For those of you concerned about my last post (#1765), an admission to poor child sitting skills, I have a more positive outlook today. Both girls were very good and the oldest cooked us a pancake and egg breakfast. I was the sous chef and clean-up crew, plus we all had a good time together watching cartoons and playing with the pets. I’m now ready to go back for more, with a little more confidence. I was indeed a good grandpa. Our next outing is the Tom & Jerry outdoor movie on the big screen of the neighborhood Braves stadium, Cool Today Park, next week. 

When my son came home from work yesterday to reclaim his children, he had two good stories for me – close encounters of the baseball kind! He had just met the father of new White Sox catcher, Seby Zavala, who make history this past week by hitting his first three major league home runs in the same game, including a grand slam. He played again yesterday, going 2-4 in an extra inning game against the Cubs. Despite the conversation, my son the die-hard Cubs fan was frustrated with me, his father, the White Sox fan, as I continued to text him about the game.  He also recently met on the job one of the upcoming Braves, who was suited up for the Rookie Game we went to watch a few weeks ago. This poor son of mine is also going with me to see the Sox play the Rays in a few weeks, so I can continue to give him a hard time about this year’s Sox success and the downfall of the Cubs. Baseball is one of our big bonds. 

My granddaughter’s name is Maddux, after Hall of Fame Cub pitcher Greg Maddox and the youngest is Nora Grace, for former Cub first baseman Mark Grace, so you can begin to see my son’s allegiance to his team. Somehow his son, the oldest of the three grandchildren, was named Gavyn. There was not a single baseball player on any team in history I could find with that spelling, although Gavyn his been to a Cubs game every year of his life up until the pandemic. We’re taking him to Pittsburg, along with the girls, in September to watch the Cubs vs. Pirates and fulfill this year’s annual attendance goal, as he enters high school in a few days. He doesn’t care that much about baseball but someday maybe he’ll share the same interest as my son and me. In the meantime, I’ll try to learn more about his technical interests in attempting to be a good grandpa.