That was the word ricocheting through shoeless' mind. Disappointed in himself. In what he had done. In what he had become.
"We need to make room on the roster for him, chief," Assistant GM Ben Schneider said, propping himself up against the doorframe to shoeless' office. "We spent $2.5 million. Should probably use him."
Shoeless remembered taking only one of the gummies he'd bought while down in Berkeley the week before. One gummy had only a measly 10mg of the good stuff. How did it knock out his memory of the night before? It certainly made him feel at peace, he recalled. Just absolutely filled with serenity.
"Sir?" Schneider leaned his head into the room. "You ok?"
Shoeless shook his head. Blinked. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm good." He picked up some papers off his desk and pretended to read them, then continued without looking up, "Send that kid we got in the Suzuki trade to Black Hills. He needs some additional spice to his dish, anyway."
Schneider nodded and left.
Two and a half million dollars, Shoeless thought, for a guy the Popes didn't truly need? Sure, Eric Wagner had been on his radar since breaking out with a great season in 2051, but the player Wagner was back then and the player he is now, at 33, were vastly different. He could actually play the outfield before. In Sacramento, he'd only make it on the field as a DH.
But his swing from the left side of the plate was still as smooth as its ever been, and his speed had never left him. Even so, it didn't make a lick of sense to nab him from the pool of misfit free agents left floundering in mid May. For $2.5 million, the team could have signed another promising foreigner to the international complex.
Shoeless slid open the bottom drawer of his desk and took out a pill bottle. He unscrewed the lid and shook one of purple gummies inside into his hand. Holding it up in front of him, he said, "Hell, let's just hope my subconscious is a better GM than I am."
He popped the gummy in his mouth, chewed it slowly before swallowing, then grabbed his phone.
"Gladys, be a doll and grab me some Nibs from the vending machine down the hall, would ya? Maybe some Funyuns, if there's any left."
