In case it wasn’t obvious already, I’d like to point out that this is awesome:

The Little League World Series has been on the past week or so, and it’s been fantastic. It’s one of very few things that combines my love of baseball and the sight of little kids crying. There was one thing I found rather troubling watching the games this year, however: The Strike zone. I’m not sure if part of Little League is just purposely skewing things against hitters to keep things “fair” or if volunteer umpires are really this poor, but it seems like a pretty big problem.

Here is your basic baseball strike zone:

Nothing too complicated. Shoulders to knees, and over the plate. Seems simple, no?

This is my estimation of the average Little League World Series strike zone:

It seems to have very little to do with the batter or home plate, and a lot more to do with if the pitcher threw it to the catcher and if he caught it or not. So… for those of you scoring at home, that makes the possible types of pitches:

• Strike
• Wild Pitch
• Passed Ball
• Hit by Pitch

It makes it easier to keep track, but it also puts me in the uncomfortable position of agreeing with Dusty Baker, who sighs loudly with every 2-foot outside Strike call…. or the pitch the kid swung at that was called a ball.

The only thing I can think of that’s even more disturbing is the strike zone at our first softball game this Fall season, which was something like this:

This here is an “ad” shown every commercial break so far during the Little League World Series (It’s treated like part of the actual broadcast, because “synergy” is how TV gets done. It manages to go from vaguely baseball related “Hey batter, batter” to “I Can’t Dance” which I assume is a song in High School Musical 2 (OMG!) in all of like 2 lines. It’s pretty clear they weren’t even trying to make it fit… (Two generic Basebally uniforms and “Go Baseball” pennants and we’re all set to film this thing!) That coupled with getting clubbed with this wretched thing every 5-7 minutes makes this the worst thing ever.

In case you’re curious, the same 5 commercials are shown every commercial break:

• A frosted flakes commercial where two idiots pretend to play tennis with baseball bats.
• KFC commercial where Extra Tasty Crispy is apparently only for men, then a little girl eats it! (complete with ridiculous added “*Crunch*” sound when she bites in–think Potato chip sound).
• A Goodyear commercial where Blimp guy thinks he’s just like a Nascar driver. Turns out he’s right, he’s not interesting either.
• An Orville Redenbacher commercial from 1974, where he pops corn on a street corner, and a Cop tries to give him a ticket.
• Subway commercial where Jared stands awkwardly with Little League kids. Says Subway will keep kids healthy.

Then every hour or so they show the Frosted Flakes “Earn Your Stripes” reporter brought to you by Frosted Flakes presenting the Frosted Flakes “Earn your Stripes” Report…. by Frosted Flakes.
Digg’um!

So, I’ve actually gone to a fair number of movies this summer, and I’ve been pleasantly surprised by almost all of them. Now I’m just waiting for Superbad to close out the summer movie season. It’s gonna be great.

Spiderman 3
	So…Lots of pretty special effects and fairly mindless action sequences. But then there’s a pretty awful dance sequence, and some rather abrupt personality changes that you’re supposed to just take in stride. It was entertaining, but I’d still take Batman Begins over it any day.

Knocked Up
	Funny from start to finish with all my friends from Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared.

License to Wed
	Here’s the thing. John Krasinski is very, very funny. Mandy Moore can be very funny. And then there’s Robin Williams… who tries way, way, way too hard to be as funny as people thought he was 25 years ago. Scenes without him were very funny. Scenes with him were in between those scenes. I was entertained, but I am fascinated by moving pictures.

Live Free or Die Hard
	I actually did not expect much, and was quite entertained. I like Justin Long a lot, and he was, more or less, playing Warren Cheswick, so all was well. Fantastical Violence with less actual blood (for that PG-13 rating). Not the best Die Hard, but it fits in the original trilogy just fine.

The Transformers
	Again I wasn’t expecting too much, and was very pleased. The Transformers were cool looking, and Optimus Prime had his original voice. Also, Shia LaBeouf was really good, and I’d gladly saw off my leg if Megan Fox requested it. By far the most entertaining car commercial/Army recruiting video I’ve ever seen.

The Simpsons
	Again I went in with low expectations, having seen the last few Simpsons seasons.. but it was really good. Lots of inside jokes for the fan boys, and a special treat for those of us who watched the movie in Alaska. I’d gladly watch it again just too see all the old characters hidden in the background.

The Bourne Ultimatum
	The Bourne Identity is one of my favorite movies. This movie was very fun. For some reason, Mr. Shaky-Camera is back from the previous movie, making sure you don’t know what’s going on during action sequences or while two people are eating breakfast!?!?. Despite that, the story was very entertaining, Julia Stiles is lovely, and Matt Damon could kick my ass.