FanHouse

Unless you've been living under a rock, you're well aware that gas prices are pretty high right now. That's causing inflated prices of all sorts of goods and services, including airline tickets. Those prices would seem to affect average Joes more than multimillionaire baseball players but that's not the case.

White Sox pitcher Mark Buehrle recorded his 1,000th career strikeout in Los Angeles last night, a career milestone you'd expect he'd like to share with family. His father didn't make the trip to the west coast, though, and the price of airline tickets is the reason why.

With the cost of last-minute travel from the Midwest to California a little bit too prohibitive in this specific instance, Mark Buehrle was on his own with one out in the eighth inning and sitting just one strikeout away from this milestone.

Buehrle signed a $56 million contract extension that kicked in this season so you really have to ask yourself how he defines prohibitive. I'm not suggesting he should just throw his money away on anything and everything that comes along but his bank account could probably survive a little splurging now and then. If the surging price of crude forces you to change your travel plans this summer, just remember that Mark Buehrle feels your pain.

(H/T Big League Stew)