The baseball season is over

It was a very nice year. That's my take on the season. None of my favorite teams made it to the post-season but I'm okay with that. It was a good year.

Even the post-season was fun, despite my low expectations. The World Series was great except for that one lop-sided game. The other games were tremendous. Were we watching the best baseball players in America? Probably not. But they gave it their all and it turned into one of the greatest all-time baseball battles -- and never mind all those errors. I think it's fun that the Cardinals won and Tony LaRussa can go into retirement a happy man. (Okay, what I really mean is it's fun that Nolan Ryan failed big-time on live, high-definition TV and we all got a chance to see his fat face crumble. Game 6 was the uber-collapse of the century and there's tremendous fun in this.)

Worst writing award

A Wisconsin professor named Sue Fondrie has won the 2011 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, where entrants try to write the worst possible opening sentence for an imaginary novel. The NYT write-up is here. I love her winning entry:

"Cheryl's mind turned like the vanes of a wind-powered turbine, chopping her sparrow-like thoughts into bloody pieces that fell onto a growing pile of forgotten memories."

Is that great or what?

Scorched!

Here in New York it's at least a thousand degrees outside -- and they say it feels hotter because of the humidity! Phew. Is this is the new normal? I don't think I like it much.

First there was the never-ending snow, then the floods when the snow melted, then came the tornadoes, and now we've got fires, a crop-killing drought and a most oppressive summer. And just think -- the brunt of the hurricane season lies ahead. It seems we can't expect the weather to be normal anymore. It's sad, like saying goodbye to someone you used to enjoy.

How are you handling the heat? Staying inside with the A/C? I confess that's my M.O. Heat and I are old adversaries and I never win. Give me cool air, Autumn and Winter. (But for dog's sake, would someone hurry up and invent winter baseball? I'd be happy to watch Dominican baseball, minor-league baseball, last season's baseball -- any kind of baseball! I'm beggin' ya!)

A ton of snow sounds refreshing right now. Maybe I'll go put on some Xmas carols.