Mandy Anderson: Good evening everyone, and welcome to Black Sox Tonight. Once again, our lead story takes us off the baseball diamond and into the surprising - and confounding - world of Sox owner Vinnie Vitale.
Vitale today traveled to Yellow Springs, Ohio, to personally inspect the accident scene where, two days ago, several self-driving tanker trucks owned by one of his companies – Agri-Green – disgorged their contents of liquefied pig manure onto a major highway.
Tragically, the spill caused several accidents, resulting in injuries to at least three motorists.
(Screen cuts to video of the crash scene)
Site of Yellow Springs manure spill
Anderson: Vitale visited several of the accident victims in their hospital rooms, apologizing for the spill and pledging to help with whatever expenses their medical insurance did not pay.
Afterwards, one of the accident victims – Marcie Hooper of nearby Byron, Ohio – said she was surprised to see Vitale turn up at her bedside.
(Screen cuts to video of a middle-aged woman, her forehead bandaged and her arm in a cast, sitting upright in her hospital bed).
Hooper: “It was very nice of him to come. He said he wanted to assure me that he would help with any unexpected expenses – and then he left me that!”
(Hooper points to an outsized fruit basket sitting on the window ledge of her hospital room).
Hooper: I mean, fruit baskets are always a nice gesture, but it seems like kind of a strange thing to bring someone in the hospital. How will I keep it refrigerated? He was nice, but a little strange. And I didn’t know they made suits with pinstripes that wide anymore …
(Screen cuts back to Mandy Anderson in studio).
Anderson: Several state and federal agencies are currently investigating the accident, which occurred on U.S. 68 near the Yellow Springs baseball stadium, and delayed the start of a scheduled game between Nashville and Yellow Springs.
Vitale maintains that accident must have been some kind of tragic malfunction in the computerized systems that run the robo-tankers involved in the spill, although authorities are wondering why more than one truck would have been affected by a software glitch.
Fruit baskets: always a nice gesture. Just ask Norris Rutledge!
(Mandy turns to face another camera)
Anderson: Now, for our second story of the evening. Reporter Cliff Martin has spent the day in Huntsville, Alabama – where he and I both worked before our move to beautiful Chicagoland – on the trail of injured Black Sox first baseman Mark Simpson.
He found him at Huntsville Hospital, where he had recently undergone surgery to repair his torn ankle ligaments.
(Screen cuts to Cliff Martin, doing a remote outside Huntsville Hospital)
Cliff Martin: That’s right, Mandy. Simpson himself declined interview requests, but I talked with Dr. Randall Greco - one of the area’s best known orthopedic surgeons - just moments ago.
(Screen cuts to video of Cliff interviewing Dr. Greco)
Martin: Dr. Greco, how did the surgery go, and do you expect Mark Simpson to be able to resume his baseball career?
Greco: Oh, the surgery went fine, fine. Yes, we do expect Mr. Simpson to make a full recovery.
Martin: What kind of timeline do you see, doctor?
Greco: Oh, 3 to 4 months. He’ll be ready to resume baseball-related activities by December at the latest, so he should be able to attend Spring Training with no trouble at all.
Martin: Doctor, were you able to determine exactly how Mark Simpson aggravated his original ankle injury?
Greco (suddenly guarded): No comment on that at all, Cliff. And now, if you’ll excuse me, I have rounds to make …
(Screen cuts back to Cliff outside the hospital)
Cliff Martin
Martin: So, there you have the medical side of things, Mandy. I have one more bit of information to add here – although I’m not sure what to make of it.
Anderson: Well, now I’m intrigued, Cliff.
Martin: I was able to find a hospital staff member who was outside Mark Simpson’s room while Dr. Greco was talking to him before the surgery. This staff member said that Dr. Greco specifically asked Simpson how he re-injured his ankle, and Simpson gave a very cryptic answer.
Anderson: Oh?
Martin: Bear in mind that Simpson already was on sedatives in advance of going into surgery, which may have affected his reasoning skills, but this staff member said he was asked about the circumstances of the re-injury several times. And he gave the same answer each time.
Anderson: And what was that?
Mandy Anderson
Anderson: Kate?
Martin: Kate.
Anderson: What do we think that means, Cliff?
Martin: Well, we don’t have a clue, Mandy. But perhaps there’s someone on the Sox training staff named Kate who knows something about this – although I know the Sox training staff, and I don’t know of anyone there with that name.
(Screen switches back to Mandy Anderson in the studio)
Anderson: Hmmm. Curiouser and curiouser. Well, everyone, we hope you’ll stay tuned for our next segment with Sox shortstop Joaquin Torres: how to sustain a big league career if you can’t top .190. Back in a second!
***
[Somewhere in the Boise, Idaho, metropolitan statistical area]
Norris Rutledge
Rutledge: Aww, hell no. He did not just do that! He did not just give a fruit basket to that poor lady. What is it with that crazy man and fruit baskets?
I feel your pain, lady. I surely do!
[Video ends]