A Baseball Present

My son, Dan, shared with me the video clip of the 3-year-old girl who tossed away the baseball her dad caught at a recent Phillies game (hopefully, this link will let you see it as well... http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/blog/big_league_stew/post/ModernTube-Young-Phillies-fan-rejects-dad-s-fou?urn=mlb,189941.

Dan’s approaching his 31st birthday. The first game I took him to he was just under 3. He and his friend Tasha were mesmerized by Yankee Stadium. Courtesy of my employer’s box seats some 12 rows behind the Yankees dugout, their view was among the best in the house. Throughout the game Dan and Tasha sat perched at the edge of their seats, their upper bodies supported by arms stretched out to the railing in front of them where their chins rested. There is nothing better than taking a child to a baseball game, assuming that child is interested in baseball. Fortunately, Dan and Tasha were.

Sitting in those seats for one game a year for the next decade and a half, we never got close to a foul ball. The angle was not right. It didn’t really bother us. The seats were that good, and we greatly appreciated the beneficence of the seats’ owner, Roger Friedman.

Dan’s twenty-first birthday coincided with the date for the seventh game of the world series in 1999. Roger was gracious enough to provide me tickets to the ultimate game as a present to Dan. When he opened the birthday card sent in advance and the tickets dropped out, he was overwhelmed. It was, he told me, the best present anyone could give him. Thank you, again, Roger.

It didn’t really matter that 1999 was the year the Yankees swept the San Diego Padres in four games.