Last night I heard someone approaching the door and then something fall through the letterbox, this is particularly odd as no one sends letters these days. Before I even picked it up I could see it was a card. On the back all it said was:

“Tomorrow, 9am, Moultrie Field”

Some reporters had tweeted about this message so by the time we reached the next morning, social media and sports news were speculating wildly about what this mysterious message was about. In 2 minutes I seen about 100 different rumours, each wackier than the last: “David Clark wants to move the team to Glasgow, Scotland”, “Statesmen are changing their name”, “Aliens spotted at Moultrie Field” and my personal favourite “Routine physical reveals Rick Chapman is a crab person”.

Needless to say I didn’t really think these were likely, but without any clear indication of what to expect I headed along to Moultrie Field, unsure what the morning would reveal.

I took my seat near the back of a packed out press room, it was packed already and I thought I was far too early. There was a distinct nervousness in the air, and then to make matters worse a clock appeared projected onto the wall.
08:59:00 and it began slowly making its way to the set time
I’ve been to hundreds of these things in the past and never really thought much of them but even I was beginning to feel the pressure, I sat wishing the stupid clock would hurry up 42..43..44..45 oh come on! 56…57…58…59…

At that moment a door behind the podium opened up and David Clark appeared followed by 2 other front office people. The room fell absolute silent as he approached the microphone.

“As you may know, it’s been another season out of contention for the Statesmen. This is a situation we do not like but unfortunately it’s one that we face for a while. We have 2 clear roads in front of us, we can either continue on the route we are going and hope something clicks for one season or we can take the first steps on the longer road to sustained greatness.”

“We as an organisation have chosen the second option. That is why I’m here to announce the trades of Miguel Corona and John Matthews subject to the league processing it.”

*at this point the room bursts into a frenzy of activity*

“While I’m not at liberty to discuss the actual ins and outs of both deals we are getting in return what we desired at the end of last season. We’re getting back prospects to help take our farm system from one of the weakest, to one that can help us down the line. And also getting players we need to help us now. We desperately needed to upgrade our catcher and infield generally, this deal helps us to do that whilst also freeing up $40million a year.”

“We really appreciate all these players have given to the team over the past year but they are professionals and understand that sometimes these kinds of moves need to happen. We wish them well at their new teams and officially welcome what we got in return to their new home.”

“While we now have a hole in the rotation I will speak with the remaining pitchers to assign new roles and decide on a new ace for the upcoming season. We will probably not look towards acquiring top of the rotation arms in free agency or through trade but we will perhaps look at how we can move many of the pitchers from our bullpen into the rotation, which is where they should be.”

“This will be a tough day for Statesmen fans to take but it’s in the best interest of the team to make this move. The improvements made in other areas will be the worth it, and other players now have a chance to shine. Thank you all for coming.”

And there it was, the news that we had expected to happen but maybe not quite so soon. As much as a team needs quality it can’t have it all in one area and big, huge, gaping, obvious, gargantuan holes across other areas of the team. It sucks but it’s the way the Statesmen go unfortunately, the team once rich with success no longer have the financial power or recent glory to base itself on.
Just as we begin to leave the stadium we notice they’ve already cut down the banners of Corona and Matthews. There’s a rolled up on about to be put up and I ask who’s face is on it. “Kondo” he replies. At that point I realised it could be a hell of a lot worse.

Brigham Lennox