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CLIFF BLAKE, Portland YMCA executive directors, and the late Charlie Mistos, Biddeford, began stellar careers in the early 1930s

According to friends, Robert Blouin guarded his age much like Jack Benny. What the late Blouin couldn't hide were his considerable athletic achievements i and out of baseball. ft would require a truck to transport all his accomplishments. Fo Instance, he was the founder of Maine Babe Ruth Baseball, coaching many of his Sanford teams to first or runner-up spots mo New England Babe Ruth tournaments. He also championed restore Sanford’s Goodall Field into one of New England’s finest diamonds, where many state, regional and even New England Babe Ruth tournaments were held. And he was instrumental m equipping the park with its first set of lights. He also maintained an interest in American Legion baseball for Sanford’s Cole Post. The long list also included Blouin coaching the Sanford High baseball team and he also served as athletic director at his alma mater. Blouin had been a baseball and football standout at Sanford High, captaining the gridiron team my 1943. The Springvale native wielded a strong bat in high school competition. He was also strong academically, earning a Bachelor of Science degree from UMO and becoming a stellar teacher at Sanford In 1984 the athletic complex at the northern boundary of Sanford’s Gowen Park was named the Robert J. Blouin Field. a deserved honor for his more than four decades of coaching, teaching and public service to Santora. Additionally, the Santord created the Robert J. Blouin Scholarship Fund in 1983 in recognition of his service to youth and the community. one of Sanford’s top citizens and it will be a long time before anyone nears the contributions he bestowed upon the city he loved.

Art Boothby’s credentials for the Maine Baseball Hail of Fame include superior performances at several levels and the reinforcement of those who saw him play. “Art Boothby excelled at every level during his baseball career and always brought a fiery intensity and iron will to the baseball diamond,“ observed Don Douglas. Douglas, (MBHOF, 1991), said Boothby's love of the game Is evident as he continues to play in the over-30 and over-40 leagues In Hartford, Conn. At Gorham high school, Boothby was a four-year letter-winner in soccer, basketball and baseball. He was a four-year starter on the baseball team, playing center field as a freshman. Boothby became a pitcher as a junior, earning team MVP. In his senior season, he struck out 18 batters against Greely. His high school! pitching record was 10-1. In basketball, Boothby was point guard as a Junior on the top ranked team in Western Maine for most of the year. the Rams were unbeaten, 16-0, going into the tournament, won two more games then lost In overtime to Traip Academy in the Western Maine final. “One of the great disappointments of my career, he said. “ Traip went on to stomp Schenck in the state Final.” But summer was for baseball. Boothby was a three year starter for Manchester Post in Westbrook. “| learned a lot from Jimmy Burill (MBHOF ’92) but we were always second to South Portland so we never got to the state tournament,” Boothby said. Boothby went on to prestigious Amherst College where he played basketball and baseball as a freshman, varsity soccer as a junior and varsity baseball as a three-year starter 1971-1973. As a senior, Boothby was chosen first team New England when he hit .3/78 and led the Lord Jeffs in stolen bases. he was also voted honorable mention All America by the AACBC. During and after college, Boothby played in the Portland Twilight League from 1968 to 1973 and again in 1976. He was a player-manager of the Gorham team in 1970 at the age of 19 and won the batting title in 1973 with an average of .478. He then moved to Connecticut and played in the Hartford twilight League for 19 years, 1974-1988. in the summer of 1976, he played in both the Hartford and Portland leagues, trying to play in 12 games in Portland so he could qualify for the playoffs. “| Was probably the only one stupid enough to ever try to play In both these leagues at the same time, he said. Boothby finished second for the batting title in Hartford that summer, hitting 431 and losing the championship (for batting), on his last at bat. “| think | would have been the only one to win a batting title in both leagues at the same time’, he said. One summer one of the pitchers he faced was Billy Swift who was tuning up for a trip to the Pan-Am games. Boothby played in the over-30 league from 1989 to 1994 and was selected to play on three over-40 teams that qualified for the World Series in Arizona. He was the leading hitter at .435 on the team that lost in the finals to Chicago. The opposition included five former Major Leaguers including Jose Cardenal at shortstop. He was also selected to play on an All-Star team in the over-30 league that played against Bill Lees Gray Sox team that Included Bobby Bonds, Dick McCauliffle, Bill Almon, Dalton Jones, George Foster, Bob Stanley, Mark Fidrych and Junior Ortiz.

Jim Bouchles has already been recognized for his tireless efforts on behalf of Auburn athletics. In 1990 he received a Hall of Fame award from the Edward Little Alumni Association, and in 1992 he was enshrined in the Auburn-Lewiston Sports hall of Fame. today we welcome him to the Maine Baseball Hall of Fame. Jim's long love affair with the National Pastime began with the Bates Manufacturing Company, which he headed for ten seasons. His 1954 team won the Yankee Amateur Baseball Congress of Northern New England title and captured third place in the National ABC Tourney at Battle Creek, Michigan. For 22 years Jim was at the helm of the New Auburn Post #123 in the American Legion program. His teams were always top contenders and produced several Maine standouts. Larry Gowell and Bert Roberge were out standing pitchers who reached the Major leagues and have been inducted into the Maine HoF. George.Ferguson (HoF 80) Dave Begos, Bud White, Billy Reynolds, Rick Tasha, and Current E.L. coach Bruce Lucas, are among the many outstanding New Auburn performers. At one time, Post #123 racked up 42 consecutive wins and Jim never had a losing season — sometime playing 40 games a year. Jim was also an area scout for the Braves for 15 years. Davis Richardson, a player and later assistant coach under Jim, recalls that “Jim was a very positive influence on all the kids that played for him”. Upon leaving the dugout, Bouchles served as business manager for 15 years and received a plaque for his 3/7 seasons of service to the New Auburn Post. For 22 years, Jim served on the Board of Directors and was past president of the Police Athletic League; and for 25 years on the Board of Directors of the Auburn-Lewiston YMCA. He was also a founder and officer of the E.L. “Grandstand Club’. “I can think of no other individual who has done more for high school athletes in this community’ — Craig Jipson, YMCA Program Director.

Archie Boutot of Guilford, whose mitt was long the target of pitcher Billy Buckland’s baffling deliveries, will join the late Corinna ace in the Maine Baseball Hall of Fame. Boutot, born in Kingman in 1901, was as durable as he was talented. His career spanned three decades and countless Maine teams. He caught in several towns before coming to Guilford in 1923, where he played Saturday and Twilight League ball. Sunday action was confined to Togus until Sabbath play was permitted in other areas of the state. After catching in the Blue Ridge League under Manager Joe Neptune, Boston Red Sox catching great and charter Maine Hall of Famer Bill Carrigan recommended Boutot to the Bosox. Offer acceptance would have meant transfer to a New England League club. At the time, Boutot was faring better financially in Maine, so did not report. He continued to play at Togus with such standouts as Jimmy Fitzpatrick, Charles and Elliot Small, Bucky Gaudette, Pat French, Squanto Wilson, Del Bissonette, Danny MacFayden, Don McLellan, Vic Gouger and Noko Young. Classy diamond teammates and opposition at Guilford included Will Jackman of the Philadelphia Colored Giants, Maurice Holbrook, jim Cunningham, Arthur Fowles, Buckland and Fitzpatrick. Other game veterans were Al and Ray Farnham, Win Cole, Winnie Weston, Walter Kerry, Harvey Hatch, Omar Cloutier, Slim McLaughlin and Ear Heal. The marvelous receiver with the strong throwing arm and timely bat will be a welcomed Hall addition.

As an aspiring Temple youngster, who eventually became a high school baseball star, a Townie outfielder, and played for Larry Boyce, said recently–and likely spoke for many–”He was my idol, my inspiration, my mentor.” Boyce loved baseball. He played the game first in South Paris schools and later in the Pine Tree League. Years after he had left South Paris, a Lewiston Sun sportswriter referred to him as a “former Pine Tree luminary.” His family moved to West Farmington sometime in the 1920s, where he put on a uniform for Mack’s All-Stars, a Farmington-area collection of baseball notables, and barnstormed with them in Franklin and Somerset counties” Bingham, Skowhegan, Madison, Phillips and all the rest. He met a girl in Temple–Marion Hodgkins–and, starting about 1930, established, managed, and played for a ball team there, playing in a small hayfield on the Intervale on Sundays and mid-week, too, as many as forty games per year. He played and managed into the war years, and then, while his younger players took two and three year leaves of absence to wear an army uniform, he served on the Temple Board of Selectman and replaced his drafted brother-in-law clerking in the general store. Following the war, he reorganized the Temple Townies, built a new field, and became again their player-manager, scheduler, scorekeeper, groundskeeper, fund raiser, and catcher. It was during the post-war period that he had his greatest success. In 1949 at age 46, he took himself out of the Townies lineup and retired to the bench as manager, scorekeeper, and occasional late-inning pinch hitter, his post-war batting average .402 over the four-year span. By 1951, his team had accumulated a post-war record against all comers–Phillips, Strong, Kingfield, Farmington, Madison, South China, Jay and Callahan’s Hard Cider Boys included–of 59 wins and 32 losses. He was the appointed to the Board of Directors of the Yankee Amateur Baseball Congress, and put the Townies in the Lakes Region League to vie for the YABC championships. He kept the Townies in contention for four years in a league that comprised YABC contender Monmouth, Famingdale, Randolph, and eventually North Anson, Bingham, and Skowhegan, among others. He managed the Lakes Region League all-star team to victory on at least two occasions, once against former Yankee pitcher Lefty Gomez, who was fishing in Rangeley and needed, he said, to “limber up” for the upcoming Yankee old-timers’ game in Yankee Stadium. In the mid-1950s Boyce provided the inspiration for creating the Temple Little League Tigers and was having a field built when, in May 1957, he suffered an untimely death at the age of 52. On opening day in June 1957 Boyce Park was dedicated to the memory of Lawrence Boyce. The Tigers have played there for the past fifty years. Larry Boyce is remembered as the man who kept baseball alive in Temple, a builder of character, an advocate of sportsmanship, a teacher, a coach, an inspiration. The players and their fans loved him and have never forgotten him. He brought hope to his adopted Temple on Sunday afternoons for twenty-seven years.

The early 1940's was a period of talented Portland High School Baseball teams, including three Telegram League title clubs. While only a freshman, Lloyd's diamond skills enabled him to crack the starting lineup of the 1941 P.H.S. Telly champions. He followed that with two All-Telegram League seasons — as an outfielder (.386) In 1942 and as a pitcher in 1943. Lloyd's coach, the veteran Jimmy Sibson, recalled that "Lloyd had a terrific arm, the best | ever saw. Boynton's enlistment in the Navy resulted in him missing not only his senior season at P.H.S., but also the opportunity to accept a contract offer from the Brooklyn Dodgers. Lloyd's naval career included him surviving the sinking of his ship by a German U-boat in the Arctic Ocean. His Navy stint also gave him the opportunity to play service ball with many major leaguers: Dick Sisler, Hank Majeski, Hank Sauer, etc. Foliowing his discharge, Lloyd signed with the St. Louis Browns organization in 1946, playing in the Wisconsin State League. Although illness cut snort his 1946 season in the Oklahoma State League, Boynton was able to finish out the year with the Portland Pilots in the New England League. in 1949, Lloyd earned league MVP honors while campaigning for St. Georges de Beauce in the Canadian Laurentian League. After several winning seasons as the Beauce player-coach, Lloyd finished his active playing career with the Thetford Mines team in the Canadian Provincial League. His basebaill experience and knowledge brought him back to the game in 1969 when major league baseball expanded into Canada. He served as an instructor and player evaluator for the Montreal Expos' tryout camps from 1969 through 1971. since the 1950's, Boynton has resided in Canada. The father of three children and a retired sales representative, Lloyd lives in Sherbrooke, Quebec, where he remains active in golf, hunting, fishing, Dowling and curling.

“One of my greatest thrills in life was the first time I ran onto the baseball field in Kennewick, Washington, the Northwest League in 1971, in a San Diego Padre uniform; I was being paid to do something I would rather do than eat – play baseball.” - Willie Boynton Will was born and continues to make his home in Skowhegan to Raymond “True” Boynton who passed in 2014 and Phyllis Boynton, aged 94, who also still resides in Skowhegan. He is one of six children. He had four sisters and one brother. Will and his wife of forty six years, Bonnie, are the parents of Justin, Yale and Brooklin. He is self employed as the owner of Boynton and Pickett LLC Land Surveyors. He also owns a baseball legacy which reaches far beyond his hometown. Will (Willie to many Maine baseball fans and players) began playing Little League, Babe Ruth and American Legion baseball in Skowhegan continued in his days as a town team player in the Northeast League with the Guilford Advertisers then as an All America pitcher at Springfield College and ultimately was a second round draft choice of the San Diego Padres. His signature fastball left many broken bats and shaking heads along the way. Will showed prodigious talent for throwing a baseball at a young age. As a Little League pitcher, he once struck out seventeen batters in a six inning game. That is not all. He also caught a pop fly for an out. Six innings, three outs per inning equals eighteen outs. Will accounted for all eighteen of the opposition’s outs. Let that sink in a minute. When he entered Skowhegan High School, he met a man whom he would call, “The man who had the greatest influence on me in baseball”, his coach Ken Reed. As a senior pitcher Will averaged 2.7 strikeouts per inning, which, you might note, was just a tad off his Little League pace. Coach Reed later was his teammate on the powerful Guilford Advertisers whose roster included Roger Clapp (MBBHOF ‘84) and David Gaw who joins him in this year’s class. That team advanced to the YABC Tournament in New York. He pitched against teams whose lineups were laden with future Hall of Famers: Mattawamkeag with Herbert, Kenneth and Dennis Libbey and the Roberts 88ers with Bob Baumer would be examples. In fact, the young hurler defeated the local Auburn ASAS with a complete game two hitter to send the Advertisers on to the YABC. He was a Northeastern League All Star. Not all of the people in the stands were local fans; there were lots of college coaches and professional scouts who were also watching. One was from Springfield College. It did not hurt Springfield’s feelings that this fellow was also a capable football player. In fact, the truth was quite the opposite. It took some time, but it was not long before the Will Boynton who toed the rubber for Springfield looked just like the one folks in Maine remembered. As a junior he returned to his old stomping grounds to face Colby. The coach at Colby then was a fellow who knew something about baseball. His name was John Winkin. He watched the former Skowhegan hurler strike out twenty Mules in a complete game win. Will struck out two in the sixth inning followed by three more in the seventh, three more in the eighth, and three in the ninth, those all in a row. He was almost back in Little League form. In an interview with the The Waterville Sentinel Coach Winkin said of Will, “One of the finest pitchers I have seen since I have been coaching.” Further down the road Coach Winkin would be a force in giving Will All America recognition in 1971. Check out some of the other names on that list: Mike Schmidt, Burt Hooten and Pete Broberg. Yes, let’s talk about Broberg for a moment. Some of us baseball fans “of a certain age” will certainly recognize him. I’m pretty certain there was at least one day when he recognized Will. That was the day that he defeated Broberg and Dartmouth 1-0. The win moved Will’s record to 7-1. He had thirteen strikeouts. Some of the media was not nearly as embracing as The Sentinel. An article from The Harvard Crimson was titled, “Crimson Nine Meets Springfield; Indians rely on ‘Pride of Skowhegan’” The article continued, “ The name of the hero of the game is Willie Boynton, a junior right hander from Skowhegan, Maine. Boynton, who did not make the starting rotation last season has come off the bench with a blazing fastball to pitch four complete games, establish an ERA of 0.87 and lead the nation in strikeouts per game with 15.7.” The writer took great pains to underscore that Harvard was definitely not “up” or worried about the outcome. Their playoff spot was secure. In fact the would be scribe was a bit condescending. “Boynton will face hitting against Harvard like he’s never seen before. Why, up in Skowhegan the only experience he got was pitching potatoes in the barn,” I have to say drips an unfounded arrogance. In fact, one might say that something other than potatoes was being pitched. In spite of a case of Poison IVY League, Boynton went on to win all New England honors to go along with his All America accolades. He also won the Springfield junior Athlete Of the Year award for his feats on the gridiron as well as the diamond. Springfield advanced to the NCAA tournament, eventually being eliminated by Florida Southern 4-0 in ten innings. Will ended up being selected in the second round of the MLB draft by the Padres. Then it was off to Tri Cities in Oregon and then AA Alexandria, Texas. Take that, Harvard Crimson! No one can dispute that Will Boynton has had a tremendous amount of success at many levels of baseball from the local teams in his hometown to the national stage both in college and at the professional level though he is loathe to talk much about it. When I first talked to him about his nomination, he asserted that he “doubted that he was worthy.” That might be one of the worst pitches he ever made. For some of us, there is no better place to be than in a room with others who have played the game. You know, baseball brings out the young person in all of us who have ever played it. Please welcome a fine representative of Maine baseball to the Hall of Fame.

With his induction into the Maine Baseball Hall of Fame, Leon Buck completes the trifecta of Maine sports royalty, having been previously inducted into the Maine Sports Hall of Fame and the Maine Golf Hall of Fame. Born in Woburn, Massachusetts, in 1916, Buck moved to Bath at the age of two and lived with his mother and grandparents. Although he grew up playing sandlot ball and pitching hundreds of tennis balls at a canvas bull’s eye in the barn, he nearly missed out on a three-season high school athletic career due to his mother’s fears. “She wanted me to grow up to be a Little Lord Fauntleroy, in a velvet suit, playing violin,” Buck reminisced in a 2009 article in The Forecaster. “She got the doctor to say that I had heart trouble, and I couldn’t play any sports, because I’d come in sometimes with the neighborhood gang… and I’d have a bloody nose, or something, and it was the end of the world for her to see me bleeding.” Before his senior year at Morse High School, Buck took matters into his own hands and sought the advice of a heart specialist in Portland. Buck learned that his heart was fine, and from that point on his athletic career took off. In fact, he went on to be the only Morse High School graduate to earn five varsity letters in one year—in baseball, basketball, football, track, and golf. That 1932 Shipbuilders team, coached by Sammy Cutts and led by their “Big Three” battery—starter Buck, catcher Harry Ring, and reliever Newell J. Wilson—shocked baseball fans across the state when they beat Deering 17-2 on the Rams’ own field. Leon Buck earned the win and contributed three hits in the shellacking at the hands of the Morse underdogs. Buck’s position in the Morse halls of sports lore was cemented with a victory over undefeated Cony in the 1932 league game billed as “the greatest schoolboy battle of the year.” The boys in blue and white crawled back from an 11-2 deficit in the fourth to defeat the team from the Capital City 16-14, at that time the first win by Morse over Cony in 28 years. Buck pitched all nine innings, the third game he had hurled in eight days, but saved a little something extra to strike out Cony slugger Don LaCasse in the bottom of the ninth to end the game. After graduating from Morse, Buck attended Kents Hill for one year, contributing to their Maine Prep School Baseball Championship in 1933. Buck, by now a legend in the City of Ships, next threw for Lin Wells’s Bowdoin College team, developing a reputation as a reliable man on the mound and a solid member of the pitching squad, and leading the Polar Bears to a Maine State Series championship in 1936. By the time Buck graduated from Bowdoin in 1938, he had played on the baseball, golf, and hockey teams. “Balloon Ball Buck,” as he was called, also toed the slab during summers for Bill Gove’s Bath Clippers, the town’s entrant in the Heart o’ Maine league. From Bowdoin, Buck attended the Harvard School of Dental Medicine and, after graduating in 1942, entered the Navy. His last pitching assignment was in May of 1943, when he threw his “balloon balls” for the USS Constellation against the Newport Naval Training Station in Rhode Island. Dr. Buck and his late wife, Letitia, raised their three children in Bath, where Leon established his dentistry practice until he retired in 1980. He exchanged his spikes and glove for golf shoes and clubs, and embarked on a legendary golf career. He has accumulated a wealth of honors in the sport over the years, including winning the Maine Amateur Gold Championship in 1950, earning the Bath Country Club championship twelve times, and being named four-time State Best Ball champion with Dr. Ray Lebel. Just this month, at 94 years old, Buck, the head rules official for the Maine State Golf Association, worked his 75th consecutive Maine Golf Open. Leon Buck epitomizes the phrase “well-rounded athlete,” and his contributions to Maine sports over nearly a century are now punctuated by his hat trick of inductions into three of the state’s hallowed Halls of Fame.

Philip “Bunky” Buotte Westbrook High School has given Maine many of its most colorful and proficient athletes and one of these was the peppery little back-stop, “Bunky” Buotte. Although Buotte garnered 13 letters in football, basketball, track and baseball and was Vinall Trophy winner in the Western Maine Basketball tournament of 1952, it is for his diamond exploits that he is honored tonight. ““Bunky’ caught for the Blue Blazes from 1940 to 52. He was almost a clone for his equally colorful and combative coach, the inimitable Freddie Harlow. In 1950, ‘““Bunky” hit .367 - a very good sophomore season. In 1951, “Bunky™ and his teammates reached the heights with a Telegram League title and the State’s Class L (large school) championship. Westbrook boasted a superb southpaw Bill Cary (10-3 with 13 complete games) and a .397 hitting, far-ranging shortstop Bob MacHardy. When the All-Telly team was chosen “Bunky” was the only underclassman on the team. He was the highest hitting catcher in the league and led the loop with 22 stolen bases. In the State Championship game at Bangor, ‘“‘Bunky” went 3 for 5, stole three bases and scored three runs as Cary shut out Presque Isle 9-0. In 1952 when the Boston Braves scouts selected a 15-man All Star team at the conclusion of a three-day Press Herald-Braves Clinic, one of the two catchers selected was “Bunky” Buotte. Labeled “compact and speedy’, it was indicated that he impressed defensively and would swing the bat satisfactory. Buotte played for the Manchester Post Jr. Legion team in 1948 and 1949 and entered the Twilight League ranks in 1950 when he pastimed for Yudy’s Tires. He also played with Pallotta Oil and D.A. Fogg nines. In 1952 he played with the Auburn Asas in the fast Down East League. After this stint he was reportedly offered a Brooklyn Dodger contract but he entered the Marines from 1952 to 1956 and his ball-playing was limited to a brief stint at Parris Island. Returning from the service - a stint in Korea included -“Bunky” played for the Capitol Theater Red Sox in the Twilight League and coached the Westbrook Lions Little League team. When Coach Harlow was leaving Westbrook for Deering High he was reported to Nave selected Wil Gouzie and “Bunky” Buotte as “the most outstanding athletes participating in all three major sports. - a tremendous accolade indeed! In 1954 “Bunky , who now resides in North Windham, married Lorraine Kneeland and the couple had three children Mark, Bruce and Kathy.

Daniel B. Burke was uniquely qualified to bring professional baseball back to Maine for the 1994 season and beyond. Only Burke possessed the combination of enthusiasm, vision, desire, resources, Skill, stature, and clout needed to return minor-league baseball to Portland for the first time since the late 1940's. Burke emerged victorious in his 1992 application for a Double-A expansion franchise, known now simply as the Portland Sea Dogs. It is the State s first minor-league baseball team since the Maine Guides and Maine Phillies, a triple-A franchise, departed Old Orchard Beach in 1988 after five seasons there. Burke, 65, retired earlier this year as President and CEO of Capital Cities/ABC after a remarkable career in which he gained great influence, power and respect even beyond the network television business. Burke's connection to Maine dates back to 1954, when he began his annual summer visits to Kennebunk Beach. He and his wife Harriet -better Known as “Bunny” -- also courted there before marriage in 1957. They have owned their current summer home in Kennebunk for 17 years. The Burkes Nave raised four children -- Stephen, Frank, Sarah and William -- all of whom were exposed to baseball through their father's passion. Frank, who lives in Brunswick and operates a radio station in Bath, reports that he and his siblings have long been baseball fanatics as 9 result. Daniel Burke recalls attending an occasional Double-A game with his own father -- while growing up in Albany, N.Y., during the Depression -among his fondest childhood memories. Burke has never broken his bond with baseball, even while building his career. While running Capital Cities’ radio stations in Detroit in the late 1960s. Burke attended roughly 60 Tigers games a year. He also traveled to the team's spring training site in Florida each year, bringing along his children as well. Even in more recent years, Burke has been known to fiddle with his AM radio dial during summer nights at Kennebunk Beach, attempting to tune in Tigers games. Burke’s passion, knowledge and background has not been overlooked in Major League circles. His name was raised by team owners at least three times since the early 1980's as a desirable candidate for “Commissioner of Baseball,” but Burke quickly squelched such talk on each occasion. he says he would prefer to spend his remaining summers in southern Maine, visited by his children and grandchildren, watching his own team and giving something back to a state that remains close to his heart. He says that is why he was willing to spend a reported $3.5 million for the new franchise. His involvement provided instant credibility for Portland's application -- even though the city's population base, climate and stadium proposal was less impressive than those of other cities vying for a team. So it seemed fitting that during the Sea Dogs' inaugural home opener this past April -- amid introductions of players, celebrities, politicians and other team officials -- the capacity crowd of more than 6,000 saved its only standing ovation for owner Daniel B. Burke.