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finally back from my trip to india and romania. it's nice to be home.
of course what i come back to is dreck. seems like the phils are back to playing the same old brand of heartless ball as ever. will gillick fire manuel? can anyone think of a worse leadoff hitter than jimmy rollins? will someone decide to move abreau to leadoff?
i've been thinking about what to do with my boy. do i turn him into a philadelphia sports fan? is that the right thing to do knowing that he'll be in store for a lifetime of disappointment? should i let him pick his own teams? i probably won't but the thought does cross my mind from time to time.
btw - the kid measured 30" and 23.3 lbs at his 9 month checkup.
of course what i come back to is dreck. seems like the phils are back to playing the same old brand of heartless ball as ever. will gillick fire manuel? can anyone think of a worse leadoff hitter than jimmy rollins? will someone decide to move abreau to leadoff?
i've been thinking about what to do with my boy. do i turn him into a philadelphia sports fan? is that the right thing to do knowing that he'll be in store for a lifetime of disappointment? should i let him pick his own teams? i probably won't but the thought does cross my mind from time to time.
btw - the kid measured 30" and 23.3 lbs at his 9 month checkup.
Labels: miscellaneous
posted by The Mean Guy at 1:17 PM
11 Comments:
Picking winning teams and routing for them because they happen to be good at the moment is a sign of weak character.
Man up, Pete.
Ben
By the way, welcome back. I've missed you.
Ben
the boy doesn't have to be a frontrunner. he can pick, from a selection of my various "second favorite teams" and have a better chance of rooting for a winner than any of our local teams.
again, not saying that i'm going to do it, but i have thought about letting him root for any of the teams in this list:
- raiders and jets in football
- flames and oilers in hockey
- indians and mariners in baseball
- clippers and rockets in basketball
You're walking a slippery slope. Allowing his arbitrary picks will ultimately lead to front running. In your heart you know this. You'll be opening the door to his rooting for the Cowboys...
Show me someone who didn't grow up in Texas who roots for the Cowboys, and I'll show you a person of flawed character.
you know, i'm not that worried about my kid becoming a cowboys fan, or many kids in this area. there certainly are a fair share of 30-40ish guys running around who are "cowboy fans" but the situation that caused that is not highly likely to occur soon as long as big red is running the birds.
being a local cowboys fan is definitely symptomatic of a character flaw, but those guys wouldn't have turned that direction if the birds had been even a little bit competitive during their formative years. i have to admit that as a kid even i was charmed by the shiny star on their helmets, but fortunately never succumbed.
one of my earliest eagles memories is using my 110 camera to take a picture of the black and white tv set in our living room showing the final score of the eagles beating the cowboys for the first time in forever. (1978 or 79 season i think).
those memories are sweet, and i'd like my boy to have them, but geez if i were just a few years older and had really been aware of the mike mcmormick and ed khayat years... who knows?
you're right though. arbitrary choices are unpredictable and could result in me having to throw the kid out of the house.
Funny, but I hadn't thought of which teams my son will root for yet. Just kinda assumed he'd pick the local ones. Believe it's entirely his choice to pick whichever teams he wants to follow based on whatever criteria ("oooh, I like Cardinals") he deems most relevant to him. That said, he will root for the Eagles or go without a lot of desserts over his life.
Frankly, I think my bigger concern will be to make sure he doesn't pick up baseball or basketball. I'd be torn between wanting to be the involved father and actually having to sit through watching those sports.
I agree with the Cowboys character flaw theory. I can tell you, I did grow up in the Mike McCormick Philadelphia Eagles. I lived through the Mike Boryla years. I was around when Roman Gabriel was the QB, too. Although I was young I distinctly remembered that the Eagles were bad year-in and year-out, but I still rooted for them. I even had a white helmet with green Eagles wing and Green Eagles jersey. I also remember when Dick Vermeil came to town in 1976 and righted the ship....it was very similar to the Reid-era....started off slow with close losses turning into close wins and eventually between 1978-1980 the Eagles were a total force. I was there when the Eagles beat Danny White and Dallas at home the same day the Phillies beat the Royals in KC to go up 3-2 in the 1980 World Series. I was also there when the Eagles beat Dallas to go to the Super Bowl. I was also around when the Flyers were win Stanley Cup(s) and the Sixers were in the same breath as the Lakers and the Celtics.
Bottom Line, if you jump ship in this town you are a loser. Suck it up, endure the pain, drink your beer, and when we do eventually win a championship again it will be that much sweeter.
Phil -
As the father of a 6-year-old boy who loves baseball (more than I do), I can assure you that there are worse things than sparking his interest.
One of my best life memories was taking him to his first Phillies game (at four) and listening to him shout to a KC Royal "Sit down, blue guy" after a called third strike. He was high fiving strangers after Jim Thome blasted a homer (that he was convinced came as a result of his cheering through a popcorn box magaphone).
We see tons of Trenton Thunder games ("We're staying for the whole game, Mommy"). On Sunday, I got to see my son run the bases after the game, and I finally caught a foul ball. Life doesn't get much better.
My wife has reached the point where she understands why it is important for pitchers to hit locations within the strike zone. She can hit the pitch down the middle, but struggles to do much with a low outside corner pitch.
If you ever get "stuck" following baseball with your son, I hope you have even half as much fun as I do. I recommend coaching as he plays. I can't tell you how much fun I have running around with the 6-7 year olds and watching/helping them develop Game.
For the fans of the game out there, I hope you enjoyed watching tonight's gem. Myers is becoming the ace I always thought he'd be. Forget about the meaningless 8th inning home run he gave up and focus on the 3-hitter, the classy 12-6 curve and the mid 90's heater he was still firing at the end.
The mark of a front line pitcher: Make Soriano look like a triple A hitter.
Scouting report on the Mets double A team - a couple of serious prospects, none better than Michelle Abreu (1B). The kid can't miss. Assuming the Mets want to continue to pay Delgato for a few more years, they should be able to deal Abreu for a serious pitcher before too long. I wish I were saying the same thing about our Abreu.
Ben
By the way, anybody else wondering why Aaron Rowand is sporting "landing strip" facial hair? He king of reminds me of a girl I used to date in college...
Ben
Ben, I imagine I'll end up doing all those things if that's what he's into and will enjoy the father/son moments just as much as you obviously have. Baseball's just such a dull sport to watch and the juicing's only made it less savory since I stopped watching/following it (cold turkey) after the strike.
It's hard for me to think of Baseball as "dull," but to each his own Phil...
I also enjoy reading, crossword puzzles and classical music, so maybe I'm the guy who needs to look in the mirror.
Ben
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