Happy Fathers Day

     A few days ago, Sunny Cadwallader, who works at SportsManias and is a trend setter when it comes to sports and social media, asked me to tell her one thing that I wanted her to know about me. What I chose to tell her was that I once stood in the batters box at Parker Field in Yakima, Washington against Randy Johnson. Thirty three years ago I was looking at that face behind the glove, dug into the batters box, prepared to swing at the first good pitch I saw from the tallest, most intimidating pitcher I had ever faced. We were both kids, just a mere 17 years old.




     I think one of the scouts who was at the game had him clocked at 95 mph but.....
it seemed like the speed of light to me and my teammates. In my first at bat, and for the first time in my life, I couldn't see the ball. It was just a streak of white in the night sky. In fact, I struck out the first 2 times I faced him. Because I couldn't "see" it.

     In my final at bat, my coach had recommended placing my hands directly in front of me to shorten my swing in what is called a slap bunt, and it worked. Randy finally hit my bat. The right fielder caught it in front of the warning track about 350 feet away. A bunt swing proved that the harder the pitch is coming, the further it will go if you make contact.

     I wanted to say thank you to my dad, on Father's Day for giving me every opportunity to have those 3 at bats against the future Major League Baseball Hall of Famer. It taught me that anything is possible in life no matter how big the challenge. You see, two days prior to those 3 at bats, I had carried my dying father out of his hospital room so he could peacefully pass away at home. He had fought a hard battle against cancer for 10 months to see me play, after the doctors had given him 6 months to live. Now that's courage. Going 0-3 against Randy with 2 strikeouts... That's easy. Ask anyone who faced him.

     Sorry that you didn't get to see him pitch dad. He was amazing, but so were you. Happy Father's Day!