And it made me remember an old post of mine and a ghost sighting from a summer ago...
So bear with me here.....The one I remember often is a Freshman football game...I played more football than baseball back then....partly because I was the best backup catcher on my team.....
I was selected to be captain that day and stood at mid field for the coin toss....I dont remember much about the game, I know we won, and I recovered a fumble and sacked the Quarterback twice.....but those things arent important.
The reason I remember that game was that my dad was there. My dad took off half a day of work and in those days that was not easy to do. Employers didnt think highly of people missing work and our family needed the money that that half day of work would have brought in.
I wanted to do well that day. I wanted my dad to be proud of me. I can still see him standing on the sidelines....
Now Dad has been gone these many years and I miss him every day.....but last summer in a tourney I was umpiring in, I looked up between innings and up on the hill just beyond the field, I saw an elderly man watching the game....
For those who know of male parents of my generation, My dad was a military man who forever had an affection for pressed khaki pants and starched shirts and stood with his hands clenched along his pant seams....
he looked like him, he moved like him....and all he did was watch....I found myself looking for him at every half inning until he was gone..
I'd like to think it was him come to see his boy one more time....
As soon as the game was over I made a beeline for the parking lot beyond the fence.....of course logic tells you it wasnt him......but the heart still needed convincing....
we should never underestimate the power of being there for our boys...they will remember it.... and you will be seen again on a hot dusty ballfield one day long after we are gone.....
Ahh dad....I wish you could see my boy play....you know I named him after you...... you would have been so proud...
