This article touched my heart, and I'd like to share it with you guys; and encourage all of you to add father's day tributes to this thread.


Happy Father's Day Weekend to all the Dads at America's Debate!

Nice article, Perspective, thanks for posting the link to it.

You know, growing up I loved my dad, I really loved him. He did so many things for me from playing catch in the basement during the cold Colorado nights to turning a blind eye when I would hide under the covers late at night with my ear pasted to my transistor radio listening to the Denver Bears baseball games. My favorite memory along those lines though was way back when late one night they announced on the radio that the New York Yankees were coming to Denver for an exhibition game against the Bears. Oh man! The Yankees! And this was in the real glory days - Mantle, Maris, Yogi. WOW! I told my dad about it first thing the next morning and he said he'd see what he could do. Then, I heard they sold out the stadium for the Yankee game in less than an hour. My dad never said anything about it, so I figured we were too late and I'd just have to content myself with listening to it on the radio.

Well, the day came when the Yankees were in town and dad came home from work early. "Get your glove", he said and I'm thinking what in the world? Dad comes home early so we can play catch? That's pretty unusual. So, I get my glove and dad says, "Ok, let's get in the car! We have a game to go see and the traffic is gonna be tough!" WHAT???? Yep, somehow he'd scored some tickets to the ballgame, four of them. So, my mom and sister, dad and me pile in the car and off we go to see the NEW YORK YANKEES! And oh it was a magical night! The stands were packed and rocking, and the Bears were giving the Yankees a real game of it, actually ahead going into the ninth inning. Then up steps The Mick, in those days stars played the entire game, even in exhibitions. Two guys on base and Mantle at the plate, Yankees behind in the ninth inning. How good does that get? The Bears pitcher throws his best fastball and Mickey Mantle absolutely hammers it! I know some here will claim that the Soviets put the first man-made object into orbit, but that's not really true. Mickey Mantle put that baseball into orbit! I know, I saw it! Well, the Yankees ended up winning and nobody really cared. We'd come to the ballpark to see Mickey Mantle tag one and he didn't disappoint.

So, we're getting ready to go home, I know dad likes to leave the stadium quickly to avoid the traffic, but he says, "Why don't we go down to the Yankee dugout and see if you can get an autograph or two?" Whoa! Ok, so we go down there and I do something really stupid. I throw my brand new baseball glove over the fence into the Yankee dugout. Couldn't help myself. Oh man, dad just bought me that glove, I think I'm in real trouble here..... Guess not, he doesn't seem angry at all, so we wait. Maybe 15-20 minutes later, my glove comes flying out of that dugout. One autograph.....

"To my friend, Gary
Best wishes,

Mickey Mantle"

He had read my name that I'd written on my baseball glove. My dad takes one look at that glove and says, "Looks like we're going to have to buy a new glove for you because you sure aren't using this one!" He was smiling, actually, he was beaming. I now understand why because I'm a dad myself.

Being a dad means you find yourself loving someone else more than you love yourself. And sometimes that is a painful thing with children when you wish you could take away their problems and heartaches and you know you really can't. That's the hard part, but there's a good part as well, a really good part. Being a dad also means you never have to really grow up. I'm 52 and I have a 19 year old son and a 12 year old daughter. Just last night I took my daughter with me to go pick up my son at Universal Studios. I took her so I could drive in the carpool lane on the 134 freeway. So, we pick up my son and jump on the freeway and turn on the LA oldies station K-Earth 101. They're playing "California Girls" by the Beachboys and my daughter looks at me and says, 'This is my song!" Yep, it is, so we ramp up the volume, roll down the windows and I step on the gas. We go screaming down the freeway with my daughter's blonde hair streaming in the wind and singing at the top of our voices, "I wish they all could be California Girls..."

So, we get home and naturally the kids tell their step-mom on me and she looks at me and shakes her head in utter dismay. My son says, 'You know dad, sometimes I wonder just which of us is the most grown-up". That's easy, he is. He's not a dad yet.