Lupe Ramos Stops By, Phil Kessel Gets His 900th & This Fridge Is Officially On My To-Do List

Opening Day baseball is officially here for my son

Ahh, the first day of the city baseball league when parents start to let the thought run through their mind whether it's time to move on to travel ball where they'll drop thousands of dollars chasing the dream of making it to the NAIA level of college baseball or even crazier dreams of playing D3 ball.

Today will be my first good look at how my son stacks up against the city ball kids which has been stripped of talent by the travel ball industry where the kids walk around with two baseball bats in their bags for some reason. As someone who grew up playing true Little League (Hardscrabble L.L.; Clayton, Ohio; once was the oldest L.L. in Ohio until the travel ball teams stripped it of its talent that had produced multiple MLB draft picks over the years; RIP) in one of the most Norman Rockwell settings, it's going to be tough to sit in a suburban park next to the highway as my son moves up out of the coach pitch division and into big boy ball. And it doesn't help that that high is going to be 58 & the park sits in a wind tunnel.

Over the next two months, we'll get a good look at Jack's interest level and if it's beyond the city ball world. If it isn't, no big deal. If it is, Fox might have to come up with a raise to compensate for the travel ball hotel industry or I might be forced into buying a camper and selling burgers and dogs on the side at these parks to keep up with the costs.

USA Today High School Sports estimates travel ball parents spend an average of $3,700 a year. If this baseball thing doesn't work, I need to make sure my son understands that $3,700 would pay for some incredible golf trips on a yearly basis. I'm just sayin'.

• Speaking of travel ball, I completely missed this back in mid-April. Cooperstown, New York's Dreams Park is requiring 12-year-olds to be vaccinated in order to play at that facility this year. Teams are losing their $4,000 deposits over this requirement. Any readers out there affected by this? I'd love to know what's going on out there in travel ball tournament land.

• You know the company Impossible Burgers that has made its way into all sorts of different venues? Now they want into the school systems. That's right, your kid may soon have a plant-based option. The company will run a pilot program at schools in Palo Alto, California; Aberdeen, Washington; Edmond, Oklahoma; and Union City, Oklahoma.

• And finally this morning, Billy Crystal came out this week and had words for the cancel culture industry that didn't go over well with the cancel culturists. “It’s becoming a minefield and I get it,” he told the NY Post. “I don’t like it, I understand it … I just keep doing what I’m doing and that’s all you can do right now. It’s a totally different world and it doesn’t mean you have to like it.”

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