OK. Since the Padres are so terrible, and since I can't in good conscious actively root for them to lose, let's do the book club. The book we're going to read is entitled An American Journey: My Life On the Field, In the Air, and On the Air by Jerry Coleman with Richard Goldstein and a Foreward by George Will.

I know several of you have already purchased the book and maybe you've read it, and maybe it's sitting on your bookshelf, waiting to be read. Maybe it's at your local library waiting to be checked out and enjoyed. Or, if you'd like, you can just follow along as we explore the themes and learn of Jerry Coleman's secret origins.

To give those without the book a chance to get a copy, why don't we go chapter by chapter and start with the foreword. Feel free to chime in or just observe quietly from a distance.

Real heroes come in all shapes, sizes, colors, and dispositions, but most have one thing in common: they do not like to be called heroes. So I will not annoy Jerry Coleman, who is a friend, by saying any more about that.

-George Will, from the Foreword

Foreword discussion after the jump.

George Will wrote the forward, which is good because he's famous and because he's a good writer, despite your political leanings. The foreword points out the overuse of the words "hero" and "heroic". Just for the record, horses aren't heroic when they're trying to win a race. That horse that rode through Philadelphia, shouting, "THE BRITISH ARE COMING!" That was one hell of a heroic horse.

Is Jerry Coleman an American Hero? He fought in two wars, actually doing war stuff like flying planes and bombing the enemy as opposed to some other celebrities *cough* elvis *cough*.

What did you think of the foreword? I know it's just two pages, but we're starting slow. We gotta pace ourselves if we want to make it through.