Foul Play Essay, Research Paper

It was late in the evening. There was a man sitting in a chair and flipping channels eagerly between two baseball games on TV. The man’s name was Les Sutton. He was a towering man standing 6′3″. He was built, worked out a lot and looked like someone not to meet in a dark alley.Les was a detective. His skills of deduction were brilliant. He also had an assistant. Les’s long time pal and partner’s name was Jason Meisch. Jason was also very tall but he was more lanky, built more like a basketball player. He was also extremely bright but not as intelligent as Les. Although Les was his best friend and the same age, Jason still looked up to him like little kids look up to adults, with pure awe and admiration.The next day after Les had been channel surfing for baseball games, he and Jason got together and didn’t have anything to do. Being the huge baseball fans that they were and living in the state of California where baseball is everywhere, they decided to go to a ballgame. They figured that they had a long boring afternoon in front of them so they went down to Chavez Ravine (the place where the LA Dodgers play) and got tickets to the Dodger game that was scheduled to start in about 15 minutes.Les and Jason were enjoying the game while eating hot dogs and drinking pop. The Dodgers were winning by the score of 5-4. Just then, catcher Mike Piazza, let another pitch go by him. “What the heck? Piazza is playing terrible today. He has let 4 balls by him and struck out all three times he has been at the plate,” Les said.Jason agreed, “Yeah, that is kind of weird. I mean, he’s an All-Star. It’s not like him to play like this.” The whole rest of the game they sat in their seats wondering why Mike Piazza was playing so bad. When they got home they were watching the news. They had a funny story on about how in Las Vegas there was a lot of money lost on that game because the Dodgers lost 7-5. As they watched that story they both looked at each other and exclaimed, “Piazza threw the game!”They didn’t have anything else to do so they decided to try to figure out who paid Piazza to throw the game. Les said he was up for a good investigation and some mental stimulation and Jason quickly agreed.Jason and Les drove to Las Vegas and went to talk to some of the biggest bookies in town. Out of the 7 bookies that they talked to only one gave them any useful information. He told them about a guy that had placed a good sized amount of money on the game.Jason said, “What a break!”Les wasn’t so sure though. The duo went and found this man that had won all the money on the game. They questioned him and were convinced that it had just been a coincidence that he had bet all his money on one game and that he didn’t know anything.”Back to square one,” Jason said disappointedly. Les knew about one other bookie in town that they had not talked to. They went and talked to him and he told him that he knew about a man that had won $100,000 on the game. He said that the man’s name was DeWiernts.Jason said, “This lead has got to go somewhere.” Les said, “I don’t know, don’t get your hopes up too high.”They went and checked out DeWiernts and found out that he used to be a Dodger’s scout. When Les and Jason showed up at his house there was a note on his door that said:Went on a cruise,Be back in one week.Les said, “Damn! We missed him!”After they left DeWiernts’s house they went to talk to some of his friends and former colleagues. They all acted weird, like something had been going on. When they walked back outside through the parking lot they noticed a lot of new, expensive cars.Jason said, “Wow, look at all these new cars!” Les said, “Hmmm…I wonder…” He walked behind the cars and noticed that they all had temporary plates on them. “That’s it! They were all in on it, the whole organization.” Les quickly marched back into the stadium and demanded to see the team owner. When the owner arrived down in the meeting room, Les quickly accused him of a conspiracy. Les said, “You set up this game and had everyone in your organization bet on it. Bet against their own team. Then you paid off Piazza to make all those errors and since he is your only real threat to do anything at the plate you didn’t have to worry about scoring many runs.”The owner was stunned that anyone would have figured out that he had wanted his own team to lose. He knew that all he could do was give in and give up the charade. The next day Les and Jason got a big interview on ESPN and the Dodgers were fined for $10 million. Piazza was suspended from baseball for one year and Jason and Les were given free lifetime season tickets to the San Francisco Giants games because the Giants, being the Dodgers biggest rival, were very happy to see their foe fall like that.