When you’re eight years old and the team you’ve watched every regular season game for makes the playoffs for the first time since 2016 and your dad splurges for tickets and you think it’s all for you but really it’s a lot for him because this is something he would have done with his own dad.

Growing up in Chambersburg, the closest Major League baseball team was the Baltimore Orioles. Nate grew up watching them with his dad, and later in life they would debrief after every game. The phrase “good pitching, timely hitting…Orioles baseball” and “the O’s…they always break your heart.” are sayings I heard over 100 times in those early years of marriage. After Nate’s dad passed suddenly in 2020, I think baseball was one of the things that made him miss his dad the most. There was a void there after the games…a phone call he couldn’t make.

Then God, in His kindness, gave Nate a son who is deeply invested in every single aspect of the game. To a borderline obsession. They talk strategy and steals and strikeouts. Screen time rules go out the window when the O’s are playing.

This weekend felt like a bittersweet full circle moment. A son, who misses his dad, taking his own son to see the thing they all love ⚾️

(Shared with Nate’s permission ❤️)