children's ballpark runs into the Massachusetts Endangered Species Act

Today's Boston Globe contains an interesting story on how a good idea got entangled in a bureaucratic mess.  Nearly ten years is apparently not enough to get a project for the benefit of children approved under the Massachusetts Endangered Species Act.  Babe Ruth would not be happy:

Babe Ruth's only living daughter, Julia Ruth Stevens, 92 – a Red Sox fan and board member for Mini-Fenway Park – says her legendary father wouldn't be happy about the delay.

"I think he would be frustrated," she said from her Arizona home. "I don't think I could use the language that he would, but I think he would think it was just plain stupid."

Stevens was in Quincy last summer for the Babe Ruth World Series, and toured the site.

"It's a place where children can come and play and they have a wonderful place to do it in," she said. "I just can't see how they can hold up a thing like that.

"I'm all for nature and extending the lifetime of various little things of various species, but I really do think that people take precedence over that.

"This is a wonderful, wonderful project. Somebody needs to light a fire under them. Everyone concerned with it is ready to go, but the state government is holding them up."