I have benefitted from being both the son and the father in the century-old baseball glue between fathers and sons. I wish you the best in furthering that for others.

As a Father of two daughters, our family also benefited from, as the Mayor stated, “the century-old baseball glue”. Although both of my daughters have moved out, baseball still holds us a special place in our family.

 My love of baseball was nurtured by the fact that many of the Padres MLB players lived in the small town where I grew up. They participated in local events and charities on a regular basis. As a teenager, I was lucky enough to be able to babysit Aaron and Brett Boone, as Bob Boone lived in the neighborhood.

Baseball has a grace and spirituality that is not present in many sports. The pace of the game, the fascination with historical statistics, and the" family" like organizational structure allows families to participate, especially with well established teams like the Giants. The players, history and stories that exist from each generation allow children, parents and grandparents to connect generation to generation. Jonathan Sanchez’s performance on Friday just adds another link.

Good luck with your project. It is a noble and honorable cause.

Dude… excellent idea. I was walking with my son on my back today to the grocery store. We walked by a park, and there was a father with his son of about 4 years old hitting a bucket of balls in every direction. My boy is only 18 months, but man – I can’t WAIT for the days where we can spend a Sunday morning taking some BP – just me and the little guy.

It’s ironic that I see this today… and I’m in. I don’t know how much help I can be, but communicate with me all you want through Facebook. I think I’m the first person to join your group.

This is a great idea. Im not a father, i’m only 21, but here’s my story, and i’m not trying to be emotional or anything here. But between my dad and i we really don’t have the best relationship or friendship for that matter, he is an alcoholic but throughout my life he was always there helping me with baseball, whether it was coaching me or taking me to giants games back at Candlestick, he’d teach me football, basketball, and everything. But his favorite sport even though he tells me it’s watching the niners, i know for a fact it’s the giants.
Anyway, i had a huge friendship with my mom, and she got cancer 5 years ago, and just last year passed away, and losing a huge friend like that was tough, and really it made me realize that even though i didn’t appreciate what my dad did with the drinking, he was always there for me and was a good friend. And one thing we do get along with is watching the giants play every night. It’s special, and for that 2 and half hours of baseball, we don’t have to think about mom and what happened, we can just talk baseball and just listening to him telling stories and what he remembered when he was growing up, when he snuck in to see Mays’ 600th home run.

When i would have nothing to do, and just be lazy, he’d yell at me to get up and grab my glove, so we’d head out to the street and just play catch, and he’d help me out with just pitching and hitting, and he was my inspiration for playing sports and being a gentleman while my mom was just a huge inspiration in being everything i can be, having that drive to accomplish something. Baseball was oddly enough something that brought me and my dad together, and i totally think this is a great idea

Thanks for the rec’s and the feedback everyone. When I first posted this I wasn’t sure how well it was going to be received. We’re a long way away from where I want to be, but it is certainly encouraging to see the positive feedback and hear everyone’s story.

My dad (who actually doesn’t know about this project yet) and I thank you.

Photo from September 25, 2004… 8 innings before Pedro Feliz happened to Yhency Brazoban. Also of note: the Noah Lowry signature on dad’s BEAT LA sign :(