HINSDALE, Mass. -- Walking through the clubhouse at his summer camp, Dan Duquette lets out a hearty laugh when asked if the trainer's room is off-limits to the media.

"This one will be open," the former Red Sox general manager says.

Duquette also found it somewhat amusing that on June 7, the day he broke ground on his camp in a ceremony attended by then-Gov. Jane Swift, the Red Sox began a stretch of inconsistency that wiped out their 40-17 start.

"Is that right?" Duquette said. "That's the day I started my new job."

His new place of employment is nothing like his old one, to say the least. There are no ivory towers or bunkers on this 100-acre parcel nestled in the Berkshire hills not far from Pittsfield. Instead, there are green fields and bunkhouses.

There aren't any sports talk shows, just sports to play. There won't be any brush fires in the clubhouse, just campfires outside it.

The Dan Duquette Sports Academy, which is scheduled to open next summer with activities ranging from canoeing to baseball, provides shelter from the scrutiny and pressure that came with running the Red Sox.

"It's a different environment," Duquette said. "It's a different venue. You're not in the spotlight. You're not on the hot seat. I'm not on the hot seat every day. People don't look at the decisions that I make in my business with the scrutiny now that they did previously, which is great. It's good for me. It's welcomed by me."

So in other words, nobody is going to rip Duquette for building a tree fort in right-center field of one of the four baseball fields at his facility.

"When we fail," Duquette said, "people won't be there to point it out. And when we succeed, the kids will know."

After he was fired in spring training, Duquette had more time to work on his camp, one of several in the area.

"When things didn't work out with the Red Sox, I had a lot more time to devote my energies to this project," Duquette said. "I knew with the Red Sox up for sale, there were some groups that if they got the ballclub, there was a chance I wouldn't be working for them. My dad always advised me that the best time to look for a job is when you have one."

Duquette is confident he will get another front-office job in baseball.

"I have talked with a couple clubs," Duquette said. "My main project is getting this [camp] up and running. I'll probably get an opportunity somewhere."

He wants to be a team president or CEO.

"I've done that GM job for 10 years," Duquette said. "I believe I have other skills that I developed in Boston, working on the stadium issue and working on some of the long-term planning issues, being involved in the transfer of the franchise. I'd like a little bit broader executive job."

He prefers to stay on the East Coast.

"New York is convenient," Duquette says, perhaps mindful that Mets GM Steve Phillips is in the final year of his contract. "New York is on the East Coast."

Red Sox interim GM Mike Port, who worked under Duquette, said someone will hire his former boss.

"Definitely," Port said. "Dan's an astute judge of talent. He brought a lot of positive things to the Red Sox. I can definitely see that happening."

Now that he's no longer in the spotlight, Duquette is more apt to share his opinions about the Red Sox.

"I think the dynamics of the new ownership group are coming into play in the [GM] job search," Duquette said. "J.P. Ricciardi grew up in the shadow of the Red Sox and elected to go back to Toronto. Omar Minaya turned them down. You have to wonder about that."

He laughs at the notion that Fenway Park can be renovated, something the new owners have been examining for months.

"Whatever," Duquette says in a dismissive tone.

Duquette was seen at Fenway Park several times over the summer. He attended six games, sitting in the stands. Although the Red Sox made the playoffs three times in his seven full seasons in Boston, his legacy was tarnished by turmoil that plagued the team his final two years.

"Well, hindsight is always 20-20," Duquette said. "There's some decisions that I made that didn't work out for the Red Sox. But by and large we made some fundamental decisions to help the franchise. We didn't accomplish our goal to win a championship. But we did have a contending ballclub. It was a very interesting team to the fans. We grew the fan base. We grew the interest of the team. I'm very proud of that. I'm also very proud that we grew the revenue base of the ballclub. We also grew the value of the franchise significantly."

Duquette will use his connections to help his sports academy grow. In 2003, the camp is for boys and young men ages 8-18. It may open to females the following year. Duquette's advisory board includes Tommy Lasorda, Carl Yastrzemski and Pat Williams, a former NBA executive.

"Yaz is the first Little Leaguer elected into the Hall of Fame, which is important because we're going to be working with Little League kids," Duquette said.

Duquette said Celtics director of player personnel Leo Papile has agreed to help. Pedro Martinez and Peter Gammons are among the board members of the academy's nonprofit foundation, which will provide children who lack the resources an opportunity to attend the camp.

"Pedro's agreed to help us," Duquette said. "We're going to have [his brother] Ramon up here next summer, too. We've invited him up to be an instructor."

Mets assistant GM Jim Duquette, Dan's cousin, is also on the foundation board. Another cousin, Patrick, is an assistant basketball coach at Boston College.

"We're going to have ex-pros as instructors," Duquette said. "We're going to have some of the top college and high school coaches. We're going to be announcing the professional players over the winter. We've invited a number of them and we've gotten a good response from several of them. We'll have a lot of instructors that worked with me in Montreal."

The New England Sports Museum has agreed to donate memorabilia that will be displayed in the academy's clubhouse.

"I have a lot of sports memorabilia from my time in baseball," Duquette said. "I just started out purchasing sports memorabilia and the New England Sports Museum came on board. They're going to give us an exhibit in the FleetCenter. I had to get some Yankees sports memorabilia. The closest that I got is a photo of Joe DiMaggio congratulating Ted Williams for his home run in the All-Star Game. That's as far as I could go."
Copyright 2002, Hartford Courant