Boynton's field of nightmares: Why a once-promising Little League park makeover struck out

BOYNTON BEACH — Sports agent Phil Terrano said he wanted to give back to the baseball fields he played on as a child and make Boynton Beach a world-class baseball training destination.

Instead, Terrano collided with the East Boynton Little League as the project, once heralded by the city, devolved into bitter, personal accusations that spilled out in City Commission meetings among competing travel leagues, eventually leading to litigation.

The city pulled the plug on the training facility on Feb. 16, sending a letter to Terrano saying he failed to prove he had the financing for the project, a contention Terrano denies.

“My whole entire passion project, because of where I grew up as a kid and everything I intended to do for the community, which was unanimously voted on multiple times, became a political (expletive) game,” Terrano said.

Terrano spoke to The Palm Beach Post a year ago about how the state-of-the-art training facility would attract professionals and Little Leaguers alike. Boynton City Manager Daniel Dugger said Boynton Beach would become “the epicenter for youth and youth sports.”

The fields are hallowed ground, home to the Little League World Series team in 2003 and featured in 2006 by the ABC-TV home-remodeling show “Extreme Makeover.” The league has been around in some capacity for about 70 years.

Terrano’s planned training facility was part of larger renovations of the fields by the city. In February, parents and students spoke in tears at a commission meeting about the closing of Field No.1 just as the older teens started their season.

Terrano said parents blamed him and his project for Field No. 1’s closure but that the contract is with another vendor. “I took over no rights to any field,” he said.

Coaches with the Little League were also upset with the project because they feared it would eat into their private lessons, Terrano said. “I was hopeful that they would see past their own pockets and realize this was good for the kids in the community," he said.

AJ Quinones, the league president, referred calls to the league’s attorney, Gavin McLean. McLean did not return a phone message for comment.

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Why did Little League want the sports agent spearheading the project banned from the fields?

Acrimony reached a fever pitch last fall when the Little League informed the city in an Oct. 30 email that it had voted to ban Terrano from the fields for personally attacking Quinones, coaches, and parents on social media or through texts.

Terrano was present, but according to an email to Parks Director Kacy Young, “Mr. Terrano did not take ownership of his threatening behavior or apologize to the members.”

The ban was unenforceable because the city owns the fields, not the Little League, Terrano said

With the public fuming over the closing of Field No. 1 at the Feb. 6 City Commission meeting, an East Boynton Little League parent who frequently criticized Terrano claimed she had received a lewd and threatening text from “a person you are working with.”

“I win. You lose. I got the lease and the trash will be gone soon — you are part of the trash,” Tiara Rogers said the text read.

“That is one of the people y’all have a contract with,” Rogers told the City Commission.

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Dugger asked Rogers after her public comments to come to the back of the dais to tell him who sent her the text. The city broke off relations with Terrano 10 days later, who called it a coincidence but didn’t deny the text.

Rogers, who provided screenshots of the text exchange, said Terrano is disruptive in other travel league circles throughout Palm Beach County as well.

“I am extremely proud and grateful the city decided to step up and cut ties with Mr. Terrano,” she said. “When I spoke at the City Commissioners’ meeting, I was trying to get the point across that I find his behaviors to be extremely dangerous.”

Final financing for the project did not materialize

Dugger said the city contracted with an outside vendor to determine the financial fitness of Terrano’s Primetime Sports Group. He feels Terrano acted in good faith but “our third-party analysis of the financing for the project didn’t support it.”

“We wish Mr. Terrano the best of luck and regret that this partnership didn’t work out as planned. I think it was a great idea that the community could have benefitted from,” Dugger said.

Terrano showed The Post a document from First Choice Mortgage of South Florida saying “it was willing to pre-qualify” Primetime Sports Group LLC for the project. “I got two letters from two separate banks that say I have unlimited funds,” he said.

He appeared before the City Commission on Feb. 20, saying the feud had kept his son from playing in a baseball tournament “because of what his father was doing in the community.”

Terrano filed an amended lawsuit in November against four people claiming defamation, breach of contract and tortious interference in his travel league. Defendants include the leaders of competing travel leagues and two parents.

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His attorneys through text referred questions back to the amended complaint. They did not return phone messages on Monday for additional comment.

Defamatory statements by the defendants caused prospective youth baseball teams to renege on joining Terrano’s league, the lawsuit claims.

Phil Thompson is an attorney who represents defendant Oscar Santalo, who runs the competing travel league.

“We’re pretty confident that we are going to prevail in this case one way or another,” he said. “The things Mr. Santalo specifically said about Mr. Terrano were either absolutely true or were opinions.”

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Boynton Beach's Little League baseball makeover plan strikes out