There are moments as a parent when you realize you’re not just raising your child—you are quietly trying to heal the child you once were.
I loved baseball from the time I was seven years old. My father didn’t. In my entire childhood, he took me to one major league game, and that only happened because his business partner handed him four complimentary tickets. If I wanted baseball, I was mostly on my own.
When I was 14, my birthday fell on the same weekend as a baseball card show in Queens. Warren Spahn was going to be there, along with other Hall of Famers signing autographs. To a kid obsessed with baseball cards, it was the greatest birthday gift I could imagine. I asked if we could go. The answer was no.
That day taught me something I wish I had never learned: stop asking. It’s easier not to hope than to be disappointed. After that, I rarely asked to go anywhere baseball-related. If baseball tickets ever came into the house, they were complimentary, and I was almost never the one who got to use them.
Maybe that’s why I’ve become the father I am today.
For years, Jason kept asking if he could meet Johnny Bench. I honestly don’t know why Bench became his favorite, but it never changed. Johnny doesn’t do many autograph appearances, and one of the few was at the National Sports Collectors Convention in Chicago. It would have been easy to say no. It was expensive, inconvenient, and required cashing in Delta SkyMiles and Marriott Bonvoy points.
Instead, crazy dad booked the trip.
Jason met Johnny Bench, along with 21 other sports legends and even Ralph Macchio from The Karate Kid. The smile on his face made every mile, every point, and every dollar worthwhile.
Maybe I have a hard time saying no. But it’s not because I can’t. It’s because I remember what it felt like to hear “no” when all I wanted was to spend a day sharing something I loved with my father.
Every time I get to give Jason an experience I never had, I feel like I’m fixing a small piece of what was missing from my own childhood.
If that makes me a crazy dad, I’m perfectly happy wearing the title.
