Chapter 10

Arlie slept on the issue and didn't write to Susan's mother until after breakfast the following morning:

To: alissamunger@yahoo.com
From: "Arliss Stone" astone@knox.net
Subject: Your Visit to Baltimore

Dear Mrs. Munger:

I'm here at home with Susan and my children for the remainder of this week and next, before the team is off on its next road trip.

I imagine now that it's close to time for your trip to Ohio and to Baltimore, you must be getting excited about seeing your daughter.

I just wanted to pass the word to you that everything's going well between Susan and her young man. I hope that, in addition to meeting all of us (especially Dan Preston) while you're here, you'll see fit to be my guest at a ballgame. The Washington Nationals will be in town Friday through Sunday, and though they're not world-beaters, you'd at least get an opportunity to see our fine ballpark. (And maybe we'll win one, for a change.)

If you could see your way clear to stay over for an extra day or two after Sunday, the Boston Red Sox, the current leaders of our Division, will be here from Monday, June 30 through July 2. Please be assured that you will be welcome to stay for as long as your available time away from work will permit.

I know you're looking forward to the visit with your old high school classmates as well, but Susan is eager to have you here with her, and all of us are pleased that you're coming.

I discussed with Susan the possibility of your bringing Jerry along for the trip, but she tells me the two of you have already discussed that, and that your son will be involved in a summer job at the time. Please let him and your other children know that this is Susan's home, too, and that any and all of them are invited to visit us here at a later time, if they're able to get away from their usual pursuits.

Sincerely,

Arlie Stone

PS: A backyard photograph I took of Dan and Susan together is attached to this note. (Susan refused to take the catcher's mask off for the occasion.)

Dan showed up at Arlie's house right after lunch on Wednesday. For once, it wasn't Susan he was most eager to talk to, but Arlie.

"What do you think of this deal with Paul making me the long reliever?" he asked. "Was this your idea? Or Paul's? Or somebody else's in the hierarchy?"

"It wasn't my idea," Arlie said, "but that's not to say it's not a good idea."

"I won't get into as many games. I'm the least-shaky guy we've got in the whole bullpen. I have to wonder whether we're going to be even worse off, with me only getting into maybe two games a week."

"I think Paul will eventually be asking you to start," Arlie said. "I'm almost certain that long relief is just his way of getting you ready for going back to the rotation as a starter."

"How'd we get so desperate for pitching all of a sudden?"

"We've seen it coming since the beginning of the season last year," Arlie said. "The older starters were fading, and the new kids weren't ready. They still aren't. They're here, but we both know they ought to still be in Norfolk, learning their trade. So we had Shiggie and Freddie and Sam Bailey, and after that, no other reliable starters.

"With three good starting pitchers, we could get by pretty well by just relying on our big offense the rest of the time. But when Sam went down, it really exposed how hard-up we are for starters."

"Isn't there somebody decent we can trade for?"

"The front office is looking everywhere for help," Arlie said. "Nobody's being complacent. But a good man is hard to find, Dan."

"So it looks like I may be it?"

"We think we can acquire Roberto Cardonas from the Brewers," Arlie said. "He might be good enough to replace you in your old late-inning short relief role."

"I have no idea whether my arm will hold up if I go back to being a starter," Dan said.

"You're in great shape, Dan, and it's not like you're on your last legs. Thirty-six today, with the better conditioning we go through, why, it's like thirty-two years old was, a generation ago."

"I've been doing two innings at a time —- three innings, tops —- for most of the past three seasons."

"But don't forget, that was originally a strategic choice, too, Dan. I mean, they didn't make you a short reliever because you couldn't start anymore. At the time, it just seemed to be where you best fit the club's needs."

"We did have a pretty solid five-man rotation back then."

"We were loaded for bear. Nowadays, not so much."

"Paul said I might start Saturday against the Braves."

"I'm not too surprised. Easy place to start. Braves got nothin' this year."

"They've got Meyerson. He's third in the National League in total bases, and he's already got eleven dingers."

"What? You been readin' the paper?"

"I looked over the Braves' stats last night on the Internet."

"Getting ready already?"

"Meyerson's not my idea of a 'nothing' hitter," Dan said.

"So? Pitch around him, then, if he's so scary."

"I don't know about all this, Arlie. I was, like, comfortable, you know? Coming in for the seventh and eighth, turning it over to the closer? And I was getting into a lot of games."

"When a middle reliever gets into a lot of games, that just means we're hurting for guys who can make quality starts. You're being underutilized right now, Dan. Cardonas isn't any great shakes, but he'll do a decent job getting us to our closer. Paul thinks you can do more for us in long relief, and maybe soon, as a starter."

"As soon as Saturday night, the way Paul tells it," Dan said.

"Piece of cake," Arlie said.

To: "Arliss Stone" astone@knox.net
From alissamunger@yahoo.com
Subject: My Trip East

Thanks for your continuing expressions of generosity concerning my trip to see Susan (and this "Dan" person!). I can tell you now that I won't be able to stay over after Sunday in order to see a Red Sox game. For budgetary reasons, I've already lined up my return reservation, and will be leaving Baltimore for home on a red-eye flight late Sunday night.

But I'd very much like to go to a game at Baltimore's ballpark, which Susan assures me is a jewel of a facility. Susan already knows my arrival schedule in Baltimore, and since you won't even be in the city on that date, I won't bore you with those details.

Susan, Christy, and Toby have some local sightseeing lined up for me during the week before you (and this "Dan" person) get back to town, which, she tells me, will be Thursday night. She says you'll be getting back too late for us to all go out together for dinner, but she wants you both to go out with us for lunch on Friday, so that we won't waste any more time getting me introduced to the new man in her life.

She wants all of us —- including you and your children —- to go to lunch together. I guess her theory is that with all six of us present, there will be less tension at the table, and I'll be too constrained to get openly hostile to her new young man.

You must think I'm some kind of terrible scourge, the way Susan seems to be dreading my first meeting with Dan Preston. Not so! I'm ready to give this man every possible benefit of the doubt. I've seen pictures of him, and he's certainly not hard to look at! But, you know, sometimes good-looking men can be a mixed blessing, at best.

And there I go, sounding like the Mother From Hell again!

Thanks for the funny photograph you sent of the two of them. I'll have to take your word that that's Susan behind the mask. (Dan certainly is a large fellow, isn't he?)

I'm looking forward to meeting you and your children. This will be my first "real" vacation in several years, and only the second time I've been back east of the Mississippi since I was almost as young as Susan is now! Isn't that something? I never go anywhere! And you and your baseball team, flying about in all directions for months on end!

I've rambled on enough now. Thanks again for all your courtesies, and I'll see you in just —- let's see —- fifteen days from today!

Best,

Alissa Munger

The Baltimore Sun's writers were taking notice of the Orioles' shaky starting pitching, and the team's season-long inability to climb more than three games over the .500 mark. The high-flying Seattle Mariners swept them in their own house, and when Atlanta showed up on Friday, the Birds were at 30-30 on the season.

Atlanta's season record was even worse, but they managed to make it four straight losses, beating Shiggie Friday night, 4-3.

When Paul Warren announced after Friday's loss that Dan Preston would start on Saturday night, the writers were skeptical. Friday morning's Baltimore Sun sports page led off with a three-column headline:

Shiggie and Freddie, and

then, O's won't be ready!

The gist of the story was that Dan Preston was a respected reliever who had been the team's strongest bullpen presence all season. But at thirty-six (thirty-seven in September), Preston's proper place was where he'd been —- as a late-inning reliever.

"Paul Warren has shown himself, over his six-plus years at the Orioles' helm, to be a smart and innovative leader on the field. But this move smacks of desperation. And if Dan Preston runs into trouble in the early innings, exactly who does Paul Warren have in mind to come in behind him and put his finger in the dike?"

Susan had spent Friday night at Dan's house, and he read the story aloud to her over coffee in bed Saturday morning.

"They act like you're ready to join AARP," she said.

"Listen to you! You, who never misses an opportunity to remind me that I'm an old, old man!"

"Well, God knows you are well-past your prime, sexually," she said. "But I think you've still got a few good weeks left as a ballplayer."

"Arlie says the Braves' lineup is so cheesy this season, even he could start for us. I'm not so certain about that."

"But really, Dan. You're pretty confident you can do this, aren't you?"

"You don't hang around in this league as long as I have by being wracked with self-doubt," Dan said. "Hell, I think I can beat anybody."

"What kind of a hitter are you? Were you, I mean? When you hit?"

"I was a damned good hitter, for a pitcher. But don't believe anything a pitcher in the American League ever says about his prowess with a bat."

"As big and fierce as you are, I'd think you'd be a real good hitter."

"Well. There's a little more to it than that, I'm afraid. Anyway, I won't have to hit in tonight's game."

"No. But the interleague schedule is just getting started. If you start again later this month in a National League park, or even get into a game in long relief, you'll have to hit."

"True," Dan said. "Maybe I should go down under the stands this week, try to hit a few in the cage."

"When's the last time you hit in a game?"

"Two years ago. In New York. The Mets. I was mopping up in the eighth inning in a laugher. We were ahead something like 9-2. Paul sent me up and I struck out. So I was oh-for-the-season as a hitter. He'd have hit for me if we hadn't been so far ahead."

"But if you start in a National League park, you'll get some at-bats."

"At least your mother won't be there to see the carnage."

"Yes, but she'll be here for the weekend series against the Nationals, just two weekends from now. If you're starting one of those games, that's the one we're going to bring her out to see!"

"What if I get shelled?"

"My mother isn't going to judge you by how well you pitch against the worst team in the NL East."

"No?"

"Trust me. The only thing that's going to count with her is how well you treat me. She's looking for indications that you might be a cousin of Craig Munger."

"Who?"

"My father, Dan. And she'll be watching for any similarities between you and Mr. Wonderful."

"Who?" Dan said, thinking that Susan was talking in circles.

"Mr. Wonderful. You know. My ex-fiancé."

"Two gentlemen best known for their premature departures from the scene. I guess if I start a game against the Nationals and your mother's in the stands, I'd better finish what I've started."

Dan pitched seven innings against the Braves on Saturday night, giving up three scattered runs and leaving the game with the Orioles ahead, 6-3. The relievers almost blew it, but escaped with a 7-5 win, breaking the four-game losing streak. Dan was credited with the win.

"You did good," Arlie told him after the game.

The Baltimore Sun's web site Sunday morning was singing a different tune:

Freddie and Preston while

Shiggie is Restin'

On Tuesday, the Sun reported that the Orioles had acquired the contract of relief pitcher Roberto Cardonas from the Milwaukee Brewers for an infielder from Bowie and a right-handed kid pitcher from the Orioles' Class A Aberdeen, Maryland affiliate.

The die was cast. Dan Preston's old job had been filled. He was no longer the team's set-up man. Paul Warren continued to refer to him as the club's long reliever.

But the following Friday night, June 20 in Cleveland, Dan Preston was inked in once again as the starting pitcher.

Arlie Stone had his head in the game for Dan's second start of the season. But before the game, the pitching coach's mind was wandering southward, fifty miles or so to the little city of Wooster. Arlie knew that on this very Friday night, Alissa Munger was flying eastward from her Central California home, heading for the two-day class reunion in the old hometown.

And on Sunday afternoon, Arlie would be leaving this ballpark, no later, he hoped, than four o'clock, and driving the car he'd already rented to Wooster. He'd managed to make contact with one of the organizers of the reunion, established his bona fides as a three-year member of the class that had graduated the following year without him, and had secured all the necessary details surrounding the planned Sunday night buffet dinner at Wooster's Hilton Garden Inn.

A week earlier, Arlie had mailed his belated fee for the event, along with a generous contribution to the Class Gift Fund. He was now one hundred percent legit. He'd also reserved a room at the Inn for Sunday night. Happily, Monday would be an open date. Arlie could find his own way to Philadelphia for Tuesday night's next game.

He would have three hours to negotiate the fifty miles, assuming the Sunday game didn't run too long. Paul Warren, Arlie knew, would let him slip away earlier if necessary, although Arlie hesitated to ask for such a favor. He was, after all, the pitching coach. And what was the Orioles' current Problem Area Number One?

Pitching, that's what.

But, jeez. He really wanted to get to Wooster in time to freshen up, take a deep breath, and find his way -- on time -- to the class buffet.

He wanted to find Lissie Hanratty. He wanted to be Lissie and Swifty again, just for a little while. Later on that evening, he'd low-key it as much as possible as he quietly explained to her that ol' Swifty McDonald was now none other than Arlie Stone, baseball man, widower, father of two and, incidentally, employer of Lissie's elder daughter.