It’s 10 in the morning, and the air is hot and heavy before baseball practice at McKethan Stadium.
The maintenance crew jostles up and down the field, arduously dragging tarps over the pitcher’s mound and watering the sun-baked infield clay as players begin to wander into the stadium for an early start at practice.
Surrounded by a gaggle of reporters, Michael Byrne sits with his head down, his back hunched and his arms casually folded across his knees in the dugout behind first base.
He knows what’s coming.
“So is it safe to say when the season started you were not thinking about the saves record?