Las Vegas Gold by Jim Newell

were not. An umpire’s judgment call is not open to protest. A couple of the younger umpires were sent down to the minors, and several of the older ones were reprimanded. Molly’s reputation among umpires was as close to zero on a scale of five as it could get, but the quality of the calls both on the bases and behind the plate noticeably improved.
    The Gold lost their first game of the season to the Blue Jays, but won the other two games at Rogers’ Stadium. “GOLD ARE LOSERS” predictably trumpeted most of the sports pages around the league. They almost lost another to the Red Sox, but Mac Driscoll’s relief pitching got them out of a jam and Corry Van Dyk blasted a tenth inning home run that won it for them. It was Van Dyk’s second round-tripper of the young Major League season, and came at a good time when he hit a three and two pitch over the stands above the green monster at Fenway Park.
    The Red Sox won the second and third games of the three-game series at Fenway Park. Those three losses on the season left the Gold’ record at 19-3, and there was nobody even close at that point in the season.
    * * *
    Achille Ricci had had an idea. He called in one of his third-line mobsters named Curly Joe Agostini. Curly Joe achieved his nickname because, of course, he was as bald as an egg. When he walked into Ricci’s office he was wary, because he wasn’t called there very often, and a couple of the times he had been asked to go there the reason was he was in trouble. He was not the sharpest knife in the drawer.
    â€œSiddown, Joe,” the boss ordered, blowing smoke from his expensive cigar. “I got a job for you. This one even you shouldn’t mess up.”
    Joe Agostini decided not to make anything of the put down, but took a chair and waited.
    â€œWho’s the most important player on the team Mike Malone has put together?”
    Without hesitation, Joe replied, “The lead pitcher, Tabby O’Hara.”
    â€œThat’s what I thought, too. Get rid of him. Not you personally. Get somebody to do it. Who do you know in the New York connection?”
    â€œQuite a few guys. How about Sylvester?”
    â€œI know him a little bit. Could he organize something like that?”
    â€œDone it lots of times I know of. Want me to call him?”
    â€œYeah, but not so the call can be traced.”
    â€œEasy.”
    â€œI’ll read about it in the papers.”
    Curly Joe took that as a dismissal and left the office. He went downstairs to the Casino and found the security man who had charge of confiscating cell phones and BlackBerrys from the customers and holding them until the gambler left the premises. He picked out a BlackBerry and told the security man to replace it with a new one. He turned it over and pulled off the sticker with the customer’s name on it. The security man reached into the box of new BlackBerrys and stuck the sticker on the back. Agostini slipped him a fifty-dollar bill.
    The text message to New York brought a reply in about five minutes. “The arrangement would be looked after” was basically what the return message said.
    It might have been interesting had Agostini read the information the owner had stored on the BlackBerry before he made the call to New York. Instead, after finishing his reading of the return message, he took the BlackBerry to the parking lot, placed it in back of the left front wheel and drove his car over it backward and forward several times until he got out and looked to find the thing in pieces. He gathered them up and tossed them in four or five different garbage tins, then returned to the casino and had a drink at the bar.
    Had he read the messages, he would have found the owner was a Drug Enforcement Agency officer who probably would not be working for the DEA after the next morning, because he would have missed an eight o’clock meeting. Had the DEA officer shown up, his boss would not have