A Special Day at a Cleveland Indians’ Game

First things first. I am 57 years old. I have three grown children who I love very much. In their younger years, I attended many of the tennis matches, baseball games, fast pitch softball games, swimming events, and football and basketball games they were involved in. As far as sports go, these apples did not fall to far from the tree. I never lived my life through my kids. I just kind of sat back and enjoyed the show. It was fun! I did the things most good parents have always done and will continue to do.

All that said, I have a special day with a child who I will never forget. I spent that day with my nephew Adam over a decade ago. It is hard to pack a memory in one day that both a adult and a child will remember for a long time. One day I was lucky enough to do it.

At the time this day happened, I owned a very popular Cleveland Browns team shop in downtown Cleveland. The store was within walking distance to Jacobs Field where the Cleveland Indians played.

This day all started with a phone call I got from my sister Darla regarding a school assignment her son Adam had. Darla explained that it was a “career day” project and asked if I could bring him to work with me for a day. My mission would be just to do the normal things I would do everyday and Adam would then write a report on what I did. There were not many “normal” days in that store, but this day would turn out to be a special one.

That morning I picked up Adam, and as we were driving downtown to the store, I got a call on the cell phone. It was from a friend who said he had a couple of seats next to the radar gun behind the backstop for the Indians game, which just so happened to be a rare weekday afternoon game. The friend said they were my tickets if I could use them. I looked at Adam and said that I was told to do things as I would normally do them for his assignment. He said that was correct. Even if Adam was not with me, I would have gone to that game. I asked my friend if he could leave the tickets at the store. They were in a envelope which my store manager handed to me as we walked in. That was the start of this special day.

Adam had never been to my store. I showed him the inventory in the back room. He watched me work with some customers for awhile. We went to the game. The Indians lost as usual to the White Sox. We came back to the store and he watched me work until about 6:30 p.m. Again, I asked Adam if his assignment was to watch the normal activities that were involved in my day. Adam once again said “correct.” On a normal day about 6:30 p.m., I would walk up to the Mortons Steakhouse that was located in the mall one level above my store to meet up with some regular friends that were always there. Adam and I headed up to Mortons at 6:30 p.m. Many of the people who worked at Mortons I also considered as friends.They showed this 8-year-old boy what a 48-ounce steak looked like. They held a 5-pound live lobster over his head. It is hard to put it into words what true fun we both had that day.

Adam is now over 21 and just came back thankfully from duty in Afghanistan. There is a connection with that kid that I still feel because of that day. (He got a really good grade on his assignment and told me most of his classmates wished that their “career day” assignment was like his.)

As a devoted Cleveland sports fan, I have been to many of the “big” games over the years. I was there for “Elway’s Drive,” “Jordon’s Shot,” “The Raiders Red Right 88.” I was at the Browns 1964 NFL title game and the double overtime victory over the Jets. I went to a number of world series games when the Tribe got there in 1995 and 1997. None of them can top the day I had with my nephew Adam.