Running

The Rainbow is done...blah.  I discovered a lesbian love affair late Saturday nite, which made the book only slightly crappy and tedious, but still crappy.  Now I am on to Blackett's War, which concerns the scientific effort to win the U-boat war in WWII, so it is quite up to my taste.

I would have appreciated it if someone had explained to the world the origin of baseball's odd rules -- such as obstruction and interference -- rather than explain them...because one would go a long way to the other.  In the early days of the game of course, when there was no power and an emphasis on baserunning (and more baserunners, given the small gloves and crappy infields), baserunning played a major role in the game.  And, some (most) of the players of the time...well, many were just not gentleman, if you get my drift, and you can read in the early accounts all sorts of shenanigans that would never fly today, not even by a long shot.  Hence, people realized very early on that the rules had to be tightly written to prevent something short of boxing from happening on the basepaths (by both the runner and the fielder)...and here we are today.

I hate to say this, but the World Series games rung very long; it really shouldn't take four hours to play a baseball game.  In a National League park, to boot.