"The team got bought out."
*****
"What do you mean the team got bought out?" Blaine asked.
His mind raced through every worst case scenarios that he could think of.
"The former owner was dealing with some financial issues and didn't feel that the team was going to be lucrative enough to help him get out of them in enough time. A private buyer made an offer for the team several seasons ago, but at the time, he was doing well financially and told the potential buyer that he wasn't even going to consider it. Apparently the buyer resurfaced last week and they made the deal."
"What does that mean for us?" Jacob asked. "Who bought the team?"
"The new owner's name is Preston Fletcher."
"Fletcher?" Blaine asked. "As in the man whose name is splashed across three-quarters of the buildings at Trentsville College?"
"Well, technically I think that those buildings were named after his grandfather, but, yes, that's the same family."
"He's not even from here." Anthony said, verbalizing what all of the other players were thinking.
Even though they were one of the most successful Minor League clubs for several seasons running and nearly all of the players currently on the roster were already being courted by the Major League club, the town still saw them as a little local team. There was a tremendous amount of pride surrounding the team and the thought that it was now owned by someone who didn't even live in the town was jarring.
"I'm sure that where he lives isn't going to make a difference in how he controls the team," Maddon said in his best effort to be diplomatic.
When Blaine looked up at him, though, he could see that the manager was thinking the same thing that they were. He could see the nervousness and even hints of anger in his eyes, but he was trying, just as he always did, to keep the players — his boys — as motivated and positive as he possibly could.
"What kinds of changes is he going to make?" Jacob asked.
"I don't know any of that," Maddon said. "He is coming in from Trentsville for Thursday's practice and we'll all get a chance to meet him and talk with him then. I'm sure that we'll find out that everything is going to stay the same. If anything, maybe he will improve some things around here and funnel a little bit more money into marketing so we can sell out all of our games this year."
Blaine hoped that Maddon was right, but Thursday crushed all of those hopes.
The team had only just stepped out onto the field to start stretching when Blaine looked up into the stands and saw a thin man wearing a dark suit and expensive-looking sunglasses sitting in the center seats of one of the middle sections. Another slightly younger man sat on one side of him. On the other sat a woman.
Even though she was just sitting still in the stands, Blaine could see that this woman carried herself with incredible grace and confidence. Thick, copper-colored hair tumbled in rich waves past her shoulders, framing a pale, heart-shaped face. She was too far away for him to make out her features, but even at that distance, he could see that she had full, bright red lips, and she did not look like she was smiling.
He thought about those lips all throughout the practice, going back and forth between wondering why she looked so displeased and wishing that he could see her more closely. At the end of the practice, he did get to see her lips up close, but they didn't look any happier and the words that they were saying did nothing to comfort him or any of other players.
"Team, this is Mr. Preston Fletcher, our new team owner," Maddon said, gesturing toward the man in the dark suit from the stands.
Despite the dark glasses and severe suit, Mr. Fletcher looked pleasant and friendly as he looked out over the team.
"I know that everyone is feeling a little unsure about having a new owner for the team, especially one who isn't from your town. I understand that, but I want to assure you that I am very excited to be a part of this organization and I look forward to watching you for many seasons." The team applauded and there was a sense of relaxation in the clubhouse. Mr. Fletcher smiled. "Now that we're friends," he said with a little laugh, "I will let you know that I am not going to be managing most of the elements of this team. For day-to-day operations and presenting ideas for improvements, I will be entrusting the team to my daughter, Lenore."
Perfectly on cue, the door to the clubhouse opened and the woman who had been sitting beside him in the stands stepped into the room. She was still wearing her sunglasses, but she removed them as she approached the team. When she did, wide blue eyes fell on Blaine and he felt his stomach clench.
"Hello, team," she said, not sounding anywhere near as excited as her father. "Let's talk about changes."
*****
"Changes?" Blaine asked. "What do you mean changes?"
"Mr. Fletcher said that the team was going to stay the way that it already is it was just going to get better," Jacob said.
"We don't want any changes," Ryan said, the anger evident in his voice.
Lenore held up a slim, pale hand. The gesture made Blaine feel like a scolded child and he hated it. She looked at him first and he tried to mask the attraction in the expression on his face, though he knew that it was likely obvious in his eyes.
"Whatever my father told you, he also told you that I am the one who will be running the day-to-day operations of the team. That means that what I say, goes. And frankly," she turned to give a sharp glare to Ryan, "you don't really have a choice or say in the matter. You are merely players. We own the team now, which means that this is our business, and what we want for the team is what matters and what will happen. Have I made myself clear?"
The team remained absolutely silent, none of the players responding to her with even so much as a grunt of derision. She looked out over them as if waiting for someone to say something more, and Blaine thought for just a moment that he saw a flicker of something sad in her eyes. He didn't know if it was because she wasn't getting the level of respect and following that she expected, or if she was just a beautiful woman accustomed to adoration, now feeling the sting of a room full of men despising her rather than falling at her feet.
Either way, Blaine didn't really feel bad for her. No matter how attracted to her he was, and no matter how much he wished that he had met her in some other context so that he might have the opportunity to explore that attraction more deeply, she was still standing in front of his team degrading them and announcing that she had all kinds of changes in mind for them for the coming season.
Lenore shifted uncomfortably for a few moments and then straightened her chin as if resolving to be even more ruthless.
"We are going to start with the dress code. We’ve been following the team for quite some time while we made the decision for this to be our primary investment, and I have noticed that this team looks incredibly sloppy when you are on the road. You might just be playing baseball, but you are professional players. That means that I expect that you look and act like professionals wherever you are and whenever you are representing this team. There will be no more jeans or casual attire of any kind when you are traveling to games or when you are in another city to play, even when you are on your personal time. You will wear a suit while traveling and for official appearances, and you will dress in business casual when you are on your leisure time."
"How can you tell us what to do when we are off?" Ryan demanded.
"If you are in another city representing this team, you are never off. You might have some personal time in between games and practices, but you are still being paid and you are still a representative of the organization, and, therefore, a representative of my entire family and of me. I will not have others looking at the players on this team and thinking they are undisciplined and unprofessional. That is an image that I do not tolerate in any of our other business ventures and I will not make an exception for you."
"Guys, I don't think that a dress code is too much to ask," Maddon said, his voice calming as if trying to bridge the gap between his players and the woman
who was quickly whipping them up into an infuriated frenzy. "If we look better, maybe we will feel better about ourselves and we will do even better on the field."
"I agree," Lenore said, glancing at Maddon with a tight smile as if she felt like she was rewarding him for agreeing with her. She looked back at the players, her eyes falling directly on Blaine, and the smile faded. "The changes are not just going to stop with how you look while you are off of the field, however. I also expect that the policies of the entire team will change. This clubhouse is a disaster. You are not children and you should not expect others to clean up after you as if you were. From now on this area will be spotless at all times and you will be responsible for it. Infractions will result in fines. You are also expected to arrive at the field no later than twenty minutes before a posted practice and five hours before a posted game. This is an absolute deadline and there will be no grace period or exceptions. Getting some structure and discipline into this team is what it's going to take to make you start winning games again."
"We haven’t had a losing record in any season that any of the players on this team have been playing. We were second in the League for the last three seasons," Jacob protested.
"And this year, I expect nothing less than first."
"So you're doing all of this because you care so much about baseball?" Blaine asked.
Part of him truly hoped that this was the case. If she was being this pushy and aggressive because she wanted to get them to their best, then it would be more forgivable.
"I care about business, Mr. Williams," Lenore replied coldly. "Nothing more. Nothing less. I will be the first to admit to you that I have never followed baseball until my father got me involved in this team. I don't care about the thrill of the game or whether all of you get called up for the Majors next season. All I care about is ticket-buying fans in the seats. The more games you win, the more fans will come. The more fans that come, the more tickets, concessions, merchandise, and advertising that we sell. It is that simple. I will make decisions for this team that are the best for business. That is my job and it is what I will do regardless of what others think about it."
"The fans aren't going to like it if you are making so many changes that they don't even recognize the team anymore," Blaine said.
"I don't really care what the fans like."
"You better if you want to fill up these seats," Jacob interjected. "This town has loyalty, and if you start changing things to suit your big vision of business success, they aren't going to want to be a part of it."
"Which means no ticket sales," Ryan said. "No merchandise, no concessions, no advertising."
Lenore took a deep breath. Blaine could see the anger shaking through her shoulders. This wasn't going the way that she thought it was going to go, and it was infuriating her.
"You just keep running around in circles and throwing the ball. Leave the business and hard stuff to me."
*****
A tense silence fell over the clubhouse and Lenore could feel even more animosity coming off of the players toward her. Maddon stepped up beside her and looked out over the team.
"Good practice today, guys. Go on home and get some rest. We'll get to it again tomorrow."
She watched as the men angrily stood and shifted around the locker room, gathering their belongings and pushing past her. She expected them to all go toward the shower room, but instead they all left and she could hear their angry voices filtering back through the door at her as they left the building.
"I guess I tired them all out so much that they didn't even want to take showers," Maddon said, trying to force laughter into his voice.
Lenore nodded, but she knew that that wasn't the case. The players left because they couldn't stand being in the same room with her for a second longer. She couldn't really blame them. She had just come in without any warning and started changing almost everything that they knew about the team and their careers. She didn't care what they were feeling, though. It didn't matter if they were angry or if they hated her and didn’t want to see her for another second. As long as they kept performing and bringing in fans, they could feel however they wanted to about her.
"Maybe you were a little hard on them," her father said as if reading her thoughts.
Lenore turned toward him and crossed her arms tightly over her chest.
"What do you mean by that?" she demanded.
"We just bought the team. Everybody needs a little bit of time to adjust to what is going on."
"They're grown man, Dad. They aren't children. They don't need to adjust to anything. This is their job."
"That's true, Lenny, but it is also something that means a lot to them. The team also means a lot to the rest of the city. No matter how grown up these men are, you have to understand that there are a lot of memories and loyalty attached to this team. Some of these boys have been watching them with their fathers since they were babies and their fathers watched with their fathers before them."
"Please don't get all sentimental with me now, Dad. I understand money and business. This is not Little League or the sandlot at the back of the neighborhood. This is a professional team and they need to remember that. These are not boys. These are men. Being held responsible for their own behaviors is not going to hurt them, and if it does, then they weren't cut out for this profession in the first place." She turned to walk away and then spun back to her father. "And for the last time, please don't call me Lenny. I know that you wanted a son, but you didn't get one. You got me. No amount of wishing that that was different is going to change it."
"I don't wish that you were anything but what you are, Lenore," Preston said, his voice sounding hurt.
"You have always dreamed of owning a baseball team with your son and being able to pass it through the generations. It took you this long to actually be able to buy the team that you wanted, you just don't have the son that you wanted to go along with it."
"You told me that you wanted to be the one in charge of the team."
Her father sounded less hurt and angrier now, but Lenore was accustomed to this argument with him. She had spent her entire life knowing that Preston had desperately wanted a son who would share his love of baseball and his business savvy. He wanted to be able to groom him to take over when he was old enough so that Preston could retire and spend his later years traveling around and visiting all of the professional stadiums around the country.
Preston always told her that when she was born, he wasn't disappointed, but she knew that the fact that his only child was a daughter and not a son was a source of tremendous pain for him. Most of the time he tried to hide it, but Lenore knew that he still longed for that relationship that he would never have.
"I wanted my own portion of the business, Dad. I wanted something of my own that I could build up. I also knew that if you were the one who was responsible for the team that you would let your sentimental attachment to the game keep you from making the decisions that need to be made to make sure that this team stays at its best."
"What do you mean by that?"
Her father sounded suspicious and Lenore knew that he wasn't going to like what she was about to tell him.
"I'm not just making changes to the way that the team dresses and acts. Despite what you think about me not understanding the game, I have been paying close attention to the practices and I have noticed some things that have gotten me thinking about the dynamic of the team as a whole and what may improve its performance over the long term."
"What are you planning?"
"I want to trade Blaine Williams."
*****
Blaine could feel the urge to shift flowing through him. The anger built in his stomach and surged through him like flames, boiling his blood and searing through his muscles, pushing him to allow his body to change. He resisted the change, forcing himself to concentrate on controlling his body so that he could remain in human form. Lenore was already coming in and demanding everything change completely and threaten
ing to trade him to another team. The last thing that he needed was for her to see a panther prowling the hallways of the clubhouse.
His fists clenched as he let his eyes close for a moment so that he could concentrate on not allowing the urge to shift to overwhelm him. The fury that came from the possibility of being traded was unlike anything that he had experienced since he was very young. He couldn't believe that this woman was coming in and stomping on their traditions, everything that they had worked so hard for, and the threatening the link that he had with Jacob. If he was traded to another team, he would be completely alone. Even if he was able to make friends on the new team, there would be no one like Jacob. No one else would be able to understand him and what he went through with his shifts.
This was not something that he could just explain to the other players on a new team and expect them to just go along with it. Even his current teammates other than Jacob didn't know his secret, and some of them he had known for years. He couldn't fathom being alone, completely separated from his community and the only people who could truly commiserate with him.
Finally, he felt like he wasn't going to be able to hold back the shift much longer. He lunged away from the door and ran toward the back of the clubhouse. If he could just get out of the building and into the woods less than a mile away, he would be able to let go. Shifting would help to release the anger and frustration inside him and give him a chance to work through his emotions in the way that was most natural for him.
Blaine ran with everything that he had. He could feel the panther spirit inside him flowing through his muscles, pushing him faster. He knew that if anyone saw him at that moment, they would know that there was something strange about him. He was moving far too fast for a human and even as he moved, he could feel his body stretching and changing. Soon he would be covered with fur and he would cross the ground on all fours.
The woods loomed ahead of him. He was nearly there. Blaine pushed harder, forcing himself to run at the peak of his speed so that he could get to the protective cover of the trees. He could only hope that Jacob would be there waiting for him. They had made a plan to meet in the woods like they had since they were young so that they could talk about the new owner of the team and his delicious yet infuriating daughter. Blaine hadn't known then, however, that he would return to the locker room to get his bag and would overhear the conversation that Lenore Fletcher was having with her father. He didn't know that he was going to find out that the woman was planning on trading him and that he would need Jacob for more than just some venting.
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