D-Ken

I'll never forget my final game at the old Yankee Stadium.  It was the final homestand of the 2008 season and they were playing the White Sox.  It was the first (and only) time I saw Ken Griffey, Jr., my favorite player growing up, play live.  But that's not the reason I'll always remember it.  I'll remember it because of who I went to the game with.

It was the week of my dad's 60th birthday, and I wanted to do something special for him (I also wanted to go to one last game in the old Stadium...and see Ken Griffey, Jr., but those weren't the primary reasons).  I told this to someone I worked with who was a season ticket holder.  He was gracious enough to give me his tickets, and I took my dad to the game for his 60th birthday.

We shared a special memory together at the new Yankee Stadium, too.  Garth Brooks had two concerts there in the summer of 2016 and I told him I wasn't taking "No" for an answer.  My mom, despite her cancer battle, decided that she wanted to come too.  So she did.  I saw Garth Brooks at Yankee Stadium with both of my parents.

My dad is also the reason I'm a fan of college basketball.  Particulary UConn.  One of my first real vivid memories is going to the 1990 Big East Championship Game with him.  It was UConn vs. Syracuse and we were way up top at the Garden.  The Big East final was still on Sunday afternoon then, and my mom dropped everyone else off at church before taking us to the train station.  That's the first time I remember taking the train into Penn Station (something I would obviously do a lot more frequently as I got older).

Four years later, we went to the Big East Championship Game again.  My sister was a freshman at Providence and they were playing Georgetown.  This time we went as a family, and we sat in the Providence student section.  He was still rooting for Georgetown (he'd called me "George" since I was a kid, which had something to do with Georgetown).

That was the second time we had really good seats for a basketball game at the Garden.  His boss (I think the same one who gave us the UConn-Syracuse tickets) couldn't use his Knicks tickets one night and gave them to us.  I don't remember the exact year or the opponent, or even whether they won or lost, but I do remember Derek Harper getting a technical foul.  Why that specific detail is the only thing from the game I actually remember?  I have no idea!

He went to Manhattan College, where I used to work.  One time, I had to go down to the Archives and look for some photos.  While I was down there, I came across the school yearbook from 1970, his year of graduation.  Sure enough, there he was in the senior portraits.  So, I asked my friend Amy, the archivist, if she would scan and email me his senior picture along with the ones that I actually needed.  I printed it, had it framed, and gave it to him for Father's Day.  He immediately put it on the bookshelf underneath all of our graduation pictures.

Over the past few months, as his health got worse, his memory got weaker.  What's crazy, though, is that, while he had no short-term memory, his could remember things from years ago like they were yesterday.  And it was actually pretty cool for him to tell me stories that I never knew.  Like when he told me about the time his grandfather took him and my uncle to the 1964 World's Fair, then they went to a Mets game in the first year of Shea Stadium.

Speaking of Shea Stadium, I was a member of the Mets Kid's Club when I was young.  (It was either the late 80s or early 90s, and the Yankees didn't have a Kid's Club.)  Every year, one of the perks of being in the Kid's Club was a special members-only clinic at Shea Stadium with Mets players.  Every year, my dad was the one who took me.  For an 8- or 9-year-old who loved baseball, that was the coolest thing ever.

Once he couldn't drive anymore, I became his chauffeur for family events.  Or sometimes, we'd just go to his house and have dinner or whatever.  After my sisters left and it was time for him to settle in for the night, it usually consisted of just him and me.  I'd just put whatever game on and go home when it was over.  We ended up watching more Rangers games together this season than we possibly ever have before!

Christmas was really the last time I got some real one-on-one time with him when he was coherent.  I figured he'd want to go to Mass on Christmas Eve, so I asked him what time he wanted to go, and he said 4:00.  Which was perfect.  Since the Giants-Vikings game started at 1.  So, we watched the Giants until it was time to go to church, then put on the rest of the late game when we got back.  (I've already claimed his "magic" Giants blanket that is guaranteed to make you fall asleep.)

Same thing on Christmas Day.  I picked him up in the morning to go to my sister's and do presents with the kids.  I was originally just going to drop him off at home, then join them for dinner.  I never made it.  Because I ended up spending the rest of the night with my dad and didn't leave until like 9-9:30.  I'm so glad I did.  Because, while I didn't know for sure it would be his last Christmas, I suspected it might be.  And I got to spend it with him.  Which is something I'll forever cherish.

These last few months haven't been easy.  We watched the man we knew and loved gradually slip away before our eyes.  But he'd been a shell of his former self ever since my mom died.  And now they're reunited.  (As he lost more and more weight, his wedding ring wouldn't stay on his finger, so my sister eventually just took it off.  Once he passed, she put it back on him.  She then heard something fall in my parents' bedroom.  She picked it up and underneath was...my mom's wedding ring, which we hadn't been able to find since her funeral!  He's getting buried with both of them.)

After having four girls, he finally got his boy on the fifth try.  I hope I made him as proud as he made me.  Whether I called him "D-Ken" or "Tony" or "Bob" or "Pa" (he had a lot of nicknames), he was always first and foremost "Dad."  And I couldn't have asked for a better one.  (PS-Tell Gracie I said hi.  And that we'll be OK down here.)