Las Vegas Gold Read Online Free Page B

leaving the work that touched the public and occasionally the law-enforcement agencies to one or two others, who in turn gave instructions to lesser lights, and so on down the line. Unraveling the twisted line of control leading from bottom to top of this Las Vegas branch of the mob was, so far, impossible. The police intelligence unit knew it existed, but had not yet been able to untangle the web of who had what responsibilities and for what.
    Achille Ricci’s anger was spilling all over the room as he and his group discussed the result of the press conference. What to do? They had as many ideas as they had people at the meeting, and none of the ideas were workable. Whatever action they took, and this they agreed unanimously to be the case, had to be absolutely untraceable to their gambling and drug activities, because compared to those, the money they would make from owning a baseball team would be small, even if it were in the lower millions. The trouble was, they hated to see somebody in “their” city run an operation promising to make money, and without their being able to get any of it.
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    The City of Las Vegas had gone almost into a frenzy over the announcement. Even with all the casinos and entertainment already having made Las Vegas famous the world over, the excitement and questions of having a Major League Baseball team were the only topic in the city. Las Vegas, the suburban city of Henderson and Clark County together make up a population of just over a million. What could be called a small market city was not the same as other small market cities, because the number of visitors—holiday-goers, gamblers, temporary residents—made the place very attractive to set up a Major League franchise, and had been talked about for several years in baseball circles. The idea of having the New York Yankees, the Boston Red Sox, the Chicago White Sox and possibly an All Star Game someday, and, to hear Mike Malone talk, a World Series, altogether gave the people of the city a lift. The temporary office of the new team called The Gold quickly became very busy. A small sign, unpretentious, appeared at the door of the second floor office in the old office building. When Malone Stadium would come into being, Mike Malone would have the grandest office space he could get for the money. Now, inside, office space was rearranged as new people began to arrive. Among the first of new people was a young woman of Molly’s age named Aritha Westwood.
    Mike Malone had transferred Ms. Westwood from one of his other companies to become the Gold’s Vice-President for Finance. She and Molly discovered they had played college basketball against each other. Molly’s degree was in Physical Education, and she had gone on to become a high school coach and professional baseball player in women’s baseball. Aritha had taken a degree in business administration, and after graduation earned an Ivy League MBA before being hired as an accountant at one of Malone Enterprises’ many business arms. In a very short time, Aritha and Molly found they meshed as both friends and colleagues.
    The first big program they, along with Larry Henderson, had to tackle was to prepare a working budget, not any easy task when they had no clear idea of how much money they would need. Larry wanted two Assistant General Managers, as well as a Director of Scouting and a number of scouts. One of the AGMs would be in charge of Player Personnel, the other to work on salaries and contracts as a primary task. They decided the Director of Scouting, reporting to the AGM for Player Personnel, would hire scouts for four areas: the Caribbean and Florida, Texas and Southwest USA, Central and Northeast USA, Canada, and Japan, several scouts for each area, some full time, some part-time. All those people would require a salary before they ever put a player on the roster. More scouts, many more, would be needed before opening day.
    After three days of