The last week before school starts.  The last week to rush run hurry catch up to surf camp and other fun things before the old routine kicks in.  Fill the summer into a week, all the things you missed, all the things you enjoyed and want to remember that you did and enjoyed.  A busy 8th grade season comes rapidly upon us all.  The fruitless plum tree in the backyard is already beginning to shed leaves, small purple-black marks against the bald spots in the grass where the boys stand when they pitch wiffle balls.  The roses are spare as I didn’t water them as much this year.  The Mexican weeping bamboo are sending up tall, late stalks, as the heat didn’t come until very late, and lasted only a few days.  Which ones should be trimmed and which allowed to dominate the roof of my office. 

Left rainy Boston to a heat wave in LA.  Actually kind of pleasant.  Catching up now, on sleep, on the things left undone, and the days off were good for the new novel.  Started to settle, feeling like I have a little traction on it now, will begin making serious notes, and read the last few research books to finish all that. 

Still amazed at the places where SWEETSMOKE can be found… and where it can’t be found. 

I learned a lot from Cooperstown.  Most important was that the boys can play with anyone their age.  They are not overmatched.  They were right up there, if you ask their old man. 

Okay, that’s it, the writing’s on the wall.  No copies of SWEETSMOKE at the Brown University Bookstore, but there was a copy at the Harvard Coop.  Boys are going to Harvard, harumph.

As of this afternoon, there is one autographed copy of SWEETSMOKE at the Borders in Boston across from the Old South Meeting House.  There was one copy in there, now it is one autographed copy.  First come, and all that.

No webcam today.  This morning, the 95th seed plays the 96th seed.  The winner of that game plays the 55th seed.  The winner of THAT game plays us at 3 pm.  If we win that game, we play the 19th seed (cue the rumbling in the distance).  Those top 20 teams are loaded, rosters of top players (number one seed is sponsored by Rawlings, some of the other teams are the best players in their state).  Our top guys are as good as their top guys.  Our next group of guys are great kids.  But we don’t have the same depth.  And our defense is a little iffy.

What will happen next?

Fought our way back and won 4 to 3. Tom came in and locked them down in the last two innings. He’s pitched way too much, and should not go in the tournament. Mark went 3 for 3 with a double, in these parks a MUCH more rare occurrence than hitting a home run. We wait to hear our seeding, and probably play at 3 pm tomorrow. If we win, we keep playing… immediately after. And it goes on…

We won our first game 8 to 1, with Mark the starting pitcher.  He was in and out of trouble the first inning, but settled down, and by the third, he was cruising.  In the afternoon, we were lackluster and got the crap beat out of us, 10 to 2.  We should have done better, and Tom pitched great.  The first three batters got to him hard, and then he settled down.  Unfortunately, the defense wasn’t quite there.  Next morning, this morning, we played at 8:30 am, 5:30 for you on the west coast.  Boys were woken up at 6 to get going, practice and have breakfast.  They played very well indeed, winning 17 to 4.  Should have been 17 to 1, but once we got up that far, we stole no bases, and Tom even went up with two on and two out and (after first asking my permission) batted lefty.  I thought it was a class move on his part, and the other coaches made a point to say they appreciated that no one on our team rubbed it in, and that we didn’t go out and push up the score.  Hey, of course Tom wanted to hit one out on that last at-bat, but he wasn’t after stats.  He asked permission to do the right thing.

In the afternoon, we played a top ranked team, and in a game that was very closely matched, despite the lopsided score, we lost 12 to 6.  Again, there was some lackadaisical defense on our team, but our hitters were strong, and a couple of guys stole second and were called out when they were safe (I have it on video tape).  So be it, that’s baseball, guys.  One of the Dads in our dugout is an umpire this week at Cooperstown, and my favorite line, after he saw a missed call, was:  You’re missing a helluva game!

We were ranked 36th at one point today, dropped to 57th after our loss, and when the other teams played their games and their wins and losses were factored in, we’re up to 46th.  Two games tomorrow, Mark starts the early 8:30 am game, and we’ll see where we are.

They boys are truly having the time of their lives.  Tom is out there laughing and joking with the umpires, Mark is starting to hit and has given up one run.  Tom finished 3rd in the Home Run tournament.  He hit one out, deep deep deep into the night last night (that umpire Dad retrieved it and I have it), and has hit incredibly well all week.  What a kick in the pants.  It’s great to be young, ain’t it?

On the wharf, in Boston.  Tomorrow, driving to Cooperstown for the tournament.  Staying on Lake Otsego.  No fewer than seven games in our near future.  I have been told Mark is starting our first game, Tom probably the second game.  Hope there’s plenty of ice, two games a day, in the heat and humidity.  Are you ready for some baseball???

This is what happens — if there’s a good movie out there, it gets your hopes up and you start to want to go to the movies.  You keep hoping.  The reviewers all want to find a decent movie to like, and will sometimes, often, overpraise some piece of crap or other, and you’ll suddenly rediscover hope and go out there, only to be staring at some ridiculous piece of rot, cursing yourself for falling for it again.  But once in a while, something big and loud comes along that actually delivers.  This year it is INCEPTION.  Makes you want to go to the movies again. 

It’s been cold this summer.  Hasn’t felt like summer.  Maybe when we get to upstate New York and Boston it will give us the blast of hot air we need.  But it feels like we’re already entering Autumn, and the year is moving too fast already.  The rest of the country seems to be suffering from terrible heat waves, and here we are wanting to take a little off their hands.