There is still time to enjoy a good Fathers Day

Is it too late for just one more mushy observation about Fathers Day? It is not a big musy observation just a small one.

I know it was last Sunday and these sort of things are supposed to be shared with the readers before an event, even an event that was conspiratorially enacted by the Hallmark Hall of Cards.

But I have to ask: Is there any better way to spend Fathers Day than managing a baseball club in Alaska with your old man?

Robert Myers Jr. and Robert Myers Sr. are in a fun position. Bob the younger is managing the Mat-Su Miners of the Alaska Baseball League. Robert the elder is his assistant coach, a sort of combination bench coach, hitting advisor and groundskeeper.

The senior Myers wanted nothing to do with any story about father and son. There was one in this newspaper last season, he explained, and another feature story about the father-son relationship in the first edition of the Mat-Su Miners program, on sale at the concession stand at Hermon Brothers Field on the Alaska State Fairgrounds, where the Miners play their home games.

The senior Myers said he didnt want to be interviewed for another story, and wanted nothing to do with anything that would in any way interfere with his sons position as the head man for the Miners. (Since the younger Myers has a strong baseball presence and, by all appearances, the admiration and cooperation of his players, there is little chance of that, anyway.)

The dad didnt want to talk about his nearly 50 years as a coach and manager. He didnt want to talk about all the times his son hung out at the ball park. He didnt want to talk about all the road trips they made when his son was growing up.

Well then, I guess it is a good thing this is not a column about Sons Day.

What we are celebrating here is Fathers Day For Procrastinators (yes, this years version) and so here is what we have to ask:

How did Mr. Myers Jr. and Mr. Myers Sr. get together on the same coaching staff in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, way up in Alaska, far from their California homes?

Answer, from the son: When I got this job, he was the first person I called.

It is as simple as that.

Maybe you cant manage an ABL team, and maybe your dad knows even less about the infield fly rule than you do. But, hey, cant you at least call?

Miners bat boy Cody Schmidt is one tough kid. He was hit in the face with a screaming line drive in the late innings of the first game of the year.

Manager Bob Myers was one of the first to get to Cody.

We need help here, he shouted out, to no one in particular.

As soon as he got Cody rolled over, he amended his demand. We need help here in a hurry, he shouted the second time.

Cody took a hardball off the bridge of his nose. There was a cut that needed some stitches. If it was me, I would have been bawling and blubbering like a scaredy cat, but the young Mr. Schmidt held his ground, reined in his emotions and more or less calmly accepted a ride to the hospital.

A bunch of the Miners went to visit him at the hospital that evening, after the game.

Cody was back at Hermon Brothers Field a few days later, taking in a ball game.

Bill Bartholomew, the president of the Miners corporate structure, said there will be a bat boy opening for Cody whenever he is ready to resume that role.

If toughness is a part of the job description, then Cody Schmidts rsum fits the bill.

Lew Pumphrey is the Frontiersmans sports editor. His e-mail address is LewPumphrey@excite.com.