Fathers and Sons and Cincinnati Sports

And passing it on to the next generation

Tim Daniel is a local D-1 hoops writer and a member of The Riverfront podcast network. He hosts Late Night Reds every Sunday at 9 PM est.

It is approaching one full year since my father passed away.

December 11, 2022. I was laying in bed watching television with my wife who was just six weeks away from giving birth to our baby girl when the phone rang. It was the hospital, with the ever-so-painful "we think it's best if you come up here." My heart sank.

I drove to the hospital with my wife, who was trying to handle all her stuff at the time (for the love of God, she was 9 months pregnant at the time) and doing the best she could to keep me positive. But in my mind, I knew what I was walking into that day. My sister and her husband were already there; the look on her face when I arrived confirmed the thing I had feared the most, but also expected.

After my dad officially passed, I started thinking about all the memories we had made together. He was my first best friend. He took me to see my first movie in theaters, a Star Wars screening on the anniversary of its release. He took me to my first concert: KISS in 2000 at Riverbend Music Center. (This was supposed to be their farewell tour, but we know what happened there.) And, of course, took me to all my first major sporting events at Riverfront Stadium.

Over the summer, Chad wrote a great story on this very Substack about his son's final year playing baseball. I read it multiple times before writing this piece, especially the parts where he spoke about the shared love of sport between father and son. So much from that story was relatable, and it helped me write this story.

While you often hear stories about a father's influence in helping their child fall in love with sports, many times it’s about sitting in the living room watching games together on TV or going to the stadium and where the child was hooked instantly. While we did have all those moments, and those did so much for me, my introduction to an abiding love of sports was a little different. It came from a wonderful video game system called the Super Nintendo.

Years ago, back in our first home, we played countless hours of sports video games together. Madden ‘93 (thanks for being patient as I always ran fake field goals), Ken Griffey Jr.'s Winning Run, and NCAA Basketball were the big ones. Until my fifth birthday, when he and my mother gifted me NBA Jam: Tournament Edition. Holy crap, did I play the hell out of that game — so many hours, so many games, and a lot of victories. He's not here to say he got me, so I'll say he did take it easy on me the majority of the time…but when I got a bit of an ego, he made sure to get his wins.

Once we established this relationship, the next stop was Riverfront Stadium. Whether it was watching the brutal Cincinnati Bengals of the 1990s (he loved Boomer Esiason, and took me to see Boomer play for the Jets), or taking me to see Barry Larkin during his 30/30 and MVP seasons, he always made sure I had a great time. Dad taught me how to fill out a scorecard, he taught me how to shoot a basketball, and after three years of begging, finally gave in and let me partake in his Bengals season tickets, just in time for the Carson Palmer era. (We were at the Steelers playoff game when he tore his ACL... That was not a great memory.)

One of my favorite games he ever took me to was in 1997 when Deion Sanders was playing left field for the Reds and well, Prime Time took a foul ball off of his head. For how smooth Deion was at everything else that he did, this was a moment that Deion has likely done everything he could to block out of his memory.

Shortly after this moment, my parents divorced. My sister and I stayed with my mother, who remarried and also blessed us with a beautiful baby sister. Although we didn't live with my dad, we still saw him quite a bit. In the summer of 2000, after I attended that KISS concert with him, he began to notice the monster he had created with our mutual love of the hottest band in the world and sports, so he took me on a road trip many kids dream about.

It's still an all-time favorite moment of mine. We started the road trip by going to Cleveland and visiting the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. The Hall had a huge display of KISS's tour costumes and I was blown away. After Cleveland, we made the voyage to Cooperstown, NY, to visit the National Baseball Hall of Fame. This was the year Tony Perez and Sparky Anderson were inducted into the Hall. That was awesome for many reasons, but mostly because we were in the car for hours and he told me stories about growing up with the Machine and how Johnny Bench was the greatest player of all time in his eyes. I'm more of a Joe Morgan guy myself, but hearing my dad describe Bench like he was Paul Bunyan was a joy I will always miss…and also get a little chuckle from.

On the way back from Cooperstown we stopped in New York City. Two guys from Northern Kentucky going into New York was hilarious, as I think back on it. It was so beautiful, and so overwhelming all in one. This was also fifteen months before 9/11, which feels like an entirely different world.

We shared countless additional memories after that. Whether it was taking my sister and I with him to see Van Halen — his favorite band; I think Eddie Van Halen was second in his heart only to Johnny Bench — me learning to play guitar and him being my biggest fan as I played in bands and took lessons (oh boy, did I need lessons), or still attending all those Bengals and Reds games together.

We got Reds season tickets together for the 2011 season, and we were feeling the excitement of the 2010 NL Central division-winning team. Dad told me he had yet to attend an Opening Day, so that was another first we got to experience together. If you remember, Opening Day in 2011 was an all-timer in Reds history. Down 6-3 in the bottom of the 9th inning, Brandon Phillips started a rally with a single to left. Joey Votto followed by drawing a walk. A couple of batters later, Jonny Gomes lifted a sac fly to cut it the Brewers lead to 6-4. And then the big blast, as Ramon Hernandez walked off with a three-run homer off John Axford, sending the Reds faithful home happy. I got to high five and hug my dad to celebrate the win.

Later that season, we were at the first Sunday Night Baseball game in GABP history and saw Drew Stubbs hit a walk-off homer against the Braves. There were (at least) two very cool things about that night. First, it was my 22nd birthday and as the Reds were coming to bat in the bottom of the ninth, Dad told me Drew was going to walk it off. He was right! Even better, I got to relate that story to Drew on Late Night Reds in April of this year, and he thanked me for sharing that story with him. A full-circle moment in my life.

In May of 2021, I got married. I remember waiting for the ceremony to start and being super-nervous, like anyone would on such a day. Dad came in to chat with me quickly beforehand which was greatly appreciated. A year later, my wife and I Facetimed my dad on Father's Day to let him know we were having a baby. Just a few weeks after that he called us to tell us the news that he had been diagnosed with cancer, just the ultimate gut punch.

He battled so hard through his treatment, and when things had begun to look up for his progress, we were told that the cancer spread. The day before he passed was the Crosstown Shootout which, as a local college hoops writer, was the greatest game I ever covered. I couldn't wait to talk to him about it. I never got the chance.

There are so many things I miss about my Dad. Just this past October, I saw KISS in Cincinnati with a cousin who often attended games and shows with us. We had a lot of great laughs and stories to share about Dad and what he meant to us. Somehow, in a packed arena, the seat next to us was empty too. Dad had to be there; there’s no other explanation.

The hardest thing is that my Dad passed just before his granddaughter was born. I don't get to send him pictures of her growing up or let him know how she's progressing in all of her checkups like my wife and I get to do with her other grandparents. That is what kills me the most.

But, like my Father did with me, my wife and I are already taking her to events to start building her own lifetime of memories. If that ends up being his biggest influence on me, his legacy, then I'm very proud to keep the tradition going.

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