I guess there’s a word or phrase that parents of school-aged children fear more than “fundraiser,” but I sure can’t think of it.

Maybe “emergency room” or “summer vacation.”

Or “math.”

Truth is, the fundraiser is the dark cloud on any school-year horizon. It is a necessary evil. Like learning the periodic table.

Sugarcoat the topic any way you want:

“It’s for the kids.”

“We’ve needed the money to get (Pick A Cause — band uniforms; microscope; gymnasium; new coach) for a long time.”

“We won’t be able to go on the annual educational trip without it.”

All true. It even saves the parents money in the long run. And often in the short run. But the hard, cold truth is that few of us are good at selling and most of us aren’t anxious buyers of what schools sell. By October, you see a chocolate bar or a tub of cookie dough and you either call security or you start crying and sheepishly reach for your wallet, beaten into submission and robotically handing over money without even knowing – or caring – whether you just bought a fleece blanket in school colors, a tailgate hamburger dinner or a raffle ticket to win a lamp.

I wish there was a way they could sell me something I need. Can’t Suzie from band offer me a good deal on a set of steel-belted radials? Can Key Club raffle off a month of free home electricity? When is the choir going to have an underwear sale?

Car washes are the right idea. Now let’s branch out into toilet paper sales. Cooking grease. Real estate. Those are the kinds of fundraisers I want to hitch a ride on. I’d rather stockpile cans of school-sponsored diesel than the ready-to-make apple pies that have been in my freezer since March.

Regardless, I am a fairly easy score — and have the World’s Finest Chocolate backlog to prove it.

-30-

I watch a lot of baseball and am happy to do it. I spend time analyzing a lot of things, but not all of it involves launch angles and two-seam fastballs.

Here’s something I don’t get and haven’t understood for quite some time. And, I might add, the “problem” is getting worse, which isn’t helping matters.

For the life of me, I don’t understand why fans boo on attempted pick off moves. What are the booing about? Do they think it’s making the game too long? If that’s the case, then they should boo when the home team pitcher does it.

Do they think it’s an insult to the integrity of the game? That the home team base runner should be able to get as big of a lead as he wants without any fear of retribution?

As mentioned in a previous Daily Happen, the whole concept of booing is poor form to me in the first place. Still, I can see where fans can get a little riled up sometimes. A hard slide into second base. Obvious stall tactics. Going high and tight just because the pitcher gets hacked.

But because the pitcher throws to first? Actually, it’s even worse than that. You’ll even hear some boos when the pitcher steps off the rubber. And when the catcher calls time to talk to the pitcher? Here it comes again.

If a pitcher throws over to first eight straight times with a guy who is no threat to steal a base, OK maybe it’s a little justified. But you just watch; the next time the visiting team pitcher throws to first for any reason, you’ll hear boos.

I wish I knew why.