Off to Camp
It’s that time of year when BBA clubs all across America & Canada struggle to get dozens of Baseball players and their equipment from wherever they have ended winter to their teams Spring Camp. This year we have just over 50 expected to attend, thankfully though for us, not many are complete Spring rookies, most have a camp or two behind them already. We have another four Rule 5 picks though attending their first Wichita camp, 36-yr-old Julio Velasco, 28-yr-old Mutsuhito Imai, 22-yr-old R.J. Davis (all relievers) & 27-yr-old 2B Jorge Reyes. We were heavy on relievers having lost six arms from the pitching staff at the end of last season. In fact, our only FA signing was a reliever too, 29-yr-old Lucio Gomez. God! 50 odd players and we still felt light in some areas.
A lot of the great players that reached their post season finals in Triple-A & the Florida Prospect League would be here, expecting to make a good contribution, but few had a realistic chance of sticking with the Aviators this year. 2045 was the year that the management & scouting departments had all pencilled in for their big debut. Spring is a strange time though; anything can happen, and jobs can be won or lost before the team settles back in Wichita.
Talking of strange times, in the middle of all the chaos of vans unloading at the complex, players milling around like the first day of school and exasperated kit managers trying to find the players to kit out with the 2044 training gear, up rolled a UPS van. The driver, a spotty faced teenager, jumped out into all the confusion and held up a package in a polyethene bag while starting to shout “Brother Allred, Brother Allred”. Everyone just ignored him and went about the chaos they were creating, an empty truck, anxious to get on its way, started beeping his horn at the obstruction and the general noise level rose even more. I took pity on the poor kid, and not wanting to really ruin his day by telling him that Brother Allred was far more likely to be found in Wichita, accepted the package on his behalf.
It was a strange package, when I took hold of it I found there was quite some weight behind it and it felt long and knobbly through the thin polyethene. My teenage mind instantly wondered if Sister Allred needed a bit of . . . well, you know. Taking it back to my office so it wouldn’t get lost in the general detritus lying around, my curiosity got the better of me and I ripped open the bag. Inside was a most strange statue that I really didn’t have a clue what Brother Allred had ordered it for?
