Come witness the violence inherent in the system

(if you don't like when i talk sports, skip to the next section)

I'm flabbergasted.

There was a great college baseball game between Cal State Fullerton and UC-Irvine yesterday that went 13 innings.

In the bottom of the last inning, the Irvine lead-off man ducked his shoulder into a pitch that was maybe half an inch off the inside corner and the ball grazed off his sleeve (i think it was the third time he had been hit by a pitch in the game).

He quickly tossed the bat away and headed to first base. And then the strangest thing happened -- the umpire let him keep going.

Irvine eventually ended up scoring a run to win the game (as is the case a great deal of the time when you get the leadoff man on with nobody out).

The Fullerton coach got tossed for arguing the call, as was his responsibility, but i believe it would have taken security to get me off that field. The home plate umpire should never call another World Series game (fyi: i was actually pulling for Irvine before that play).

What baffles me even more is that the ESPN story about the game doesn't even mention the play (looks like CNNSI.com ran the same AP story).

***

To answer Ryan's question from yesterday's Father's Day massacre, my eyes are fine, but my face is a little redder than normal.

***

Book review time. I have to premise this by saying that I bought this book before I realized it was an Oprah book club book.

I'm like the literary equivalent of an indy music snob, i like just finding books to read instead of picking up what everyone else is getting (although i certainly read my share of authors like King and Grisham). I basically spend 20 minutes cruising through bookstores judging books by their covers/titles. It's how I discovered such gems as Like the Red Panda by Andrea Seigel and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon; although by this point i'm pretty sure both books have long surpassed the status of "seth's secret treasure" by the reading public.

Any who, what i'm ultimately trying to say is that while I was judging The Road by Cormac McCarthy by its cover, I somehow managed to miss the big ass Oprah sticker on front. Mea culpa...

The novel is about a father and son trying to find someplace warm after what can best be described as the end of the world. We never find out what ultimately precipitated the widespread death of plants and animals and humans and wambats and orangutans and breakfast cereals, nor do we learn why the man and boy survived the event. But the two travel many miles by foot through through snow and ashes, trying to survive.

Let's go to the scorecards:

Plot: 4.5
Not a whole lot to say here. Aside from not knowing what exactly the beginning is, there is a beginning, middle and end. Action progresses nicely throughout the novel.

Comedic Relief: 3
There really isn't any that i recall. but i'm not giving it a zero because i'm not sure there was actually any room for humor.

Ending: 4
how to put this...the ending tells you everything you need to know about the story of the man and his son. I think it also gives you a little more info without completely killing the mood of the rest of the book. Can't really say anymore without ruining it for you.

Je ne sais quoi: 4
McCarthy does a great job of telling the story and letting the reader know how hopeless the situation is without wasting a word. I would have liked a little more background, but that's likely the point--it doesn't matter how whatever happened happened, it's just a situation you either deal with or you don't.
There are also several times I would read a sentence and think "what a great sentence. I'm glad i wasn't the one who wrote this book, because i never would have thought to write that."

Final score: 15.5