Sunday, November 7th 2021

I was most surprised to get a call from Sir John’s office asking me to come to his Hawaiian home for a face to face meeting. In my five years at London I had rarely seen the London Underground’s owner, normally he restricted himself to a conference call in October to set up the budgets & review the season and then another around Christmas to check on the progress of our off season plans. Other than that I just received the occasional e-mail so this was a big departure from the norm.

On the plane over I contemplated how the last five years had gone. It had been a real joy to be in London after the struggle of Kuwana, the Steel Dragons were years away from anything like contending and the farm was full of journeymen & never-will-be’s. London was different, they had only made the playoffs once in their history but you could see the tide was turning. The previous GM had drafted wisely, helped by a few poor years, and the building blocks were all there. My first year, 2016, saw London just scrape in at .500 coming off their first winning season in five years. It was the changing of the guard though, Chris Long & Nathan Carter were in their sophomore season and later that year I would give Leonard Ramsey, Leonard Carver & Ángel Luján their first taste of PEBA baseball. 2017 saw the Underground return to winning ways, grab their first ever 2^nd place in the Pan-Atlantic division and make the playoffs for only the second time ever. Hiroyuki Nii won a career high 19 games, Ramsey won the IL Wunderkind Award but there was no playoff success as the Underground crashed out in the division series 3-2 to the New Jersey Hitmen. 2018 saw everything come together London won 88 games, their second highest ever total, and they claimed their second ever P-A division title. This time there was no stopping them in the playoffs, San Antonio Calzones of Laredo & Connecticut Nutmeggers fell by the way as London went on to meet Reno Zephyrs in the Underground’s first ever PEC.  The series went the distance and London were champions of the PEBA for the first time in their history as they won game seven. 2019 saw the Underground take their second successive division title with a franchise high 97 wins but this time Connecticut proved too strong in the Alliance Tournament. In 2020 London again set a franchise record for wins with 99 but once more fell in the Alliance Tournament as the Florida Featherheads beat them on their way to win the PEC. I was happy to clinch our fourth straight Pennant and our fifth straight playoff berth but we suffered as our form fell away in September, we lost Nii & Erwin Callahan to injury and fell at the first hurdle to our new rivals Amsterdam. I resolved to ask Sir John for a bigger budget, money was getting tight in London. With so many stars our payroll is spiralling out of control, Kata Nakamura had to be traded and Víctor Martínez released to produce budget room. I would have liked to have keep both of them but …

Maybe it’s time for a rebuild, trade everyone away and start again but have I the heart for it? I’ve watched this team come through the farm and rise to the top, each your I feel it’s time to break it up but each year I give them one more crack at a PEC ring. Have they still got enough trade value to set London up to have a chance to hit the top again? And can I do it? I haven’t ever been much of a trader, I inherited most of the main pieces from the former GM I just honed them to reach their potential. Brought them in at the right time, could I now get rid of them at the right time and build my own London? My head was swirling with thoughts like this as I got out of the limo Sir John had sent to meet me at the airport.

Sir John’s secretary showed me into his study straight away. Sir John motioned me to sit down in the chair beside him. “I won’t beat around the bush Nigel” He said “I’d expected more, London is paying top dollar in salaries but there’s no rings” I was about to splutter a reply when he motioned me to stop as he continued. “You’re not winning the silverware and you’re not rebuilding either? I really wanted to see more progress than this, I fear you’re going backwards without having a plan B. I think it’s time to do something about this, I must have a winner … “ Just when I thought this was my chance to press my demand to increase the salary budget he once more stopped me dead.

“The only way this can be fixed is to go in a different direction, Thank you for the last five years but I feel it is in the franchise’s best interests to dispense with your services and look for a new GM !”

Now I was really speechless