12/03/24
April 05, 2010
Daughter Catches Dad's Love of Baseball: Sportscaster and lifelong White Sox fan Dave Revsine has a rabid baseball fan in his house -- his eight-year-old daughter Meredith. "A part of me always envisioned sharing that wisdom with my son, but the X and Y chromosomes had other ideas," he writes. "Our Sox viewing has gone beyond the TV. She has accompanied me to several games with her pride and joy, hand-printed signs with slogans like 'Hit It High, Jermaine Dye,' 'Hit a Homey, Jim Thome' and 'This Girlie Loves Buehrle.'"
Are you *trying* to get me all misty eyed or something? 'Cause I'm looking at my brand new daughter and wishing that we could go to Hurricanes games and Bulls games right now.
posted by NoMich at 04:46 PM on April 05, 2010
I was a lot like this kid at her age. I listened to every single Texas Rangers game on the radio, even after bedtime. I loved the late Rangers announcer Dick Risenhoover's home run call -- "Goodbye, baseball!" Though back then, there were more "Goodbye, victory!" moments for the team.
posted by rcade at 10:02 AM on April 06, 2010
"Slow news day at the NY Times obviously. "
Yeah, although to be fair, it was a lot less "omg look a small human being with two X chromosomes is really into baseball" than I thought.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 12:05 PM on April 06, 2010
I had my first child (a son) back in August and one of the things I am most looking forward to is the point when he reaches an age that he understands the sports that I am so into. My fear is that he will not have the same interests that I do and that it will prevent me from being able to interact with him the way I hope to. My father is not a big sports fan so that has made it difficult for me to find things to relate to him with. His thing is cars, always has been since he was a child. I have attempted to get as into the car things as he is, but I can not get as into as I am into sports. I know that I love the look of 69 Camaro, but when my dad starts talking about the rear gear ratio of on a 1970 Cutlass 442, my eyes start to glaze over and my head starts to spin.
In an effort to make it easier for my son (named Camden for Camden Yards) to get into sports, my wife and I have made it a priority to expose him to the crowds and activities of sporting events already. He attended his first sporting event at 10 weeks of age when we brought him to a UMass women's basketball game. While I worked the game, my wife sat with him just behind press row and I am told he slept through most of the game, only stirring when a player fouled out towards the end. We also brought him to the UMass-Memphis game at the TD Garden in Boston. While UMass didn't pack the house the same way the Celtics do on a nightly basis, the crowd still got very loud and Camden seemed to enjoy himself based on the smile he had when I saw him. I hope he will one day understand what the photo of the two of us on the parquet floor means.
The only sporting event we have found to be too much for him was an NHL hockey game. We brought him to a Carolina Hurricanes game against the Atlanta Thrashers in Raleigh while visiting friends. Eventually as the Canes made a comeback from 3 goals down, the crowd noise became too much for him and my wife and a friend watched the remainder of the game from the concourse with a sleeping Camden on he shoulder while I and another friend cheered from our lower bowl seats.
I know the significance of this story was the fact that it was his daughter that became a fan, but I sure hope that I can someday have a son who wants to carry a sign to the park, even if it does say something like Wilbur Wood is good.
posted by Demophon at 12:53 PM on April 07, 2010
I wrote a bit in the "Monday Huddle" of what sports has meant to me, and particularly referred to what it has meant to the relationship between my son and me. My eldest sister got the bug from our dad early on. When our mom was recovering from surgery one summer, eldest sister would babysit me by taking me to afternoon games at Braves Field in Boston. Son or daughter, your love of the games will be passed on, and it will give you the common ground on which to talk of the rest of life. So keep it up, you SpoFites with kids, it's what keeps us going.
posted by Howard_T at 03:43 PM on April 07, 2010
Slow news day at the NY Times obviously.
For the first time ever my kids showed a bit of interest in baseball last night. I could have cried I was so happy! They don't care for my interest in MMA (barring Brock Lesnar), pro wrestling, soccer, racing etc...
Dammit, I will make them like some sport I like! (Knowing my luck they'll wind up loving my most hated sport. Basketball.)