Megan Fox Hits The Red Carpet, Clay & Lara Enjoy A Romantic Date Night & Maple Leaf Dogs Wearing Jerseys

We need to work on dropping the bat and running to first base

It turns out my five-year-old son is one of those kids you see on "America's Funniest Videos" who hit the ball and run to third base, then towards the shortstop as the coaches are yelling "run that way" while pointing towards first base which means absolutely nothing in my five-year-old's brain.

Plus, he carried his bat as if it was a weapon and he was going into a street fight. His right hand was right in the middle of the bat.

That was the big highlight Thursday night in my world where my son, Will, played his first organized game of baseball in front of what felt like 500 grandparents. Seriously, these Baby Boomers love a warm May evening at the coach-pitch level.

The ballpark was so filled with grandparents that I'm starting to feel like there's a grandparents' Facebook page where they organize outings to go watch 5-year-olds take a few hacks and miss grounders. I'm also convinced that if a Mexican food truck pulled up, the grandparents would've been 15 deep looking for a good deal on chips and queso to eat while they watched the little kids be cute.

It's going to be an interesting season with Will. While our oldest son is very serious about his activities no matter how good he might be at said activity, this five-year-old is something else. Total handful.

If I have to spend a Saturday afternoon at a ballpark, as is the case this weekend, thank god it's for 5-year-olds laughing and enjoying life playing baseball. It's good for the soul.

It turns out you guys had thoughts on waving just waiting to come out

• Mark W. in Tennessee writes:

This article from rvtravel.com discussed the types of waves and the etiquette of who waves to whom. Nothing about waving while mowing, but obviously the author wasn’t familiar with the explosive popularity of the TNML. I have a zero turn, and my rule is not to wave when I am on the mower. A smile and a friendly head nod should suffice.

https://www.rvtravel.com/friendly-wave-motorists-1030/

Great content, as usual. You have a knack for tackling the really important issues. Keep up the great work.

• Jay J. writes:

Hi Joe:If you're truly rural, everyone knows that a smile and head nod suffices when your hands are full. Carrying groceries in from the car and someone comes past?  Smile and head nod. Two dogs on a leash (Eaton is not rural, just small town),  smile and head nod.  ZTR?  Smile and a head nod. 

Smart people know if someone's hands are full to interpret it accordingly!

• Chris S. is on Team Head Nod:

A simple, but very noticeable, nod of acknowledgement should be good enough to sub for the wave. That’s what I use when I have both hands on the push mower at the roadside.

• Danny from Otsego, MN writes:

Hey Joe, loved the ScreenCaps from today. Great stuff as usual. As a captain of a Cub Cadet RZT 50 zero turn mower, if a man cannot wave to the neighbors because of a need to maintain control of the machine a head nod is perfectly acceptable. Any neighbor or gravel road traveler will know exactly what is happening if a wave is not returned but a slight nod of the head is.

Also saw that Vegas pic at the bottom of today's column and thought I’d toss this in. Took it last night on the way to the west coast. Nice little shot of Vegas from 38,000 ft. The strip is in the middle of the frame. I’ve gotta work today and won’t be home until tomorrow so I’ll miss league night. Hopefully league play goes smoothly today, the competition is fierce and no suspensions or fines have to be handed out.

Simple Augusta scorecards

• Bill C. sends a simple email, but it's Friday and this is the time of the week when we need simplicity:

A friend was there last week and brought me back a couple of scorecards. For those of us without the cache to play a round there, the simplicity of the scorecards themselves is quite surprising but exactly what I would expect from Augusta if you think about it.

More thoughts on Danny H. in Alabama's teaching job dilemma

• Jim L. writes:

I grew up in a family where good-natured teasing was the norm. It wasn't until my first year as a school teacher that I learned how thin-skinned a lot of people were. I remember the first time I said something and someone responded by saying "that offended me".

My first thought was they had to be kidding. I soon found out that people are offended by very little. So I learned to just be careful what I had to say. I can still think as much as I wanted I just couldn't say it. Looking back on after 25 years, you're probably wasn't worth it considering that I always had to have a roommate and drive an old car and it was generally poor.

I had friends that I went to college with that made six and seven times what I made. People talk about how much they appreciate teachers but they do not want to pay them. After 25 years of teaching with a master's plus 50 hours over, my best year was $41,000.

Nothing more American!

• Kent W.'s email was simple:

Port-A-Potty NIL fun

• Adam D. writes:

This seemed like right up the alley of ScreenCaps or at least fun content.   The local port-a-potty company has hired a couple athletes from the Kansas State University football team to be in their commercial.  One of them being the star running back Deuce Vaughn.   He hilariously runs around trying to use one of the portable toilets only to find a sign that says No Deuces allowed.   

As someone whose father-in-law ran a septic tank service business for 40 years and had a shirt with the slogan of "Your number 2 makes us number 1!"  This was something I can appreciate.  

For the hardcore mowing fans

• Steve E. in Gresham, OR writes:

Not sure if you saw the first message, but I have another lawn mowing thing for you,

https://github.com/ClemensElflein/OpenMower

This is a source code repository for open-source software called OpenMower that you can use to create your own robotic lawnmower, using programmable hardware called a Raspberry Pi and an Arduino. There’s a YouTube video that shows how it works and how you build. 

For all the hardcore TNML peeps, this might be seen as taking away from their mowing fun, but I suspect there is a crowd out there (especially the software geeks among us, like me) that would really enjoy this.

Cairns Cup

My buddy John 'One Leg' Bell is playing live golf for the USA this morning in England at the premiere adaptive golf tournament that mirrors the Ryder Cup. John's been grinding away for years at golf and has made it all the way to playing internationally.

This is a big moment in his golfing career after spending years as a crane operator.

And with that, let's have a great day across this incredible country. Stay inspired out there. Let's have a productive weekend and get after it.

Email: joekinsey@gmail.com

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WEST HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA - MAY 12: Megan Fox attends the World Premiere of "Good Mourning" at The London West Hollywood at Beverly Hills on May 12, 2022 in West Hollywood, California. (Photo by Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic)

fMegan Fox attends the World Premiere of "Good Mourning" at The London West Hollywood at Beverly Hills on May 12, 2022 in West Hollywood, California. (Photo by Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic)

Megan Fox attends the World Premiere of "Good Mourning" at The London West Hollywood at Beverly Hills on May 12, 2022 in West Hollywood, California. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)