat, bum bum bum bum fat Pat.
Pomeroy I also went there and the other writer is wright my parents never gave me spending money never mind a phone. Shoes I had pair for play and a pair for Sunday they just didn’t have the money to spend on things that were not necessary. I see parents to day they just hand too much to there children.
In response to your writing:
“Go to Deming Park on a weekday when school is out and the weather glorious. You will find no pickup games. You will, however, see two baseball diamonds — Little League and Babe Ruth League — with padlocked gates. You will find locked batting cages and a parking lot that consumes what used to be play space.”
You truly have no idea of what you are writing about. Yes the main playing fields are padlocked, but only to preserve the fields from some who may use the fields as a place to try their four-wheeling skills. There is however a practice field, a playground and plenty of open space that is open to any and all… and at any given time, the spaces are being used for practices, pick up games and some great father and son/daughter time. Not to mention the numerous pre-school programs that go the park daily during the spring, summer and fall.
The American Little League board members, parents and their volunteers spend countless hours at Deming, donating time to mow, rake and care-for space that their children and YOUR children use daily. Unless you are willing to provide some sweat into the equation, hold your thoughts to yourself.
I spent too many years coaching, helping to fix fields, and other work to make the fields a bit nicer. that said, the best part of everyone aging out was that I got to get away from the politics, parents, and attitudes.
I’m no where close to 75 (55 is more like it), but somewhere in this country we forgot how to let kids enjoy childhood.
No time for enjoying childhood, now parents schedule play dates. They tell their kids that on Friday you will be playing with so and sfron 3 to 5. After that it’s back home to the X box.
I totally agree. As kids, we had so much play time after school and after supper. I remember wolfing down my supper as fast as I could because I couldn’t wait to get back outside to play with the neighborhood kids. We didn’t have expensive stuff to play with. No, we invented stuff and that was what made it such a magical time. We would recreate tv shows like Lost in Space, but create our own episodes and all this drama played out in our backyards. I grew up in a middle class neighborhood. Not poor, but not rich either. The point is we had lots of free time for just being kids without adults around organizing everything.
PARENT
Thanks for the input. Allow a response. You are exactly the “person” I mentioned, you know, the “good intentions” type. I write about what I see, and I accurately described a walk this week through Deming. I notice you do not dispute that but rather admit it. The playing fields are padlocked. This is a public park, available for use by all. Don’t be surprised if one of these days or weeks or hours, those locks are snipped and the chains broken. You have no special rights or privileges at Deming or any other public space.
Perhaps if The Parents didn’t get out the micrometers to make the LL and BRL fields up to MLB standards, you wouldn’t have to worry so about “four-wheeling skills.” I’m sure that once in a while the other spaces at Deming find intermittent use, but be honest. It’s nothing like you describe. Except for Adult Organized Activities, Deming is mostly empty. You would be better off not spending the time as groundskeepers of Deming, pull out of LL, and just turn your kids loose to play — without you hovering overhead in your drone. As for “holding our thoughts to ourselves,” come, come. You know that will never happen. I have to much to say and too much wisdom to impart. Keep reading!
If the kids want to play, they’ll take care of the fields. We did. No city owned field should be padlocked..
I agree totally. Padlocking a public field? That’s got to be illegal.
Hi Dan- could you please post a note of retraction correcting your statement regarding the status of ball fields at Deming, with the new info that was provided to you.
Corp.want third world labor at any cost and just look around ,do you see whst it cost.Not 1 local politician said anything about 150 million going to General Electric ….its a corp scandle and not 1 word.
When I went to school there was no known PCB dumps placed next door. But that was before mayor Doyle came along.
Is this a sign of things to come with the new Taconic?\
http://www.berkshireeagle.com/news/ci_29870009/berkshire-innovation-center-funding-gap-could-swell-6
painter keep painting cuz yer gramur sux.
Thank you
I went to public schools
I’m thinking taxes go up 4.7 percent.
I think the biggest problem with our society is the, blame game. No one is willing to take responsibility for there actions. It’s the Goverments fault, it’s the Corporations fault. I’m a addict because of my home life, or because I’m bored and drugs are cheap. Time for people to man up and take responsibility. If you need a hand up, take it, straighten your life out.
Truer words have never been spoken.
The Guarantee for the new SCHOOL of the maximum price may be true, that’s if you believe in the TOOH FAIRY. In my opinion the PROJECT is to HIGH to begin with. Compare it to our tax rate, sometimes there is a higher commercial and a lower homeowner rate or vice versa – yet, have never heard anyone say we are EVER taxed to LOW, either way. The Taxpayer is being DUPED. The TAXPAYER should have had a say.
A side note to Cindy Taylor..Chapter 70 Money has Dried Up.
Pittsfield will never be a shadow of the city it once was. Anyone who thinks otherwise lives with their head in the sand. The rats are here and they are multiplying daily thanks to our generous
government handouts. Section 8 housing has exploded, there goes the neighborhood. How true. My old neighborhood is a ghetto. Three houses abutting my old house are boarded up
and should have been torn down. Obviously we need jobs but
did we have to set the bar so low to our city. This is an example of a misguided government program that only wreaks havoc and will lead good families to migrate!!
http://nypost.com/2016/05/08/obamas-last-act-is-to-force-suburbs-to-be-less-white-and-less-wealthy/
Now that guy talking about tri town and the health dept. makes sense. I would vote for him as a city councilor.
And Mr. Kinnas also.
Ma. Is not a liberal state.It is the leader of testing in this country.We have spent billions so that we can call our kids failures.Most of these failed tested student are 5 times smarter than kids of there age who spent time 40 years ago playing baseball…..your blind if you dont see how many more kids plays sports now…..girls sports are off the charts…..we wish things could stay the same but this state failed all……..Umass is 26 k a year not 1,400
Dan I saw your TV program about the GE property you are absolutely right at this pace I probably won’t live to see it done
I totally agree. As kids, we had so much play time after school and after supper. I remember wolfing down my supper as fast as I could because I couldn’t wait to get back outside to play with the neighborhood kids. We didn’t have expensive stuff to play with. No, we invented stuff and that was what made it such a magical time. We would recreate tv shows like Lost in Space, but create our own episodes and all this drama played out in our backyards. I grew up in a middle class neighborhood. Not poor, but not rich either. The point is that we had lots of free time for just being kids without adults around organizing everything.
Remember the Big Dig? We’re in it, it’s called the Big Ceiling.
Mr. Valenti,
I actually feel like a little bit of my soul and self-respect are shrinking, just be responding to you now…..
Just curious, how do the parents feel about their ballparks in the town you live in? Love how you need to interject into things of which you pay no taxes on and never visit.
Keep up the good work, you and the other mouth-breathers give me a reason to get to the park early.