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Mike and Carlos Figueroa talk on Father’s Day from their “park bench” perspective, reflecting on Carlos’s late father and how youth baseball has changed from inexpensive local leagues to costly, professionalized travel ball. They reminisce about St. Louis Park Little League memories, including injuries from hit batters, a city championship run, pitching limits, and the importance of catchers and infield communication. Their conversation explores baseball’s sounds and language (including the origin of “can of corn”), dugout and field chatter, taunting rules, and how pitchers and catchers call games, contrasting past intuition with modern analytics. They discuss parent behavior as a major problem in youth sports, and relate perseverance to being “on the one-yard line.” They plan to record at the old ballpark, revisit St. Louis Park in 2026, and launch a baseball-focused spinoff podcast, “Square Box Baseball,” based on a Latin American saying about baseball’s unpredictability.

00:00 Park Bench Intro
00:36 Fathers Day Talk
01:42 Remembering Dads
01:55 Kids Sports Then Now
02:49 Little Gophers Memories
03:42 Baseball Sounds Origins
04:56 Chants Taunts Rules
05:58 Voices From The Stands
06:48 Scary Hit By Pitch
08:19 City Champs Glory Days
10:33 Pitch Counts Big Games
14:21 Cinderella Man Lesson
16:52 New Baseball Spinoff
17:56 Square Box Baseball
19:21 Can Of Corn Explained
20:49 Dugout Chatter Deep Dive
21:39 Dugout Chatter Jokes
22:50 Calling Pitches Debate
23:56 Catcher Trust And Gameplan
24:49 Reading Hitters Then Now
27:00 Hitting And Guessing
30:02 Look Alive Field Talk
32:48 Taunting And First Base Stories
34:29 Parents Ruin Youth Ball
39:01 Town Ball Home Run Tale
41:04 Wrap Up And Podcast Plans

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