Grip on Sports: Would today, Father’s Day, be a good one to ‘have a catch’ with your favorite dad?
A GRIP ON SPORTS • Happy Father’s Day, Spokane’s contribution to the calendar of holidays. Of all those special days, it is the warm-weather one with the tightest connection to sports. Read on.
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• From Everett Flatch to Jesus Shuttlesworth, movies love to celebrate the relationships between fathers, children and sports – though in “He Got Game” I’m not sure “celebrate” is the right word.
Heck, Field of Dreams is all about a guy destroying his family’s financial security just to “have a catch” with his old man, whatever that means.
In reality, though, Father’s Day often has some sports connection. Mine always did – and still does – while I’m guessing many of you feel the same way.
One of my most endearing memories of my dad has to do with baseball. No, not the time at 13 when I called him a bastard in the dugout, which would have kicked off a fight if he could have gotten past his assistant coach to me.
No, I am thinking about a couple years earlier, when I had played an awful game and was ready to bawl in the car afterward.
He pulled it over and told me, flat out, how talented I was. How baseball, the game I loved, was going to be special in my life and it would take me places I never imagined. How he believed in me. It was a touching moment, a supportive moment, from a man who had trouble expressing those type of emotions.
It’s a moment I will never forget.
Just a word of encouragement from dad goes a long way, doesn’t it?
But singular moments are not the best part.
The endearing relationship between fathers, children and sports are built on thousands of moments, from the first time he tosses you a wiffle ball in the basement to the time he sits in the stands and quietly prays as you face a hard-throwing lefty with the bases loaded.
The time he bends over to put the ball on the tee to the time he watches as you sink your first birdie putt. The days and days he spends teaching you the correct way to sink into a three-point stance or how to execute a crossover. The times he pretends to be a goalkeeper in front of the couch to the time he helps you pick up tennis balls after an hour of working on your serve.
Dads do those things every day, quietly helping their sons and daughters build the foundations that may take years for them to build anything upon. They teach lessons in sports, sure, but they are also teaching lessons in service and commitment and faithfulness and love at the same time. Their actions allow their children to see them in a different light. They give them something to admire and emulate throughout our lives.
I saw just such a lesson yesterday and it came from a source you may not have thought about in such a way.
A famous local college basketball coach who shall remain nameless was sitting in the stands watching his son play with his high school group at a camp. Next to him was a roll of pre-wrap and a roll of athletic tape. His son had rolled his ankle and it needed taping.
It had been years, the coach said, all the way back to the 1980s when as a high school assistant, since he had taped an ankle.
But his son needed it. So he was going to be there for him. He taped the ankle between games. Good, bad or indifferent, it was a physical manifestation of servitude and love.
There’s no explanation needed, but if you want one, it’s simple: He’s a father and that’s what fathers do.
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WSU: Around the Pac-12 yesterday, the conference didn’t have its best day at the College World Series. Oregon State basically handed North Carolina a first-round win while Washington saw its hopes of getting past Mississippi State fly over the outfielder’s head in the bottom of the ninth. … A former Oregon linebacker was killed in a Eugene car crash. … Colorado believes its offense will be better. Oregon feels the same about its offensive line.
EWU: Though Jim Allen is no longer the S-R beat writer for Eastern (and he looks back at his favorite stories here), he did take the time yesterday to finish a piece five years in the making: Sir Washington’s graduation from college.
Indians: It had been a long time since Jake Latz started a baseball game. But the Indians’ pitcher did well last night as Spokane evened its record with a 6-1 win over the Boise Hawks. Dave Nichols has the game story. … The Indians wore their Redband uniforms. Johnathan Curley has more on that in this piece. … Elsewhere in the Northwest League, Everett was hammered by Hillsboro and Eugene won its second consecutive game.
Preps: The freestyle portion of the USA Wrestling event was held yesterday at the Convention Center.
Mariners: Wade LeBlanc may be the No. 1 reason the M’s have a shot of winning the American League West. His emergence as one of their best starting pitcher came out of left field, hitting its zenith thus far with yesterday’s two-hit outing in a 1-0 win over the Red Sox. … Gene Warnick has the Out of Right Field column this week in which he looks at facing a knuckleball pitcher. … The M’s first pick in the recent draft signed yesterday. He seemed ready to pitch.
Sounders: Will Seattle host World Cup matches in 2026? It better.
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• One of the great traditions in all of sports features the U.S. Open final round and Father’s Day. They coincide each year. My favorite memory is the late Payne Stewart telling Phil Mickelson not to worry about losing at Pinehurst in 1999, because Phil was about to become a father for the first time. It’s followed closely by the memory of Jim Furyk finally winning at Olympia Fields in 2003, and breaking down with his dad. What will happen today? Hopefully, everyone will be able to keep their ball on the greens. And Mickelson won’t do something new to break the Internet. Until later …