Fatherhood: The Role of a Lifetime!

''Can I touch your face?

Can I hold your hand?

Can I give you a hug, again and again?

Can I say I love you?

You're also my friend.

My father.''

-- from David Mantle to his father, Mickey

Those poignant words were written by a very young David Mantle to his father, the legendary baseball icon, Mickey Mantle.  Mickey was revered by all, perhaps the most romantic and beloved figure in baseball history.  He was triumphant on the baseball field, but he "struck out" in the game of fatherhood.  Mickey seemed to have time for everyone, his fans, his teammates, his friends, but the ones who cheered the loudest for him, the (4) young sons who needed him most, were so often left on the doorstep, heartbroken, longing to get more than an autograph and a pat on the head from their Hall of Fame father.

Mickey didn't find time for his sons.  He was famously absent.  The role that mattered most, the responsibility that should have silenced all the roaring cheers from a full house at Yankee Stadium, was never carried.

Tragically, Mickey will never get those chances back.  Those years of childhood are gone for Mickey's sons.  It's too late to take them to the zoo, or to lay in bed with them and read them a story, or to be there in the stands when they come to bat in their first T ball game.

To his credit, just before Mickey died of liver cancer, he realized just how poor of a father he had been, but...it was too late; the game was over, the tears had dried.

On this day we celebrate our fathers.  I am so blessed to have had a father who cheered me on in all of my "games" in life.  A father who taught me "how to fish" and always told me he loved me.  I will never forget all the countless times when he would come home from work at the end of a long day, wearing a suit and tie, and I would be there with two baseball gloves asking if we could play catch in the front yard.  Every time he would take of his suit jacket and grab his glove, and even before going in the house, he would stand outside and play catch with me for as long as I wanted.  No exceptions!  My dad never "struck out" in the game that mattered most.  He is in my Hall of Fame; my Heart of Fame.

My father was (and is) many things.  He was the mayor of my hometown, a great dentist, a big game hunter and world traveler, a passionate golfer, a man of high integrity.  He and my mother threw lavish parties for their friends and family on, what seemed like, each and every Saturday night.  He was a Titan in his community.  But, the role he cherished most of all.  The one he never lost sight of....was fatherhood.  I always knew that he would sacrifice anything for me. That goes a very long way.  

If only David Mantle had had a father who was a little less baseball star, and a lot more of a focused, loving, father....David might not have become a burdened alcoholic battling depression and sadness.

Nothing could compare to the love and commitment that I have for my kids.  No matter what I were to accomplish in life, how many dragons I were to slay and mountaintops I could climb...if I don't succeed as a father...then I am far from a success story.  The home runs into the bleachers at Yankee stadium pale by comparison...they are hollow.

For those of us lucky enough to be a father to a son, or a daughter....we have a chance to be a "hero".  Not to throngs of cheering crowds at a ticker tape parade, but to the crowd that matters most...our sons and daughters.  We could all (myself especially) use a reminder to (always) step up to the plate in that, the greatest of all roles....Fatherhood.  The privilege is ours!