My daughter Mara is almost two and she retains information better than me. (Which doesn’t say much considering multiple times a week I walk into a room and forget why I went in there.) She also seems to like sports. I bought Harrison some plastic golf clubs, a batting tee, there’s a kid’s basketball hoop in the house, as well as bikes, and balls all over the place. Mara seems to migrate to all of them more than Harrison. Even when I had the Vikings games on TV last year, she seemed to be the one to want to sit and watch with genuine interest. Granite it was only for a few minutes.
Mara repeats everything I say. She thinks everything I do is the coolest thing ever.
I’m wondering if I should take advantage this.
I’m thinking next time I see her playing with a baseball maybe I’ll start throwing some random Minnesota Twins facts around while we play catch. She knows and recites everything that’s on her tablet, books, and her favorite TV shows…well maybe she should know Gary Gaetti had 201 career home runs in a Twins uniform, or that Kirby Puckett had 134 career stolen bases and won six gold gloves, despite critics calling him fat and slow during his playing days. And I could definitely fill her with info on the 1991 World Series team.
Next time she picks up the nerf football maybe I’ll talk a little Vikings history. I’ll probably skip the Adrian Peterson facts, but she might like to know that Fran Tarkington, despite being the franchise’s all-time leader in TD’s and passing yards, doesn’t own the team’s single game touchdown passes record. Joe Kapp once threw for 7 TD’s in a game.
Or maybe when I’m playing basketball with her I’ll casually mention that the NBA was 10 times better years before LeBron ever put on his first Cavs jersey. Did you see Steve Kerr laugh when someone asked him if his 72 win Bulls team would beat his 73 win Warriors team?
Come on over here, I want to talk about these Gregg Popovich sideline interviews.
I’ll wonder out loud why Rickie Fowler hasn’t won a major, despite having all the tools.
Why Kirk Cousins plays the game so much differently between 1-7 pm Eastern on Sundays than he does at 9pm Eastern on Sundays and Mondays.
All my friends love UFC. I’ll tell her I’ve tried, but I just don’t get the appeal.
How many straight post-season games have the Twins lost? And how many of those were to the Yankees? Holy shit. Hold on, that can’t be right. I have to get a second source on that…Wow. It’s true. Unbelievable.
Can you believe that Jack Nicklaus leads the PGA Tour all-time with 18 major wins, but also has the most second place finishes (19) in tour history? I don’t understand why some people still think Tiger Woods is the best of all time. He has 15 Majors and 6 second place finishes. I’d argue Jack had better competition. Gene Littler, Lanny Wadkins, Arnold Palmer, Bob Charles, Johnny Miller, Lee Trevino (2), and Tom Watkins (3), all hall-of-famers, finished one spot ahead of him in 10 of his 19 major second place finishes.
So much to go over.
But on a more serious note, it’d be so much fun to coach Mara’s softball team one day, or Harrison’s baseball team. Or volleyball, basketball, whatever. At any age level. Just to be able to encourage all the kids and see the smiles on their faces when they succeed. And also to help them out when they fail. I still remember some of my coaches from when I was younger. To this day I know the first and last names of my 2nd grade soccer coach, 5th grade flag football coach, 5th and 6th grade baseball coaches, and 7th grade basketball coach. I can also tell multiple stories about all those teams, and why the coaching and experiences were so positive. A good coach can help shape a young kid’s life. I also can remember a lot of the bad coaches and teams. Chalk that up to learning how to deal with the stuff in life that you don’t like.
I’m honestly not gonna waste my daughter’s time telling her all sorts of facts about sports (almost all of which I had to google while writing this anyway) as she grows up. That’s just a stupid joke. But if she shows any interest in sports I’m gonna be all over it. And hopefully she’ll have some questions for me along the way I won’t have to look up.
And by the way, let me tell you about this Herschel Walker trade….
