Read Online Strike Three You're Dead by R. D. Rosen - Free Book Online

Harvey, indicating her simple black dress and thin gold belt, had said, “You look like an expensive Dunhill lighter in that outfit.”
    “That’s a better line than I expect from a baseball player.” She smiled and swirled the ice in her gin and tonic.
    “That’s what college will do for you.”
    “You know, Harvey,” she said, “I just want to say that we’re glad to have you.”
    “I’m glad to be here,” he said. “It’s a nice house.”
    “No,” she said, grazing his arm with her free hand, “I mean on the team. I can’t for the life of me understand why the Red Sox didn’t protect you in the draft. How many years were you with them, five? All right, for them you may not have been the hitter you’ve turned out to be for us, but you had consistent RBI production, you know how to advance a baserunner, and you’ve got a gun for an arm out there in center field. You weren’t having problems with the owners, were you?”
    Harvey shook his head and finished chewing a boiled shrimp.
    “You’re good for at least four, five more years, barring injury, of course,” she continued. “This is what I want to say. We’re an expansion team, and frankly, I don’t care much if we win a whole lot of ball games this first year. I’d be happy with sixty, tickled with seventy. Now, what I want to see is Felix begin building a solid franchise for next year and the years after that. We need a solid nucleus. Every winning team has that. And you’re a big part of the nucleus. If you ever lose a step or two in center, we can always move you to left, and when you’re old and gray”—she actually winked at him—“we can always keep first base open for you. You know, I can almost see you as one of baseball’s elder statesmen, bringing along the younger guys.”
    Harvey picked at the deviled egg on the cocktail napkin in his left hand. It was before Felix’s absence from the team, and since Harvey had only the vaguest idea about her interest in baseball or in the Jewels in particular, her speech came as a refreshing surprise.
    “All right,” she said, “you’re part of the nucleus. You and a few others. I can level with you, can’t I? I like what I see of Chuck at short—I can never pronounce his last name. I think Randy is a major league catcher. We have to be strong up the middle. Every winning team is strong where it counts. Dan Van Auken is part of the nucleus. What is he, twenty-four, twenty-five? In a year or two, he’ll be one of the premier lefties in the league. We’ve already got Bobby Wagner. They’re all part of the nucleus.
    “Of course, we’ve got to hold on to the nucleus. Wagner’s in the last year of his contract, and he’ll go free agent over the winter, so we’ve got to do everything possible to keep him here. Same goes for Randy. You, Harvey, if I’m not mistaken, have another two years to go on your current contract, which I’m sure you’ll want to sit down and renegotiate with Marshall, the way you’ve been playing. Felix and Marshall want everyone to be happy here.” She took a lusty drink of her gin and tonic. “We’ll make a trade or two in the off-season. We’ll strengthen our left-handed hitting. We’ll pick up a long reliever. We’re building, Harvey, we’re building for next year. You’re wondering why I’m telling you all this.”
    “I’m wondering why you’re telling me all this,” Harvey conceded.
    “I want you to be patient. Felix is tired of losing; underneath, he’s a winner. I know it’s not easy for veterans like you to start over with an expansion team. But we’re going to be a winner.”
    “I hope so, too,” he said. “You know, I didn’t realize you were so involved with the team.”
    She lifted her glass to her mouth, cracked an ice cube between her teeth, and swallowed it. “Your wife probably doesn’t like being left alone,” she smiled.
    “I’m not married.”
    “Oh. Then who’s that lovely brunette over there in the white