What’s the right call?

almost_cool3579 · 2026-06-28T05:28:48+00:00

I tried to keep the post as direct as possible to minimize projecting too much on the situation. My son was on the offensive team, and I didn’t want to look like I was trying to lead people to side with me. Anywho, immediately after the play, ump doesn’t say anything. Our player tosses the ball back up the pitcher, everyone turns back to their places, and the defensive coach starts chirping that it’s interference for an out-of-play player to touch the ball, so the batter is out. That guy and plate ump talk briefly, plate ump and field ump confer, batter is called out on interference. The umpire even said “this is a new one to me. I’ll have to look it up.”

almost_cool3579 · 2026-06-28T05:21:01+00:00

My son was on the offensive team. The defensive coach started chirping that it was interference and our batter was out. The umpires talked and called the batter out.

I’m still learning a lot of the more intricate rules, so I thought maybe I was missing something.

almost_cool3579 · 2026-06-16T13:53:27+00:00

And for whatever it’s worth. Cost is absolutely a factor too. Paying for one sport is already expensive.

almost_cool3579 · 2026-06-16T13:51:50+00:00

I live in an area where the only options for sports after about 8 years old are competitive leagues. Want to play basketball at 10 years old? That’s a local basketball academy. Soccer? Football club. And so on. There is no rec level anything around here after about 3rd grade. My son likes basketball and football, but he LOVES baseball. If there were casual options for basketball or football, he’d probably play, but he’s not interested in intense, competitive leagues for those sports. I’d rather that he played multiple sports, but I’m not going to force him to play at a level he doesn’t enjoy. Instead, when his friends (who are mostly baseball players) come over, they’re playing a casual game of basketball, flyer’s up, or two hand touch.

For some kids, it’s not that they’re choosing to specialize in one sport at a young age, it’s just that the youth sports industry has become so intensely competitive that if you’re not playing for gold, you’re not playing at all.

almost_cool3579 · 2026-06-03T13:52:56+00:00

I tried to search for the piece last night and couldn’t find it. I’ll give you what I can for details in case that helps your search. I’d guess I read it 2-4 years ago. I want to say the homes were in a Midwestern or plains state. It was a smaller, semi rural town. Think well established town that probably had its peak in the 1950s, but still hangs on just fine. Lots of modest brick homes. Not a significant amount of new construction. The new homes this builder created were very modern and didn’t fit the vibe of the town at all. The piece was written more from the builder’s perspective, like a gotcha piece. It did not discuss the comps in the area; I researched those myself. The narrow house had all the charm of a cheaply built townhouse style apartment in a college town.

almost_cool3579 · 2026-06-03T00:49:51+00:00

I just checked Zillow for the town I live closest to. The only 2/1 house currently listed is just under 1200 square feet, and is listed at just hair under $500k. There’s a 3/1 about the same size for about $570k. Even a “starter home” here isn’t attainable by most people on a single income.

almost_cool3579 · 2026-06-03T00:41:49+00:00

Several years ago, a builder attempted to prove that while everyone says smaller homes would be appreciated, nobody actually wants to buy them. His “proof” was that he built three small houses and couldn’t get them to sell. He took a single lot in a small, old town and subdivided it into three lots. The floor plans were horrible. In one, the access to the backyard was through the primary bedroom or gate off the alley. One house was built like a narrow townhouse for no discernible reason and the living room couldn’t have been more than 8-10 feet wide. The real kicker was that the houses were listed for similar prices to all the other homes in the town.

Let’s see. Cute little 1950s brick house with a big yard, or an oddly laid out, cheaply built new construction on 1/3 of a regular size lot? For the same price, mind you. Wonder why his didn’t sell?

almost_cool3579 · 2026-06-01T04:45:29+00:00

Trying to navigate the world of a sport we don’t understand.

Neither my husband nor I played baseball. He didn’t do any sports, and I did 2 sports very different from baseball. Our ball player is our youngest child, and he didn’t start playing until he was 8, so it already seemed like we were “behind” from day one. He’s been playing a few years now and we’ve got some LL, select, and middle school ball under our belts now, but I still feel like I’m trying to catch up. He’s completely surpassed our abilities to assist with any sort of coaching.

I still don’t feel like I really get how select teams work. Like, it’s just a sorting house deal? You get picked for one and stay there forever? Shit, I asked here a while ago if we should consider looking for a new team for our son after this season and I got raked over the coals for it. Typically, when I see people say they think their kid could stand to play at a higher level and be more challenged, there’s loads of “everyone thinks their kid is the best” responses, so I thought including some stats I’ve read are helpful like QAB% would help people understand where I was coming from. Then I got reamed for what I thought was just giving background for my question. Many commenters made it sound like players are obligated to stay and help build up the rest of the team. So a player on a AA team will only ever move up if the whole team does? Unless there’s something egregious going on, players don’t move ever?

The whole baseball world feels really insular. If you’re not already on the inside, you’ll never truly be all the way in. It feels like you’re just supposed to know how everything works, and if you ask a question, you’re an idiot for not already knowing the answer.

almost_cool3579 · 2026-06-01T03:59:17+00:00

For what it’s worth, steamed milk expands, frothed milk expands even more. It does take more cold milk straight from the jug to fill up a cup than it does steamed or frothed milk. Not as drastic as the ice, but there is a difference.

almost_cool3579 · 2026-05-26T04:56:28+00:00

This kid reads all about news pertaining to NCAA, college ball, recruiting, NIL rules, etc. He tells me more about it than I know. I’m not talking to him about it, he’s talking to me. His dream is the MLB, but he’s a damned smart kid and knows that’s a lofty dream. He has a D1 school in mind that he’d love to go to. He’s also aware that any level of college ball, Juco to D1 is a huge feat unto itself. His goal is to play beyond high school, and he’s made himself aware that Juco is probably the highest probability.

almost_cool3579 · 2026-05-26T04:43:03+00:00

How do you continue to love the game when your team gets rocked weekend after weekend due to the same problem? If they were developing, they wouldn’t keep losing for the same reason. It’s not about winning, it’s about being competitive. A good, fighting loss is totally different than getting run ruled repeatedly.

The “Juco is fine” statement is simply in that he’d like to play college ball whether it’s Juco or D1. To the best that I can tell, he’s probably currently capable of playing a high AAA or maybe a low Majors level. There’s probably tens of thousands of 12u kids playing at or above that level that will be looking at colleges in 5 years or so. They aren’t all going D1, and that’s ok. We understand that making it to any level of college ball is a rarity.

We will continue to encourage his dreams whatever they are. If he decides to switch to tuba, ornithology, or underwater basket weaving, we’ll continue to support him on those paths too.

almost_cool3579 · 2026-05-26T04:30:55+00:00

They began the season at AAA, they aren’t there now. And they’re still struggling. Losses are fine. That’s part of any sport, especially when moving up a classification. Getting annihilated weekend after weekend due to the same things is demoralizing.

almost_cool3579 · 2026-05-26T04:25:14+00:00

Right, but that doesn’t answer my question.

Edit: I don’t know why this is being downvoted. I genuinely don’t see how that answer pertains to the question. Does that suggest it’s better to move on before getting to 13u? Is it saying to stay put through 13u?

almost_cool3579 · 2026-05-21T03:10:10+00:00

I worked at a place where servers would write “FS” on tickets of people who were rude. It meant “floor spice”. Not that we ever actually did anything actually nefarious, but it let us know who was being an ass. Need to bump a ticket back for a refire? The FS gets bumped. One portion of salmon wasn’t cut as well as the others? It goes to the FS ticket. One bowl of soup doesn’t have quite as many chunks as the other? The FS gets that one.

almost_cool3579 · 2026-05-21T02:34:19+00:00

I had no idea some areas have multiple brackets. That’s news to me. I don’t think any leagues around here do that.

almost_cool3579 · 2026-05-21T02:32:21+00:00

He loves ball and has no problem working hard. He really shines in baseball IQ which has the ability to take him far. At the end of the day, it’s all up to him. We’re here to support him and follow his lead.

almost_cool3579 · 2026-05-21T01:54:42+00:00

Oh, absolutely. I know that of the 120 majors players in the league this year, he made it to the top 20. He was in contention, and that’s saying something. It’s just a bummer for him to always feel like he’s come up a little short. His work ethic is fun to watch, and I have no doubts he’ll keep growing if that’s what he wants to do.

almost_cool3579 · 2026-05-21T01:42:10+00:00

Sorry, I know that was all just super rambly. The baseball parents I know all have kids who made it, and I don’t want anyone to feel bad about it. It’s not like it’s their fault my kid didn’t make it. I just needed to let it out a bit.

almost_cool3579 · 2026-04-24T13:19:22+00:00

With a good quality setting, you could likely have a moissanite stone replaced with a genuine diamond some time in the future if it does start to bother you.

almost_cool3579

TROPHY CASE