This is what dads are supposed to do: Bring their kids to ballgames, and in the process impart some sort of lesson or memory they'll cherish a lifetime.
So I take my 6-year-old, and 10-year-old to a locate class A short-season game on Monday night. We had great seats for Monday's game, right on the rail past the third-base home dugout, for all of $7 a pop.
The 6-year-old even gets a foul ball tossed to us by the coach manning the third base coach’s box. There's your Kodak proud dad moment as I handed the prize to my kid ... who immediately fired a strike back toward the coach, of course, my kid throws it right back to him.
Yes, he threw the ball to us yet again. "You see that with the little ones," he said afterward "It's natural."
My bad. Should have told her earlier that only Cubs fans can do that, and only on opposing homers.
She’ll learn that lesson, a lot of lessons, including the cold economics of contemporary sports: Many kids will likely never see Shea or Yankee Stadium in person. Major professional sports are becoming out of our reach. I planned, we went to Shea last season and Yankee Stadium with Little League this season.
A trip to Shea or Yankee Stadium runs somewhere around $350 and up for a family of four, when you consider gas and parking and tolls and food and souvenirs and the like. It’s become prohibitive to take the whole family to a game unless A.) You are loaded, as in rich, or B.) It’s a very special occasion. This will have a tangible impact on the games we watch, as even routine sporting events become a reserved enclave for the rich or connected.
Monday nights game set me back a little more than $40, and that included a cap, lunch and tickets. Parking is free.
So it’s the minor leagues and college sports for us, I guess. I feel like I’m letting them down.
How many major pro sporting events do you take your kids to in a year? And are your going less because of the cost?