1. There are things in life that bond fathers and their children together outside of
the love and bloodlines they share. Sports have always played a central role in
countless relationships, bringing so many fathers closer to their children,
particularly when the normal lines of communication start to garble during the
teenage years.
You remember that time, right? Those wonderful, zany years that took you from
junior high through high school when you thought you knew everything about
the world? Those years when dad would ask you how school was going, which
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2. you usually answered with a grunt. Those years when a perfectly logical “where
are you going?” was met with a loud sigh, a smart-ass response and an ensuing
argument that mom needed to interfere in.
But those years also included watching sports together, simultaneously
complaining, cheering and marveling at a long home run or a game-winning
touchdown. The tension and uneasiness that was a constant fog over your
relationship would lift, even for just a few minutes, as you both bonded over the
one — and possibly only — thing a 15-year-old and a 46-year-old could agree
on.
It wasn’t always that way, of course. When you were a little boy, he introduced
you to sports by putting a bat and ball in your hands when you could barely
walk. He pitched to you and played catch in the front yard, chasing ball after
ball while you stood there and laughed until he was ready to throw again.
He came to every single sporting event you participated in, work permitting. Oh
sure, you’d get embarrassed when you’d hear his voice rise over the other
parents.
“Come on, easy swing babe!”
“Atta boy, make him work!”
And although you knew he wasn’t trying to embarrass you, it still made you roll
your eyes and utter a sheepish “yep” when a player on the opposing team
would ask, “is that your dad?”
But even you couldn’t help but be thrilled he was there when you swatted that
first home run over the left field fence. You didn’t thank him for being there, but
you were so glad he was.
Then there are the professional sporting events he took you too. The games
that jumpstarted a love affair with professional sports that lasts to this day and
is being handed down to his grandson. Now you try and do what he did for you.
You explain the nuances of a sport to your two-year-old son, who may
understand more than you think. Then again, he may not.
But he will, because your dad helped you to understand.
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3. You’ll play catch with your son and chase ball after ball because it’s what your
dad did for you more than three decades ago. You’ll sit in the bleachers and
cheer for him when he does something right and explain to him how he can
improve when he fails.
Which he will.
You’ll watch him grow from a little boy to a teenager. He won’t appreciate your
compliments or criticisms, however fatherly they may be. He’ll start ignoring
you, then act like a know-it-all and become more interested in girls than in
who’s winning the game.
That’s when you’ll realize what your dad went through. You’ll understand that
he only wanted to know what was going on in your life because you wouldn’t let
him in to see it. He wanted to chase those balls down the street again while you
laughed like the innocent child you were.
He didn’t want you to grow up, yet he couldn’t be prouder that you were.
And just when it seems like things are at their darkest, sports will be there to
lend a helping hand. Athletics didn’t have everything to do with smoothing out
the rough patches, but it played a large part and it certainly was a lifeline when
the two of you needed it most.
Or should I say when my father and I needed it most.
Thanks dad, Happy Father’s Day and just so you know, I’m never too old for a
catch…
Connect with me on Twitter: @mikeya78.
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