Chapter 81

The seamier blogs had stories and grainy photos the following morning of Esmi confrontation with Jana Jones. Since it only peripherally involved Brock, he didn't really care. The lighting in the club was so dim that, although he was identified in the stories, his face wasn't visible in the photos. In fact, neither was Esmi Perez's face. The only person clearly identifiable was Jana Jones – who was snapped as she vomited in front of the stairs.

The bigger story was the World Series matchup between the Cleveland Indians – who hadn't won a World Series since 1948 – and the Los Angeles Dodgers – who had been without since 1988, despite having a monster payroll through most of that time.

The teams were a clear contrast. The Indians won with pitching and defense. Their starting staff had the lowest ERA in the league and their fielders had the fewest errors.

The Dodgers won with power and speed. Josh and Wade both had more than 30 homers in the season. Brock had 29 in limited playing time and Al had finished with 22. John Milton had led the league with 38 stolen bases – but Fred Hartman and Tony DeLeon also had more than 15.

The Indians had no one on their team with more than 25 home runs and no one with more than 100 runs batted in. But they had two starters with more than 15 wins. Their stolen base leader had six. Los Angeles had no starter with an ERA lower than 4.00. Udo won 14 games during the regular season to lead the team. The other starters had between 10 and 12 wins on the year.

The series promised to test the philosophy that power was good for the regular season but pitching and defense won championships.

Since Game 7 of the NLCS had been scheduled for Sunday, the World Series didn't open until Tuesday afternoon (five p.m. in Los Angeles for an eight p.m. start on the East Coast). That gave the Indians plenty of time to rest and travel. The team planned to arrive in Los Angeles on Sunday night to give them time to acclimate themselves to the time change.

The best-of-seven series would be played from Tuesday to the following Wednesday. The National League had won the All-Star Game so the games on Tuesday and Wednesday to open the set would be played at Dodgers Stadium. After a travel day on Thursday, the Indians would play host for three weekend games. Again the teams would travel on Monday (if the series was still being played), the last two games would be back in Los Angeles.

As expected, the managers announced their best pitchers would start Game 1. J.C. Michaels would pitch for the Indians; Udo Jergens would be on the hill for the Dodgers. Both managers had stated that if they could manage it, their aces (such as it was for Los Angeles) would start three games in the series – the first, the fourth (on three days' rest) and the seventh (also after resting three days instead of the traditional four).

It would depend on the number of pitches thrown during the starts, how well they pitched previously – and the always unpredictable late October weather in Cleveland.

Brock, Meredith and Randi went to lunch with J.C. on Monday before Media Day. As Al had joked, the Indians starter didn't stay in his former home during this series. He might be able to get away with it during the regular season – and no one batted an eye if he stayed there when the team played Anaheim – but the World Series was a different beast.

No one on either roster had played in the Fall Classic before, something the media seemed to eat up. The Indians were a young team. J.C., at 28, was the oldest starting pitcher and their DH (who wouldn't start during the games in Los Angeles) was their oldest regular player at 33. All of the Indians position players were younger than 30 and the starting staff, outside of J.C., was younger than 25.

The Dodgers were older. Danys Sanchez, a month younger than Brock, was the youngest starter at 25. Udo was only 26 and Wilkie Sarver was 24. The other two pitchers expected to start in the series were older. Javier Jimenez, acquired from Houston, was 35. Andrew Bergman, a journeyman picked up after Erik Teeter was hurt, was 31. Al Perez, Josh Hart and Wade Watson were all 31 or 32 years old. Fred Hartman had turned 31 during the season and Matt Driesbach would be 34 in November. Cesar Davis was 27 and John Milton was 29. There were some young pitchers in the bullpen, most evident was Zack who had just turned 24, but the team's average age was almost three years more than Cleveland's.

But despite the difference in experience, the two teams had one thing in common: none had made it this far in the postseason previously.

As heavy as the media scrutiny for the divisional and championship rounds had been, nothing prepared Brock for the onslaught of reporters, bloggers, photographers and writers that descended upon Los Angeles during the last full week of October. The Monday before the Series opened was Media Day and everyone with a camera or microphone was out in full force.

But the situation got out of hand well before Brock arrived at the ballpark.

His phone rang almost constantly either from media outlets looking for interviews or the team's media relations department seeking to accommodate the scores of television and radio programs who wished to have Brock as a guest.

He was the lone member of the Dodgers team who had firsthand experience of the Indians players as a teammate. Danys had seen them as opponents and Bergstrom had pitched against them twice when he was with the Tigers the year before. But Brock had spent years in the minors with some of the players and had been a teammate to the others when he was called up two Septembers earlier.

Brock agreed to do one in-depth interview with each section of the media. He would appear on television once. He would be on radio once. He would be interviewed for publication once. He let Meredith decide who should get access.

She picked Ed Harvey of the Chronicle for the newspaper interview. That one was the easiest. Television was a different story. SportsNet, a cable channel, held the rights to the team's regular season games but the World Series was to be broadcast on network television by the National Broadcasting Network (NBN). She finally chose SportsNet because she was familiar with the announcers and she knew Brock would be, too. The radio interview was the hardest choice. Tara was irked that Brock wouldn't sit down with her for a piece to be aired on ASN. The words exchanged between the two weren't harsh but they were pointed. So Meredith selected ASN's radio network as the group who would get to interview Brock for that section. They held the radio rights to broadcast the games anyway so it made sense.

The only problem came when NBN-TV contacted the team declaring they needed access to Brock for a feature they had been planning since the All-Star Game. They had sent camera crews to Wilkins to document where he had lived as a child and to tour Lafayette High School, which still claimed him as their own. They had spoken to several people from the county about how life had changed for the worse since Brock's civil trial was settled but how they couldn't really blame him for what he'd done.

The crews had then gone to Corbly High School, where Coach Jefferson had been only too happy to sit down and reminisce about the boy he knew as Brock Miller. They had spoken to Brock's baseball coach at Duke and several who had coached him in the minor leagues.

The only people they needed to make the story complete were Brock Miller, his current teammates and his friends. It had never occurred to the network that a player would limit media access during the World Series. The woman doing the story had expected full access to Brock's home with only a phone call. She had been astounded when his publicist had told her that his only television interview would be with SportsNet later that evening.

Meredith was polite but firm. There had been too many requests to accommodate them all and she expected the media to cooperate with each other in sharing information. That was never going to happen and Meredith couldn't help the evil grin that appeared on her face when she said it.

"But we're televising the games!" Brett Corday said in amazement at being denied.

"We're doing a spot with the radio crew doing the games," Meredith answered. "That's the best we can offer."

"You don't understand," Corday tried.

"No, you don't understand," Meredith interrupted. "This is how it is going to be. Brock is extremely busy and we have fielded calls from every newspaper, television and radio station within a hundred miles of Los Angeles or Cleveland. We've gotten 500 e-mails from bloggers asking questions or seeking an interview. He has a long series to prepare for. He will not take time out of his schedule for the media. I'm sorry. Mr. Miller was very firm on this."

"But, our story," the woman stammered. "It's about him. I mean, it's about his life. I've put 200 hours in already. They segment is set to air before Game 4 or 5. I have to talk to him before then."

"You're doing a story about his life?" Meredith wondered. "I mean, that seems odd. No one talked to me about it. No one talked to his other friends. I would have heard about it. No one talked to his friends on the team about it. I'm sure of that."

"We plan to do that this week," Brett said. "We wanted to talk to him first. I mean, I've read everything I could find about him. The story is pretty well known. But we wanted to get the story behind the story – the story about how he went from where he was to where he is."

"And you think it's appropriate to have him relive that portion of his life prior to the biggest games of his career?" Meredith asked incredulously. "Why didn't you contact him while he was on the DL? I'm sure he would have been willing to speak with you then."

"We didn't think they'd make the playoffs," Brett admitted. "Even at the end of season, we still figured Atlanta or Washington would knock them out. Now we only have a few days to get the story ready."

"I'll explain it to him," Meredith offered. "But, well, I'll be blunt. I don't think he'll care. He is a big believer that everyone should do their own job. I doubt seriously if he will be willing to sit down with you to discuss things at this point in the season that still bother him years later."

Meredith was correct. Brock refused to consider the request. Meredith relayed the information to Brett Corday in the form of a statement: "The actions and reactions from that time in my life are not something I feel comfortable discussing in private, let alone for a national television audience. I would prefer this story be left where it belongs – in the past – and the focus move to the present and the future. Please know that this is not personal. I will refuse to discuss my life prior to signing with the Indians in any format. I hope and trust that you will respect my wishes on this matter."

The last sentence might have been the stupidest thing Brock had ever stated. Of course no one would leave that portion of his life behind. That's what made him newsworthy. If the network promoted the segment in the earlier games, Brett Corday was certain that people would tune in for the always low-rated pregame show just to see it. If the ratings spiked because of her segment, she'd be a commodity just months before her contract with the network ended.

"Who can I speak to about this?" Brett demanded.

"I know of no one who Brock considers a friend that will be willing to discuss this with you," Meredith replied. "He had discussed this in-depth with Tara Wyatt previously and I know that interview is still around. Perhaps if you contact Tara she will be willing to sell your network excerpts from it. That's really the best I can offer."

"That's not enough!" Brett declared.

"It will have to be," Meredith told her. "I'm sorry."

The next call came from the Dodgers media relations department, who was contacted moments after the call with Meredith ended. The woman in charge accepted Meredith's rationale at face value and passed it along to the network.

So NBN, which paid almost a billion dollars to host the playoffs and World Series for the next five years, put in a call to the Commissioner's Office.

The Commissioner of Baseball had already learned that he was powerless to force the players into speaking to reporters. But he offered to try to facilitate a brief interview prior to Game 1. He called Millicent Swanson to see if she would intervene.

"Do you know why he refuses to speak of it?" the Dodgers owner asked.

"Well, I'm not certain," the Commissioner admitted. "He just told them no."

"He has a reason, Bob," Millicent stated firmly. "Perhaps because reliving his incarceration, the death of his mother and the trouble he had adjusting after his release might be a little more than he wants to do right now. I agree with him. There is no reason this couldn't have been done in advance. I'm not going to risk the success of my franchise to accommodate the network. I will, in general terms, ask him if he is positive of his stance. If he is, that is the end of it."