Fathers Day - Baseball Memories with Your Dad

[Spirit]

Share some of your favorite baseball memories, stories and/or photos of you and your dad, and/or you and your kids. 

Go!!!

 

[fan_since79]

Listening on the radio to Jim Bunning's perfect game on Father's Day 1964.

...and reminiscing about it through the years. Dad passed away in 2013.

 

 

[Troll Daddy]

 

[Spirit]

So many amazing memories with my dad and I at the Big A.  He had season tickets from like 1981 to 2000, so we some real historic Angels games.

Some of my favorite Angels baseball memories with him are playing in Jim Abbott's "Amigos De Los Niños" golf tournaments.  My dad was on the board for a couple of years.  Got to play with several Angels and Ducks players.  It was cool.  Time on the golf course with my dad has always been special, but when you combine it with Angels baseball it's even better.

 

 

[eligrba]

One of my favorite stories about the hall of fame:

Hall of Fame Dad: A hidden tribute

Hall of Fame Dad: A hidden tribute

http://m.mlb.com/news/article/2025723//

[Troll Daddy]

My memories of dad and baseball 

 

[Troll Daddy]

[greginpsca]

First game my dad took me to was at the Coliseum, Dogs vs Pirates. Rooted for the Pirates. Pirates won 4-2. Wally Moon hit a 2 run moonshot over the screen in lf.  Mazeroski and Bob Skinner each hit 2 run homers for the Pirates.  The next game was at Wrigley Field. Halo's vs Tigers. Angels got beat handily as Kaline, Colavito, and Cash all homered for Detroit. After that, went to games at the Latrine quite often, before the move to OC.  Dad didn't live long enough to see the Angels win the World Series, but when they did, he was the one i thought about. 

[ettin]

Almost 24 years since he passed. He ingrained the love of baseball into me. Love you dad, I miss you.

Attachments_2016624.zip

[fan_since79]

First game I attended with my Dad was around 1962. Phillies at Connie Mack Stadium. Don't remember who they were playing, but I do recall jumping up and down and yelling because I thought my hero Johnny Callison had hit a home run, when in fact it turned out to be a fly ball to medium right field. Knowing my Dad, he probably told me to sit down and shut up. LOL. But he probably said it with a smile.

I went to several games with my Dad over the next few years in Philadelphia. The 1964 collapse was harder on him than on me, as he had endured his 1950 Phillies getting swept by the Yankees in the Series. That was the only time either of his hometown teams won a pennant. The A's were mostly horrible during those years in the 1930's and 40's, as were the Phils. 

[Tank]

i only remember going to one baseball game with my dad, and that was a dodgers vs. the expansion expos at the latrine. he says we also went to sandy koufax's perfect game, though i have no memory of it, plus a reds-dodgers game at crosley field when we lived in ohio. he taught me to throw and catch a baseball, and that's really about it. he liked sports, but he wasn't very hands on.

[Taylor]

I went to my first Angel game with my dad when I was in third grade, and we sat in the front row in the RF terrace, right at the edge where it ends toward CF. I remember shouting something to Jim Edmonds, and I swear he gave me a wave of acknowledgement. Since then, I've been to likely hundreds of games with my dad, and yesterday my brothers and me celebrated Father's Day with him at Coors Field. I look forward to the day when I can raise up my future sons to love baseball.

[Inside Pitch]

Pretty much every memorable baseball memory I have included my Dad.  

The one thing I'll always treasure..  My Dad worked long long days..  oftentimes not getting home until well after it got dark, but he would always go up to my room and ask if I wanted him to pitch to me, this despite his having built a batting cage for us.   He'd throw right handed until he tired, then he'd switch lefty.   Even then, as a self absorbed teen I knew that was awesome, and that I was very lucky.

I wish he would have been able to see Mike Trout play.

 

[Stradling]

This is a super tough thread to write in.  My dad introduced my brothers and I to baseball.  He would talk about taking me to my first game when I was about 18 months old, I have no memory of that obviously.  

We would go to games on "Family Night" because the entire top section would be general admission and cost a buck or two.  He would send my brothers and me to run up the ramps to get the best seats we could get right when the gates opened. Money was always very tight, so the other games he would get tickets for were double headers.  I even remember going to a game that was rained out in the middle of the game and we were given rain checks, and we used those to go to a scheduled double header or to the make up game for that game, which obviously would be a twin bill.  

My dad drove cab in Anaheim, so occasionally he would pick up a player from the park and they would give him tickets.  He would also drop us off at the game and then head to work.  This was before cell phones, so we would have to call the cab company and the dispatch would get ahold of my dad to tell us to take us home.  

My dad wasn't a ball player, but loved the game.  He was funny to watch a game with especially later in his life.  He hated instant replays, not the ability to overturn a call, but the amount of times they would show a replay of a play, because he wasn't always sure if it was a reply or just another play in the game, which I would assume is just part of getting older.  He would complain about the amount of attention how hard a pitcher would throw.  He said that it didn't matter how hard they threw as long as they had control.  

He loved the Angels but when he couldn't watch them often when he moved to North Dakota, he ended up becoming a Twins fan as well.  When he moved back out here for the last year of his life we got him the MLB package that my brother would help him set up on Apple TV so he could watch his Twins and Angels at the same time on TVs side by side in my brother's bar at his house.

He would talk about the first game he ever went to, where he and some friends drove from Iowa (where my dad grew up) to St Louis.  He got to see Bob Feller pitch.  I think I looked it up one time and it would have been Labor Day or Memorial Day weekend but I don't recall the year, I would assume 50-53, some time in there.  

He was a great man, and I miss him daily.  I remember sharing this when it happened 23 months ago, that I had bought tickets for my brother, my dad and myself to go see the Angels vs the Twins together.  Sadly he didn't make it to that day, and my brother and I went, and enjoyed the game, which ended up being just a couple of days after his passing.  

As far as me and my boys and baseball.  My boys are 23 and 18, and neither have missed an opening day.  One of my boys was born on March 29th, and he went to opening day 6 or 7 days later.  They don't love the game, which saddens me.  They understand it and can sit and watch a few innings with me.  As I write this, I am in NY, where my wife, son and I are going to go see the Angel/Yankee game in a couple days.  

Sorry for the long post, it is just a topic that allows me to share two of my greatest passions, baseball and family.  

[fan_since79]

My Dad also got to see Bob Feller pitch, against his Philadelphia A's, and he still talked about it 50 years later.

Dad remained an A's fan until the end of his life, even though they moved out of Philadelphia, and he followed the team after he and my Mom moved to northern California. One of his biggest thrills later on was in 2008, when my brother took him to the game at the Coliseum where Brad Ziegler set his all-time record of 25 consecutive scoreless innings to start a career. They stopped the game for a few seconds, and according to my brother, Dad was thrilled to be there for that moment.

Edited June 19, 2017 by fan_since79

[Angel Dog and Beer]

After my parents split, it was my Grandpa who was the one to take me to Angels games all the time when I was a kid. I'll never forget the first time I walked through the gates and saw the field in all its glory, what a sight. He passed a couple years ago and I remember those games with him fondly. 

Now, I'm stoked to take my kids there, like we did this past weekend. They were pumped to wear their Angels gear, and we all had an amazing time.  Karl Strauss before the game was epic, but maybe because it was 125 in the sun and their beer was really good. 

[Spirit]

The only thing better than going to a baseball game with you dad is going to a baseball game with your dad and your kids.  This was 5 years ago when the Angels were at Coors Field to play the Rocks.  Angels won.

(and yes ... the 3rd kid is Photoshopped in, because he was like 3 and being a complete douche when we were trying to take the picture)

 

 

[Angel Dog and Beer]

Photoshopping your kids into a family picture. That is awesome!

[IEAngelsfan]

8 minutes ago, Geoff said:

The only thing better than going to a baseball game with you dad is going to a baseball game with your dad and your kids.  This was 5 years ago when the Angels were at Coors Field to play the Rocks.  Angels won.

(and yes ... the 3rd kid is Photoshopped in, because he was like 3 and being a complete douche when we were trying to take the picture)

 

 

Your photoshopped kid looks like Macaulay Culkin.

[Inside Pitch]

1 hour ago, Geoff said:

The only thing better than going to a baseball game with you dad is going to a baseball game with your dad and your kids.  This was 5 years ago when the Angels were at Coors Field to play the Rocks.  Angels won.

(and yes ... the 3rd kid is Photoshopped in, because he was like 3 and being a complete douche when we were trying to take the picture)

 

 

The photoshop part of this takes this pick from a 10/10 to Infinity/10