The older I get, the more I understand the power of hobbies and personal interests to heal us.

I've been a season-ticket buyer for every season of the Colts' tenure in Indianapolis, and I (being who I am) have finally thought about and realized the importance of it to me. Son #2 has been my sole game-day companion for probably 6 or 7 years now.

It's our thing, and thanks to the Madden PS2 games, he's a pretty good "sideline coach" now too.

For me, it's a total escape. For four or five hours on a Sunday afternoon, I get to forget about everything else and be a tiny little (and very vocal) part of something big while I spend a wonderful afternoon with the kiddo.

I'm starting to understand the attraction of golf, which is a scary thought.

Chris.

ps. This is not to suggest that my interest in football is my only other interest, or that it's all-consuming. Neither is true. I don't bet games, and I don't watch many games that don't involve my team. So I think I'm safe material for a relationship still.

Chris, I understand where you're coming from. I have the same feelings about attending Red Sox games with my son. Win or lose, it's always a special time. We try to go at least once a year.

Even though we didn't attend the game, the feeling I had watching the Sox win the Series with Seth right there with me was amoment in time that will be forever etched into my psyche. "Special" doesn't begin to describe it.

I'm hoping that you can have that same feeling this year with your son at your side....

Seth will be 14 in couple of months, heading into "that" stage of the teenage years soon. Been through it twice already with the girls, so I'm ready.. The BIG difference this time is that, no matter how contentious these teenage years might get, we'll always have our shared love of sports to fall back on. It's that glue that will always keep us together, no matter what.

Cory

Sight and Vision are two different things.

Guys, I can sooooo relate. Back when my sons were teenagers (those contentious years) I was worried about keeping them out of trouble. I also wanted to have something that would always bind us other than just being blood kin. So every chance we had we would go to a major league baseball stadium. We were autograph seekers. Over the course of about 5 years we had traveled to most of the Baseball stadiums in the U.S. and Canada. This also included all the places that players are found such as hotels, airports, shopping malls and resturants. You wouldn't believe some of the stories that we can tell and some of the things that we had done in support of our passion for baseball.

During those years my wife (the only girl) became very suspicious of us as we planned our vacations. "Ok, what ballparks are we going to see this time?" And naturally we would try to mimimize the effect it would have on the "family vacation". I think she secretly enjoyed seeing us bonding though.

We really didn't have a favorite team per say, we were "fans of baseball". Unlike the old days, most players now move from team to team. For us it was difficult to cheer for one team when we had met so many players and had relationships (brief as some might be) with them. We wanted our new found friends to do well no matter what team they were on. We had accumulated over 10,000 articles of autographed memorabelia between the 4 of us, bats, gloves, balls, batting gloves, clothing, posters, cards, pictures, almost anything you can think of.

My sons are grown now and have their own families. It had been almost ten years since I had set foot in a baseball park. I get a call from number one son last year and he tells me to keep open a complete day that we have a trip to make. Both sons and 3 year old grandson pick me up and they announce that we are headed to Philidelphia. We were on our way to see the very last game to be played in Veterans stadium before the scheduled demolition. Veterans stadium is where our bonding adventure had begun decades before. It was where my sons had seen there very first major league baseball game at the ages of 7 and 4. I had forgoten that but it had obviously burned a memory in their minds.

As I entered the stadium the rush of emotions was damn near overwhelming from the sights, the sounds, the smells, the music, the players, the National Anthem, the sun for the boys of summer. At that time it was about a year after d-day and I had been in a real personal slump. My boys had given me the best gift that day. I knew that no matter what might happen between my wife and I, my sons and I would be ok. We had a bond, no doubt about it. Needless to say, I spent most of that game with tears in my eyes.

As the late Harry Caray would crow "holy cow".

Regards, H2C


P.S. Cory, I have met many Redsox at other parks but I never have seen the Green Monster. I will get around to it one of these days, though.

H2C, if you do get to Boston for Sox game, you need to do two things....

1. Call me ahead of time so we can plan to meet at the Boston Beer Works (located across the street from Gate A at Fenway Park)

2. Arrive that morning and take the Fenway tour. It's only $15, and you get a history and tour of Fenway, including going up into the .406 club and out onto the Wall itself. Depending on the size of the group and the time of day, you also get to go into the clubhouse and INSIDE the Monster!

Cory

Sight and Vision are two different things.