Anyone have any cool stories about sports and your Dad?

[JasonBanz]

Jobathenut and I were trading a few stories on another forum and thought I would start a forum on my own. I know sports is a good way for a father and son can connect. I would love to hear some of the stories of you and your Das!

[shoremen44]

My dad and I have relatively close Birthdays (3 weeks apart)...

A couple years back we decided that our present to each other would be to take a weekend trip every year to a different ballpark...created alot of memories


So far we have hit

New York - Old Yankee stadium, and Shea
Boston - Fenway
Minneapolis - Metrodome
Seattle - Kingdome
Detroit - Old Tiger Stadium
Houston - Minute Maid Park
Atlanta - Turner Field
Chicago - Wrigley, Old Comisky, and new Comisky
St Louis - Old Busch Stadium
Philadelphia - Vetrans Stadium
Montreal - Olympic Stadium

and of course we have been to

Baltimore - Memorial Stadium, and Camden Yards

[Vintagedeputy]

Well this one may be a stretch, but its a memory for me -

My dad used to work for the NYC Dept. of Sanitation. He worked at an incinerator - the place where they burned the garbage. He'd operate the burn areas where the trucks would dump the trash. They really cooked it good!

Every once in a while, my mom would let me stay up late to see my dad when he was coming home from a late shift. On those occassions, he usually had rescued a shoe box full of baseball cards from an untimely death. I got to stay up and sort through the cards. Never really got anything super valuable or old, but mostly recent cards (recent as of the '70's).....still a good memory.

[cjclong]

When my father was a young boy his father took him to a department store where Babe Ruth was appearing. My father got to meet Ruth and shake hands with him (wish he had gotten a ball autographed). That made my Dad a Yankee fan. Because my Dad was fan I became one too. I started really following the Yankees in 60 and was crushed as only a kid can be when Mazeroski hit the home run to beat them in the World Series. The next year I was really following the Yankees during the 61 season with Mantle and Maris in the home run race. We went on vacation in August. We lived in Texas with no major league baseball at the time and I only saw games on TV. We finished our vacation in Kansas City and it wasn't till we got there that my Dad told me he had tickets to the game between the Yankees and As. I went to the game with my parents that night and the Yankees won 3-0. I was in junior high school then and will always remember getting to see Mantle, Maris and Berra and the others play. It may not sound like that much now but it was a big deal to me and I remember it well. The next year my Dad took me to two games at Yankee Stadium and I got to see Whitey Ford win a 7-0 game.

[David]

My dad and I had a two man baseball game in our back yard. As my dad had a bad throwing elbow injury he could only bat and I only pitched. The back yard was filled with bushes, trees, fences, etc and we had an intricate point system. There was a home run if he hit over a certain fence, point for grounder that reached a fence, a home run could be negated if it was bounced back off a tree. The strike zone and was determined by a chair. If I hit the chair, it was a strike-- thus no arguing balls and strikes. We balanced the rules and distances so the game was even, and the best person that day won.

[jonincleve]

my best story about my dad,

my dad was my baseball coach growing up. one day i was playing in the back yard with one of those nets you throw the ball into and it comes back to you. so i am back there pitching when i lost control of a pitch. my dad was cleaning the storm windows....as murphy's law would have it, the ball hit the windows at the 'right' time. he was on the ladder, bringing the windows down and was in front of the other set of windows when it hit. i broke all four windows with one pitch. i also set a land speed record for a 10 year old.

my dad would also take me out of school for GE days. that was when some cleveland indians players would go to GE and meet the employees. i got to meet buddy bell of course.....+ rick waits, rick manning, duane kuiper andre thornton etc....

and finally my first baseball game was at cleveland stadium when he and the other coaches took us to see the indians play the baltimore orioles. of course the orioles had some player named reggie jackson on their team which allowed me to narrow down the date of the game. 5-31-1976 memorial day doubleheader.

great thread leading into fathers day

take care
john

[David]

My other dad story is my dad has the pretty impressive looking bronze down hill skiing medal from the 1950s. I asked him the story. He said he finished third out of three. But, worse, he missed a gate. As only finishers could claim a medal, he had to walk up the hill and ski around the gate to get his medal.

[joelsabi]

I will share my earlier son-dad sports memory. I remember having some kind of basketball competition (shoot-pass-dribble skill competition sponsored by NBA) on the same day as a Laker game. I had the hardest time getting him to drive me there. It was a close game and he was pretty glued to the television screen. at the time i was in sixth grade in elementary school thinking i was gonna be a future pro basketball player. hahaha.

it was getting close to the time of the competition and the game still wasn't over. I was almost in tears and getting angry. My dad turned the tv off and said lets go. When we got to the tournament i think it was last call and i was lucky i got there. i got in line and they time you on getting thru this course. it went so fast and my heart was beating really fast. i got the fast time and got a gold medal and my friend from school got a silver. i remember my dad being really proud and saying "you are really good." that meant a lot at the time and still does.

the next week i didnt even make the finals of the qualifier because i dribbled the ball off my shoe and lost some valuable time. they dont allow a second try so i was really disappointed. my buddy from school went on to the next round.

[metsbats]

Great thread and great timing as we approach Father's Day.

My Dad worked a part-time job in a Chinese Resturant on Sundays to help supplement our income growing up. In the beginning of 1972 the resturant catered a gathering at opera singer Robert Merrill's home. Among of the guests that day was Mets manager Gil Hodges. My Dad approached Mr. Hodges with a guest check during the gathering and asked him to sign it. Opon seeing this Mr. Merrill's wife told them that they probably had a baseball in the house somewhere. She went up stairs and produced a brand new official spalding league ball. Mr. Hodges signed the ball "To David Best Wishes Gil Hodges".

When my Dad came home that night I was in bed sleeping as usual and he was so excited he woke me up. I still remember that night and I thought I was dreaming at that moment my Dad presented me that baseball.

It's still in my collection today and will always be.


My best memory with my own son was in 2006 during a game we attended in the Shea picnic area when I took my son to the bathroom. When we left the bathroom a Shea maintenance worker who found a couple of batting practice balls while tidying up the area handed my son a baseball. All my life i never was able to snag a foul or batting practice ball and my son's 3rd game ever he was personally handed one!

[bigtruck260]

My first Cardinals game was May 21, 1984 vs. the Astros.
Nolan Ryan was pitching that day - and we were in the third base loge seats.

I had never seen MLB pitching up close, and my Dad was just telling me to watch how the batters bailed out of the box when Ryan threw his breaking ball. When he threw his fastball, Dad told me that it wasn't as hard as Feller's (he was raised in Cleveland in the 50's)...he pretty much explained the entire game of baseball to me...and immediately turned me into a Cards fan. That was a defining moment in my life.

I lost my Dad in April, and that memory is one of my favorites, though there were many.