45.02 The Specimen
Posted: Thu Dec 10, 2020 2:29 pm
"Sir, the specimen is prepared for your inspection."
Shoeless clicked his pen several times before looking up from his yellow post-it note covered desk. It was just yesterday his team of scouts, coaches, and trusted advisors had poured over the combined scouting reports for the 2045 Amateur Draft one last time before making their initial selection. With the 28th slot in the first round many of the more talented or established prospects were nabbed by the other jackals of the BBA, but a few diamonds fell through their greedy hands, leaving Shoeless and his team a range of interesting ballplayers to choose. In the end, it was the green-eyed woman who pushed the group to select Dallas Dixon, the one-time highly recruited high school football quarterback who had suffered a devastating arm injury and who now is falling back on his pure athleticism to carve a career out of baseball.
"I'd prefer if you didn't call our new ballplayers that," Shoeless said, rising from his desk. "Plus, there's more to a ballplayer than what your little tests show anyway."
"I prefer specimens, sir," said the green-eyed woman.
"Well, as long as this specimen hits like you and my scouts say he will, I guess, you can call him whatever you'd like." Shoeless followed her down a long hallway to a set of steps that led to a state-of-the-art research and medical center constructed beneath the centerfield grass at the new Basilica at Muskrat Slough ballpark. He glanced at the sign above the steps that read, Authorized Personnel Only, and looked sideways at the green-eyed woman. He was never fully comfortable with the experiments the green-eyed woman and Dr. Kocherschmeltz performed on his baseball players, and he was still a bit confused how she remained a fixture within the organization despite the departure of the doctor. He certainly had never brought her or Kocherschmeltz aboard, and his inquiries to Mr. Dyer, the team's owner, provided more questions than answers as Mr. Dyer was under the impression they were Shoeless' hirings.
"You'll need to put this on," the green-eyed woman said, handing him a white cleanroom suit.
"Who signed off on this facility down here, anyway?" Shoeless asked as he fumbled with the suit. "I don't remember authorizing any of this."
"That is unimportant," she responded as she pulled on her own bunny suit. "Please, this way."
The green-eyed woman moved her head in front of a security retinal scan, and the door lock clicked open.
Shoeless clicked his pen several times before looking up from his yellow post-it note covered desk. It was just yesterday his team of scouts, coaches, and trusted advisors had poured over the combined scouting reports for the 2045 Amateur Draft one last time before making their initial selection. With the 28th slot in the first round many of the more talented or established prospects were nabbed by the other jackals of the BBA, but a few diamonds fell through their greedy hands, leaving Shoeless and his team a range of interesting ballplayers to choose. In the end, it was the green-eyed woman who pushed the group to select Dallas Dixon, the one-time highly recruited high school football quarterback who had suffered a devastating arm injury and who now is falling back on his pure athleticism to carve a career out of baseball.
"I'd prefer if you didn't call our new ballplayers that," Shoeless said, rising from his desk. "Plus, there's more to a ballplayer than what your little tests show anyway."
"I prefer specimens, sir," said the green-eyed woman.
"Well, as long as this specimen hits like you and my scouts say he will, I guess, you can call him whatever you'd like." Shoeless followed her down a long hallway to a set of steps that led to a state-of-the-art research and medical center constructed beneath the centerfield grass at the new Basilica at Muskrat Slough ballpark. He glanced at the sign above the steps that read, Authorized Personnel Only, and looked sideways at the green-eyed woman. He was never fully comfortable with the experiments the green-eyed woman and Dr. Kocherschmeltz performed on his baseball players, and he was still a bit confused how she remained a fixture within the organization despite the departure of the doctor. He certainly had never brought her or Kocherschmeltz aboard, and his inquiries to Mr. Dyer, the team's owner, provided more questions than answers as Mr. Dyer was under the impression they were Shoeless' hirings.
"You'll need to put this on," the green-eyed woman said, handing him a white cleanroom suit.
"Who signed off on this facility down here, anyway?" Shoeless asked as he fumbled with the suit. "I don't remember authorizing any of this."
"That is unimportant," she responded as she pulled on her own bunny suit. "Please, this way."
The green-eyed woman moved her head in front of a security retinal scan, and the door lock clicked open.