They were married for a scant two seasons. Official word was mutual consent, the split called amicable, but to most baseball wives, it seemed too clean a break. Was he having an affair? Trouble in bed? The media pushed hypotheses—this was one of People’s sexiest people of 2009, after all, of course there would be gossip—but the ex-couple stayed mum. The baseball wives were stuck in the same dark room as the Enquirer. The wives knew Jason moved out and that Liana had kept the Arizona house; Maggie’d run into Liana at the shopping center and gleaned as much. Liana told Maggie she didn’t know where Jason was staying for the spring. Don’t care, she added with a toss of her blond hair, like that line could hold any water at all. And for some inexplicable reason, she’d gone back to work. First grade, she said, smiling as if she liked all those snot-nosed kids and their germs climbing on her five days a week. And public school! When Maggie told Melissa that, the older woman gasped.

She took him to the cleaners, the women whisper, and he gladly consented to be scrubbed, soaped, and tumble-dried, conceding much more than their prenup had outlined. By the second week of spring rumor had it he was broke, as impossible as that seems. Where could all of that money have gone? None of the wives can get any more information out of their husbands; if they broach the subject the men get stern-faced and say, Leave him be. It’s like they all caught the outfielder’s stiff-lippedness, his reticence.

Over weekday mimosas (without children around, the wives enjoy day drinking), they continue to weigh the possibilities: that he is gay, that she is gay, that they realized they are distant cousins. It is complicated by the fact that no one really knows Goodyear. On the field, in the dugout, he’s the strong, silent type, more desperado than amigo, his entire game day replete with routine and superstitious traditions that no one dare interrupt. And he’d never once been out with Liana, never had them to his home. Being private is one thing, but the baseball wives—they’re practically family. Is he too good for them? Lisa mentions the wives’ reputation for opulence, for having wild nights; maybe, she gingerly suggests, he is trying to stay away from compromising situations. There are commercials to consider. Shoe deals. “I heard he just signed with Nike.”