[Questdog]

Since I used to be a crime scene investigator and the '97 Coons are playing criminally, maybe I can be of assistance. It looks at a glance from a distance that every player on the team is being affected by whatever mysterious ailment has befallen the squad except for 2B David Brewer.

Is he popular in the clubhouse or has he been ostracized from the group? If he's on the outs with his teammates, perhaps he is exacting his revenge on them somehow. Maybe by sprinkling some foreign substance into their athletic supporters. A sound method for detecting many substances is with an olfactic examination (you could sniff their cups and see if they smell funny or at least more funny than usual).

It is also a sound hypothesis that he may be affecting the other players possibly with some form of mass hypnosis. You could check his credit card records to see if he has recently made any payments to any known psychics if you suspect this to be a likely scenario. If a records check should prove to be too difficult to obtain, you could use a method I have often utilized with some success and some failure. You could ask him his opinion on the existence of paranormal phenomenon. If he indicates an affirmative response to the possibility that spooks and stuff might be real, then you know he may be inclined to hire a psychic to gain revenge on someone with whom he has a grudge against. If he denies the possibility of such things, then he may be hiding his true feelings to divert suspicion form the fact that he hired a psychic to give his teammates the Evil Eye. Either way, you can be pretty certain that the Psychic Curse Theory remains a possible explanation for the facts as we know them.

If it turns out that Mr. Brewer is on good terms with most of the other players, then it would seem to me that he is still the key to unlocking the mystery. Study his habits and discern how they differ from the rest of the players. It would seem to me that the rest have something they share in common that is afflicting them with talent withdrawal. What is it that they all are doing except Mr. Brewer? Have you had a pizza party and everyone enjoyed the pies, but Mr, Brewer declined to eat any because of a lactose intolerance issue with the cheese? Did you have a bachelor party for one of the players and were you too cheap to hire more than one hooker and did Mr. Brewer decline his portion of the cake she popped out of? Do the players have a habit of all drinking from the same commode, but Mr. Brewer prefers the urinals? Do the players all share the same steroid syringe, but Mr. Brewer uses an oral contraceptive due to his fear of needles? These are just a few possibilities that come to me off the top of my head, and the answer may be something else, but I would not be surprised if I have hit upon it already because I was a professional, after all, and usually have a good nose for these sorts of things.

If none of these ideas proves fruitful, I could think of other possibilities, but before you jump to ask for them, I would be certain that I have not given you the solution already.