My dad passed away this morning. He was 94, dementia is an awful beast transforming kind and caring people into, in Dad's case, a difficult and demanding human all while requiring the kind of care you'd give a toddler.
Dad was not a baseball fan, not a sports fan. I'm kind of jealous as I think of all of the ups and downs of being a fan. But somehow I became a fan. And so in the summer of 72 dad took my 8 year old self to a Yankees game in the house that Ruth built. And in 73 he took me to several Mets games in an exciting year to be a Mets fan. And in 75, this man who was probably bored stiff took me to a Mets game and watched Joe Torre ground into 4 double plays. Illinois Bell wanted my dad back from ATT where he was an engineer and so we moved to Downers Grove. And this non sports fan took me to a Sox game and we saw an entertaining game in which a fan threw a lit M-80 out of the seats behind Bobby Bonds who was already wearing a batting helmet in the outfield because of the fans.
When I matriculated at KU I had the fortune of being in town for the Larry Brown years. April 4, 1988 I get a call from my dad saying Go KU. He told me he'd had a KU pin and was going to wear it to work that day. I'm sure if you'd ask him about that game a few months later he would have not known that it even happened.
Enter adulthood and now I took him to a game, first time for him in New Comiskey and the only memorable thing was watching a fire in the projects across the expressway. I think that was the last game he went to all the way back in 91.
He was a father who didn't really like baseball who cared enough to help develop my passion for the game. Just thought you'd like to know a little about my dad.
