Five Below to the rescue

I spent the large portion of the spring coaching my son's 9 & 10-year-old little league team.

We had a great season, and were one of the strongest teams in the league. More importantly, these guys truly became a team. It was fun to see them grow, improve, and compete each week. My son forged new friendships, even walking into school with his teammates who he might not have otherwise socialized previously. Man, youth sports are important, especially after being robbed of them for a year.

It's cliche, but from start to finish the boys really did improve. Some kids couldn't touch the ball early on, but as the season went on, became valuable contributors to the team. 

Unfortunately, we made it to the semifinals and lost just this past Thursday. It was a really intense game, actually. Well-played. No errors (which is saying something). Timely hitting. Strong pitching. Intense crowd. Anyone who says that 9 & 10-year-old little league can't be exciting is flat out wrong. Parents came up to us after stating it was the game of the year. Imagine that.

With the season coming to a close, we booked a room in a restaurant to have an end-of-season party later this week. I decided to make goodie bags for the kids, with a few items inside:

I picked up these materials at the discount store Five Below, mostly because I know they have a lot of small toys and candy, notably Big League Chew. The popular shredded gum is a bit of a team joke, as we had to ban it a few games ago because the kids were shoving so much of it in their mouths, it became a distraction. Plus I had to clean up gobs of it all over the dugout. 

You'll also see a pack of 2021 Bowman. That was an unexpected turn. You see, I had wanted to put a pack of cards in each goodie bag. But here's a funny thing about cards: you can't find them. You cannot just drive to a store and get a few packs. In an ideal world, I would have found a pack of Opening Day or Topps, as opposed to Bowman. Kids barely know Mike Trout. How are they going to know Blaze Jordan or Wander Franco?

When I went to purchase the materials for the goodie bags, it was Sunday evening, so the one local card shop around me was not open.  It's not like the pack prices would be affordable, anyhow. So I basically came to terms with not having cards in the bags, and I would just add extra candy or a toy or something.

After I put thirteen packs of Big League Chew in my hand basket, I went over to the sports section to buy my son another whiffle ball launcher toy since his broke. It's a small gadget that pops a ball up so he can hit it into a net. And lo and behold, I couldn't believe my eyes. There was a box with loose packs of Bowman!

They were overpriced, but I wanted the kids to have cards, so I bought the remaining packs - 16 of them. I kept 13 for the goodie bags, and treated myself to three of the remaining packs. I like Bowman, so it was fine. Two of my packs were fairly loaded, so I can only hope the kids find some luck, and maybe it spurns on some sort of collecting interest. Here were my best two cards from the three packs:

Not bad!

I doubt it'll have much affect. Kids don't really like cards. They all talked about Fortnite a lot more than Major League Baseball. They talked about NBA more than MLB too. But for one day, they'll open a pack, see an array of cards of stars and prospects and maybe some shine or ink, and enjoy a big wad of Big League Chew.

That's a pretty cool outcome and a great way to put a cap on the season.