In the fourth inning of the San Francisco Giants game against the Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday night, Wade Meckler took a first-pitch fastball about one copy of Infinite Jest above the strike zone.
Home plate umpire Chad Whitson called it a strike.
It was only the fourth pitch of the game that Meckler had seen. The first was as close to hitting his elbow as it was to finding the strike zone; it was called a strike. The second kissed the strike zone the way a grapefruit kisses a can of Pamplemousse La Croix; it was called a strike.