Beautiful Teams

Chapter 28. Tight, Isn't It?

Mark Denovich

Eric Renkey

and ^[34]

Only Pawn…in Game of Life, or "What's a Dazzling Urbanite Like You Doing in a Rustic Setting Like This?"

IN AUGUST 1998, I RECEIVED AN EMAIL IN RESPONSE TO A RESUME I HAD POSTED ON AN ONLINE employment website. I didn't think much of the contact at the time, but then I've failed to recognize all the major turning points in my life. A quick reply with my phone number led to a return call from the founder/president/CEO of the company. I could not predict that I was just days away from joining an extended train wreck of a company and becoming part of the most improbably great team I have ever known. The sum of my formal education was going to be dwarfed in comparison to what I would learn over the next six years.

Now, my words can have an uncanny habit of coming back to haunt me, and this story is definitely no exception. It would be convenient to claim that everything that follows is a work of fiction, but I'm not that good at making things up. I might also like to rely on my admittedly poor memory as a possible defense. But I had a great deal of help with the story from my once former and now again current coworker Stan Granite. His humor, his unique perspective, and his superior recall (often supplied with supporting text from his email archives) helped make the story far too accurate. He was also responsible for coining many of the nicknames that became part of the company lore. In most cases, I've used those ...