A Moment in the Sun

Today is my son Rob's birthday.  I smile at the realization that today is also Opening Day for the 2021 Major League Baseball season.   The Yankees open at home against the Blue Jays.  Baseball is one of the joys that Rob and I have shared since he was a little boy.  His first game was Fan Appreciation Day in September 1996 when then-rookie Derek Jeter singled in the winning run against the Red Sox in the 12th inning.  We were in the Stadium on April 22, 2001 when Paul O'Neill and Dave Justice hit home runs in the 10th inning to beat the Red Sox.  We watched Joe Girardi and Tino Martinez return to the Bronx in June, 2003 (on Mom's birthday!) when Roger Clemens notched his 4,000th strikeout en route to earning his 300th win.  We have seen games together at the "old" Yankee Stadium and its newest iteration, where the Bombers have played since Opening Day 2009.  

Prior to his great migration west in the fall of 2008, we had watched and listened to too many games together to count.  In the late nineties, when the Yankees made deep runs in the post-season on an annual basis, we would watch the game on TV with the sound off so we could listen to John Sterling and Michael Kay call the game on WABC 77.  In 2000, when the Yankees and Mets played in the only Subway Series of my lifetime, I recorded every game on our VCR (those of you under a certain age ask Siri or Alexa what is the word behind that acronym).  A couple of years later, Rob popped in the tape of Game Five and as we sat watching it, we realized we were listening to the TV call of the game for the first time.  

I have had the great good fortune of having been present for the raising of two extraordinary children, Suzanne and Rob, to adulthood.  Each of them had the great good fortune of being raised in an environment where I could share my knowledge of certain things with them while not being weighed down by my DNA.  It shall be no loss to humanity for my genetic material to become extinct whenever it is I trip the mortal coil, I assure you.  

It is one of the great privileges of my life to have Rob as my son.  He is a far better man at his still young age than I shall likely ever be if I live to be twice as old as I presently am.  I smile just thinking about the life he has worked to make for himself with his bride, Jess, and their two beautiful little girls, Abigail and Shea.  

My wish for him today is that he has the birthday he deserves...

...and that the Yankees do their part by getting a win on Opening Day.  

Happy Birthday Rob.  Much love always. 

-AK