Ajanidha
When the new GM of the Pilots, Dog Action, sauntered into the lobby of RAMJACK Sao Paolo, little did he expect to be accosted by owner Naim Diya Al Din within yards of the spinny doors.
Diya blurted out one phrase, shaking his wizened old fingers into the face of Action
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To get to the heart of the Ajanidha Praveen story, one needs to understand his place in the Sao Paolo story. Ajanidha, although only fairly popular outside of Brazil, is extremely popular within the vicinity of the Ballpark of Bucharest. He has high Loyalty, Adaptability, Work Ethic, Intelligence. He has low greed. To quote LEGENDARY manager S. Cole, ‘in public he can do no wrong’.
And the most wrong he cannot do is, of course, related to his ‘Academy of Bunt’, the bunting school he has set up to give impoverished children in the favela an opportunity to master the art of the sacrifice. Ajanidha of course hails from Hadgaon in India, the bunting capital of the world. Bunting is so popular there that games start with a man on first, and it is considered dishonourable to do something as crass as, you know, swing, when a sacrifice is available. Ajanidha is probably the best sacrifice bunter in the history of time.
All that has made him cherished in the community, but a divisive figure in the RAMJACK offices. An ancient old copy of a Bill James almanac was uncovered in a dusty filing cabinet back at HQ, which revealed that sacrifice bunting was actually not a great way to rack up mega-run innings. Fearing a ultimately deleterious effect on the quality of the Sao Paulo youth, a change needed to be made.
Hence
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* Earlier versions of this article may have implied that the decision to get rid of Praveen was motivated by the fact the 5th starter made up 10% of the capped payroll. A spokesman for the RAMJACK, Executive Coach Stan H. Stansman, has since clarified this: “We are surprised that the media has chosen to interpret of ‘overpaid veteran’ in such a negative light. Veterans are extremely important parts of our community, and unlike other organisations, we would much rather overpay them than underpay them. However, if anyone shares our commitment to overpaying veterans, we’d be happy for them to take over overpaying this one”.
Ajanidha Praveen extremely popular, overpaid veteran