If You Read One Father's Day Story Today, Make it This One About George Brett Lying to his Unpleasable Dad

You know the type — World War II veteran, a puncher, a kicker, a guy who makes you brush your teeth before dinner (for some reason) and wonders why that double couldn’t have been a triple and didn’t understand why you couldn’t be more like Steve Garvey.

That guy.

That guy was George Brett’s father, Jack. And in one of the only Father’s Day columns worth reading today, the Kansas City Star’s Sam Mellinger tells the tale of Brett, a Hall of Fame baseball player and executive with the Kansas City Royals, still trying to please his father 25 years after he died.

Looking back now, it’s strange. George spent his entire childhood and most of his time as a baseball star trying to please a man he knew could never be pleased. One summer day in high school, George had a nightmare on the baseball field. He overthrew first base, missed an easy grounder and dropped a popup. Jack happened to be working the scoreboard that day.

Normally an error is marked by turning on the light underneath the “E.” But here, Jack grabbed the microphone.

“That’s the THIRD error on the shortstop,” he said, and when the game was over and they were walking into the house, Jack kicked his son right in the behind.

The column includes a scene of Brett, then a player, lying to his dying father about his performance in a game, and concludes on the heartbreaking note of Brett hoping his dad would like his kids.

Dads and their sons, man. Dads and their sons.

from The Big Lead http://ift.tt/1UilLKg