Sunday, June 29, 2008

Baseball: Fathers, Sons, and Grandfathers


Baseball's unique possession, the real source of our strength, is the fan's memory of the times his daddy took him to games to see the great players of his youth. Whether he remembers it or not, the excitement of those hours, the step they represented in his own growth and the part those afternoons - even one afternoon - played in his relationship with his own father is bound up in his feelings toward the local ball club and toward the game. When he takes his own son to the game, as his father once took him, there is a spanning of the generations that is warm and rich and - if I may use the word - lovely.

Bill Veek (as in "wreak") The Hustler's Handbook 1965

Monday I leave for our annual baseball trip. This year it will be with my father, brother-in-law, and his two sons. We'll see three minor league games and visit the new park in Cincinnati. This tradition started ten years ago when my son Zach was twelve. He can't go this year as he has just graduated college and is gainfully employed at a film production company in Pittsburgh but he and I will see the Bucs play on July 7th, the eve of my birthday. So I'm looking forward to a week with my dad, baseball, and reading Charles Williams.

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