Happy Birthday,Dad

My dad turns 61 today and I am not home to wish him Happy Birthday in person.
I doubt that he even knows that this exists and probably wouldn't think much of some of the things that I write here on an everyday basis, but nonetheless, here are a few words about the man who influenced who I am for good and bad.

My dad had a great love of sports and I don't ever remember not having sports magazines around the house.
There was always SI or the Sporting News lying around and sometimes the defunct Sport and Inside Sports coming into the door to read about the world outside our tiny little country area.
Dad worked swing shift a lot and I always looked at it as kinda my job to watch what he couldn't and be able to tell him what went on in sports in those pre-ESPN days, where if you didn't see it, you often didn't find out until the morning newspaper.

We didn't always see eye to eye on our teams, although he influenced teams that I root for this day in ways that would surprise him.
I became a Pirate fan because my dad loved the swaggering 70's Pirate teams of Willie Stargell, Roberto Clemente, and Dave Parker, and became an Indian fan through a roundabout set of circumstances that would have never happened if not for Dad.
We shared a passion for Maryland basketball that was the one team that we could watch consistently and root for together.
I am not nearly the Maryland hoop fan that I once was, but the 2002 National title team that was the culmination of so many near misses was so important to me because of the common bond with Dad.

I saw games and places that I would have never seen without Dad-Cleveland Municipal Stadium, Three Rivers Stadium, Baltimore Memorial Stadium, Indianapolis Speedway, and the Capital Centre, all were shown to me by Dad

My dad was a lefty slugger(which is why I used the great and underrated Eddie Mathews as the photo) in softball and we played together on a team for a year.
Well, he hit homers and I watched from the bench a lot like most 16-year-olds do when they play in an adult league, but of all the things that I ever did with my dad the most important was the three seasons that I played for him.
He was difficult to deal with and I am sure I was no prize either, but I always prided myself on doing whatever it took to get the win for Dad.

The system that my dad ran in baseball was the building block for how I coached and I added things, put my own stamp on things, etc, but what he did was the blueprint for my coaching days.
Dad never went to many of the games that I coached, but he seemed to really love coming to the games of the best team I ever coached in 2001.

That team was a machine that pretty much ran itself and to this day, is the best team at that level that I have not only coached but seen and I remember him laughing watching them roll up a mercy (15-run lead) win without making an out one night.
He was always telling me to run guys more and keep them moving on the bases and I got quite the kick out of that.

Things haven't always been smooth and I take a chunk of the blame for those things.
I have always felt that I have been a disappointment to Dad, those of you close to me know the story and those of you who aren't that close don't need to be bored, but suffice it to say, I have thrown away things that I can never gain back.
Wasted potential that cost me and my family a far easier life than we have, but things happen the way the chips fall, I suppose.
What he never understood was how much I wanted to be more like him in ways that he never knew.

In any event, these are just a few words on the man with the sweet left-handed swing and the person who has contributed the most to something like this blog even existing due to the love of the games that he instilled in me.

Happy birthday, Dad.