Happy Father’s Day
Posted by: Peter Abraham - Posted in Misc on Jun 21, 2009 
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I suspect — no, I know — that my dad is watching or listening to a baseball game somewhere today. He might be chasing around the grandkids or doing some more work in the yard just in case Better Homes and Gardens shows up for a photo shoot, but he’ll be paying attention to a game.
Every single time I sit down to cover a game and fill in the names on my scorebook, I think of my father teaching me how to score a game when I was a kid. Somehow, all those lines and numbers told the story of the game. Eventually, all those lines and numbers became a job. High schools at first, then a few college games and eventually the minor leagues and now the Yankees.
It’s a ridiculously fun job and there is no chance, none whatsoever, that I would be doing it without my father’s love, guidance and passed-down love of sports. Especially baseball.
A lot of you probably share the game with your dad, I suspect. So call him today or stop by and ask him what he thinks of Joba’s role or why Derek bunts so often. It’s a better present than most anything else.
Happy Father’s Day to all American dads! We (Austria) “celebrated” last weekend
Thanks Pete. Just got off the phone with my Dad. He turned 87 this year. I have a photo of him when he visited last year. We stopped by the Harley store at the airport and here’s a pic of him atop the Harley out front. He tools around in a restored 1969 Jaguar XKE Roadster in mint blue. He’s quite a dad. http://www.facebook.com/photo......=692960935
yankees pitching staff moved up 2 slots now about 24th in ERA. strikeouts keep on coming, keep the walks down and they are moving in the right direction.
hughes is really poitching well, this cannot hurt him. he knows he can get major leaguers out consistently. hughes is also striking out about 1 batter per inning….
cano with another big AB last night!!!!!!!!he is so unclutch it is scary…Nady back will help they can sit swisher against lefties……………
Those walks are what’s killing us, that and the OF defense, Colin Curtis was moved up to AAA so 2nd half he may provide some help.
do not re-sign Damon
need to get younger. faster, better defensively
stop using every position as a 2nd DH
The Posado thing was a joke on another site, with the coming of Jesus, ie Montero. So it became Montero, Molino and Posado. I liked the alliteration and used it. I didn’t come up with it. Some very bright Yankee fans around, as witness some posts on this site. Didn’t pay attention when I was typing on here.
I have very mixed emotions today. I lost my dad suddenly 1 1/2 years ago. I miss him so much. But as I watch baseball today I will remember all of the happy times we shared discussing sports, especially baseball and football, and going to games together.
I agree steve. We need to get younger,faster, better defensively but also produce offensively. I only hope Colin Curtis starts showing the XBH pop in AAA b/c he provides youth, better D and adequate offense. He’s not going to be a star but one can only hope his bat could produce adequate offense like a poor man’s Garret Anderson.
Those of you that are lucky to be spending time with your dads today, please take an extra second to appreciate that. My dad is far away, and my FIL passed away 3 weeks ago. I miss them both and would give anything to have them around today.
Happy Father’s Day to all the dads on the blog.
So much for the Father’s Day nostalgia thread! C’mon guys, how about a little sentimentality?
My favorite birthday present every year was box seats with my Dad for bat day. Great seats, any snacks I wanted and an “autographed” bat. I wish now I have collected them, but instead I always played with them. Only once got a Mickey Mantle bat and by the tim it was retired it had nails in it and duct table around the trademark to hold it together.
Happy Father’s Day to every Dad out there.
as we say at orthodox weddings, Im yirtza Hashem by you. (Please G-d, by you as well)
My dad couldn’t care less about sports. But he was the one that always took me and my brother to games, because he knew how much we enjoyed it.
So thanks Dad, for that, and for everything else you have done for me.
Angel my condolesence
I almost lost my dad in a freak work accident late March so I know what you mean. Guys hug your dads today.
Bo Knows,
Don’t worry about it. You can call him anything, as long as you don’t call him ugly.
I don’t know why or where. But I think someone in the clubhouse calls him ‘Sado’. I think.
Brandon 5 Cena ZEEEEEEROOOO “Because I’m AWESOME and so is MY DAD today !”
June 21st, 2009 at 12:41 pm
I agree steve. We need to get younger,faster, better defensively but also produce offensively. I only hope Colin Curtis starts showing the XBH pop in AAA b/c he provides youth, better D and adequate offense. He’s not going to be a star but one can only hope his bat could produce adequate offense like a poor man’s Garret Anderson.
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Come on, Brandon…a “poor man’s Garret Anderson”? Anderson is a career .300 hitter with nearly 300 homers and 1400 RBI.
Curtis could be a nice addition on defense and add a few singles and doubles. I’ll be satisfied if he’s a “poor man’s Chad Curtis”.
Your Dad gets smarter after you become on yourself.
Happy Fathers Day.
I said poor man’s for a reason GB7.
LGJ
An XKE Jag, that’s Style and Jam. That’s a total head snapper. Next you’ll tell me about the porting and balancing and the max HP.
My Recc is that I have a restored 1976 Alfa Romeo GTV 2000 in my garage. Drives like a dream and the resonator is die for. A poor man’s Ferrari, but better handling. It’s almost as good as a Jag when it comes to maintenance. The drive train is great, things do fall off or stop working, just because.
You’re not there if you haven’t tried to tune Twin Webbers.
Happy Father’s Day to all the Dads. I’m spending the day watching baseball w Dad then going to a steakhouse followed by hopefully catching the later innings of the Yanks game. By the way my dad had a hip resurfacing surgery about 2 months ago and went back to work after 3 weeks. He’s not limping as much anymore but he does get ‘fatigued’ a lot easier as he’s still recovering. I figured I’d relay that story since a certain Yankee had a similar surgery:)
Hopefully CC has a good outing, he likes warm weather right?;)
Thanks, Brandon. I’m really sorry to hear about your dad too.
Days like this kinda suck.
I’m just going to focus on the good stuff/memories.
BTW Colin is starting in LF today for Scranton.
I know my dad is not wondering why Derek Jeter doesnt bunt so much but is wondering why he cant get a bunt down when he needs to. Actually he is more worried about how all of the sudden Ryan Madson has developed Brad Lidge cant close disease.
Happy Father’s Day to all that are fathers out there I thank god every day not only for the life lessons my dad has taught me but that he was the kind of dad who did not care that his daughter was not a son and taught me to love the game of baseball and took me to my first game at Vet STadium in 1976 and have loved this great geame ever since.
Thanks Bo. It’s a killer car. He really turns heads when he drives around!
Your Alfa sounds great!
Is there a reason why today’s game isnt on the Extra Innings games today list?
Angel just reflect on the great moments and know he’s watching over you.
Happy Father’s day to all the dad’s out there!
Angel-You have my condolences
Brandon 5 Cena ZEEEEEEROOOO “Because I’m AWESOME and so is MY DAD today !”
June 21st, 2009 at 12:50 pm
I said poor man’s for a reason GB7.
————————————————————
Then you should have said “a destitute Garret Anderson”.
Curtis is hitting below .270 as a minor leager in 3 and a half years.
m
The first time I heard of the “Coming of Jesus, Montero.. Posado etc. I loved it, I was envious of the sublety. Sparky (as in looks like Sparky Anderson) got all the credit until he confessed that he cribbed it from one of the Blogs.
Thanks SA. Much appreciated.
Angel,
I thought I read something about how MLB doesn’t want this game to overlap with the ESPN game or something. Don’t know how accurate that is.
Colin Anderson is just one of those clutch, winning role players. Guys like Brosius, David Justice etc. guys who juts know how to win and do little things to win games
My father worked in a factory in Manhattan, back when there was still manufacturing in the “city”, as we Brooklynites called it. He left to walk to the subway before 5:30 every morning, coming back home after 6:30-7 at night.
He was pushing 60 when I started following baseball. Despite the long hours and stress of having to support a family on a working man’s pay, he still found time to take me out to play ball at the local park every night in the summer.
Going to Yankee Stadium on Bat Day in 1967 (I think) is one of the best memories of my childhood.
“Then you should have said “a destitute Garret Anderson”.
Curtis is hitting below .270 as a minor leager in 3 and a half years.”
Garret to me was an XBH threat. Solid player defensively in his prime had some power and ran the bases well.
Curtis hit around .270 but came on last season and in the AA playoffs played up to his ears. He comes from the same school Dustin Pedroia was from and has some tools, I don’t expect 18 – 20 HR at all, he’s an XBH threat, building himself to a tough strike out, good defense. He’s not going to be a star but he has tools that can help this team. A blue chipper w/ potential.
“Happy Father’s Day to all American dads! We (Austria) “celebrated” last weekend
”
——–
Austria, eh? put anotha shrimp on the bahbie!
(dumb and dumber reference – please take no offense
)
re Alfa Romeo
There is a traffic circle down the road from my house with a Firehall next to it. So every spring after the streets are washed, comes the time of driving the circle, five mph faster each time. At the top end you have to start breaking loose the rear end to do squared circles. This is where the Alfa shines. Beautiful balance. So between the tire squeals, the resonator and the adrenaline rush you gather a crowd and it becomes a production. As in “One more time”. At some point you chicken out, do a victory round, wave to the applause and that’s it till next year. That’s why you suffer with the Webbers and the door handles that come off in your hands.
“I almost lost my dad in a freak work accident late March so I know what you mean. Guys hug your dads today.”
Brandon, I didn’t know that. I hope all is well now. He’s a fanatic Yankee fan like you?
Angel, sorry about your FIL.
Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there! I’ll be watching Yanks/Marlins at my parents house with my pops. Two Puerto Rican’s yelling at Girardi through the big screen plasma. It’s fun for both of us! LOL!
Fran (the original) and OPPC member
June 21st, 2009 at 12:40 pm
I have very mixed emotions today. I lost my dad suddenly 1 1/2 years ago. I miss him so much. But as I watch baseball today I will remember all of the happy times we shared discussing sports, especially baseball and football, and going to games together.
=======
Fran,
My heart goes out to you.
My dad’s crossing anniversary is coming up in August. It’s a “loss” I can never give proper voice to, if had access to the shiniest verbs and the most resounding nouns in the
cosmos, I couldn’t.
But I want to tell you a story.
My mom’s birthday was the family’s first with my dad in the other realm.
We were watching the Yanks downstairs in the room we’ve always watched games in, in the house I grew up in.
When I visit my mom, I haven’t been able to watch down there – my dad’s golf trophies are everywhere and I just hurt too much to be down there. But I made an exception on her birthday, because she seemed to want to be down there.
I went upstairs for a minute, and I heard the TV on up in my parent’s bedroom, & assumed she left it on up there. Went up to turn it off.
As I made my way up the stairs, the voice of Michael Kay suddenly stopped, and I saw the closed captioning flashing across the screen – this happens when you put the mute button on.
My dad could not endure the play-by-play or commentary if the YES guys – or ESPN or any of them – except he’d listen sometimes when Jim Kaat was still around.
He always had the “mute” button on during games.
“Verbal dysentery” he called it.
His way of telling me: “I’m here.”
I hope you know your dad’s with you, ….he would never really “leave” you, and you will see him again
Brandon 5 Cena ZEEEEEEROOOO “Because I’m AWESOME and so is MY DAD today !”
June 21st, 2009 at 1:03 pm
“Then you should have said “a destitute Garret Anderson”.
Curtis is hitting below .270 as a minor leager in 3 and a half years.”
Garret to me was an XBH threat. Solid player defensively in his prime had some power and ran the bases well.
Curtis hit around .270 but came on last season and in the AA playoffs played up to his ears. He comes from the same school Dustin Pedroia was from and has some tools, I don’t expect 18 – 20 HR at all, he’s an XBH threat, building himself to a tough strike out, good defense. He’s not going to be a star but he has tools that can help this team. A blue chipper w/ potential.
————————————————————
As I said, his tools and level may be that of Chad Curtis without the speed and not as much power. He’s a 4th outfield type. He’ll hit some singles and some doubles, steal some bases. Melky Cabrera has a higher upside.
btw, Matsuzaka to the DL could be a pretty big loss for the Sox.
because he was pitching lights out? No.
because it most likely prevents them from dealing Brad Penny (or John Smoltz) for an above average hitter or semi-top prospect.
Daisuke will probably be out until after the trade deadline passes.
Peter Gammons is insane when it comes to valuing Sox players, but there was still a good market for Penny’s services.
I’m coming up with a list of 101 essential baseball experiences for fathers and family… if you guys have any ideas, let me hear em. Counting down from 101, I’m at 61, and I also have 1-5 filled out.
Happy Father’s Day.
off topic,
who is more insane?
Peter Gammons or Drayon McLane ?
This guy should be dealing his veterans and rebuilding. Oswalt only has a few solid years left. Berkman might slow down soon if he hasn’t already.
As far as I know, Houston doesn’t have a great farm system.
So because he has kept all his veterans in an effort to spit out .500 teams that can’t make the playoffs, they are a few years away from being one of the worst teams in the league.
And Gammons… well, he’s become little more than a plate of mashed peas.
*Drayton
bodhisattva,
I got chills reading your story and it made me cry. As you so eloquently put one can never know the pain of loosing your father until you go through it. My heart goes out to you as well.
Thanks Dad….
Austria, eh? put anotha shrimp on the bahbie!
(dumb and dumber reference – please take no offense )
************************************************************
LOL. As an Australian I WILL take offense. But only at the use of shrimp (we call them prawns) and not the fact that its a Dumb and Dumber reference.
There is no doubt, as many have said, that we need to get younger. Our team is actually relatively young right now, considering that Swisher, Melky, Robbie, and Teix are all still pretty young. Nady, too.
If you look at our remaining players, Alex and Damon have a few good years left (though I do not advocate signing Damon). Jeter isn’t quite done for, either.
Our pitching staff is of great age. CC, Joba, Hughes, Wang are all fairly young, with AJ as the one guy who’s starting to get a little older.
The Yankees are in an interesting position. They need to find a way to replace Damon and Matsui next season without spending too much money. They also need to spend a little cash on bullpen arms. One would think that a solid outfielder with a couple years left on his contract could be had for a package including Ian Kennedy and a few other solid AAA prospects.
Cashman has been finding deals when he can – the Swisher deal being the most recent steal of his.
Shin-soo Choo has been mentioned by many people as a great player to obtain. I wouldn’t mind obtaining him, but what would we have to give up? The Indians are likely out of the race and a nice solid package would be needed.
I’m not crazy about signing Bay or Holliday when they become FA this offseason. I’m not crazy about it at all. Bay has had an amazing season thus far and is going to command huge dollars in the FA market, regardless of the economy. Holliday is overrated and made use of the launching pad in Colorado. I don’t care if YS is a launching pad, too, Holliday is not the player some think he is.
There have to be more sensible options out there. We need to work more with getting some solid bullpen guys – even if it means we’re trading some players – like Ian Kennedy, that we know will never make it on the Yankees.
Thanks for the advice on how to have a good relationship with my father pete…
Fran (the original) and OPPC member
June 21st, 2009 at 1:20 pm
bodhisattva,
I got chills reading your story and it made me cry. As you so eloquently put one can never know the pain of loosing your father until you go through it. My heart goes out to you as well.
=====
Thank you, sweetheart.
Thanks Joe I. Somehow reading stories about other people’s dad’s – sad or happy, kinda helps a little. Don’t know why.
Carmen Angelini is learning fast and really developing. In his first game at Staten Island, he participated in a double play, only struck out once and didn’t make an error.
OT – but when I see those “money you could be saving with Geico” commercials, I am so torn on whether to laugh or walk away in annoyance.
“Brandon, I didn’t know that. I hope all is well now. He’s a fanatic Yankee fan like you?”
No, he cheers more for latino ball players but has a little die hard Yankee fan in him too (takes losses worse than I do). All is well now as can be, he did like 6 or 8 weeks of rehab, still doesn’t have 100 % shoulder rotation more like , I told him today I’m happy he’s still w/ us and told him don’t go Pavano on us, he laughed b/c he knew what that meant.
Angel (F) – ‘Cos you know I was OPP(C), hell from the very start
June 21st, 2009 at 1:26 pm
Austria, eh? put anotha shrimp on the bahbie!
(dumb and dumber reference – please take no offense )
************************************************************
LOL. As an Australian I WILL take offense. But only at the use of shrimp (we call them prawns) and not the fact that its a Dumb and Dumber reference.
————————————————————
The term “Shrimp On The Barbie” gained attention in the early ’80s from a movie, ironically called “Shrimp On The Barbie”, with Cheech Marin.
Brandon 5 Cena ZEEEEEEROOOO “Because I’m AWESOME and so is MY DAD today !”
June 21st, 2009 at 1:35 pm
“Brandon, I didn’t know that. I hope all is well now. He’s a fanatic Yankee fan like you?”
No, he cheers more for latino ball players but has a little die hard Yankee fan in him too (takes losses worse than I do). All is well now as can be, he did like 6 or 8 weeks of rehab, still doesn’t have 100 % shoulder rotation more like , I told him today I’m happy he’s still w/ us and told him don’t go Pavano on us, he laughed b/c he knew what that meant.
————————————————————
Good God, Brandon…how bad can your dad get? You’re nearly suicidal after a loss.
j/k, Brandon, hope your dad has of lot of years to appreciate the team. You…I don’t think you’ll survive past midnight if NYY loses today.
LMAO
The term “Shrimp On The Barbie” gained attention in the early ‘80s from a movie, ironically called “Shrimp On The Barbie”, with Cheech Marin.
****************************************************
He must have been smoking some good weed, to substitute shrimp for prawn.
“No, he cheers more for latino ball players but has a little die hard Yankee fan in him too (takes losses worse than I do).”
My pop is the same way. He always loves when the latino ball players do well. Even though, he did have enough of Damaso Marte in April before he got hurt.
Angel (F) – ‘Cos you know I was OPP(C), hell from the very start
June 21st, 2009 at 1:46 pm
The term “Shrimp On The Barbie” gained attention in the early ‘80s from a movie, ironically called “Shrimp On The Barbie”, with Cheech Marin.
****************************************************
He must have been smoking some good weed, to substitute shrimp for prawn.
————————————————————
Actually, he did. I think that it was just stsge grass (like stage money in the movies). Of course, it is Cheech Marin. It was a funny movie and much was filmed around Auckland, NZ. Not exactly Aistralia, but, close enough for the movies. It’s a movie about Australia’s first Mexican restaurant. You know it’s a comedy when Marin’s love interest is Emma Samms.
Actually, he did. I think that it was just ***stage*** grass (like stage money in the movies). Of course, it is Cheech Marin, so it’s hard to say for sure.
My first game came after listening to the Yanks on the car radio – picture pack day was coming up and he said that is when we will go – he died in 1994 and I miss him so much.
Pete,
I, like you, learned baseball from my father…He made sure I knew how to read a box score by age 6. We used to go to the Stadium so early, before BP, I swear to watch the grass grow, from the upper deck! To this day, we have discussions about strategies and celebrate and piss and moan when things don’t go “our” way. My son has followed in my footsteps…So he’ll be able to say one day that my “MOM” is who taught me baseball!
“It’s a better present than almost anything else. ”
fixed