Wallop Lumber Co. Field Report
Dispatches from the Road
Bat Promotion Tour — 2026 Season
Vol. I · No. 40Posted
The machines take fifty bills at a time. I had a hundred and thirty-five of them.
Vol. I · No. 39Higher
It is a number I have carried since Boston and I could not hand it to him.
Vol. I · No. 38Everybody Came
Nobody was anything but kind to me, and nothing in it happened to me at all.
Vol. I · No. 37What They Left
It was Canada, where nothing has ever once happened to me.
Vol. I · No. 36The Wall With Nothing On It
I set the meeting up myself, and got fifteen seconds in before it found the one man in the hallway who knew what he was talking about, and it wasn't me.
Vol. I · No. 35Spoken For
The phone at the home office rings for Cecil now. And the only man in Philadelphia to take one of our bats in his hands all week was making sure it wasn't dangerous.
Vol. I · No. 34The Run of the Place
Every door was open and every room was empty. I had the run of a major league baseball team, and no one in it to say no.
Vol. I · No. 33Kept
I'd had a man walk me down every wall in the country and tell me what I was looking at. I came to the biggest wall of all by myself.
Vol. I · No. 32The Story
A big-league club called us up to the Stadium and paid for six bats — the best thing that's happened out here, on paper. The day after, I bought one ticket to the ballgame.
Vol. I · No. 31The Good Day
The heat broke at Baltimore. Cecil was up and working the phone again, and for one good day it felt like the worst was behind us.
Vol. I · No. 30The Wall
On the way back from the hospital, Cecil asked me to stop at the Mall. He and Naomi walked out to the names. I stayed with the car.
Vol. I · No. 29The Curb
Cecil is alive. The order of how that came to be — the part I had a hand in, and the part still upstairs, asleep.
Vol. I · No. 28A Statement from the Wallop Home Office
Due to unforeseen circumstances, there is no dispatch today.
Vol. I · No. 27The Visitors
Seattle comes to Washington, three games with nothing to sell, and the flight home he ducked in Durham, still one click away.
Vol. I · No. 26The Bull
A mountain town that didn't keep its promises, a ballpark that did, and a flight home he can't quite bring himself to book.
Vol. I · No. 25Hartsfield
A flight that won't leave, a goodbye at the curb, and the one ride that went without him.
Vol. I · No. 24Ninety
A ninetieth birthday in an Atlanta backyard, and the storm just holding off.
Vol. I · No. 23Two Beds
Savannah for an interlude. Tate had a different timetable.
Vol. I · No. 22Drilled and Drained
Drilled tank. Punted labs. One room down the hall.
Vol. I · No. 21Memorable
Bats distributed: four. Caipirinhas imbibed: five, plus or minus two. Terms received: conditional.
Vol. I · No. 20No Appetite
Sixty million for the roof. No appetite for the bats.
Vol. I · No. 19Bridgewater
Out of New Orleans with Naomi in shotgun. The window stayed down past Mobile.
Vol. I · No. 18Pop. Pillow.
Off-route to New Orleans. Two nights, no game, no clubhouse. The count did not move.
Vol. I · No. 17Mission Control
Four bats distributed to an MLB team. No asterisk, no accounting reset in Knockwood.
Vol. I · No. 16Two Teams
We arrived in Arlington with no contact in the building. We left the bats in the wagon.
Vol. I · No. 15The Hitchhikers
We had ten hours and the wagon was half-bats and we did not know them.
Vol. I · No. 14The Tuesday Meeting
Denver was farther than I thought. I had been telling myself for two hundred miles that the Walla Walla turnoff hadn't cost us anything.
Vol. I · No. 13Walla Walla
Tate dozed off an hour east of Snoqualmie Pass. I took the Walla Walla exit at Pasco without consulting anyone.
Vol. I · No. 12The Globe
I drove Tate into Seattle on a Friday afternoon. I had been pointing things out for the last hour.
Vol. I · No. 11Knockwood
We pulled into the lower parking lot. Gary was in a meeting we had not been told about.
Vol. I · No. 10In the Rack
A man at the Hops called out 'Coach Tate.' Tate had been a coach. I had not known.
Vol. I · No. 09The Refosco
Dale was Tate's 'in' in San Francisco. Dale retired in December.
Vol. I · No. 08Forty-Two
Tate has been wearing 42 on April 15 for longer than baseball told everyone else to.
Vol. I · No. 07The Good Seats
The sunset was perfect. The sightlines were perfect. The legroom was generous. I could not write a word of it.
Vol. I · No. 06Bats Are Cheap
I have been turning the sentence over since Saturday like a stone in a pocket. It does not get smaller.
Vol. I · No. 05The Cage
I had driven thirteen hundred miles to sell a product I could not explain how to buy.
Vol. I · No. 04The Sound
It is possible that the bats are just bats. It is also possible that they are not.
Vol. I · No. 03Game Two
When tackling roadtrip logistics, it is advisable that one verify which is the home team and which is away.
Vol. I · No. 02Behind the Cage
Bats distributed to date: zero. Equipment managers contacted: one, briefly, who was walking somewhere else.
Vol. I · No. 01The Lower Parking Lot
Bats distributed to date: zero. Equipment managers contacted: zero. Miles driven: thirteen hundred and change.
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