The Short Season

The Short SeasonSpring in Sarasota, 1975. Twelve years since I had taken a contract to camp on the shores of Tampa Bay. Property of the Cincinnati Reds, I had sweated under the west Bay sun at AI Lopez Field, named for the then manager of the White Sox who had had his own pitchers doing 50 laps a day across the way at south Bay's Payne Park. Señor Lopez would, within 60 days, trade one of his pitchers for me, inadvertently foredooming my career. Later that year, the White Sox management declared...