February 28, 2056
by Erwin Wardman for the Yellow Springs Journal
Louisville, KY – You might be wondering why I'm in Louisville and not Yellow Springs. It's because I'm following a breaking story, namely that your beloved Yellow Springs Nine are so poorly received in the eyes of the league now that a waiver claim – a waiver claim! - is unhappy to be donning the uniform.
I had to find out the truth for myself, and I did so, driving down here personally to get all the details.
It should have been a routine transaction. A 26 year old left handed swing man, Carl Henry, was placed on the waiver wire by Louisville, after they determined he wasn't a part of their future plans. Henry, 5-6 with 2 saves in AAA in 44 games (7 starts) and a career AAA ERA of 4.28, was available to any team that wanted him.
And apparently, Nine GM Rob McMonigal did. I barely looked up from my screen when the notice came in, but then I got a text:
"Henry is crying right now."
I can't reveal my source, but I can tell you it's someone extremely high up in the Cardinal organization. That's general management of an anonymous report, sorry.
I had to find out for myself if this was true, so I drove out to Louisville, where players were gathering to make the trip to Spring Training. I tried to meet with Henry, but I was unable to do so. He apparently had locked himself in the team hotel room and was refusing to come out. So I talked to some of his teammates.
"Yeah, he's upset," said Mike Fowler. "Who wouldn't be? He was planning to make it to the bigs with the rest of us, as peers. That's a lot of separation anxiety. It's hard being in the BBA minors, man. So many players just keep on playing forever, it seems. We might never get a chance to show what we can do, because guys like Ian Anderson and Don Simpson are going to play until they're ninety or something. He really wanted to stay here with us."
"So it's not because of being named a Nine?" I pressed the point, because I owe it to all of you to do so.
"Oh [unprintable], that's right. It was the Nine, wasn't it?"
I affirmed this.
"Man, he's [unprintable]."
I heartily agreed and moved on.
So there you have it. Proof positive that even players on the fringes don't want to play for McMonigal, even though it means a chance to wear a big-league uniform. That's where this franchise is at and it doesn't look to be ending anytime soon.
