Page 2 of The Strike Zone

“Yeah, we don’t want people to start thinking we have a stick up our butt like the Yankees,” mumbled Alice.

Joey snorted a laugh.

“Exactly.” I turned to her. “That everything?”

She gave one long nod of her head. “Yup. And don’t forget that we also need to keep up team morale while we’re creating content. The guys aren’t going to want to respond to you the second they walk into the club if they had a crappy game the night before, or they’re in a losing streak. When morale is up, we win more games.”

“And let’s not forget Shepherd wants the Commissioner’s Trophy this year.”

The pair of us stared across the table, doing our best to hold the eager gazes of the two boys. Maybeeagerwas overreaching. Interested? Perhaps not even that. Distracted? Definitely.

It was a miracle I still had a shred of their attention. Cyrus was once more looking out of the huge plate glass windows, where far below a few of this season’s roster were practicing ahead of the Opening Day game tomorrow.

We should have held this meeting yesterday when the stadium was quieter, and there were fewer players around to get sidetracked by. Or earlier this morning before anybody arrived.

“Cyrus…”

His head snapped back to me.

“I get it, I really do. Including and especially the ass admiration. But I need your focus for now, then you can go down there and get to work. Give me twenty minutes, deal?”

“Sure. Sorry, Scout.”

“Thanks.” Over the table I slid the printouts illustrating a couple of graphs from the wider data that had been presented to us earlier in the week. “If you look at this, you can see what worked last year and what we need to change. A key point from the fans was player interaction, they love it when we make the players seem more human and accessible. The best performing posts last year were game day fit, anything involving cute stuff, like puppies and players, or posts that bring out personal details—favorite cereals, soda, what’s in their refrigerator—things like that.”

The pair of them flicked through the pages, nodding as their eyes scanned across the figures. I couldn’t tell if they found it interesting or they were nodding because that’s what they thought they should be doing. Cyrus picked up his pen and began doodling on his notepad.

“As members of the social team, your opinions are valid. Everyone chips in with ideas. We bounce off each other, we learn, we improve. If you have ideas, then you share them. No idea is a bad idea.”

The pair of them sat there in silence. I was half expecting a dust ball to blow past any minute. I caught the end of Alice rolling her eyes.

“Guys? How about now? What’s trending, what’s new? Any ideas?—”

Joey’s hand shot into the air before sheepishly lowering it. “Um, well, you know the mom trend that’s always popular. The one where they empty their bag and go through it…that could work.”

“How’d you mean?”

“When the guys come in the building, we grab them before they get to the locker rooms. Ask them to show us what’s in their bag.”

“Oh yeah, good. I like that.” I nodded in a way I hoped was encouraging. “We can build on that too. A day in the life?—”

“A week in the life of the Lions.”

“Hey, don’t the Lions always have a bat dog for special games? We could do more there if the fans like dogs?—”

“Ha-ha, like who can get around the bases faster,” Joey interrupted.

“A New York Lion or a New York Labrador?”

“You mean Barclay?” I asked, quickly jumping in.

“Yeah, whatever he’s called.” Cyrus continued, “NHL teams always do a doggy day with the local shelters—calendars, or photoshoots, that sort of thing. Bring your dog to work.”

“I like it.” Alice sat up straighter and took a long sip of her coffee. It might have been the light, but I was sure Cyrus’s cheeks flushed a little at her compliment. “We can work more ad sales in for pet brands. Have pet-focused days. The Dodgers hold a dog day, we should do the same.”

“Good, what else?” I asked, spinning around at the knock on the door to find Tom, one of the guys on the comms team, poking his head through the gap.

“Scout, we have this room booked.”

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