But Rain Men (subtitle: The Madness of Cricket) is dif

INDIANAPOLIS -- About 90 minutes before Monday nights game, Pacers coach Nate McMillan wasnt sure if Paul George was going to suit up.Magic coach Frank Vogel knew better.Im expecting him to play, Vogel said with a grin.George scored 13 points in his return from a sprained ankle, and the Pacers spoiled Vogels return to Indiana with an 88-69 victory Monday night.Vogel coached the Pacers for 5 1/2 seasons before he was let go in May. He was quickly scooped up by Orlando, and it looks as if he has plenty of work to do with the Magic.He remains popular in Indiana, and he was cheered when he was introduced before the game.I love Frank, said Pacers reserve C.J. Miles, who made four 3-pointers and scored 16 points. Franks one of the reasons Im here. He believed in me and Ill never forget that.Orlando shot 32 percent from the field and committed 16 turnovers, resulting in 20 points for Indiana. Evan Fournier led the Magic with 14 points on 4-of-15 shooting, and Aaron Gordon had 11.George also had six rebounds and five assists for the Pacers, who pulled away in the second half. Monta Ellis also scored 13 points, and Jeff Teague finished with 11.Indiana led by as many as 21 points during the fourth quarter.George and Vogel exchanged text messages in recent weeks specifically talking about this game, but the coach was focused on his team after its fourth loss in its last five games.Were going to figure it out, Vogel said. Im very disappointed in the inability to build momentum. We struggled on both ends. We need to go in and get back to work.TIP-INSMagic: Orlando has lost 12 of its last 14 meetings with the Pacers, dating to the 2012-13 season.Pacers: After scoring in double digits in each of the last four games, Al Jefferson was shut out.UP NEXTMagic: Host New Orleans on Wednesday.Pacers: Host Cleveland on Wednesday. Matthias Ginter Jersey .7 million, one-year contract, a raise of $2.2 million. Wieters had asked for $8.75 million and the Orioles had offered $6. Julian Brandt Jersey . Houston won 3-0 to advance to face New York in the Eastern Conference semifinals. Last in the game, Di Vaio and Romero got into a shoving match with several Houston players. Romero appeared to elbow and kick Houston defender Kofi Sarkodie. http://www.germanysoccerpro.com/ . The Australian is competing in his final season in Formula One and still looking for his first win this year. He will look to end Vettels run of six straight race wins on Sunday. Webber, who is fifth in the championship, earned his second pole from the past three races and 13th of his career. Marvin Plattenhardt Jersey . The visitors took a deserved lead in the 16th minute with midfielder Yohan Cabaye curling the ball beyond Adrian from inside the penalty area. Leon Goretzka Jersey . The Cleveland Indians, Tampa Bay Rays, and Texas Rangers all won on Sunday meaning the Rangers will host the Rays in a play-in game on Monday. I went from being a promising cricketer to a has-been without a major career in the intervening period. It was a route many took. As a has-been, I played league cricket in two cities with a group of overgrown enthusiasts who had the reverse of amnesia - they could remember things that never happened. For example, taking incredible catches at slip, or scoring a century.We strutted out to bat like our heroes, with our collars raised. We knew all the stories, all the jokes - and that convinced us we had all the strokes, knew all the tricks, and that on a clear day we could make the ball reverse swing. And that we could do it on a belly full of beer, which was the staple lunch.Surprisingly, in both phases - the promising and the has-been - we did identical things. We picked national teams with a shrewdness and a lack of bias that was impressive. We knew so much theory it was a wonder we were able to let go of the ball while bowling. As batsmen we were so conscious of where our left shoulder, right foot, even the parting of our hair ought to be, that our regular dismissals for single-digit scores were put down to astrological reasons.Our heads were filled with statistics. In later years our bank codes were built around 6996, 8032, 413 and other well-known figures from the game. We thought we were unique in all this - including the manner in which we followed the fortunes of the national team.The true cricket lover is a fantasist, a legend in his own mind. One such, Marcus Berkmann, has captured some of this flavour in his delightful Rain Men. Cricket forces its players into such contortions of body and mind that it amazes me there arent more books on the humour of the game. Rain Men is not, as one review has suggested, the Fever Pitch of cricket. Fever Pitch (by Nick Hornby) is a tribute to fandom by an Arsenal supporter, but it lacks the lunacy of Rain Men. Or perhaps it is easier for me to identify with a cricket obsessive. One of my regrets as a PG Wodehouse fan is that the Master chose to move to the US, and baseball and golf, despite being a cricket fan. He has written some evocative pieces on cricket (brought together in the book Wodehouse At The Wicket edited by Murray Hedgcock), but nothing commensurate with his interest in the game.dddddddddddd This was a sound business decision, calculated not to alienate his American audience, for Wodehouse continued to follow the game. Legend has it that he gave up his bank job after taking off to The Oval to watch Jessops Match (Gilbert Jessop made 104 out off 139 before Wilfred Rhodes and George Hirst took England to a one-wicket win in 1902), and being forced to return to work before the fireworks started.In Swami and Friends, RK Narayan has written engagingly on the game, capturing the anxieties of the young minds playing it in the local community. But Rain Men (subtitle: The Madness of Cricket) is different because it meshes obsession, resignation, and the batting average that reads like a shoe size. And it speaks uncomfortable truths, especially about the village game, so beloved of myth-makers.Village cricket is a brutal sport in which the strong thrive and the weak are quickly pummelled into submission, says Berkmann. Never in hundreds of village cricket matches have I seen a floppy-eared bunny rabbit scamper anywhere, unless its under the wheels of a passing lorry. Robin redbreasts search in vain for branches of 200-year oaks from which to tweet, as Farmer Giles has had them all cut down. The last burly blacksmith died in 1967. The new parson spends Saturday afternoons with his friend Clive.Berkmanns team, Captain Scott XI (named after the polar explorer who is the symbol of the second best) plays as only such teams can. Without anything incidental like trophies or prestige to aim at, most friendly sides have long since opted for internal strife, he says, and adds, To be treated with the respect you arent due is the dream of every talentless sportsman. Many of my old club-mates will vouch for that.Rain Men by Marcus Berkmann Little, Brown, 1996Wodehouse at the Wicket by PG Wodehouse Hutchinson, 1997 ' ' '