JUPITER, Fla. — On an empty plastic plate that once housed Jack Flaherty’s lunch rested a forgotten fork, and a bottle of Gatorade sat, ignored, within arm’s reach. Deep into a conversation, Flaherty’s hands were busy punctuating his descriptions of how he found a routine, how he prepared for a sixth-month season, how he, only 24, still was learning how to do both.
To his left was prospect Matthew Liberatore and across the table in the Cardinals' clubhouse on Friday afternoon was first-round draft pick Zack Thompson.
They stayed there, talking, for two hours.
“And I was going to sit there as long as he was going to sit there,” Liberatore said.