The new cover is very different, at least the version I saw recently.  A wheat field, a blue sky with clouds, a flock of birds (a murder of crows?) rising up on the top of the page. 

I like the cover, although I had to get used to it.  I am fond of those hands. 

Ironically, yesterday a new post about the hardback cover came to my attention, by Chel the librarian. 

Here it is: 

Title: Sweetsmoke
Author: David Fuller
Why I like the cover: I was immediately drawn to the hands. Those hands look like they hold a lot of stories, joys and pains. The flowers in the corners soften the image and the design at the bottom of the cover draws your eye to the subtle pop of color.

A new cover will adorn the paperback of SWEETSMOKE, coming September 8th.  It is very different, but also compelling.  Watch for it.  I will post it when I get a final version. 

We played well in the TOC, but lost to the Ladera Braves.  I will withhold my comments about certain things that happened in that game regarding sportsmanship.  I will say that Tom threw out a runner at first (from catcher), the runner was called out.  The opposing manager spoke to the umpires and got the kid put BACK on first with the out reversed.  When our coach asked the first base umpire, he said he was overruled by the home plate umpire.  When he asked the home plate umpire, he said he was overruled by the first base umpire… the man who had made the call in the first place.  Our coach said, But he said you overruled him.  The home plate ump said, We made the decision together.  That runner eventually scored.  In my opinion, it would have been a different game if that call had not been reversed, but that’s baseball.  It was 3 to 3 through 4 innings.  I was proud of my sons, who played fantastically, and never, never gave up even when we were down by a bunch of runs at the bitter end.  Tom hit his first home run ever, a shot to deepest center field, and beyond.  He did not utilize a home run cut, but swung with that sweet, compact swing he has worked so hard on, and it just went.  The umpire made the home run signal, and the opposing coach complained — yes, complained — that the ump made the call before the ball left the yard.  Hey, fellah, if the ball happens to hit a low flying aircraft and drops down into your center fielder’s glove, maybe they’ll reverse the call.  I mean, they did it before in this game…

Oh wait.  I promised not to complain about bad sportsmanship.  Okay, I will say that our kids can hold their heads high.  What you witnessed was excellent sportsmanship in defeat.  I’m sorry that our defense got all squidgy at the end, but again… that’s baseball. 

We’re in the TOC game tomorrow, Tournament of Champions.  We won’t win district, I suspect, not in Santa Monica, as our league is somewhat diluted with so many kids playing at different skill levels.  But we have good pitching and good batting, and we might win a game or two.  It’s one and done.  If we win, we play again on Sunday.  Wish the boys luck. 

We managed to score one on a passed ball steal of home and held a tenuous 1 to 0 lead through most of the game.  Eli, who pitched brilliantly, ran out of pitches in the last inning, bottom of the sixth, and we brought in a new pitcher.  With two out and men on 2nd and 3rd, two balls, one strike, we told the pitcher to walk the hitter, knowing the next hitter was very likely an out.  But the pitcher, wanting to offer him a high pitch to get him to swing, got it down, the hitter sent it deep into center field, our center fielder would have gone through the fence if he could have, and it was gone. 

I know there are a handful of my blog readers who are curious as to the SM Little League stuff going on.  It was a very rough first half of the season, and the Cardinals went 2 and 6.  We seemed to have righted the ship in the second half, going 6 and 2.  Our first playoff game was against the Mets and we mercied them, 10 - 0.  Our second game was the Tournament of Champions game against the Dodgers, and we won that game 8 - 1.  We will represent the National League in the TOC.  Then we had to play the Dodgers again to try to advance in the SM league playoffs.  We won that game 9 - 0.  Yesterday we played the Reds in the Pennant game, to decide who would go to the SMLL championship game. 

I think both teams were a little tight at the beginning.  We got two men on in the top of the first, but failed to score.  Then we made a few errors in the field and gave up 3 runs in the bottom of the first.  The energy in the dugout deflated.  We got nothing going in the top of the 2nd and held them in their half of the inning. 

They changed pitchers in the third.  Our guys went to work.  Single, single, double, double, home run, single, single, strikeout, safe on an error, then two strikeouts to close it out.  We were up 6 to 3, and went on to play good defense, rack up another four runs against a good pitcher, and we won it 10 to 4.  We play for the city championship next Saturday against an undefeated team.  They are terrific.  We are peaking at the right time.  It should be a very exciting game. 

Ryan Bradley threw out the first pitch before the second playoff game.  It was a great moment to see him up and about and it made the games themselves seem insignificant.  Go Ryan.