The rest of the story (MD series)

Jun 17, 2010, 9:03 AM

Several weeks ago I posted that I'd taken my son to the Tigers-Terps Friday game in College Park. What I failed to mention later was that we returned on Sunday (Saturday was out since he had his own little league game that day). As Tigers everywhere are getting set for this weekend--and hopefully the next--I wanted to finish off this tale. Hopefully there are a few dads out there who'll find something worthwhile here.

When we showed up on Sunday (with Maryland mom along, since it was Mother's Day and, bless her, she's a wonderful sport about all things Clemson), we sat back down by the Clemson dugout. First thing, one of the players walked up and asked Caleb (my son) how his game went the day before. I couldn't believe it, and the grin on Caleb's face was indescribable. Coach Leggett was sitting on a bucket of baseballs, writing something (I figured the lineup card or whatever), and then turned around and called Caleb's name. He tossed him the baseball he'd been signing. It was personalized and filled up with purple Sharpie. Mind you, Caleb had not approached anyone; these guys simply stepped up and did these things.

The crowning touch was when Mike Freeman's dad gave Caleb a batting practice ball he'd found and we had the players sign it at the bus after the game. The players remembered the kid and several of them took the extra time to chat with us even though I'm sure they were ready to shower up and get started on that long bus trip back to Tigertown. We told them we'd see them in Omaha and a couple of players grinned and said, "Hope so." Of course, at the time, Omaha looked like anything but a lock.

Anyway, like Tiger fans everywhere, I'm proud of what our baseball team put together, especially late in the season. I'm even prouder to have this caliber of young men and coaches representing our alma mater. There was a whole lot of generosity that weekend--well above and beyond anything folks needed to do just to represent themselves well. It reminded me again how proud I am to fly the Paw in front of my house and have it on my car plates. More importantly, it made a nine-year-old a Tiger fan for life and gave him a wonderful lesson on what it means to conduct oneself the right way in that kind of setting.

Happy (early)Father's Day to Tiger dads--and all dads--everywhere. And, yeah, we'll be sitting in section P of Rosenblatt on Sunday evening, pulling for these guys every pitch. As so many have said on here over the years. . .It really is great to be a Tiger.

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The rest of the story (MD series)

Awesome. Thanks for sharing! +1***

Didn't catch the first part but "the rest of the story" was

Re: The rest of the story (MD series)

Re: The rest of the story (MD series)

There is a very similar story in the HOF board from early

Re: The rest of the story (MD series)

TigerBoard POTD