Las Vegas Gold (10 page)

14

By the time the All Star break arrived, the Gold were still in first place, with by far the best record in baseball. Molly Malone had been the subject of numerous interviews in the media, both print and electronic, each interviewer trying to outdo the others in praise for the Major League's first woman manager. Every interviewer wanted to know her secret, and each one received a variation of her stock reply: “There is no secret. I treat everyone alike. People are people. If you are positive with them, they will respond positively. Every player on my team gives 110 percent voluntarily, because they like playing on the Gold team and they like the organization. I have an excellent staff of coaches who really do the work for me. They do the work—I get the credit. But it's really the players who should get the credit. As Sparky Anderson used to say, ‘A manager never won a baseball game, but he lost more than a few.'”

Bobby Joe Comingo was elected to the All Star team as he had been the year before, and Domingo Martinez and Mac Driscoll were chosen. On game night in Cleveland, where the game was played, Mac Driscoll got the save for the American League team and was selected as MVP of the game. His Las Vegas teammates cheered him when he returned. The rookie closer was walking tall. Willie Fontana took him aside before the next game and offered him some fatherly advice.

“Look, Mac. You're pretty high after the All Star game, and I don't blame you. But if we need you tonight in the ninth, are you going to be calmed down enough so you don't blow it? The big game is over now, and all the hoopla and praise 'n stuff is behind you. You gotta settle in now and get down and dirty again. Ya' know what I mean?”

Mac was thoughtful. “Thanks, Willie, I needed that. To be honest, I knew it before you told me, but it's difficult to get myself down to earth again. I'll give it my best shot tonight, if you need me, but you can tell Molly that if she wants to use somebody else, or lift me quick if I get into a jam, I'll understand.”

Willie clapped him on the back and walked away to watch a couple of the other pitchers throwing on the sidelines. Mac went down to the bullpen with Grazi Harango and threw for about twenty minutes.

As it turned out, Mac got the night off, because Damaso Gonzalez pitched a complete game 4-1 win over the Oakland A's. That made his record 12 and 7, the best on the team to date. Jerry Lyons hit two home runs to account for all the Las Vegas scoring, and Tubby Littleton and Steve Hostetler, playing right field, each hit three singles.

The next night was different. Oakland batters bashed four Las Vegas pitchers and the final score was a blowout: Oakland 15, Las Vegas 3. T.Y. Hollinger took the loss. “Just one of those nights,” he told reporters. “I couldn't find the plate, and when I did, I laid it right down the middle of the plate. It happens.”

The media had long since abandoned the phrase “the Gold were losers last night.”

Connie Armstrong was scratched from the line-up for the next afternoon after coming up with a slightly pulled muscle during pre-game warm-ups. That meant Lynn Meriweather was the last minute starter, and he more than outdid himself. He was pitching a one hitter in the sixth when he just gave out and asked to be relieved. He told Molly he just hit a wall, and she promptly pulled him and sent in Kenny Sykes and Quincey O'Donnell, who each pitched an inning. Jimmy Brandon pitched the ninth and the Gold walked away with an 8-0 win.

The team flew to Detroit for the next series, a weekend series with the Tigers who were third in their division. Owen Hansford had another quality start, but the Tigers got to him in the seventh and tied the score at three. Freddy Greeley got the call from the bullpen and put down the Tigers rally with two strikeouts and a ground out. Then the Gold batters went to work. First Bobby Joe hit a double. Danny Johnson drove him home with another double. Porter Kipping walked, and Diego Martinez slammed a homer over the right field fence—and that was the ball game. Hitting a homer to right field in Comerica Park is not the easiest thing to do, and young Martinez got a hero's welcome when he reached the dugout.

* * *

Out on the West Coast, the expected big drug trial for Harrison, Bronson and Currie fizzled out. The three pled guilty to all the charges of possession for purposes of selling cocaine and several related charges involving their business dealings. Their legal advisors persuaded them, with the evidence against them, they might just as well go ahead and plead guilty before anything more was dug up against them, and they did. Each got thirty years with no chance for parole, and that bit of business was ended. Tom Currie received a second sentence of fifty years for conspiracy to commit murder. Pat Trenowski, his murder charge dropped because of lack of evidence and his cooperation with the police, went into the witness protection program and disappeared from the Los Angeles scene.

Larry Henderson continued to receive the occasional threatening phone call from Japan, at least two of them in rudimentary Japanese. Molly had a couple of late night calls as well. Both she and Larry were totally baffled as to who could be sending the calls. Jeff Turnbull and his FBI colleagues continued to work on the case, convinced once they had the identity of the caller they would know who killed Tabby O'Hara, whether they were dealing with a copy-cat case, or whether Pat Trenowski really was innocent as he claimed.

* * *

The Gold kept rolling along, winning series, losing the odd game. Three of their starters, Gonzalez, Hollinger and Armstrong had each won 15 or more games, and Mac Driscoll had collected 27 saves. Bobby Joe Comingo, Jerry Lyons, Designated Hitter Judd Matthews and Diego Martinez were all batting over .300, and none of the regulars was batting less than .275. Molly and her entire coaching staff could hardly repress their big smiles whenever somebody stuck a camera and microphone in front of their faces. Malone Stadium was filled for every home game. Things seemed to be going as well as could be expected. Then disaster struck. All season long, Molly had carried a worry in the back of her mind that catching was a weak point in her line up. Comingo was an All-Star, but what if something happened to him? Grazi Harango worked hard and was learning fast, but he was not at the same level as Comingo, and there were no immediate prospects in the minors. That's what happened to an expansion team in its first year when there had not been time to fully develop a minor league system.

In mid-August, the Gold were on a trip through their own Western Division and were playing a night game at Texas, the second game in a four game series. In the eighth inning they were leading 7-5, but Owen Hansford was not having a good game, and he had men on second and third after a single followed by a walk and a double steal. Molly sent Willie to take him out and replace him with Kenny Sykes.

The first Texas batter Sykes faced tapped a slow roller to Digger Hazen and the third baseman threw home, where Bobby Joe Comingo had the plate blocked and stood ready for the inevitable collision. The collision occurred and the runner was called out, but Comingo was hurt. He lay on the ground and writhed in pain. Eli Stryker, the head trainer, Molly and Willie Fontana all reached the plate at the same time, and Eli took only a minute to diagnose the injury: a broken right leg: more than one bone, just above the ankle.

Bobby Joe left the field on a stretcher placed across the ground crew's golf cart, but it was obvious he was out for the season. Grazi Harango finished the game, which Las Vegas managed to win, but the team was not in any mood to celebrate.

The next morning, word spread through the clubhouse that Bobby Joe would be having surgery later in the week, after the swelling went down, and would indeed be out for the season. Molly, Eddy Harper and Larry Henderson spent the morning on the phone and conferring with each other. It was Harper who once again found a player, just as he had found Owen Hansford.

“Molly, you turned lead into gold twice this year with O'Hara and Hansford. They were both pitchers. Can you do it with a catcher?”

“I had very little to do with either success, Eddy. They had the ability. Tabby, bless him, only needed to have somebody set his mind on giving a little bit of himself to find the friendship he needed; while Owen just needed self confidence. They both had the ability to begin with. Are you telling me you've got a catcher who can catch in this league? Why isn't he
in
this league?”

“I think I have. This is much like the Hansford case. This kid is 27, and he's been 10 years in the minors, moving around, never higher than Triple A, always batting between .275 and .295, and doing an adequate job at catching. He's no All-Star, but can be had for a couple of Minor Leaguers in our system. I hate to do that; we've given away too many of our future players already this year, but I guess this counts as an emergency.”

“Damn right, it's an emergency,” chimed in Larry, “and we are going to have to do something drastic in the off season to start filling up our vacancies in the minors. But right now, go get him.”

“What's his name and where is he now?” asked Molly.

“Johnny Lighthorn. He's a full-blooded Indian, Navaho, I think, and he's been playing most of his baseball in Arizona and California. He's playing in a Double A league in Arizona now and he should be available in four or five days. In the meantime, we can call up a catcher from Vancouver as a back-up.”

Molly went to the hospital to see Bobby Joe that afternoon before the evening game. She parked in the visitors' lot and made her way to the information desk, where she was given the floor and room number where she could find Bobby Joe. As she walked along the hospital corridors, the hospital smell assailed her nostrils, the sight of IV stands and wheelchairs parked in corners waiting to be needed met her eye and caused her to walk faster along the corridor. Hospitals were not her favorite places to be.

In a private room, she found a very downcast young man in considerable pain. His leg was in traction, his eyes closed, but not in sleep. After the usual small talk hospital visiting brings, Molly said, “Listen, Bobby Joe. Stop feeling sorry for yourself. You didn't do anything that caused this to happen, and you didn't do anything that can't be fixed.”

“Well, the team is going to have a problem without me, and I'm not bragging.”

“I know that. We all do. But feeling sorry for yourself isn't going to help. Look, I have a job for you as soon as you are able to get out of hospital and get mobile, whether you're on crutches or in a wheelchair.”

“Yeah? You're kidding me.”

“No, I'm not. We're just bringing up a young kid who's been in the minors for 10 years. He's a full-blooded Indian and our best information is he can catch and hit, but he needs a lot of coaching. That's where you come in. You've helped Grazi a lot this season, and I'd like to think if you can manage to get well enough, you can help with this kid, too. His name is Johnny Lighthorn. Your first job is to get upright again, and get on a program of rehab for your body. We'll take whatever help we can get from you after that—if you're willing.”

“You bet I'm willing. I'll be only too glad to do whatever I can. Thanks, Molly. I needed to hear all this. I'll be going home for a couple of weeks when the doctors say I can, and then I'll be back. You just watch.”

“Well, I'll watch, all right, but you don't go rushing things. I didn't mean I want you out on the field in three weeks or so. I don't care if it isn't till after the season's over. If this kid is any good at all, we want to keep him around, and you can help him and us to decide.”

When Johnny Lighthorn reported in, they found a bright and easy-going young man who wore his long black hair in a braid and had more energy than anybody else on the team. The day he arrived, he started working out with Willie and a couple of the relief pitchers. The next day he also worked in the batting cage with Herb Germaine, the batting coach. When the Gold pulled into Baltimore, Molly had decided to see what he could do in a real game.

Willie and the night's starting pitcher, T.Y. Hollinger, spent time going over the Baltimore batting order with the newcomer, and he took his place behind the plate as the starting catcher. The coaching staff observed him carefully, the players gave him positive feedback between innings, and he handled himself quite well. T.Y. sat down beside Willie after the third inning and he reported he was feeling comfortable working with the new catcher. As the game progressed, Eddy Harper looked more and more like a genius for finding yet another cast-off. Johnny hit a double in the fourth inning, a single and stole a base in the eighth, but his crowning moment came earlier, in the second inning, when he threw out a potential steal as the Orioles tried out his arm. He laid the ball in Danny Johnson's glove and the runner was out by several feet.

After the game, Molly walked into the dressing room and sought out her new catcher, who was surrounded by the media. When she freed him, she asked him whether he played like that every game.

“Probably not, to be realistic. I was really pumped for my first Major League game, but I'll give it my best shot. I've already had a lot of good coaching, and I'll take all the rest I can get.”

“Well, I'm hoping to have you in the line-up once or twice a week, depending on the schedule, and if you do even half as well as you did tonight, I'll be more than pleased."

The young man was walking tall for the next few days. He was single, as was Mac Driscoll, and Mac offered to have him share his apartment in Las Vegas. Johnny fit in well with the team, taking part in the horseplay and joking, even making jokes about being an Indian, especially with Tubby and the other African-American players. Molly and the coaches relaxed, but were not sure they had a full replacement for Bobby Joe.

By September, with the Gold a shoo-in for the playoffs and highly favored to win the AL west, Molly was alternating Grazi Harango and Johnny Lighthorn. The team missed Bobby Joe, but they had not slipped in their winning ways, and were still winning at the same rate. Grazi was working well with Johnny and sharing the things he had learned. In fact, Lighthorn showed Grazi a couple of pointers about the way to get his feet quickly into position for throwing out a runner trying to steal second, and that very night Grazi threw out two attempted steals.