46.02 Koga's Tears: A Jackrabbits Story Pt. 2

[crobillard]

When we discussed going public with this story, my producer was adamant about a few things; we are always going to release audio files unedited with only short interruptions to explain anything we haven't previously told you about, we will try to keep our blog posts as short as we can to only give you the pertinent information you need to know and if at any point anyone needs additional clarification on a particular part of the story please post in our comments section below and we will try to get some answers, but they will always be monitored.

Finding the start of this story was an incredible challenge because the beginning is actually not that interesting. We never launched an investigation into the Edmonton Jackrabbits organization with the intention on finding anything malicious, criminal or even worthy of scandal. We actually were a little more selfish in the endeavor than we care to admit. There was no radio show/podcast in the city that focused strictly on the Jackrabbits. We thought this could be something pretty popular. We discussed it during the 2043 season when it looked like the team might actually have a chance to win yet another Landis and we knew that there was a pretty huge hunger from fans to get to know the organization more. They've been pretty secretive the entire time Robillard has been with the team. Even after the Landis wins in 2038 and 2041, there was no real team sponsored parade and interviews with individuals in the organization have been sparse.

Still, if there was anything bad going on we would know about it, right? I mean after all players have left the team and haven't really said anything noteworthy about the Jackrabbits. Bobby Lynch was upset after he was traded to Calgary and Jharod Thealer called Robillard an idiot after he was sent to Charlotte, but these are just understandably angry players right after being sent hundreds of miles away with no notice. They need to move their family, send their kids to new schools, etc. and if you thought you would be in Edmonton long term, well it's not shocking you would have this kind of response.

I don't want to waste any more time getting started, but I think it's important to know where we were coming from before we release the huge bombs we have to share. The first major action we took was contacting the Jackrabbits' front office. We wanted to schedule some interviews to discuss how the team was doing, the last several years of success and what the plan was going forward for the 2044 season. Several weeks passed and we weren't able to reach anyone on their office number for media members, so we decided to go visit their office in person.

I'll pass this over to one of our investigative journalists, Nic Tremblay.

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This was probably the first situation within baseball when I ever felt truly uncomfortable. Their office is located on 1224 Location Drive in Edmonton. I know usually these are next to the stadium, but their office is not. I don't know why and don't ask me. I just went over there and it's a pretty large office building. Way bigger than what I expected. I was certain this was not the front office the Jackrabbits used to have. I mean I don't have all the details in front of me right now, but it was probably a 20 story building. This was February of 2044 and when I walked into the building I was immediately taken back by the incredible warm air blowing passed me from their heating system. I approached their reception desk and told a middle-aged woman, named Cathy according to a business card I saw, that I was with Bower Pond Stories and I was looking to schedule an interview with their media department.

EDITORS NOTE: You should know that BBA organizations are obligated to participate in the media in meaningful ways. It's under debate what "meaningful" actually means, but that's what is in the owner's contract.

Cathy made a call and I wasn't paying attention too much because I was looking around me. I didn't really notice it when I got in, but there's a huge fountain on one side of the building that a tiny waterfall flows into. It is gorgeous. They have some colored lights flowing into it. It kind of reminded me of the Las Vegas Strip fountains before the bankruptcy and Bellagio teardown. Cathy seemed pretty nice before, but she startled me back to life when she kind of raised her voice and told me that the organization is not accepting new interviews at this time. This was really puzzling to me because as far as I am aware they were not doing any interviews at the time. I figured I would head back to Red Deer and see what our next steps were.

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We tried many different routes to get in touch with any employee in the organization all throughout 2044. We even reached out to the BBA's official channels to let them know that the Jackrabbits were not fulfilling their media obligations. It wasn't until early September when we actually were able to reach someone. We've tried similar tactics before, but it was Assistant GM Gicheru Gichure that we finally were able to ambush outside a team facility. We told him that we were trying to get an interview with someone with the Jackrabbits. He seemed surprised, but not in the way we expected. He actually didn't seem all that taken back by us collapsing on top of him. He seemed more surprised by us not being able to reach anyone. He said very calmly, "I will absolutely look into that. The Jackrabbits are committed to keeping all media apprised of all actions by the team." He then took our information down and gave us his information. He asked us to contact him directly on his cell phone the next time we need information, but for now he will try to get us in touch with the team's press secretary and public relations coordinator to schedule something recurring with the team.

Now I get it. This is pretty boring stuff and if this contact ended here we wouldn't be talking about this at all, but he said something strange before we went our separate ways. He said, "where is your station based out of?" When we told him he seemed to stare off into the distance blankly almost not even recognizing what we told him. It was an uncomfortably long pause and we all kind of looked at eachother with concern. I remember Nic looking at me like he was wondering if we should see if he's alright. As I opened my mouth to check, he looked at me right in the eye and said sincerely, "Red Deer is such a nice city. I need you to help me. I will contact you tomorrow."

There's nothing particularly jarring about the sentence "I need you to help me" on paper, but those three sentences haunt me. First, those first two sentences just don't have anything to do with one another and the last sentence felt like he was imploring me to answer it already. He walked away right after saying it and I was deeply concerned. I can't really convey it well enough in text, but there was something really unsettling about the entire interaction. It's something my group has discussed privately before and the next day that phone call felt like a pivotal moment for Bower Pond Stories and for me personally. We had no idea what to expect.