Fathers, sons and baseball
-
- May
- 4
I took my sons to Shea to watch the Mets play the Marlins on Tuesday night. We sat in the upper deck behind home, overlooking the gorgeous green field and beyond the outfield wall, the construction site for Citi Field, their future stadium.
It’s an amazing scene: a circular lattice of steel rising from the parking lot and above that, six concrete towers with strange window-like openings. They looked like abandoned apartment buildings from an apocalyptic nightmare. I took photos with my cell phone and would have posted one right here – X – had I remembered to save them.
My older son and I recalled his first baseball game: a school trip to see the Mets that I also attended. At one point in that game many years ago, D joined with the crowd chanting “Let’s go Mets.â€? I smiled but immediately asked myself if I hadn’t made a big mistake. A Yankees fan from the womb, I wondered if D right then and there would be imprinted forever as a Mets fan. D, who is 17 now, laughed at that story. Both my sons are fans of the Yankees.
Later, I raised the possibility with my younger son that he might one day take a son to a game at Citi Field. Then he could tell the tale of how he and his father sat in the old ballpark and saw Citi Field being built. My son, N, who is 12, thought that was cool, and so did I.
I remember my father taking me to my first game when I was 7. Art Ditmar pitched the Yankees to a 4-0 win over the Kansas City Athletics in the Bronx that summer night. I’ll have to ask my father if he remembers it, too.
This entry was posted
on Friday, May 4th, 2007 at 11:40 am by Len Maniace.
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did you guys catch any balls? I think my son may know your son. ;-]
I can also remember my dad teaching me some ball games but it’s not baseball. He was my first coach in lawn tennis. He was very patient teaching me the backhand stroke since that’s my weakness. When I won my first trophy in a cup held in our subdivision, he was the very first person to celebrate my victory. After knowing that it will be my last time to play tennis because my opponent hit me so hard in my shoulder he was the first person to hit the guy. Oooppss!