Xavier Paul (Day 7)

Xavier Paul.

A name that I will never forget for the rest of my life.

When I was able to check my email in the morning I was happy to know that Baseball America had received my stories from the previous night, and I was still on time with my deadline. They had also responded to my expressed desire to write some stories about the ABL for them with a request for one.

They sent me this link, http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/player-swindle-strikes-bandits/story-e6freoof-1226195071979 and asked if I could write a news story on the topic. If you haven't clicked the link and been redirected to where I'm trying to send you, then let me give you the gist of the story.

Prior to my arrival and upon my arrival it was my understanding that Xavier Paul was on the roster for the Brisbane Bandits. He was expected to be making his way to Australia for the season down under and just hadn't quite made it yet. Paul played for the Pittsburgh Pirates this past season and I actually had the great privilege of seeing him come into an interleague game in Toronto in June as a defensive replacement. That seems more important now for some reason.

Up until I received the link to that story I believed, and so did many others, that Paul was coming to play for the Brisbane Bandits.

The story revealed that he most certainly was not. Paul had been the name used by an ABL player-wannabe in a supposed package deal when he was trying to sell himself to the league. Breland Brown, on the roster for the Sydney Blue Sox until the story came out, manufactured an elaborate web of lies in an attempt to play baseball here in Oz.

Brown pretended to be his own agent, Paul's agent, Paul and probably others. An unsuspecting Paul was likely pretty surprised when he received a call asking when he was finally going to make it to Australia.

This is big news. And a big opportunity for the league and the Bandits to get some buzz essentially around the entire globe. No publicity is bad publicity right?

So I approached Carl, Whitey and the Gonz about writing the piece for Baseball America. I came to learn that no one from our organization was actually allowed to speak to this topic so I had to be redirected to someone from the league. Throughout the day, among office duties and heading back to the field for more groundskeeping, I was in communication with Gonzo and the person from the league that he was trying to get to speak with me. Good thing I have a phone now. Except for the fact that it is already out of minutes, so I can only receive calls and texts and not actually make them.

I still hadn't heard from anyone by the time we headed to the field in the afternoon, so I just kept my phone and recorder around in case I received a call. I probably wouldn't have even recognized the ring tone on my own phone though so unless I had it in my hand, I likely would miss the call.

For today's round of deconstruction we had more than twice as many people as yesterday. Alan, Maestri and Durket and I were joined by Whitey, Carl, Gonz, Watto, first-base coach Gareth and another player, Daniel Lamb-Hunt. The entire time I was thinking how much faster the previous day's work might have gone if we'd had everyone then. But of course they would all show up when the work was almost already done.

Today was a bunch of heavy lifting though so it was nice to have everyone there. My upper body strength is laughable so I was probably more in the way than anything else. I tried my best to help though because I hate when the guys look at me like I'm a wounded kitten, incapable of assisting them in any tasks requiring muscle mass.

The men finished the work in record time in comparison to yesterday. Maestri and I even got in a pitiful game of ping-pong before he had to get ready for practice. And my description of the game is no knock on him. I need to step it up. We played to 11 and he gave me about three-and-a-half pity points and I still lost by seven. Good thing the ping-pong table is in the locker room. I should practice on my own before embarrassing myself any further.

I waited around in the locker room for awhile for Gonzo because he was taking me to get some more minutes for my phone. It didn't occur to me that in this league and around here, there are no women in the locker rooms. I guess it's different in the bigs. No one informed me until later and at that point, the rule had already been broken so I guess we're setting a new precedent here. It's no skin off my back to not be in a confined space with a bunch of sweaty guys, but I just thought nothing of it. Hopefully I didn't offend anyone.

The Gonz finally made his way back and we were off to fix my communication troubles. We ended up at a 7/11 so at least now I know where to go the next time I need minutes or phone assistance. He also mentioned that at the post office they sell international calling cards for pretty cheap but there was a huge line at the one we saw so I will have to keep that in mind for later.

When I got home I received the call from the league ready to discuss the Paul matter. I asked the questions I needed to, we discussed my connection with Baseball America and how I might approach the story and as soon as we hung up I set off transcribing.

As I was getting ready to write the article I started doing some more research on Breland Brown. The article that I linked to earlier called him a Yankees minor leaguer but nowhere was I able to find or come up with that information on my own. I actually found very few statistics on him and was beginning to wonder more and more about this whole scandal.

So what did I do about it? Obviously I called Carl. I figured he hadn't heard from me enough since I'd been spending every waking minute around him. Really, I just wanted his opinion on what I was about to write. The suggestion was thrown out that I might just write about the whole Yankee thing and cite the Courier-Mail on that information. Even the guy that I'd spoken to from the league called Brown a Yankees minor leaguer.

But I couldn't do that. I couldn't run with information that I had not verified. In the end, after relaying my stresses to Carl for far longer than I imagine he'd wanted to talk to me, I wrote the article the way I wanted to and passed it along. I had Carl proofread again since he'd obviously not done enough for me yet that day and he seemed okay with what I was putting out there too. So the article was off to Baseball America.

Here's my BA version of the scam if you're interested:
http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/minors/winter-baseball/winter-wonders/2011/2612599.html

The rest of my evening was no less controversial than the way my day had started. And Xavier Paul continued to be a part of the problem.

Erin, the woman hosting my stay, at least temporarily, was to be the host for Paul when he arrived in town. This was her understanding and mine as well. I knew I was residing in a temporary location and I had faith that there would be another place for me afterward.

When she found out about the scandal I believe she talked to Whitey. It was obvious that her space wasn't going to be taken up by Paul and I think Whitey just asked her if I could stay for the duration of my visit instead.

But the whole thing just didn't go over well. Understandably, Erin felt left out of the loop. Not only on the Paul thing, though I told her that I myself had only found out about it through the Courier-Mail in the morning, but also about me. She understood that there was another place for me to stay after a week's time was up. And now that she was being asked to host me, she felt as if this was not the truth.

I don't really know the details of what's been going on with me and my arrangements which is kind of sad to admit but I've been heavily relying on others. So I don't want to convey a message that I am not 100 per cent on. I can't say for sure what happened in conversations with Erin and Whitey, but at the end of the day, no one was in a happy place.

Erin didn't seem to have a problem with me however, and after several long phone conversations, her dealing with various people about me and me dealing mostly with Carl about Paul, we went out to get something to eat together. Erin took me to South Bank and we went to a great place that shall remain nameless. I already forgot it. Big surprise. We talked about Erin's time in Toronto, a variety of things about Brisbane and other parts of Australia, our families, and the Brisbane Bandits. A good time was had.

But at this point Erin was still not sure what she was going to do with me. Nothing against me she said, but she was mad enough at Whitey that she might not let me stay simply for that fact. Our conversations were a little bit strange because of that. Example, we were talking about going to the gym because I mentioned I wanted to get into one. She said she could get me a five-day pass at her gym so I could try it out. And then she added, "IF you stay with me." And that was pretty much how every other sentence ended. So it was a little confusing.

I told her that of course I would love to stay with her but it was her decision to make and I am not in her position. I do not know what I would do if I were her, nor would I presume to know what she would do. I'd been thrust upon her when I arrived and since then I have just kind of learned to roll with the punches while I'm here. Things will happen and I will accept them.

But perhaps tomorrow I will be accepting them from a new locale.