“What eight guys?” the manager responds. “We just hired a new player. He’s our ninth.”

“Who’s that?” the ump asks.

“Him,” the manager responds, pointing to the cheap grandstand seats.

Yankee Irving is rushed down, fitted in a pinstripe uniform, and inserted in the game. With his tiny strike zone (made smaller by crouching) he walks with the bases loaded, winning the game for the Yanks, who promise him lifetime free admission to the owner’s box.

Naturally, the next day at school everyone thinks Yankee Irving has lost it entirely. Just like the guys in my office must’ve thought of me. The next day, though, when, during recess, the official team bus pulls up and Joe DiMaggio and all the Yankees disembark to thank their “ex-teammate” and distribute gloves, baseballs, bats, and tickets to all the students, his classmates’ disbelief is shattered.

So too the next week when TCI’s COO, president, and teams of top people arrived at our office, disbelief was shattered, and Yankee Howard’s credibility was restored, and then some.

The TCI team, however, was only our first visit. Jonathan Reich, who formerly masterminded our consumer Internet customer acquisition program, had been freed by our new business plan to pursue strategic relationships. Now his and Jim’s efforts began to bear fruit. The Roberts from Comcast, the Dolans from Cablevision, Cox Cable, Time Warner, all started meeting or negotiating deals with us at the high level.

The “Baby Bells” got into the act too. NYNEX, Bell Atlantic, Bell South, Pac Tel, Ameritech—the presidents were all in our office negotiating, or we were in theirs. Suddenly someone who wandered into our meeting room by mistake would’ve thought he’d discovered the private club of the movers and shakers in the telecom industry.

I began to start using the stairs to avoid having to meet and greet everyone visiting our offices coming up the elevator. It wasn’t that I was unfriendly, it was just I knew the division leaders could handle these meetings better than me.