Me: Ugh.
Colby: No shit. So ‘she?’
Me: Yes. A co-worker. Get your mind out of the gutter.
Colby: I don’t see a problem with that.
Colby never saw a problem with anything. She should have been born in the time of free love. As far as she was concerned, if something felt good, you should do it. Fuck standards. Her only red line was if someone else would get hurt. I envied her.
When Grandad finally turned the team over to me, I accepted it only with the condition that he wouldn’t get in the way of any changes I planned to make. It had taken him years to agree to that condition, but when my grandmother gave him an ultimatum, it pushed him over the edge.
Our family had been shocked when she had packed and moved out after more than fifty years of marriage. For her, it was fifty years of coming in second to a baseball team, andthe promise of their retirement together continued to be pushed off into the distant future.
Despite my love for him, my father didn’t take part in the day-to-day management and felt no disappointment when it passed to me instead. Dad’s disinterest in the team likely had Granddad involved longer than he planned. Dad lived well from his trust fund and showed up in the front office now and then to justify his paycheck. The deal worked for both of us; he never had to show up regularly, and I never needed to consider him in my decisions.
I wanted this as long as I could remember. Did I need to go to Harvard Business to earn the role? Nope. But I wanted Grandad to feel proud and confident that he was leaving the team in capable hands. While my friends traveled to Europe and were on Spring Break in Cabo, I interned with the Minutemen. We eventually modeled the program I followed for local high school and college students. The goal was to create a community.
The Minutemen were a huge part of the community, and their fan base was notoriously one of the most rabid. They filled the stands in good years and bad, and I recognized the importance of giving back. It was why I had pushed so hard to provide seed money for the non-profit created by Kelsey Colette, soon to be Drummond. Yes, I wanted to help single mothers, but helping mothers directly supported the kids they raised. These kids would one day show up and support the team.
Unable to sleep, I researched the statistics Kendra had shared a bit more. Her numbers were well supported. The realization that one in five women were a victim of sexual assault immediately caused me to reassess the men in mypersonal community. That could easily extend to the 40-man roster each year purely based on statistics alone. Add to the equation, men on the road, away from their families, there was even more potential for bad behavior.
Yes, the number of women who reported assaults each year was staggering, but if over 60% went unreported? For as long as I could remember, I was taught to question accusations. Innocent until proven guilty. But knowing how many barriers women faced when they finally accused men, why would anyone subject themselves to that scrutiny?
In 2015, the league and the players’ union came to terms on action that teams could take against players accused of domestic violence, sexual assault, and child abuse, and this extended to mandatory training they received each spring. The MLB could apply punishment outside of the criminal justice system, but did that have enough teeth? MLB contracts are guaranteed, and players suspended for sexual assault would have a loss of pay and service time, but terminating a contract is always tricky.
I opened up my e-mail and sent off an inquiry to our head of legal, specifically looking into whether the morals clause in our contracts had enough teeth.
Long after I crawled into bed, I replayed the night with Kendra and that shitbag. Yes, she’d been frustrated, but that guy had cleared several hurdles and tests even before she met him. And she made it sound like he wasn’t even the worst guy she’d encountered.
What the fuck?
Were any of the Minutemen players like that when no one watched? Did they walk around like women owed thema lay just because? Or was it even worse because they had money and status? I suspected it was worse.
Could we blame the women? In some cases, I had seen women throw themselves at these men. However, as Kendra pointed out, consent can be withdrawn at any point. With booze involved, consent wasn’t even possible. Did the training they received cover this?
FIVE
kendra
Mortified.
When I got home, I called Kylie to tell her how horrible my date was. I had a list of the worst dates, and this one was at the top. The icing on the cake was that my boss witnessed it.
“Hey,” Kylie said. “How was the date?”
“Terrible, and don’t worry, the team owner was there to witness it. Tyler got carried out by the bar manager. But at least I got a good laugh. The man lied about his height and puffed out his chest to threaten Hawk. He stood at least five inches shorter than him.”
“Wait, Hawk took over the team? Lily is friends with him. She offered to call him to get the skinny on Sam when Kelsey first started dating him.”
Sam’s rapid integration into the family was still unbelievable to me. He was only my nephew Crew’s stepfather, but no one would ever diminish Sam’s role in his life. Sam had even gone the extra step and become friends with Crew’s biological father. They planned their weddingaround Tom’s schedule so he wouldn’t miss Crew’s first Christmas.
“Yes, his grandfather recently stepped down, and he assumed control. He’s been meeting with the teams and involving himself in every aspect of operations.”
“Is that good? Or is it a pain in the ass?” Kylie asked.
I thought about it before I responded. Some staff were noticeably on edge when he asked them to speak at the meetings, but I personally liked the access. Rumor had it that his grandfather had been bored with the operations and was often short-tempered if anything went wrong. I imagined Hawk would handle a crisis well; he hadn’t been flustered with Tyler.
“I think it’s good. But not everyone is comfortable interacting with authority. And he’s the top of the heap.”
