First of all, this should be a Golden Thread. These are the greatest stories I've read in a long time. I had a few tears reading many of them.
Mine are very similar.
As a player, winning the 10 or 11 year old local Little League championship, beating the "unbeatable" team in convincing fashion. 30 years later, I vividly remember catching a towering flyball from my second base position.
As a coach, I'm a lousy coach. But, I did get to watch Littlepapi throw a perfect game this summer. 17 of the 18 outs were Ks!
As a parent, any day that I can watch my boys play. But one that really stood out was this summer. Mediumpapi(15)is playing in the first game of a tournament with his new team. Littlepapi (10) is playing his first Little League game of the year fifty miles away.
Thank God for cell phones. My wife calls to say that Littlepapi just hit a home run. I was thrilled and crushed at the same moment because I missed his shot. Mediumpapi was coming into the dugout after retiring the other team. I walked up to the dugout and half-jokingly said, "your brother just hit a home run, you know what you have to do now."
The other players looked at me kind of funny as they didn't know me well then.
Mediumpapi led off the inning with a home run of his own!
BTW, once the players got to know me, they still looked at me kind of funny!