The Gazette-Enterprise

Father’s Day is a special day in the world of sport. It’s not particularly hard to understand why. Sports often brings together fathers and sons (as well as fathers and daughters) and have done so for more than a century.

That’s one of the things I have enjoyed about the expanded coverage of Little League baseball and softball. Seeing fathers pass on the games they love to their sons and sharing the moments.

While I have been covering numerous games at the Seguin Little League complex (and scores of games at the county’s high schools), I don’t notice many men that remind me of my father.

Maybe that’s why my athletic background has few highlights on a grand stage and my interest in sports far outweighs my ability to play them at a high level.

Or as Barrett, my roommate last year at Texas State observed, “The son of a math professor, (and two church musicians) isn’t supposed to be the athletic hero.”

When I was first entering high school years ago, I rued that I wasn’t pushed further in sports. And while I still wish I had pushed myself more, I wouldn’t trade my childhood with my family for anything else in this world.

And as we celebrate our fathers today, and show our thanks with a nice tie, let us remember just what it means to be a dad, and thank our fathers for the gifts they have given.

So thank you, Dad, for sharing your love of music, particularly classical and church music. I cherish my ability to read music and play the guitar.

And I don’t know any other sports editors who have studied piano and pipe organ, or whose list of favorite musicians include Beethoven, Benny Goodman, the Beatles and Robert Earl Keen.

Thank you, Dad, for you and Mom pushing me to excel in the more important things in life. I won’t get to play pickup sports for the rest of my life, but my interest in reading will last me a lifetime.

And while my Dad isn’t a huge sports fan, I was fortunate that he shared my love of sports, (he was even at the infamous Marion-Wharton girls’ basketball playoff game in Schulenburg in February) and he told me some of the most important things I’ve needed to know as a fan and a person.

Thank you, Dad for being the first person to tell me about the bigger-than-life legends of sport — Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Ernie Banks and those great Celtics basketball teams of the 1980s.

Thank you, Dad, for being the first person to tell me about Jim Kelly and the Houston Gamblers of the United States Football League, and Gordie Howe and the Houston Aeros of the World Hockey Association.

Thank you, Dad, for being a gentleman and instructing me not to cheer hockey fights. I have since veered away from that instruction, but it helped me appreciate the game beyond the violence.

Thank you, Dad (and Mom), for never berating officials at any game I played in. I truly can’t thank you enough for passing that civility on to me.

Thank you, Dad and Mom, for coming to all the games I did play with club teams, even into my 20s. I may not have been the best, but you were still out there cheering.

And thank you, Dad, for first saying I played a good game the night I shut out Angleton High School’s varsity team in an indoor soccer game, even though we were both there because I wrecked Mom’s car.

Alan Wiederhold is the sports editor of the Seguin Gazette Enterprise.

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