Daily Log of a Fresh-faced College Graduate
June 2, 2013

By now, everyone knows the flow.  The cops – and everyone else – saw the vid.  Twelve-million hits in three hours or something like that.  Percy Nor is being hunted.  Don-o gives them the list of twins he had memorized from when he went down into the hold in Florida, and it’s holding water.  The real Manny Aguilar is back, as is Wesley Scott and a few others who I’ll not name.  They found Jeremy Spade in the trunk of one of the limos, and while the guy is a class-A jerk, he ain’t no murderer, kidnapper or game-fixer as best as anyone can tell

I spend the night in the hospital, where a doctor patches up my shoulder and gives me a prescription for painkillers, along with instructions on how to keep it clean.  Don-o sits with me.  My Mom calls and wants to come, but I tell her no, I’ll be back home soon enough.  She tells me UDM has called to see if I’m still interested in a GA position.  I say I’m not ready to think about it.

Then the interview requests start coming in.  The first is a tiny website.  Then Fox Sports, then NBC and Conan.  I’m a hero, it seems.  In less than 24 hours, people are talking about Casey Neal and his buddy who were on this two-month quest to see baseball, who saved the game from the biggest scandal since 1919, and how now they aren’t going to be able to finish their tour because I’m all shot up in a hospital.  I mean, it’s not that bad.  We were still planning on hitting Omaha, but that’s the story.  When it gets out, I’m totally hella shocked when Arne Bong himself, owner of my very own Duluth Warriors, calls me directly and tells me that he’ll fly me to Omaha to see the team play tonight and, if I’ll take them, he would like to give me a pair of season tickets.  But then the commissioner himself one-ups Bong when he calls and tells me that Don-o and I are welcome to any regular season game we want to go to, and he’s gonna send us both a pair of universal passes.

Holy crap.

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So that’s how Don-o and I find ourselves in the owner’s box at Mack Stadium, watching the Omaha Cyclones host my Warriors.  It’s hard to dislike the Cyclones.  They spent a few years in the lower realms of the division before going on a four-season climb, winning just 59 games in 2010, but then 69 and 84 the following two years.  Now they’re playing .650 ball and making the Sandgnats eat crow.

They do it with bats that lead the league in OBP, slugging and homers.  When I think Omaha, I think Narahiko Imada, a long-time Cyclone who’s always been good, but who is uncorking a superstar season.  I think of Manuel González, signed two seasons ago.  I think of new faces like Billy Krause (brought in under a deal with Reno), Brett Hurst and Roberto Rodríguez (who signed one-year deals in the off-season).  Add in some young homegrown talent like José Camacho and you’ve got quite a likeable mix of players that speaks to a front office who knows a little about competing and isn’t afraid to take a few limited risks at the right time.

So yeah, Omaha’s got a hella team, and they lead the division, but the Warriors took them 8-7 yesterday, and we’ve got Yams going tonight.

The PA announcer reads off the starting line-ups, then pauses.  “Ladies and Gentlemen, please direct your attention to the owner’s box along the third base line, where we have Casey Neal and Don-o joining our own General Manager Jason Warnke for this game with the Warriors!” We get a great round of applause, and the speakers blare a round of Sly and the Family Stone’s “Thank You“.  I sit there with my shoulder in a sling and wave with my other hand.  Don-o just grins – he’s enjoying his free beer and his brat, and a crust of mustard is already growing at the corner of his lip.  I’m on enough medication to kill Lindsay Lohan, so no brew for me, but I’m fine.  The attention makes me more than a little uncomfortable, though.

Then the game starts.  The Cyclones get to Yams for a run in the first, but we seem to have Cyclone starter Hisashi Oike‘s number tonight.  We get a pair of runs in the second when Katsunan Sakei slaps a line drive single with the bases loaded.  José Pérez adds a pair in the third with a massive homer that he makes even more special by tipping his cap to us as he rounds third.  Pérez makes it 6-1 as he doubles in two more in the fourth, chasing Oike and bringing in John Page.  Page is one of my favorites.  Not sure why.  He’s got only the fastball and slider, but they’re both solid and he can get guys out even if they know it’s coming.

Yams holds the Cyclones to two runs through seven, and a Steve Williamson homer makes it 7-2 going to the eighth.  Omaha gets a solo homer from Alberto Delgado, then a single from Roberto Rodríguez.  The bullpen gets up then, and I tell Don-o we should have had them up before.  Yams gets Brett Hurst to ground into a fielder’s choice and Billy Krause to pop up to first before we see Kisho Ageda enter the game.  Omaha pinch-hits a lefty bat, and Ageda lasts just long enough to give up a base hit to Narahiko Imada.  Then comes Johnny Hunt, and pretty much everyone knows what happens when Hunt comes in.  He grooves a 1-1 fastball, and Manuel González rockets it into the leftfield gap for a double.  Suddenly it’s 7-5 and Omaha is smelling blood.

Juan Cardenas to the rescue though (and who in hell would have thought to ever read that sentence?).  Cardenas gets four outs and first career big-league save.  Duluth wins 7-5, our second in a row.

When we get to the hotel, I’m so tired I fall asleep before I realize I’m in bed.