It's Hooters Country Cuties Dress Up Weekend, Brian Daboll Lost Weight & Phil Mickelson Line Dancing
I'll continue to say it: Clay wearing TNML gear absolutely shocks me every single time he does it. Let me explain.
Someone who somehow got my phone number sent me a message this week saying, "Hey, show this to Clay."
I can't even remember what it was, but I didn't send it to Clay.
Clay was in Atlanta with his family soaking in Atlanta Braves baseball and enjoying summer. I only knew that because I saw it on social media. I don't trade many texts with Clay. I don't shoot the shit with Clay. I don't desire to shoot the shit with Clay.
Our text exchanges are short. He's incredibly busy. I'm busy in Zoom meetings. Shooting the shit just isn't going to happen and that's why we work so well together.
That brings me to Thursday and Clay's big moment playing in the LIV Nashville pro-am.
Readers will probably think we coordinated him wearing TNML gear to the event and that was some sort of plan hatched by TNML executives. If it was, I wasn't in that conversation. Hell no, I'm not talking to Clay about his clothing choices.
I've probably talked to Clay about TNML once and that was when I asked him to do a "Gentlemen, start your mowers," video in 2021.
That's when I learned he hasn't mowed since getting rich. Mowing was one of the first things Lara Travis hired out when they finally had some money.
Clay wearing the TNML gear speaks to what we've been up to with this league and the polo that OutKick T-shirt Manager Olivia G. dialed up for this season. The haters will say I was over-selling the polo back in the Spring when I called it the Polo of the Summer.
It's the Polo of the Summer.
Look at how comfortable Clay is in his TNML gear. Look at how proud he is of this mowing league we're building. He wore this gear around some of the biggest golfers in the world. Are we going to text about it? No.
The content speaks for itself.
BUY THE POLO OF THE SUMMER - HERE!
How many Rory putts at the U.S. Open would Clay make out of 100 with this stroke?
4 out of 100?
I might suck at golf, but I don't suck like Clay sucks. At least I have that on him.
Make Little League Great Again
This is my Little League post from Wednesday that many readers are responding to. The more I write on this subject, the more I'm convinced that parents are disgusted on the state of affairs in youth sports, but they just don't know how to fight back when they're busy living life.
- Grant writes:
Loved your story. Living the Little League dad life right now and have some thoughts I’d like you to share with you.
My family is in a different category. We’re military and we move every 12-18 months. This has continually impacted my son’s ability to make any sort of All Star or Travel ball leagues. We’re too late and miss the season, registration is full when we get orders to a new place, or he’s an unknown, and it is impossible to get into the Mafia.
Of course, every dad thinks their kid is exceptional. And every dad wants their kid to get a fair shake. This has been hard for my son since he is constantly trying to prove himself, and also hard for him that his parents don’t make a stink about being excluded due to our unwillingness to join the mafia even if we could. All I tell my son is to work hard, and be respectful. And I have seen him develop into a very good athlete. He hits and throws better than many travel ball players, and he stays humble. He actually made the All Star team this year because we didn’t move with 12 months of arriving.
Now comes the travel ball discussion. Not one question about his skill level came up. The discussion had to do with who I knew at the league, when we thought we might move next, financial support capacity to support the team… not one question about my son’s speed, hitting stats, pitching stats, etc…
It’s a crazy world out there and I’m willing to miss opportunities for the sake of my son’s character. He didn’t chose the military life, but he loves to "hit hard, run fast, and turn left"… and he is part of a large majority of little leaguers unable to break into travel ball opportunities due to the parental mafia who all grew up in the same zip code with the people who hold the power. It’s wild.
- Tom W. writes:
Joe - Hope all is well. I coached both little league and travel ball when my son was younger. When the boys were in the 10/11, 12/13 year old age range I tried to organize a day in which the kids could play with no parents allowed.
I arranged it so the parents would drop kids off at the park, there would be police officers there ( I had a number of them who volunteered), the kids would pick teams, and play as long as they wanted. I had everything set up so it would be safe and the kids could just play ball without their parents around - like the kind of baseball a lot of us grew up playing. I asked the kids about it and they loved the idea.
Ran it past the league and the parents and they were, in a word, dumbfounded. They absolutely could not imagine their kids playing without them being there. Needless to say, the parents and league put the kebosh on it.
To this day, 15 years later, it still blows my mind that these parents were so self absorbed that they couldn’t imagine their kids just playing ball without them there. Simply put, it ain’t about the kids, it’s about the parents. Regardless, if you get a chance and can institute something similar give it a shot. The boys would absolutely love it.
Good luck with your season, and again, if there’s a chance you can get your league to do a "sandlot" type day with no parents do it.
- Bryan in Blountville, TN, who has played some major roles within Little League umpiring, shares:
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are mine only and in no way reflect those of Little League International or any other entity or individual.
The level of play at the Senior League World Series hasn't changed appreciably over the years. These are the best of the best players, talent-wise, in their region / country. Pitchers are consistently throwing mid- to upper-80s and some reach the low 90s. The overall speed of the game is much faster than you will see from your better high school varsity teams. Remember, these players are the age of a high school freshman or sophomore.
Four of the last five tournament champions have been international teams, all from the baseball hotbed of the Latin American / Caribbean regions.
2017 Panama
2018 Curacao
2019 Hawaii
2020-2021 No tournament - covid
2022 Puerto Rico
2023 Curacao
I can't speak to the prevalence of travel ball in the international regions, but I don't think it is anywhere near what it is here in the US, if it exists at all. (Side note: my thoughts on travel ball align with yours.)
Although it won't be said out loud by most, I believe it is fairly obvious many, if not all, of the US teams are pulling in travel ball kids. However, based on the results above, it doesn't seem to be making too much difference.
- Ben in Grand Rapids, MI writes:
It’s been a while since I emailed, I had previously sent you information on the whiffle ball tournament in Grand Rapids (which is coming up early next month). My son’s both play travel baseball (which I know is a mortal sin) but their teams (Westside Smash) are mostly comprised of players from our same little league. Players still play little league during the week and then travel tournaments on weekends. Our travel season concluded last weekend and now they are all-in on LL All-Stars. We don’t do any fundraising so hopefully that puts us a step above the other travel teams!!
I’m the VP of our Little League (Western- Grand Rapids) and we have All-Star teams in all divisions except Seniors. That division is tough to get players for because the season can’t begin until after High School ends. My oldest son is playing on the 50/70 (Intermediate) All-Star team and my youngest is on the 11U team.
Western Little League has had great success using this model as it prepares our players for higher level competition. We’ve sent at least two teams (different divisions) to the State Tournament for five straight years despite being in the largest District in the state of Michigan.
I agree with many of your points on Travel Baseball and would gladly win a Little League District title over a plastic Travel Ball trophy/ring.
The Costco rotisserie chicken bag drama
Thursday, I wrote about how customers are frustrated over Costco's new rotisserie chicken bags which are leaking and slimy.
- John C. writes:
Apparently Costco stole this idea from Communist East Germany. In the 1980's rotisserie chicken was one of the few foodstuffs that their Socialist agricultural system could produce in adequate amounts.
To encourage consumption of a food they could actually provide the government opened a chain of takeout joints called Zum Goldbroiler where the chicken was packed in bags (see below).
I noticed Giant Eagle here in Pittsburgh has begun using this same packaging indicating that a Communist takeover of our rotisserie chicken industry is underway.
Kinsey:
There's not a day that goes by when I'm not amazed by where the content on this site takes us. I didn't expect to learn about Communist rotisserie chicken bags. Don't miss a day on this site. You've been warned.
Autograph regrets and repurposed Pizza Huts
- Brett G. in St. Joseph, MO writes:
Daily reader checking in again and your Mays autograph story reminded me of my own autograph regret. And mine would have only cost me my time.
My dad has had season tickets to KU basketball since the mid-nineties. And I was lucky enough to go to the game in 1998 when they hung Wilt the Stilt Chamberlain's jersey in the rafters at Allen Fieldhouse. He was literally larger than life. I will never forget his halftime speech when he broke down in tears.
After the game, he sat at a desk at half court and signed as many autographs as his sharpie would allow. My best friend waited in line over an hour to have Wilt sign his basketball and I didn't. I regret it every time I see the highlight of his speech. He died less than 2 years later and never made it back to Lawrence.
Also, here's a picture of the old Pizza Hut in Wathena, KS that they physically moved from neighboring Elwood. It's now a diner.
Thank you for this great thing you have going.
Readers love the TNML Spotify list that Dayton, Ohio's own Mike Freshwater compiled
- Helen T. writes:
Greetings from St.Petersburg,FL
At 5:30p is 92degrees, heat index 98!
Loved the song list, esp all the Toby Keith ones.
I’ll play this list next week on my beach day at Ft Desoto beach!!
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That's it for this week (yes, I'll work tomorrow morning). What a week it's been. It's been hot. It's been busy with Zoom meetings. Let's go suck down margaritas by a body of water. Let's go enjoy the pools. Let's go finish off those baseball seasons.
Go have a great weekend.
Email: joekinsey@gmail.com