144 Days to Opening Day 2008

Opening Day 2008 for the Timber Rattlers is April 3. That is 144 days from today. This off-season, the countdown will be based on books. Each day between now and Opening Day 2008, I will pick a random book out of my library and excerpt a passage off the page number corresponding with the number of days remaining to the first pitch of the new season. I will try not to repeat a book during the countdown.

Today’s excerpt is from Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by John le Carré.

This passage is George Smiley on a mole hunt within the MI-6, or The Circus.

Witchcraft No. 2, according to Lacon’s summary, described tensions inside Comecon and spoke of the degenerative effect of Western trade deals on its weaker members. In Circus terms, this was a classic report from Roy Bland territory, covering the very target which the Hungarian-based Aggravate network had been attacking in vain for years. “Excellent tour d’horizon,’ Wrote a Foreign Office customer, ‘and backed by good collateral.

Witchcraft No. 3 discussed revisionism in Hungary and Kadar’s renewed purges in political and academic life: the best way to end loose talk in Hungary, said the author of the paper, would be to shoot some more intellectuals. Once again this was Roy Bland territory. ‘A salutary warning,’ wrote the same Foreign Office commentator, ‘to all those who like to think the Soviet Union is going soft on satellites.’

Put today’s excerpt in a baseball context.