“I still wish I’d thought of it,” Phil complained.
I never had to worry about my head getting too big.
◊◊◊
Today Moose showed up with Bryan and Brock while I practiced with the pitching machine. We followed the same routine: Moose talked to them as I batted, then after thirty minutes, one of them stepped into the cage. I spent fifteen minutes with each of them. Moose would insert himself if he noticed I’d gotten something wrong, but otherwise let me teach them.
After we were done, I stopped Moose.
“Why are you having me coach them? You obviously have a lot more experience than I do,” I admitted.
“It’s because they need to hear it from someone other than me. I’ve been coaching them and telling them what you’re saying. You’ll figure out that for whatever reason, sometimes it takes someone else to tell you the same thing to get you to believe it. All I’ve done is tell them you received special coaching and came home a better hitter. They all know what you did in football. They want to believe you, so they do,” Moose explained.
“If it makes us better, I’m in.”
◊◊◊
Caryn called me after I got home from the dojo.
“Your dad and I talked at length with Mr. Morris. He’d like to set up a conference call for tomorrow and talk to essentially everyone who’s either involved with you or works for you.”
“Why’s that?” I asked.
“He said that the NCAA will receive your application tomorrow and that they won’t hesitate to call people directly. They would rather get information from the source than have you provide it to them. So, for example, they might call Saul and talk about your movie deals. Mr. Morris also wants to talk about a few matters you need to be careful about moving forward. He said he’d send your dad a letter next week that lays out a few issues that might be concerns and his take on them. We also gave him permission to contact everyone in case he needs to get additional information.”
“Do I have anything to worry about?” I asked.
“Mr. Morris is confident that you’ll be fine. If you’d gotten the wrong case manager, they could have made things difficult. Many of them are volunteers from different member institutions and some even from the general public. Mr. Morris said that you didn’t get a nonpaid case manager because your case is more involved than usual,” she explained.
“Okay. I’ll be interested to hear what he wants to tell everyone.”
“I also have news from Saul. He received the contract for the James Bond movie. You have the part if they make the movie,” she said.
“What do you mean, if?”
“Daniel Craig, the current James Bond, has said he doesn’t want to be away from his family. I hope you’re sitting down. He turned down a hundred million dollars to do back-to-back movies.
“There seem to be some massive things in play for this franchise. EON Productions has been the Bond licensing company since its initial installment in 1962. MGM is the Bond series distribution headquarters. Rumors are flying that Disney, Universal, Warner Bros, and Paramount are all bidding to take the movies away from Sony.
“The good news is that they’ve sent over a contract that specifies the movie to be shot not this summer, but next,” Caryn said.
“Why would Daniel Craig walk away from this?”
“He’s done four of them and is reported to be worth nearly a hundred million now. How much money does he need? The last movie took nearly eight months to shoot. He said his family hates him being away for that long. One of the conditions he’s putting forward is for it to last no longer than three months. He has a five-year-old son whom he wants to spend time with.”
I could see that.
“Saul also got some news from the Star Wars Han Solo project. They’ll announce their top twelve finalists for the role next week. He said if you make the cut, you’ll have to fly to London for the next round of auditions.”
“I didn’t think I had a shot at that,” I admitted.
“Saul seems to believe you might since they took the time to contact him about you. He had another actor audition, and they didn’t call Saul about that guy.”
That would be a big deal. I would have my first lead role in a movie.
◊◊◊ Friday February 12
After school, I drove home to load my car for the trip to New York, and then picked up Kendal and Pam. They both must have thought we planned a month’s visit to the Big Apple if the amount of luggage was any indication. I, on the other hand, only brought a garment bag and one of those suitcases on little wheels with a telescoping handle.
I missed the Charger because we ended up having to load some luggage in the back seat of the Jeep with Pam.
Once we were on the road, my phone rang.
“Answer,” I said, and the Bluetooth from the phone connected to the Jeep. “This is David.”
“We’re about to start the conference call,” Ms. Dixon said. “Do you have the number to call and the site to log in?”
Kendal opened her email and found the link and password to the meeting so she could log in. When she got connected, she could see Mr. Morris’s computer screen.
“We’re logged in. I’ll hang up and call the conference number,” I said.
As I called in, there was a tone, and then my dad’s voice came on the line.
“Who just joined us?”
“Hey, Dad, it’s David, Kendal, and Pam.”
Several people were already on. As more joined, Dad, as the lead moderator, greeted each one. I think almost everyone I worked with was on the call. The attendees included Mr. Hill, who’d given me my start by doing newspaper insert ads; Deb Thomas from Ford Models; Devin and Sandy Range; and most recently, Frank, Saul, and Paul Andon, the studio exec for my Star Academy and The Secret Circle movies.
There was also all my family, including Grandma Dawson, Uncle John, and Greg and Angie. And there were people from high school like Alan, Lily, Tracy, and Wolf, who either worked for me or helped in some way. As well, Coach Hope, Moose, and Mr. Palm, our vice-principal, were on the call.
When it began, Ms. Dixon introduced Mr. Morris, and he took over from there.
“Thank you for taking the time to join us. I’m Duane Morris with Woodford and Morris. Our specialty is sports law. I personally have a background with the NCAA. For ten years, I supervised the case managers who do the initial evaluation of the amateur status for young men and women who register with the NCAA. For an athlete to participate in intercollegiate football or baseball, as in David’s case, the NCAA must certify that a student-athlete is eligible under NCAA guidelines.
“So why the need for the conference call? Because David isn’t typical of the sort of person who passes through the process. They will flag him for further review. I know this because I talked to one of my old friends at the NCAA, and he told me he had already been assigned as David’s case manager. I plan to send David’s application in today, and I expect they’ll start the review process on Tuesday,” Mr. Morris said.
Monday was President’s Day, and the NCAA was closed.
“The application will have information that will cause the NCAA to question David’s amateur status. Over the next two weeks, I’ll be in contact with many of you to confirm he hasn’t violated any of the bylaws. Any such violations would jeopardize his ability to play college ball. The NCAA will more than likely also contact you. They like to get their information firsthand.
“The purpose of this call is to make you aware of what they’ll be looking at. I’ll also let you all know about some actions we need to take moving forward,” he said. “Now, ordinarily at the end of a call like this, people can jump in with questions. The call then continues until they’re answered. Unfortunately, we don’t have the time for that today. Accordingly, please save your questions for later in the coming weeks, when I’ll be talking to many of you individually.”