No Minor Accomplishment: The Revival of New Jersey Professional Baseball

Chapter 5: A League of His Own: Frank Boulton and the Atlantic League

M ajor League Baseball rule number 52 (a)(4) allows any majorleague club to block any other major- or minor-league club from playing within its territorial area without permission. Territories are defined by geography, and they were expanded between 1990 and 1994 to include the surrounding areas of a major-league city in order to ward off rampant intrusions of major-league territories by minorleague clubs. Major League Baseball executives feared that the stadium74 5 A League of His Own Frank Boulton and the Atlantic League Atlantic City, one of the original home cities of the Atlantic League. Photograph by Bob Golon, 2005. building boom of the early 1990s and the tremendous growth of the minor leagues might lead to the encroachment of its traditional marketing areas, resulting in decreased revenues for major-league clubs. If baseball were a normal business, subject to the rules of free enterprise, it could not get away with territory blocking. However, since the 1920s, baseball has been protected by a congressional exemption from antitrust law, giving it the ability to act as a monopoly in many cases. In the greater New York area, the territory of the Yankees and Mets is jointly defined as any part of the five boroughs of New York City, plus Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, and Rockland Counties in New York.1 A Long Island native named Frank Boulton ran headfirst into this baseball rule in 1993, setting in motion a chain of events that eventually resulted in the creation of the independent Atlantic League of Professional Baseball Clubs. Frank Boulton ’s “league of his own” altered the landscape of professional baseball in New Jersey. Boulton spent twenty-five years as a successful Wall Street financial executive, working for companies such as Smith Barney and the Union Bank of Switzerland. Like many who worked in the high-pressure environment of financial trading, Boulton sought enjoyment in other areas of endeavor; in his case, it was minor-league baseball. Boulton became involved in the minor leagues as a part owner of the Peninsula Pilots of Hampton, Virginia. In 1993, the Pilots moved to a newly built ballpark in Wilmington, Delaware. Playing in the class-A Carolina League as an affiliate of the Kansas City Royals, the newly renamed Blue Rocks were an instant success. Technically, they were encroaching on the territory of the Philadelphia Phillies, but nobody at the major-league level raised any objection to it. Boulton’s success with the Blue Rocks gave him ideas about moving the other minor-league club that he owned part of, the Albany-Colonie Yankees of the Eastern League. The Double-A affiliate of the New York Yankees, Boulton’s Albany club played in the antiquated Heritage Park, a substandard facility according to the new ballpark requirements established by the Professional Baseball Agreement. It became clear that the Albany-Colonie Yankees would have to leave Albany soon unless a new facility was forthcoming. Frank Boulton had an ideal solution in mind. In 1992, after consulting with the parent New York Yankees, Boulton embarked on an effort to move the club to the Central Islip area of Long Island in Suffolk County. Westernmost Suffolk County resided in the New York Mets’ territory as defined by Major League Baseball. After A League of His Own 75 conducting careful research of baseball’s territorial mileage limits, Boulton determined that the Central Islip location was indeed east of the Mets’ territory. He received the permission of the Eastern League to move the Albany club to Long Island, then he set out to arrange funding for a new, modern minor-league park. Boulton succeeded in raising the capital by working with the local government and business leaders. The future looked bright for an Eastern League club in Central Islip. By this time, Boulton had risen to the rank of vice president of the Eastern League, as well as becoming a well-connected, successful minorleague baseball owner. The Yankees approved moving their Albany affiliate to Long Island. The New York Mets, however, did not allow it, citing the major-league territorial restrictions rule. Boulton took his case to the MLB executive committee. “I flew to Texas,” recalled Boulton, referring to an executive committee meeting, “and walked in with an architect’s ruler, a Hagstrom map, and a copy of the baseball rules. I handed the rules...