Bill’s Khakis, which I love, is having a Father/Son Baseball Memories Contest. 

Here is my entry:

My dad was a huge baseball fan.  He pitched for the University of Louisville and one of his biggest claims to fame was beating Sandy Koufax (true or not I do not know) when he was at the University of Cincinnati.

My first memory of baseball is my dad taking me to Crosley Field to see the Reds play.  We went to many games after that, some of them quite big.  The Reds vs. the Pirates when Doc Ellis threw a wild pitch with a man on third, Cincy winning the pennant, and me nearly falling off the upper deck (Clemente’s last MLB game).  Tony Perez hitting a few homers against the Sox in 75.  Somehow he always got tickets.

The biggest and most important memory however, was the last.  Several years ago my father discovered he had cancer.  He fought it well and it went away.  Then it came back.

He was dying and there was nothing that could be done about it.

I live in Atlanta.  My father was in Louisville.  In the Spring I promised him that I would come up and take him to a Reds game.

Got a plane ticket, got a hold of my grad school roommate who lives in Cincy to get us some prime seats behind the plate.

When I got to Louisville, Dad was very, very sick.  I did not think we should go but he insisted. 

We got to the game early and watched the teams warm up like he loved to do.  I don’t remember who the Reds were playing.  It did not matter.  We made it to the 7th inning stretch and then Dad told me he needed to go.

We drove back to Louisville talking about all the fun we had going to games.

He died the following week.  Thinking of going to one last baseball game had kept him alive over the summer.

Best gift I ever gave anyone.