Friday, January 27, 2012

1954 Bowman #95 Robin Roberts

I recently added this wonderful Robin Roberts baseball card to my collection through a recent impulse purchase from Checkoutmycards.com.  The twelve, nine and six-pocket pages within my 1950's Phillies binder are slowly filling up with vintage Bowman cards featuring the Phillies players of my Dad's youth.

Today would have been my Dad's 68th birthday.

The last few months without Dad have not been easy, but our family has managed to rally through the tough times together.  We're going to gather tonight in his honor and I'm sure we'll tell the same old stories and laugh at the same old memories.   

There are dozens of things throughout each day that remind me of my Dad or that make me want to pick up the phone and call him.  One such instance happened recently when my oldest son Doug informed my wife that he was glad we were getting closer to April because "that's when the Phillies start to play again."  He went on to explain to her a promise I had made to him.  I had told him that once he was five, I'd take him to a lot more Phillies games and that we'd get to stay for the whole game.  I had reasoned with him that I was five when my Dad started regularly taking me to Phillies games.  I had said this to Doug in passing, months ago, but my declaration stayed with him and he plans to hold me to it.

That is what it's all about, isn't it?  Fathers and sons and baseball.

"You're a lucky man," my Dad would have told me upon hearing this little story.  I couldn't agree more.

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