English: Cap logo of the New York Yankees (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
For as long as I can remember I have been a big sports fan. I think I inherited this love of sports from my dad, who took me to games when I was little and seemed really into it. He wasn’t much of an athlete himself (except for golf in latter years, which I think was more of social thing than anything else), but boy was he a big fan. We lived in Rochester, New York, which really didn’t have any major professional sports teams, unless you count pro soccer or lacrosse, so he was an especially big fan of the New York professional sports teams, namely the Yankees, Knicks, Rangers and Giants. Even when I was became an adult and left home and raised a family of my own, I would come home and sit in front of the television and watch games with my father.
When he was in his mid-60s and needed a quadruple bypass operation, and my sister and I both came home to be with him and my mother. I remember sitting in the tv room with him watching some sporting event and trying to engage him in a conversation about the operation and his hopes/fears about it. Instead, we watched the game, and he said that mom knew where all the legal documents were in case anything happened to him during the operation, but we didn’t talk much more about the operation or anything else for that matter, just two guys watching a game together. Ironically, when he died a few years latter of complications from a lung infection, his last night at home was during the 2000 Subway Series, and we had a nice chat about our beloved Yankees over the phone. Little did either of know that it was to be the last time we would talk about our love of sports.
This year doesn’t look to be a good one for New York sports. The Giants faded during the end of the regular season and missed the playoffs and look to rebuild next year. The Yankees, even with a healthy Derek Jeter, seem old and outgunned by the other teams in the AL East. The Knicks, who started strong, are also old and one-dimensional with Carmelo Anthony taking the bulk of the load. The Rangers were hurt by the strike and don’t seem to be jelling very well, especially on the power play.
Nevertheless, even in the bad years for New York sports (and there were lots of them), I still remember watching the games with my dad and enjoying the time together, even as we watched mostly in silence, sharing a silent bond. I miss those days.
A Man in the Middle 