time out!

I was a little disappointed in Kevin O'Malley's My Lucky Hat. I guess I had gotten so used to his humor and wit that I was expecting it to permeate all of his works--even those for younger readers. My Lucky Hat is definitely a departure from the age group with which I associate O'Malley and the storyline shows it. It's pretty much about a kid, Frank, who wins a contest to go to a baseball game involving his favorite team. When his team starts losing, the boy and his father go for hotdogs at which point Frank gets separated and wanders into his team's dugout where he saves the day with his lucky hat. The story itself is pretty fluff and makes me wonder why O'Malley even wrote the book. There are a few funny parts in but you wouldn't notice most of them from listening to the story because they occur in the pictures which are still kinda cool I guess and reflect a lot of attention to detail on O'Malley's part. There is a moment where Frank yells "time out!" and runs onto the field that is so absurd (why would he be able to call a valid time out and run on the field? not to mention, why would he even be allowed to stay in the dugout?) that I can only hope this was some offhanded infusion of humor. But the whole thing really left me wondering: why?