I thought I might have heard some throat clearing from a couple of members of the firing squad. I just couldn’t tell which ones.
“Before A.J. says what he wants to say,” Ed McGrath said, “I just want you to know that as a parent and a grandparent, that letter Joe sent you really got to me.”
“Yes. It was pretty amazing, wasn’t it?”
“He was an amazing man, your father,” Frost said. “It’s one of the reasons why you’re here with us right now and not downstairs with the others.”
“I’m not sure I understand. I thought everything that needed to be saidhadbeen said. Which is why I have sort of an existential question for you gentlemen.Why are we here?”
“We just didn’t want you to leave thinking that we’re just a bunch of stubborn old fools,” Rex Cardwell said.
“As if I’d ever,” I said, unable to stop myself.
At least Rex Cardwell laughed.
“There’s that attitude.”
“A chronic condition, I’m afraid.”
“What did I tell you boys last night when we were sitting here in this same damned room and talking about what’s best for the damned league?” Cardwell said. “We need some fresh blood.”
“I frankly thought I was only here to shed some,” I said to Cardwell.
Cardwell barked out another laugh.
“Nope.”
Nope?
“See, as it turns out we’re not as stubborn as you think we are,” A. J. Frost said.
And smiled himself now.
And stood.
“The reason we called you up here,” he said, “is to tell you to your face that you’ve got our votes.”
I wasn’t sure at first if I had heard him correctly.
“Wait…what?”
“You’re going to pass,” he said.
Seventy-Seven
CLAY ROSEN HAD ASKEDme to have a drink with him before I checked out. I told him I had a plane to catch, not to mention two football teams with which I had to catch up.
“You haven’t seen the last of me,” he said.
I asked if that was a threat or a promise.
“Little bit of both.”
Then he asked me what I’d said after Frost told me that the Hard-liners were suddenly behind me.
“I looked at him as solemnly as I could, summoned up all my personal grace, and said, ‘You havegotto be shitting me.’”
I was just about to finish my packing when I heard the knock at the door. When I opened it, there was a bellman standing there, holding a single red rose.