The High Cost of a Kids' Game

 Yesterday, the baseball/youth/softball spring catalogue arrived from that store with a name no adolescent boy can repeat without giggling (and me too, apparently).  Talk about sticker shock.

Bats topped out at $450; gloves at $500 (a literal a golden glove?); and shoes at $120.  For youth, as in Little League, it was $280; $130; and $50.  Softball bats went as high as $300; gloves $230; and shoes $60 (what, no heel?).  And to think I bought everything I needed from Ace Hardware, Sears and Sam Santo Sports.  Times, as they say, are a changin’.

Of course, there’s cheaper equipment available, but that’s the problem.  What kid wants cheaper, and what parent wants to give less than the best?  We barely got by with just Clare.  Heaven help those people with two or more athletes in the family.  I doubt if anyone wants to share a bat.

Note to Commissioner Selig: You can’t grow a game, as in the inner city, that costs too much to play.