Will Fame And Love Return
Situations - Sticky And Complicated
Monday March 9, 2008
Inverness, Florida
It was mid morning, the Baltimore Clippers actually had a day off planned from spring training practice or games.
Rick Randolph was planning on a quiet day of just relaxing. Then his cell phone started ringing, he looked down at the called ID, it was Bill Falstaf calling.
Rick answered his cell phone saying “Good morning”.
Bill Falstaf said, “So I hear you guys have the day off, well it just happens that we do too”.
Rick asked Bill, “So what’s up, anything that I should know about”?
Bill replied by saying, “Something is always going on with those people, especially when it gets to the point that it’s beginning to really get sticky and complicated”. Then Bill continued, saying, “Maybe we can meet up today for lunch and chat”.
“Well, where do you suppose we meet up at” Rick asked, then said, “Should be some place where we won’t be recognized”?
Bill answered, “Since you’re in Ocala and I am in Tampa, let’s meet up in between somewhere, say Inverness, hopefully nobody will will be smart enough to recognize us, maybe we can show up incognito, say we meet up at the renown Florida Fish House, in Inverness, just off of Interstate 89 exit and the Central Florida Thruway state route 100.
Rick said, “It’s 9 am, so if we both leave now we will both arrive there around 12 noon, how does that sound"?
Bill said, “Great, then it’s all set, let’s both leave now.
So they both left their spring training residence, each got into their rent a cars and headed out to meet up with one another in Inverness.
About 3 hours later at 12 noon, both Bill and Rick pulled up into the parking lot of the Florida Fish House in Inverness, Florida.
Finding parking spaces where they could park their cars next to one another. When both of them got out of their vehicles, they were both clad, wearing Hawaiian flowered shirts, baggy shorts, sun hats and sun glasses, with the look of accidental tourists, then walked into the restaurant together.
Following the hostess to a booth in a quiet corner of the restaurant, they thanked the hostess and sat down.
Rick spoke up saying, “Well, what’s all of this shaking going on my friend”?
Bill laughed, then said, “I wanted to let you know that I made a couple of trade offers for you to your general manager Gene Hallowell. I told him that I would take you and also your contract and in return I would give them as many number #1 draft picks that they wanted and if I can throw in several top prospects that I would do that too, to complete the deal.
Rick spoke up and asked, “Well, what kind of bites did you get from them”?
Bill answered, saying, “He actually had an attitude about the whole package that I offered him”.
About that time, a waitress stopped by to take their food orders, then went back toward the kitchen.
Resuming the conversation, Bill said, “Hallowell said that he didn’t care about receiving any number #1 draft picks or prospects for you”. Pausing for a few moments, then Bill resumed, explaining, his story, “I was basically told that according to Hallowell and the team executives that you were not available for any player transaction whatsoever and that they were keeping you because according to them, you are their number #1 second baseman, trying to make me believe that you had invoked your “No trade clause” “.
“Those jerks”, Rick said, shaking his head in disbelief of the lies that they told Bill, then said, “No one has approached me on any possible player transaction, and especially regarding any “No trade clause” “.
Bill spoke up saying, I can tell you what they are doing, they tell me one thing, and then they do the complete opposite with you. What they are doing is “Holding the situation over your head”. That you are the one who has the problem. They are twisting you into the wind, making it impossible for you to play at your top level, and in order to hold you back, so that your eventual worth to the team or any other team is “0” “.
By that time the waitress arrived with their food, they thanked her, then they started to eat.
Bill spoke again, saying to Rick, “I can tell you what they are going to do, after they drive down your volume they are going to secretly shop you around to their partners in the cabal / syndicate and are going to sell you to another team for almost a dirt cheap price”.
Rick said, “In other words I will just be another nobody who gets sold off and then they make sure sure that I end up in oblivion”.
“Yes”, Bill replied, “it’s no different than any other common scam that these crooked goons pull on the rest of major league baseball”.
Rick asked Bill, “Other than standing in your way and trying to stymie everything that you do in the running of the team, how have you avoided being minimized or run out of baseball”?
Bill let out with a laugh, then responded by saying, “I will soon be 61 years old, I have been in major league baseball since 1964 and as a manager since 1979 and have been a part of front office operations since 1985. I have made a name for myself, they can try to take that all away from me, no matter how hard they try”. Pausing for a moment, Bill continued saying, “They can not get to me and that’s why they try to ruin the playing careers of guys like you and it annoys therm that you don’t give in or give up to their dirty, underhanded tactic”.
Rick uttered, “That’s absolutely amazing”.
Hearing what Rick said, Bill responded with, “And this group will find someone unknown and mold and train them, bring them along to compete and be in the face of star players like you”.
They had just about finished their lunches and were just sitting there and continuing to chat with one another.
Rick then said to Bill, “Oh, OK, now I get it, that explains everything that’s been going on. I guess that I will just have to be on my guard and just keep persevering through it all”.
“Just that, exactly”, replied Bill.
“So this situation has been going on for quite some time now”, Rick asked?
“A long while”, replied Bill. Then Bill said, “Just check the story on Jayson Gannon, baseball’s first superstar in the 1870’s and the purposely created rivalry with that of Henry Pennington, who was a .142 hitter, a sloppy player who disappeared, then came back as a superstar player hitting .390, and that will give you the message of what was going on in the 1880’s and 1890’s”.
The two men got up to get ready to pay for their meals and walked up front to the cashier’s counter, then left walking out the door to the parking lot to their cars.
Rick then turned to Bill and said to him, “Ah, yeah, I forgot to tell you about what Edmond Hawthorne did and said to me afterwards”.
Bill paused for a moment, then said, “Oh, this ought to be interesting”.
“Yes it is” replied Rick. Then continuing he said, “I was putting all of my gear that I brought with me in my stahl. Edmond Hawthorne called me to his office and after I entered he gruffly growled at me to close the door then told me to sit down in a folding chair. He proceeded to tell me in uncertain terms that i needed to step it up this coming season, that I had to return to my pre injury playing status or that I would be platooned with Kasi Seitan or lose my starting status to him, then I was told to get out of his office, get out on the field and step it up”.
Bill had an amused look on his face, then he said, “Oh, he’s just trying to act like a tough guy, when he’s just a jerk who is just following orders from Gene Hallowell and the team ownership group”.
Then Bill said, “I am sure that they didn’t like me calling them and making offers for you. Well, like i said, just hang in there, persevere, wait, then see where it’s all headed.
Then Rick asked, “By the way, how is Judy doing"? Tell her that I said hello”.
Bill smiled and with a twinkle in his eyes said, “Yes, I will definitely tell her, she will be very happy to hear from you. The past few days, she has been with Jackie over at Clearwater Beach. When she returns to Tampa I will have her giver you a call.
“Thank you Bill”, Rick Replied.
Then the two men shook hands, each got into their car and headed out of the parking lot and in opposite directions, each towards their individual spring training camps.
(C) 2022
