Is Dad a “Good Sport?”

Jun 182010
 

Try as I might, I can’t seem to get off of this baseball theme.  Maybe it’s because my Dad’s birthday and Fathers’ Day are quite close together and, like so many people, I have lots of ‘sports with Dad’ memories.  Like so many parents, he was a Little League volunteer and coach — something I got to see my adult son do a couple of weeks ago.  Maybe it’s in our DNA.

So I was happy to find  this article — Lisa Guerrero’s tribute to her Dad and so many of the their connections and conversations around sports.  I particularly like the notion that, if she wanted something she’d “better get practicing.”

Have you ever wondered about the intensity and competition in a household headed by a professional athlete?  I guess it’s like any other family business — there are parts of it that are attractive and parts that children hope not to repeat once they reach their grown-up years.  If you’ve also wondered then you might want to read about athletes following in their father’s footsteps.

Probably no discussion about kids and parents and sports would be complete without addressing the concept of the ‘out-of-control sports parent.’  It’s amazing how easily we can sometimes let our needs overshadow those of our kids.  An oldie but a goodie, I’ve read this article by Ed Graney before but it’s a wonderful reminder called:  Memo to Sports Dads: Let Your Kids be Kids.

Four for Fathers

Jun 172010
 

I have a lot of fun with holiday-related blog posts.  It’s a great excuse to cruise around the web, reading up on history, customs and other’s traditions.

As for history, I was surprised to find that Father’s Day did not become an official holiday until it was permanently established by President Richard Nixon 1972.  That’s right — it’s only 38 years old.

The first observance took place in Spokane in 1910 — two years after the first Mother’s Day observance.  It seems that Sonora Smart Dodd was listening to a Mother’s Day sermon that brought to mind the sacrifices, love and care that she and her five brothers received from their father after the loss of their mother.

It’s hard to imaging the the idea of honoring both parents was controversial but the idea initially met with mixed reviews.  Some saw it as an opportunity to remind fathers of the importance of caring for their children, to improve connections and to help fathers to embrace the full measure of their responsibility. Senator Margaret Chase Smith advocated for adoption of the holiday writing “Either we honor both our parents, mother and father, or let us desist from honoring either one. But to single out just one of our two parents and omit the other is the most grievous insult imaginable.”

So, in honor of Dads everywhere here are four of my favorite quotes about fathers.

*My father used to play with my brother and me in the yard.  Mother would come out and say, “You’re tearing up the grass.”  “We’re not raising grass,” Dad would reply.  “We’re raising boys.”  ~Harmon Killebrew MLB All-Star and founder of the Harmon Killebrew Foundation

*He didn’t tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it.  ~Clarence Budington Kelland, author

*Spread the diaper in the position of the diamond with you at bat.  Then fold second base down to home and set the baby on the pitcher’s mound.  Put first base and third together, bring up home plate and pin the three together.  Of course, in case of rain, you gotta call the game and start all over again.  ~Jimmy Piersal, on how to diaper a baby, 1968

*When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around.  But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years.  ~Mark Twain, “Old Times on the Mississippi” Atlantic Monthly, 1874