At the Deadline, Part 2
kosmo - See all 468 of my articles
Leave the First Comment
Chapter list for At The Deadline
- At the deadline
- At the Deadline, Part 2
As we hit the Major League non-waiver trade deadline today, we also reach the conclusion of our story. Pleased read part one first (see the link in the table of contents at the top of the article).
Buzz immediately grab his phone and called Prescott Williams.
“What now, Bismarck? You trying to get Blanchett for thirty cents on the dollar?”
“I’m actually calling about Ray Mitchell.”
“Ray Mitchell? Why on earth would you want him? He’s a sieve at third base – your guy is a much better all around player.”
“Yours is not to wonder why, Prescott. I’ll give you Oscar Bishop for him.”
Prescott Williams pondered for about ten seconds before snapping up the deal.
Next, Bismarck dialed the number of George Peyton.
“George, this is Buzz. I have that right handed power bat yu have been looking for. Ray Mitchell.”
“Ray Mitchell? I’ve been trying to pry him away, but that doodoo head Williams was insisting that they were in the race and needed to hang onto all of their core players.”
“They’re no longer in the race, George. Al Blanchett took a liner off his leg. From the sound of the impact, he has a fracture and he’s done for the year.”
“Shit. I hadn’t heard that. When did it happen?”
“About five minutes ago.”
“And you jumped in like a piranha,” laughed Peyton. ”OK, Mitchell would definitely give us some thunder, though we’d probably need to DH him. What are you looking for?”
“Vance Barcone.”
“I’ll have to check with the boss and get back to you. Barcone is one of our better minor league pitchers.”
“Mitchell is the bat that can get you into the playoffs, George. If you don’t want him, others in your division will. Fish or cut bait.”
“Just give me five minutes,” begged Peyton.
“You have three minutes,” replied Bismarck, as he hung up. The key, as always, was to keep the pressure on and force the other team to act more quickly than they wanted to.
Buzz chomped a handful of corn nuts, swigged some Coke, and burped violently. Two and a half minutes later, his phone rang. Peyton was able to pull the trigger, and Vance Barcone was a member of the Jackals. Buzz quickly went to work on pushing Barcone out of the Jackals organization and onto his final destination.
It was a mere ninety minutes before the trade deadline when Buzz was able to reach Gordon Auth.
“Gordo,” exclaimed Bismarck. ”If you’re still looking to deal Travis Wolf, I might have a deal for you. I just nabbed Vance Barcone from the Rhinos. I could bundle him with Lewis Burke.”
“From a talent perspective, that’s about right,” replied Auth. ”How much cash are you willing to throw into the deal?”
“Cash?” replied Bismarck, with a tinge of shock entering his voice. ”We’re taking Wolf’s salary off your hands. We’re already helping you with your finances.”
“We’ve been having some bad financial times, Buzz. You know that. You’re going to have to sweeten the pot with a few million bucks to get the deal done.”
“No way,” replied Bismarck. ”I have another deal brewing to get Blanchett from the Sharks.” Bismarck was bluffing, praying Gordon Auth hadn’t heard the news of the injury to Blanchett.
Gordon Auth sighed audibly.
“Can you throw me some sort of a bone, Buzz? I’d like to be able to tell the boss that I was able to get at least a bit of cash in the deal.”
“Tell you what, Gordy. I could include two million in the deal if you throw in that Willewaldt kid.”
Bismarck could sense the uncertainty on the other end of the phone. Auth tended to have a good handle on the players at the upper levels of the minor leagues, but had the tendency to ignore all but the elite prospects at the lower level. Bismarck doubted that Auth was aware of the metrics that indicated that Willewaldt was a considerably better player that his raw stats indicated. There was a distinct possibility that Auth was completely unaware of Willewaldt. Getting Willewaldt for two million would be a steal. Buzz went for the kill.
“Gordy, I have Prescott Williams on the other line,” he lied. ”We’re very close on the parameters of a deal for Blanchett. What should I tell him?”
The game of chicken had come to a head – and understandably, the weaker GM succumbed.
“OK,” replied Auth. ”I’ll send in the paperwork.”
Buzz hung up the phone and released a celebratory fart. With Travis Wolf on board, the Jackals had a very strong chance of making it to the playoffs. Not only that, but he had bought Willewaldt for considerably below fair market value. The day wasn’t over, though. He still needed to submit the paperwork to the league office. He hammered away on the keyboard of his laptop until the documentation had been filed.
Buzz grabbed his phone for one last call. He reached Commissioner Jaylene Wrigley to inform her of the trades – just in case the technology failed. As Bismarck listened to her voice, he could not help but be reminded of that weekend in Vegas when too much tequila had caused Jaylene to make some rather poor decisions – much to the benefit of the league’s Don Juan, Mr. Buzz Bismarck himself. After his mild flirting had been rebuffed, the call ended. Buzz turned on the TV, and flopped down on the futon in the middle of the office, where he promptly fell asleep.
Kosmo is the founder of The Soap Boxers and writes on a variety of topics, including the Fiction Friday original short stories. You can purchase some of Kosmo's work at the company store. Like Kosmo's writing? You can leave a tip. Like this site? Subscribe via RSS, Subscribe via Email, or Follow us on Twitter. Want to get just the Fiction Friday articles, but not the rest of The Soap Boxers? Subscribe to the Fiction Friday RSS Feed - or subscribe via email. The permanent URL for this article is:http://www.thesoapboxers.com/at-the-deadline-part-2/
At the deadline
kosmo - See all 468 of my articles
1 Comment
In the spirit of the Major League non-waiver trade deadline on Friday, I am writing a two part story about a GM trying to make a deal so that his team can make a playoff run. You’ll get the first half today, but you’ll have to wait until Friday for the conclusion – just as [...]
→ Read the full article
A late summer night’s dream
Johnny Goodman - See all 52 of my articles
Leave the First Comment
Next week we will be into the throes of the Month of August. August is an important date on the calendar for a variety of reasons: Summer is winding down and school is just around the corner Casual Observer Blog writer Johnny Goodman celebrates another birthday. College Football fall camp starts Fantasy Football drafts take [...]
→ Read the full article
Baseball Preference Rankings
kosmo - See all 468 of my articles
7 Comments
I hit some news stories in Saturday’s article, so I’m taking a bit of a break today, with a fun article. I am a huge baseball fan. I am a big Rockies fan, of course, but I am also a bit fan of the sport, in general. If I flip a game on, I can [...]
→ Read the full article
Canadian Current Events
Tyson Turner - See all 11 of my articles
Leave the First Comment
This week to mix it up, thought I’d present a few of the noteworthy news stories that have taken place in this wonderful and sometimes odd country. The Lotto Loser Barry Shell of Brampton, Ontario must have thought he had all the luck when he found out he had won a cool 4.4 million dollars [...]
→ Read the full article
Saturday Stew
kosmo - See all 468 of my articles
3 Comments
Necrophilia In 2006, three young men in Wisconsin attempted to dig up a recently diseased young woman so that one of them could have sex with her body. One of the men had become infatuated with her after seeing her photo in the obituary column. (Maybe it’s just me, but that’s not the first place [...]
→ Read the full article
Welcome Back, Bob
kosmo - See all 468 of my articles
Leave the First Comment
Bob Inferapels approached me today with the good news that he is able to resume his weekly entertainment column. Not long ago, Bob had come to me with the sad news that circumstances had resulted in an inability to continue writing for us on a regular basis. I believe the circumstances may have been related [...]
→ Read the full article
What Really Killed The Dinosaurs
kosmo - See all 468 of my articles
Leave the First Comment
Enjoy dinosaurs? Enter our dinosaur book giveaway. Dramatic poetic license has been taken with this story. The dinosaurs featured in the story would not have interacted with each other in real life. General Al Osoris paced the corridor of his military headquarters in a bunker at the base of the canyon. The great general had [...]
→ Read the full article
Giveaway – Dinosaur Books
kosmo - See all 468 of my articles
2 Comments
Now that we have a complete writing staff on board, we’re going to make a push to increase the popularity of The Soap Boxers over the course of the next month. To reward our loyal readers for spreading positive word of mouth, we are happy to announce a giveaway. We will give away one copy [...]
→ Read the full article
Dinosaurs
kosmo - See all 468 of my articles
Leave the First Comment
Like most kids, I was fascinated by dinosaurs when I first learned about them. Unlike most kids, I never really lost the fascination. An entire family of beasts that science could tell us very little about! This left huge gaps for my eager young imagination to fill. In hindsight, this was a foreshadowing of what [...]
→ Read the full article
Writers for The Soap Boxers are freelance writers who work as independent contractors. Opinions expressed by the writers may not necessarily reflect the opinion of management.
Copyright for all content belongs to the writer identified in the byline. Copyright for any content not associated with a particular writer belongs to Kosmo. Copyright for comments belongs to the writer of the comment.
Content from The Soap Boxers cannot be reused in any manner other than what is allowed under the fair use doctrine of US copyright law or the applicable copyright laws of your country.
© 2008-2010. All rights reserved.
Please email Kosmo at Kosmo@ObservingCasually.com with any questions you may have.
The Soap Boxers is a division of Hyrax Publications
Soap Boxer Search
Just For Laughs
Category
Recent Posts
Search by Writer
Lazy Man and Money
Blogs Written By Us
Financial Blogs
Fun Blogs
