FanPost Friday: Dads and baseball

Welcome back to FanPost Friday! We took last week off and from here on out FPF won’t be an every week occurrence. I’d love if it was, but the reality of coming up with a prompt that a lot of people would be interested in writing about every single week has hit me.

But this weekend is Father’s Day, and I know that a number of you have baseball stories about your dads and that’s what I want to hear about today. Just a baseball story that involves you and your dad.

It’s been a few weeks, but you know the drill. Head to the FanPosts section, click the New FanPost button, and tell me a story!

I’ll get the ball rolling.

My dad has always been an Orioles fan, at least as far as I know. Even through all of the bad years he was watching (and complaining). Unlike me, he had those memories of the good Orioles teams to fall back on, and he used to get really cranky about the losing Orioles. I mean, we all did.

By the time the Orioles finally had a winning season in 2012, I had no recollection of my dad being a happy Orioles fan. I’m sure he was in the 90s and in years earlier, but when you can barely remember the Orioles being good it’s even harder to recall people’s attitudes about them.

My dad’s birthday is October 4th, so in 2014 I knew just what to get him. Once it was certain that the Orioles would start the division series at home against the Tigers, I called him up and invited him to attend game one with me. I don’t know that I’ve ever heard him so giddy.

On Thursday, October 2nd I met my dad in Baltimore for our first ever playoff game together. He works walking distance from the park and by the time I found him he had been soaking up the postseason atmosphere for some time.

Many of you were at that game, probably all you watched it. By the time the Orioles scored eight runs in the eighth inning my dad and I were laughing at how amazingly fun the experience was. It was a side of my dad I had never really seen. He’s not the most demonstrative person in the world, but you wouldn’t have known it that day.

That game was so great we went back to game one of the ALCS against the Royals. That one, of course, didn’t go so well. But it was a great game right up until the end.

As we parted ways that night, sad at the loss but certain our Orioles could come back (sniff), my dad said to me, “So I’ll see you at game one of the World Series?”

Maybe this year.