Chapter Five
Acouple ofdays after Seamus’s heart attack, Lucas settled back in the chair and laid his head on the headrest, closing his eyes. Only, when he closed them, he saw his father and the way things were supposed to be, before Lucas had screwed it all up. This was supposed to be Lucas’s office, when he had finished college and joined the family business as his father’s right-hand man, ready to step in to his role as heir-apparent. His younger brother and sister had no interest in baseball or business, so the weight of the family heritage fell to him to carry.
And he dropped it, shattering his family and his father’s dreams.
Lucas studied the reports submitted by the departments, outlining their strategy for the upcoming season and their projections for the year. He rubbed his eyes and blinked several times to wipe the grit out of his eyes. He hadn’t been sleeping well since being told about the job. Usually the excitement of a new challenge fired him up and he’d dig right in. The shock of being back in the stadium offices where he had spent so much time, the sudden heart attack of Callahan, and the resulting uproar in the offices threw him off his game. For the first time in his career as a turnaround consultant, guilt prodded him, reminding him he was playing with people’s lives, people he knew, and the timing of this job couldn’t be worse.
A knock at the door tore into his memories. He straightened up and put on his game face. Cole Hammonds poked his head around the door, a carefully blank look on his face.
“You wanted to see me?”
Lucas remained seated and gestured to the seat in front of him. “Yes, Hammonds. Thanks for joining me.”
Cole stepped into the office and Jason Friar followed him. “Since you wanted to discuss players, I thought I’d bring the head of player development.”
Lucas nodded once and gestured to the chairs. “Perfect. We can kill two birds with one stone.”
The men sat across from him and Lucas took a moment to assess the playing field. Something else his father, and Lucas’s own experience, had taught him. He’d use the silence to see how his opponents acted. Once they did, and they always did, he could determine if they were true opponents or could be switched to his side. Then the real work began.
Predictably, Cole was the first to speak, loyalty to the old guard deeply ingrained in him. Jason Friar, on the other hand, kept his own council, studying the situation, assessing the options. But Jason was new, too new to be a real ally. Cole was the key, the linchpin.
“So, how do you want to play this? Pander to my ego? Or appeal to my survival instinct?” Cole asked.
After a long moment, Lucas pulled out a folder and tossed it across the table. “Is this your proposal?”
Cole leaned forward and opened the folder, scanning the beginning of it. His jaw tightened and he glared at Lucas. “How did you get this?”
“Irrelevant. I’ve read it. A few points are not quite accurate but overall, a good plan. I assume you’ve received no encouragement from upper management?”
Cole closed the folder and sat back, crossing one leg over the other. “I’m not going to help you undermine Mr. Callahan, especially now.”
Lucas folded his hands in front of him and studied the other man. “I’m not trying to undermine him. I’m trying to save his team before it sinks beneath him. We can work this two ways. One, you help me. Two, you don’t and you’re out of a job in a few months. Which will it be?”
Cole’s face reddened, anger a slow boil beneath the surface. “I don’t appreciate threats.”
Lucas spread his hands out in a gesture of supplication. “I don’t make threats, only promises.”
Jason leaned forward, insinuating himself into the conversation. “So, what are you looking for, Mr. Wainright? And don’t tell me that you just want to help us. What do you really want?”
Lucas studied him for a long moment. “I underestimated you, Mr. Friar.” He propped his elbows on the table. “Fine, let’s lay it all out on the line. Yes, my father used to own the Knights and you’re damn right I’m pissed that Callahan took advantage of my father when he was sick. But that’s in the past. I work for major league baseball, from whom you took a sizable loan. I help teams regain solid financial status or maintain it. Your team has major issues that won’t be solved overnight or with half measures.” He glanced at the other man, changing his tactic suddenly. “Friar, you’ve played on a lot of teams and against plenty of others. What are your thoughts on these ideas, these methods of the shift and pitching changes? Can teams win with them?”
Jason glanced at Cole then back to Lucas. “I hated playing against the shift. I swear, it dropped my batting average by several points every year. However, we never employ it. We have a short right field porch, meaning fly balls turn into home runs easily. And most of our pitchers are fly ball pitchers. As a hitter, I love that. But now, we can’t win this way.”
“Exactly my point. And Hammonds, I think you knew this years ago, which is why you wrote this proposal. And before you ask where I got it, it was part of the documents given to me when I started. So, what can we do?”
“Not a damn thing,” Cole stated flatly. “Mr. Callahan vetoed it so we never pursued it.”
“That’s negative thinking and that won’t help our situation.” Lucas bit off the words, trying not to condemn the man for being so shortsighted.
Jason leaned forward. “What can we honestly do? Spring training has started, only a few weeks away from Opening Day. Our roster is set and we’re playing games. If we change anything, we don’t have time to make it work before we go into the season. We’re just too late.”
“Not to mention the fact that Mr. Callahan will never go for it.” Cole snorted.
“He’s not in charge anymore, is he?” Lucas let the words fall into the silence. He paused a moment to let the words sink in, then he spoke in a more reasonable tone. “Wouldn’t you rather he come back to his team instead of finding out it’s been taken away to pay his debts?”
“And you really care?” Cole stated sarcastically.
“I get that you don’t trust me, so we can sit here and go round and round, playing the blame game, or we can trust each other and get this done.” After throwing down the challenge, Lucas leaned back and placed his hands on the arms of the chair, still trying to maintain an open and welcoming posture, while remaining implacable and strong.