What the Hell is Going in Dayton??? (Part One)

 

  PART ONE: IT WAS THE MORNING after the Dayton Musicmen had defeated the Georgetown Millers in a thrilling game seven at the Soundstage in Dayton, OH. The parade was scheduled for the the following evening as GM Bill Corfield sat quietly in his home office, enjoying a quiet moment to reflect on the season.

 The phone rang, and it was Head Scout for the Musicmen, Baz Bastein.

Bastein congratulated Corfield on adding a 4th Cup to his resume but then told him something he didn't expect to hear.

"Bill, you have to break up the team..."

Corfield said nothing.

Bastein repeated his comment, "You heard me, you have to break up the team...and do it before next season starts. If you don't, it'll be a cold day in Dayton before you ever win another one my friend."

Corfield took a drink from his glass and ask why would he need to do that before next season began let alone at any time in the near future?

"Look at your contracts. Burnsy is your UFA resign this year... that's easy. Next year is when it gets dicey. Bergeron, Dubnyck, Elliot, Pavelski and Weber are all UFA's after next season. Guys know you can only keep one. Their value drops a ton the further you go into the season."

"You're getting old fast... Sid's the best player in the league, but once his production starts slip - and it will sooner or later - his salary will make him almost untradeable unless you cover a big chunk of his salary, and you can't really afford that, can you?"

Corfield paused a moment and said, "Don't I have a history of figuring these things out? We're still fucking good, Baz..."

"Yes, yes we are boss, but look at our prospects. It wasn't that long ago we had more prospects than anyone other team in the league, now we're near the bottom. We have zero top notch prospects, they've all been traded away."

"Face it, Bill... if you don't act soon  these assets you see on our team today will bring you pennies on the dollar. The league's too good...guys have been around awhile and Matty's only lining up strong new guys to come on board.

Financially, we're also in a different place than we usually are... all these debts are coming due soon. It's my opinion, if we don't act aggressively soon - in the next few months - it's going to get really bad."

Corfield paused a moment and sighed, "I know Baz...I've known it since Christmas. Everything you just said is spot on and true. I've been thinking about this for  a while."

Once the new disk comes out, I need to start marketing these guys to the correct teams and getting the most we can for them while they're still really good. The fans will shit themselves, but I'll take the heat. We've given them four championships and almost a fifth back in the first season of the league but Dave beat me."

"Thank God, I wasn't looking forward to fighting with you all summer about this..."

"No problem" Corfield said with a laugh...

PART TWO

"Here's my plan..."

(Part two will be published August 22nd, 2017...)