Ballpark chief knows the score.(John Palmer)(Brief Article)

JOHN PALMER, THE NEW PROJECT manager for the Reds ballpark, vows to avoid Seattle's mistakes.

John Palmer III knows where to find the traps that could push the Reds' new Great American Ball Park project over its $322 million budget and past its scheduled 2003 opening.

And, he said, he knows how to avoid them.

Palmer, the project manager recently hired by Parsons Brinckerhoff Ohio to over-see day-to-day management of the Reds ballpark project, said it's simply a matter of setting ground rules and living by them.

"You can't allow yourself to fall into the trap that 'I don't want to take the time to tell you what this change is going to cost,"' he said.

He knows from experience.

Palmer, 49, comes to the project with a resume packed with experience on sports facilities, including the Seattle Kingdome, 1996 Summer Olympic Games facilities in Atlanta, …