Closed-Door Meeting Angers Boston Coalition

Members of a coalition opposed to the use of tax dollars for sports arenas are criticizing a closed-door meeting between Boston Red Sox officials and Beacon Hill leaders.

“Last time I checked, this was a democracy,” Rob Sargent of the Massachusetts Public Research Interest Group said Tuesday. “This is precisely the kind of thing that should be debated in public.”

Red Sox chief executive John Harrington and General Manager Dan Duquette sat down with Gov. Paul Cellucci, Senate President Thomas Birmingham and House Speaker Thomas Finneran for more than an hour in Cellucci’s office late Monday afternoon.

The topic of the meeting was the team’s proposal to use public and private funds to build a new $600-million Fenway Park. The team has yet to say how much money they would like taxpayers to contribute.

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In the midst of a two-week meeting in Cleveland, policy-makers for the United Methodist Church on Tuesday denounced Chief Wahoo, the Indians red-faced cartoon mascot.

The team said the church’s opposition would not alter the use of the big-toothed logo. Chief Wahoo was designed in the 1940s and is stitched into the team’s caps.

The church’s General Conference, which meets every four years, approved a resolution saying the mascot demeans American Indians by reducing them to a caricature.

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Right-handeder Jeff D’Amico was activated by the Milwaukee Brewers, who sent right-hander Everett Stull outright to the minors. D’Amico was the winning pitcher in the Brewers’ 4-3 victory over the Chicago Cubs, not allowing an earned run in seven innings.