When I was a child, I didn’t get to spend a lot of time with my father. He worked away from home, and it was normal for him to be gone for weeks. Even though my mother provided us with just about everything that we needed, we still waited anxiously for him to come home and spend time with us.

Since our time with our father was rare, he made sure to make it extra special for us. Usually we would put on our MLB jerseys and go out to a real ball game. He always told us that if you were going to be a real baseball fan, then you needed to be there in the stadium watching the game, not sitting at home on the couch in front of the television. It wasn’t until I was an adult that I really understood what he meant.

Looking back at those baseball games that we went to, I realized that my father made a point of spending as much time as he could with us. I never thought about it until I had my own children, but it must have been very hard for him to work so much and not see us. But I am impressed with what he did with us when he did have time off work.

So, now with my own children, I have tried to keep the tradition alive and I take my kids to baseball games whenever I can. Even though I do get to spend more time with them than my father did, going to the games is a great way to build memories. They seem to love it just as much as I did when I was little, and I know now that the real joy of the ball game is watching their reactions as some of them are certainly priceless.