Growing up in the early 90s,

RJ McKenzie's life revolved around baseball.

And in his hometown of Pomona, New York, it was all about Little League.

Little League was like the thing.

That's what we all look forward to.

It was just the focal point of the community.

That's where everybody went

in the spring. And you lived and died with whatever team he played on. For McKenzie, Little

League was pretty chill. Sometimes he pitched. Sometimes he played first base or third base. Other

times, he just goofed off with his friends in the dugout. And for his parents, it was an

affordable and convenient way to keep him busy. They drop him off at practice with the volunteer

coach and pick him up a few hours later. Baseball became McKenzie's lifelong passion. He went on

to play in college and became a physical education teacher in a

suburb outside of New York City. These days, he's focused on the baseball career of his

13-year-old son, Nick.

Trying to make the major leagues. That's really what I want to do.

And who do you want to play ball for? The Yankees. It's very obvious.

But Nick's youth baseball experience is very different from his dad's. I would say I probably play seven days a week and seven hours a day. Yeah,

on the weekends for him, it could be seven, eight hours. And then during the week, it's right after

school. And then sometimes right after

that is another game. It's like full go until mid-August, like every single day. Nowadays,

it's kind of Little League's getting left in the dust and everybody's playing travel.

...