Spring Training Memories

With the recent A’s victory over The San Francisco Giants in Cactus League play down in Mesa, Arizona, I briefly flashed back to an amazing trip I took with my son Jake 11 years ago.  Before Jake became a professional actor, he was a serious baseball devotee and All-Star Little League Catcher in our hometown of Roseville. It was February of 2009, and Jake asked me if we could go to Arizona when Spring Training began and watch the games, get player autographs and hang out…I’d never been to Spring Training, thanks in part to my own Dad’s disinterest, so I decided to book Jake and I a flight to Phoenix and give him the kind of Father-Son Baseball Weekend I’d never had with my own Father. Why we only went once I’ll never know, because it was a genuine blast: highlights included catching multiple foul balls, having them signed by star players (including an aged but affable Jason Giambi), buying ridiculous merchandise (giant bright-yellow styrofoam A’s cowboy hat, anyone?) and seeing the legendary Ricky Henderson throw out the first pitch in a game where The A’s slaughtered The Giants (I forget the actual score but I DO remember Jake and I wearing our A’s gear, and we were gloating). Who’s that chunky long-haired 44 year old in the Oakland A’s T-Shirt hugging his 11 year old baseball-loving son? That’s me 🙂

John Young