[Breeze]

FOFC - Player Update

As I'm studying scounting reports I get a knock on my door.

"Come in."

The door opens and little guy who looks like a body builder walks in. It's Joe Cain the janitor. With a sheepish look on his face he says, "Ah, coach. The security guys have told me they think Jace Kronside broke the mirror in the bathroom."

"OK?" I say in a tone indicating I want to know what you want me to do about it.

"They would like you to talk to him about it, they want to know why he did it and what he plans to do about it."

"Fine" I say and dismiss Joe, thinking to myself, 'why the hell do you think he did it? He was pissed about giving up a run last night. IDIOTS'

Joe Cain the janitor exits my office and I wait a few minutes before walking out. I move around the locker room searching for Jace Kronside. His bag is in the locker so I know he's arrived at the park. I ask around and am told by Bo Knowles that he thought he was headed to the bull pen with some midevil torture device.

I roll my eyes and head that way. When I get to the bull pen sure enough he's setting up a tri-level, squarish, wooden device. I know I need to talk to him about the broken bathrooom mirror but I have to make sure I know what's going on:

"Ah Jace, what'cha doing? You sure that thing is safe?"

Kronside steps back from the wooden frame, looking down.

"Sorry skip, just figured I needed to get some extra tosses in and didn't want to bother any of the catchers."

Turning again, Jace pulls pop cans out of a bag laying by his feet and starts fitting them into the clamps on the frame. Once he's done there are 9 cans fitted, 3 on each level, inside, outside and middle.

"Well it seems safe enough, I guess I'm ok with it as long as Sal is."

"By the way, I need to talk to you about an incident with a mirror." I say, trying real hard to keep a straight face. "Joe Cain the janitor told me about it this morning and the security guards apparentely determined you had something to do with it - I don't know how they figured that out, God I hope they don't have cameras in the bathroom - but anyway they said to talk with you about it - so I'm talking."

Kronside pauses as he bends down to pick up a bag full of baseballs. A moment later he grasps the bag and rises, looking back at his manager, a tinge of red to his face and looking more than a bit embarrassed.

"Yeah. I wanted to talk to you about that this morning, but when you weren't here I figured I'd get some throws in first. You see, I was sitting there, and the tap was dripping, and...well...it just kept dripping and...well, I missed. Again."

The big man is silent for a moment, clearly knowing how assinine this all sounds.

"Would it be easier to pay for it now or to just take it out of my pay?"

"Ah...I see. Water dripping is pretty annoying. I'll tell Joe to get that fixed. As for the mirror" I pause trying to think of the best way to phrase this "I'll figure something out. I'll tell them it tried to attack you and you were only defending yourself. Hell, if it's the security guard that checked my id the other day he might actually believe that."

I start walking off, but I turn back and say, "You know son, I put you in a pretty tough spot last night. Man on 3rd, only 1 out and some pretty good hitters coming up. I wasn't real happy with the walks, but I would have been surprised it they hadn't been able to at least generate a sac fly." I begin walking off again, then turn back and add "And you struck out Gehrig. He went around on that pitch, it was a horrible call by the umpires."