Making Friends Along the Way - with special guests Boss and Russell

0:00 On this episode of The Ballpark Boys, we'll share how a rain delay turned into one of the best baseball experiences imaginable. And we'll reconnect with another father and son we met on our recent baseball road trip. Here we go. It's episode three of The Ballpark Boys. I know it has been a little while since our last episode dropped Jackson, but we've been busy. Yeah. No excuse, in my opinion. Yeah. So we do officially have a new addition to the show. Jenny Bunny is now an official contributor to The Ballpark Boys podcast. Welcome. Thank you, I think. Yeah. She brings a lot of life. to the podcast. I think she makes us funnier, Jackson. What do you think?

1:01 I agree. I think you guys like when I don't know something and you laugh at me. That's what makes it funnier. There are various elements that add to the dynamic. But I think when you're here, it's a lot of, you know, the way that things are around our dinner table at home. And I think that's a fair dynamic to bring to our conversation. So. Jenny Bunny will be joining us for the majority of these conversations now, Jackson. And I think that's an improvement, right? I think we should say Jenny Bunny will be on this episode and future episodes TBD. OK, yeah, whatever makes you happy. But this episode, as I was saying, we've been busy. Jackson, you have been playing baseball at one point. You were on three different teams, Rec Ball, Little League and Travel Ball, right?

1:50 three teams at the same time that's a whole lot of baseball. It is. I was coaching some of that so you know that takes up a little bit of time. I was doing scoreboard and game changer and snack mom. See a fantastic contributor already to the ballpark boys. Thank you Jenny for making it all happen. And of course we've been traveling quite a bit our current ballpark count as of the recording of this episode July 2026. How many ballparks are we at Jackson? 64? Not quite. 62. But we'll be to 64 soon, I'm sure. But our biggest collection of new dates was spring break this year when we got out there and we saw games in eight new ballparks over the course of seven days. That's a lot of baseball. And Jackson is holding up fingers. No one can hear your fingers on the podcast. Isn't it nine because of that old stadium? That was the eighth. That was the eight in seven days. We went to Rickwood. And we'll be talking about all of this stuff on future episodes of the Ballpark Boys. We actually did a bunch of interviews along the way that will be coming to the Ballpark Boys podcast very, very soon. And we ourselves were interviewed a few times. Twice on TV, once on the radio.

3:05 John and Jackson Manuel, the ballpark boys. A unique father -son duo that's put in the miles, as we like to say, across the southeast. John and Jackson Manuel doing quite the spring break road trip. This father -son duo, they're from California, but they're just hitting ballparks all across the country. Jackson, what did you think of those experiences being on the other end of the interview process? They were a little nerve wracking, but In the end, they were fun. What did you like more, TV or radio? TV. Why? Because you think you're cute. You are. Thank you, but no. They just seemed more interactive.

3:48 And the other thing that we've been doing over the past few months is really focusing on content on our social platforms. TikTok, Instagram. YouTube at The Ballpark Boys. Please, if you're not already, go and follow us on those platforms and you can see all these videos, including some of the interviews that you just heard little clips of. They're all posted up there now. So later in this episode, we will hear from some new friends that we made on that Spring Break road trip. But right now, one of my favorite ballpark experiences ever happened on that Spring Break road trip. It was ballpark number 54. Can you guess which one I'm thinking about, Jackson? Braves? Nope. Couple of days after that, we saw the Memphis Redbirds.

4:37 Oh, yeah. The ballpark, boys. April 2nd, 2026, the Norfolk Tides were the visiting team playing the Memphis Redbirds. Tell us about the seats that we had for that game. They were so cool. We sat right next to the dugout. We got to meet some of the players. Yeah, and I was just going to say by the end of the game, you were on some pretty good terms with some of the guys in the dugout, right? Yeah. What do you remember most about the ballpark? It's surprisingly big for a minor league stadium. I love that you said that and that you recognize that. Do you know why? No, I don't know why. So. AutoZone Park is the name of this park. It's in downtown Memphis.

5:19 It opened in the year 2000. And at the time it was built, 26 years ago, it cost $80 million. Whoa. And at the time, that was the most expensive facility ever constructed for minor league baseball. And the architects designed it specifically because they wanted it to meet major league baseball specifications. So that's why it's so big is because they wanted to make it so that if Memphis were to ever get a Major League Baseball team, this park could be modified and hold enough people to meet the guidelines of Major League Baseball. Isn't that fun? So you're saying that the Memphis Minor League team is playing in a bigger and better ballpark than the A's currently? Okay, yep, the Athletics, which don't currently have a city designation in front of their name. They're just known as the Athletics. But yes, they do play at Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento, California. I would say the Memphis ballpark is better than Sutter Health. It's more up -to -date. And bigger. Bigger, definitely bigger.

6:36 They have multiple levels, including like club and yeah, it's. But you would argue that seeing Major League Baseball in a small stadium like Sutter Park. Sutter Health Park, yep. Sutter Health Park is kind of an awesome and amazing experience. It is, it's a great experience, but I would say that the ballpark in Memphis is better than the ballpark in West Sacramento. Gotcha. I just don't think the athletics had any interest in playing. Anyway, we went on this weird tangent, but - That's what I'm here for. Yeah, thank you. You know I like to go on tangents. Yep, yep, absolutely. I'm sure we'll hear more of those. But I loved the ballpark. It's right in the heart of downtown Memphis, which is such a cool experience. Like we walked around and we saw Beale Street where all these iconic like blues venues are.

7:19 And we stayed right across the street at the Peabody Hotel, which has a duck master. And Jackson got to hang out with the duck master for a day. That was pretty cool, right? Yeah. And you can, again, see like Jackson's Duckmaster experience on Instagram, YouTube, TikTok at the Ballpark Boys. But these guys in the dugout that you got tight with, how did that come about? It was a huge rain delay, like a good 30 minutes to an hour. And it just started pouring out of nowhere. Yeah. Um, and we stayed the entire time. We stayed for the end of the game. And I think that earned you a lot of points, Jackson, because the rain is just pouring at one point. Everyone left.

8:01 Everyone left. Or at least everyone retreated up to the concourse where, you know, they had coverage from the rain. But Jackson was still hanging out next to the dugout, which the players were hanging out in, getting soaking wet with a baseball, asking them to sign it. And I think you earned some respect from the players as that was happening. Yeah, definitely. You not only walked away with a signed baseball from a bunch of guys who were on the field that day, but what did the manager, Ben Johnson, give you on your way out after the game? He gave me his lineup card for the game. It was pretty awesome. I have never seen anyone actually, I've heard about it, but I've never seen anyone actually receive a lineup card from a manager. And you still got that, right? Like in your room with that ball?

8:52 Yeah. It was such a good team. Three of those guys who we saw play in April are now on the... St. Louis Cardinals they got called up from Memphis Redbirds the triple -a team to the st. Louis Cardinals Brian Torres Cesar Prieto and blaze Jordan and they all signed your ball pretty cool Yep, and you also get to go on the field Because again this rain delay happened in and you know no shade But a lot of people left so by the end of the game there were maybe 20 of us But they still wanted to do like the on -field promotions and contests and stuff So what did you get to go on the field and do? Sunflower toss. The camera was on you. The host was like, ah, and here's Jackson. I threw a bean bag into a bucket full of sunflowers and I got to take the seeds home.

9:47 It's pretty cool in game promotion. Maybe that was like their D list. since there were only 20 people there. Yeah, it was one of the first games of the season. I think, you know, the in -game host was really just trying to kind of get his reps in. But, you know, you got to get on the field there and score even more points with the players there on the Memphis City Redbirds. That was such a cool experience. My only observation that I thought was kind of weird about the ballpark, they don't serve Coke or Pepsi. They serve RC. Hmm. That just seems they're old school. Yeah, this was the first year they served RCE though. What did they serve the year prior? Either Coke or Pepsi, I forget. Oh. But I was talking to one of the bartenders and she's like, yep, all we've got is RCE. I don't know if I've ever had RCE. A couple of days before the game in Memphis, we met a father and son who were also on a baseball road trip. And right now, we're calling Russell and his son Boss on FaceTime to check in. Russell.

10:48 Boss. How you doing, bud? The last time we saw you guys was in Atlanta, Georgia at the Braves game. And it just so happened that we had seats right next to you, basically, in left field for that game. And we just started talking and realized that you guys were on a similar quest to do a similar thing. That's kind of a crazy way the stars align for that. Oh, absolutely. Yeah, we were talking about that, that the happenstance is to make that happen. The stars definitely align properly. It just opened my eyes. You know, it made me wonder how many other fathers and sons are out there doing the exact same thing that we are. Oh, absolutely. We were thinking the same thing. So after the Braves, that was... towards the beginning of your road trip that you guys were on, right? It was kind of actually right in the middle. Where did you go afterwards?

11:32 I think you said that you were going to end up in Louisville. Yeah, sorry. Yeah, actually, after that, we went and the next night we were back in Atlanta for the Georgia Tech -Auburn game at Georgia Tech. I love it. Which was a, the energy was unbelievable at that game. That was boss's favorite game that we went to. Then the following night, that Wednesday, we drove up to Charlotte at the Knight Stadium. They had Wake Forest Clemson and he's a diehard Clemson fan. I'm Wake Forest through and through and Wake Forest run ruled on that game. So it was a very wonderful game for me. Congratulations. Appreciate that. He talks a lot of trash to me during football season. So it was nice to earn one back. Absolutely. That was for a little while. I love it. Love it. Then we drove the next day over to Louisville and my mom lives right outside of Louisville in Indiana. So we drove in, we had a little family reunion at the game. And all my cousins and my uncle and whatnot met us there. And then we drove on back with my mom the next day and got on home. And it sounds like there's so many parallels because a big part of the reason that we enjoy doing this is so we can see people along the way, whether it's friends or family or just get to parts of the country that we might not otherwise get to. And just seeing people and being able to spend time in person and, like you said, have little mini family reunions. And that's something that I've come to appreciate so much is the time spent in the car. where it's just dad and son and, you know, you guys are just hanging out and having conversations that might not happen if you weren't confined in such a small space. We talk about that all the time, don't we? The ride's the best

13:02 part of the trip. It's seeing what you see, the time, like you say, the time spent together, seeing the world's largest roller skate along the way or whatever else you can find. We're never gonna get this time back. And we're both at a point where our kids are willing to spend some time with us. And I just feel like it's the most magical time in the world for me that we get to do something that we're all enjoying at the same time. It's so, so cool. Absolutely. And if anything you can wrap up in baseball, it just makes it that much better. Exactly. Is there any little lesson that you feel like you've learned along the way or you've kind of taken with you from this experience? Just experience every bit that we can. Like, everybody tells me, you know, they're, oh, I can't believe y 'all are doing so much. You know, I don't see how you can. keep up with it, you know, you need to slow down. Even this one gets tired on me sometimes and you know, oh, do we have to go to another one? Yeah, we do. And we're gonna make it and we're gonna push through and because we're never gonna get this time back. So we got to make the most of it while we can. You're saying exactly the things that I say to this guy all the time. I love that he's hearing it from someone else. And what's your ballpark count right now?

14:04 We've been at 23 different parks because we go to like the Biloxi Park that's near here. They have a lot of like the Charlotte Knights had the Wake Forest Clemson game and whatnot. So they have like they have Southern Miss versus Mississippi State and so on. So we go to some of the same venues, but so far we're at 23 parks, but we've seen 30, I wanna say it's 36 or 37 different teams in baseball. That's interesting. Jackson, you got some questions for Boss or Russell? What was your guys' favorite ballpark? Probably Clemson. Clemson was cool. He had a really nice field. I don't say mine was the Braves. Nick Kurtz is absolutely my favorite player, watching him all the way through college and so forth, getting to see him and watch him at the ballpark and meeting y 'all and just the whole experience was just, it was surreal. What has your favorite food been? The giant pizza at the Atlanta Braves game, definitely. Mine would have to be the barbecue macaroni and cheese at Clemson. Sounds delicious.

15:01 The pulled pork in North Carolina is unmatched. So putting that on a tub of macaroni and cheese is the best stuff in the world. Makes sense. Well, I got a question for you. Who's your favorite player? Mookie, Shohei, and Yamamoto are all tied. That's a good trio right there. It's something that I appreciate so much, you know, obviously Jackson growing up in LA, he's a Dodgers fan, and I think it helps put in perspective that not every team out there is the Dodgers, but baseball is so cool regardless, right? Like, it's so important to me that he understands that, that not most kids get to see their favorite team win the World Series back -to -back years with such this powerhouse team. We can have just as much fun, if not more fun, at like a Memphis Redbirds game, right? That game was super fun.

15:45 That team showed so much hustle. I love those kinds of experiences where you see that, man, you can have just as much fun, if not a little bit more, at some of these smaller venues that don't have all the hype behind them. Oh, absolutely. And speaking in terms of watching your favorite team win the World Series, I'm a Pirates fan, so enjoy. We are the Major League's farm team, so... Make sure you enjoy, absolutely. And we met at a Braves A's game, and the A's have been my team for a long time, so we know exactly how it feels. Absolutely. To equip the majors. Well, I so appreciate, you know, being able to link up and stay in touch with you guys. Why don't you shout out, I know you've got a TikTok where you're sharing some of these adventures that you guys are on as well. Absolutely. How do people find that? Go underscore Deeks. Hey, you guys got some great stuff on there. Is that a tag team on the content front? Oh yeah, absolutely.

16:45 I do a lot of the video and whatnot and then he gets to do all most of the editing and the putting it together at the end because I'm still learning how all this. I'm very new to social media, so. You and me both. We've got to rely on the kids. And once again, there are just so many layers to this little adventure that both of us are on, respectively, where we get to learn from them. They get to, you know, maybe learn a thing here and there from us. And it's just, I love that we found someone who are on a very similar journey and quest. And, you know, I so look forward to keeping in touch and seeing how the adventure goes for you guys, too. Oh, definitely. We're definitely going to keep in touch and make sure we... Hook up when we can when we're on our adventures. Absolutely. We're gonna make it to the west coast. Well when that happens Absolutely, let us know I know you were just talking about Biloxi and you know, we want to see the shuckers one of these days So whenever that happens, we definitely got a got a link up on your turf, too. Oh, absolutely They actually just got voted the seventh best minor league park in the nation. Oh, that's huge We actually started going to the games because when Wake Forest went to the college world series in 23, I believe Their third baseman got drafted by Milwaukee, and he's been playing for the Shuckers.

17:56 And Boss got to be so close friends with them, they were on a first name basis when they walked into the park together. It was... It was really nice to be able to get to see the guys we watch on TV all the time. That is what baseball is all about, making those connections and seeing these guys. Like you said, you're on a first -name basis. You get to know him, and I'm sure he remembers you up in the big leagues. Absolutely. Well, until the next one, let's stay in touch, and please let me know when you make it out to the West Coast. We'd love to link up. Sounds good. Y 'all have a good one. It's that portion of the podcast where mom joins us. on the money with Jenny Bunny to break down the financial side of baseball. What you got for us today, Jenny? I want to talk about the different types of fans and travel and how much they spend. I guess there are kind of different calibers of traveling fan, huh? Definitely. First, I'll give you the categories and then I want you to tell me which one you think you might be before I give you the details of each category. OK. So we've got frugal. Standard and luxury. Now, maybe there's a difference between who you are and who you want to be. Yeah. I mean, we're definitely not luxury, right? Yeah. I mean, we're not going fancy by any means on these trips. Standard,

19:30 I'm not sure. I tend to think of ourselves as frugal, right? Like, we rent a car and we drive and we get the hotel buffet and we're not going fancy on these trips. What do you think, bud? I'd agree for some of the trips. Well, why don't you break it down and kind of let us know what those differentiations mean. All right, so we'll start with frugal, which I always love. The fans that are frugal tend to sleep in their cars. OK, that's not us. OK, never mind. I take that back. I'm not sleeping in a car. They use credit card points for flights. OK, that's smart. We do that. We do. Yeah. They might travel on a mega bus. Ooh. to get around. Never heard of that. Yeah, I don't think I would do that either.

20:15 Yeah, I like having a rental car because it just gives you a little bit more freedom. And honestly, like rental cars are not that expensive when you go kind of day by day. But please continue. Especially if you get a refund on your rental car when you find it cheaper right before you travel. That is such a helpful tip. I do that all the time. You book a rental car, right? You don't prepay it. You just reserve it. And then like a week or two before you go check again. And very often, the same car is like 40 % cheaper when you book it a lot closer. Yeah, I feel like that's happened like the last three trips we've taken. John will come in and say, oh, I rebooked the rental car and we saved 40%. Yeah, literally like with the same company, the same exact car, you just go back and cancel your original reservation and save a bunch of money. Yeah, the key is don't prepay. The other thing they do is they buy cheap seats right before the first pitch, which. You know, I feel like you guys have done that a time or two. Like if you decide to go to a last minute game nearby locally or something. Yeah, that's easy. That gives me a little bit of anxiety, though, like showing up to a ballpark and not having actual tickets when we get there. I don't know. I think it depends on who they're playing.

21:25 Like you can't just show up to Dodger Stadium and expect to buy tickets right before the first pitch. But maybe like. Where the A's play if they're playing somebody not super popular, you know, you never know. Anyway, okay. The frugal fan also sneaks in their own peanuts and water bottle. And I wouldn't say frugal. I'd say smart, especially water. Like, I think we talked about this on a different podcast, how expensive concessions are. So if they let you bring in your water bottle, even if it's empty when you enter the park and fill it up there. By all means, save yourself $6. That's one of our requirements when we're at games. I'm like, Jackson, you got your water bottle? And so many stadiums, basically all of them, that we've been to recently have those water refill stations that fill up the water bottles. Specifically for water bottles. Super quickly. Yeah. Super handy. The final thing a Frugal fan does, they will skip the official stadium parking, even if that means that they have to walk two miles where they can get free street parking. not have to deal with premium prices up to, like, $40 to $60. We do that a lot. We do that sometimes. A two -mile walk, I feel like that's not your jam, Jackson. Not two miles, but... But the Frugal fan will walk up to two miles. And here's the thing about the walk. Before the game, it sounds like a great idea, but after you've been sitting there for nine innings, sometimes, you know, that late -night walk is a little bit longer than it seems on the way there. It's either really nice or not nice at all. Moving on to the next fan, we're

22:57 gonna talk about the standard fan, which, you know, I guess. It's kinda normal is what standard sounds like. I don't like the word normal. Okay. Because nothing is normal. But standard, probably the majority of fans, I like that word better, majority. It's usually a parent and child, couple of friends doing a three to four day regional road trip. They might fly to and from a destination. That sounds like the way we do it, but I think we're the standard fans. Yeah. They're also willing to drive a few hundred miles to get around. Yep. Yep. We do lots of driving. Yeah. They stay in standard mid -tier hotels. Got it. So yeah, we stay in a lot of best westerns and Marriott's and airfieldings and stuff like that. And they buy decent lower level seats and... absolutely budget for the stadium experience, meaning at least one signature local food item, a local craft beer or soda, and a souvenir hat or a pin, every single stadium they go to. Yeah, I'd say that's us. That sounds like us. We're the standard fans with a touch of frugal. And at the end of this, I'll tell you how much each category pays typically. So the luxury fan... This I did not know when I was doing my research. There's actually premium sports travel companies that cater to fans. Which I don't think we've ever used. I didn't even know about it. The luxury fan will stay in a four to five star hotel right next to the ballpark. The luxury fan will also get premium club level tickets. With those tickets you might get free food or free drinks. So I

24:30 think sometimes it might be worth it. I don't know about that. $1 ,000 for food and drinks. Eat $1 ,000 worth of hot dogs, Jackson. I bet he could do it. Yeah. I'm not so sure. Ice cream, yes. The luxury fan may also, depending on how big their group is, charter a private bus in between cities. That would be fancy. Watch some movies, not have to drive, take a nap when you want. I guess that's what Jackson does in the backseat while I'm driving. But I think bigger groups of adults maybe? Yeah. But also the luxury fan will pay for private behind the scenes stadium tours and access before the general public. You may be able to enter the ballpark early and watch What's it called? Batting practice. Batting practice.

25:16 So the Frugal fan will spend between $150 and $250 total per city. But they're sleeping in their cars. Right. And they're walking two miles. The standard fan spends about $600 to $1 ,000 per person. on a multi -game trip, if they're doing like a road trip. Sounds reasonable. That's like summer vacation, right? Yeah, okay. Different ways to do it. The luxury fan, though, can spend up to $1 ,000 per day. Wow! Easily. Yeah, easily. What do you think, Jenny? Are we gonna be luxury baseball travelers in retirement? Maybe. I think right now when you guys go, you should be frugal. And when I come along, we should be luxury. Of course you do. You're not on that word. Now it's time for the giveaway. Yes, indeedy. We are passing along a giveaway from the Memphis Redbirds game we went to. So you know, Bud, when like the promotion crew is on top of the dugout and they're throwing shirts out to the stands? Yeah, yeah. So at this Redbirds game that we've been talking about, by the end, there were like 25 of us in the stands.

26:18 that rained out game, which meant that basically everyone there got a shirt. And I was one of the people who caught one of these shirts that was thrown out. And that's what we're giving away today. It is a big name beer company that is not paying the ballpark boys. So we're not going to say the name of their company, but it's got an illustration of a baseball pitcher on it. It is a pretty cool shirt. You can see it on our Instagram and our TikTok and our YouTube if you want to check it out right now. And it can be all yours when you sign up for the Ballpark Boys newsletter, right on the front page of the ballparkboys .com. You got to sign up for 1159 PM Eastern on July 31st, 2026 to be in the running.

26:59 Must be 21 or older. Go sign up for that newsletter and this amazing baseball beer t -shirt could be yours. The ballparkboys .com is where you sign up. Good luck. Well, you know, it's becoming a tradition to close out every episode of the Ballpark Boys with some words of baseball wisdom. So this guy was a Hall of Fame catcher for the New York Yankees, a 10 time World Series champion, one of the greatest players to ever play the game of baseball, Yogi Berra. And I love this quote for so many reasons. I want you to really hear this quote and I want you to think about what it means, Jackson. When you come to a fork in the road, take it. What do you think that means? Oh boy. When you come to a fork in the road, take it. Um, maybe like... When you get two different options both are good take them I love that interpretation the way that I look at it is That you just kind of keep moving and really there's no wrong answer, right? Sometimes people spend so much time trying to decide between left or right or left or right Which way do I go just just pick away and it's gonna be an adventure college or combine Someone's been playing MLB the show quite a bit, huh? Yeah But either way, left or right, it's gonna be an adventure. You're gonna have a good time. Chances are. So loving that quote from Yogi Berra. Thank you so much

28:32 for listening to our third episode here of The Ballpark Boys. You can follow along with us on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and now sub stack at The Ballpark Boys. And hey, we will see you here next time on this podcast we call The Ballpark Boys.