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Nine Inches, continued: Happy Chang

Smile on Happy Chang's Face
   A little uneven.  Story is about middle-aged man, athletic, who has an effeminate son.  The story unfolds while the man is umpiring a championship LL game.  The pitcher for the "good" team is a Chinese girl whose father is watching.  Name is ironic--Happy Chang never seems happy.

As the game unfolds, reader learns that the son is gay and that Dad, (our umpire), punched his son.  Dad is divorced with limited contact, miserable.  The coach of the "bad" team is his next door neighbor who saw his arrest and who has a jock son.

Chang girl is a star.  Her team seems to be about to win.  However she has thrown inside a few times and has hit a batter.  Coach/adversary orders his boy to bean her.  The boy does; the girl is knocked out. Happy Chang comes out of the stands and fights bad coach and is arrested.

Girl (improbably) gets up and continues to pitch????  She gets two outs in the final inning when she starts walking batters.  Bases loaded, 3-2 pitch, 2 outs.  Umpire/protagonist, distracted by the muddle of his own life, doesn't really see the pitch.  He then (improbably) walks out to centerfield, climbs over the fence, and disappears from the game.

Really liked the conflict of the father/son. Nice to read something real as opposed to PC drivel. Game was also well-written--he knows his sports--until the ending.  Boxed in a corner, I'm guessing, though why he couldn't have given the girl the winning strikeout is a mystery.  Lots of nice reversals, though maybe a little pat.

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