For Harbaughs, every day is Father’s Day
By Angelique S. Chengelis, The Detroit News – June 20, 2015
Little Jim Harbaugh would leave the house wearing his baseball hat and carrying a baseball glove.
“Where you going?” his father, Jack Harbaugh, would ask.
“Doubleheader today against the Indians,” the 6-year-old would say. “Pitching both ends of the doubleheader.”
“You’re pitching both?” Jack asked, pretending to be surprised.
“Yeah, I’m pitching both.”
And Jim would head out to a nearby parking lot, throwing the ball against the wall, as he pitched his imaginary doubleheader.
“He had one of the great imaginations,” said Jack Harbaugh, 75, a longtime football coach whose career included a stint from 1973-79 under Bo Schembechler at Michigan. “He was a great daydreamer.”
Jim would return home hours later, his hat askew.
“How did it go?” his father asked. “You’re tired out, huh?”
“Won both ends,” Jim told him.
“I think he was undefeated,” Jack said, laughing.
by Jeff Salisbury
While first reading this story yesterday morning at breakfast at Big Boy with my grand-daughter Maddie, I was struck by two similar memories that the elder Harbaugh shared about his son Jim and his imaginary baseball games.
One was from my own childhood of my long-time pal and neighbor Barry Doren and I who would pitch imaginary baseball games to each other in one of our yards.
We would alternate between being someone from late 1950s or the early 1960s starting lineup of the Detroit Tigers vs. the dreaded New York Yankees. Sometimes we’d toss the ball on one of our roofs and field flyballs or grounders to simulate an entire game. We knew all the lineups and batting order of both teams and it was great fun tossing the ball back and forth – acting as players and announcers and adding “crowd noises” too. Cheers and boos too for that matter.
The other memory was of my son Mike Salisbury who at about the same age that Barry and I were, would “pitch” game after game for hours is seemed by bouncing a ball off a small A-framed storage shed in our back yard in Holt, MI.
Sometimes his games would torment his sister poor Shelly Salisbury Whitley who would be inside the small shed which also served as her giant doll/playhouse.
Mike would bounce a ball off the shed and then toss it high on the roof of our house to make it bounce back to him either like a fly-ball or a grounder. He’s do likewise “announcing” under or not-so-under his breath because he too knew the lineups of Tigers and many of not all their opponents a decade and a half later.
And of course on this day when I am thinking of my friend Barry and my son Mike and all the other dads out there past and present, with us in the now and those who are just a memory, like my own father who I would BEG to “have a catch” even when I knew he was so tired from a long day at his grocery store and meat market. What treasured moments those were, though too few and too far between from my standpoint.
So I must post too this link from Field of Dreams – marvelous scene – for all those boys (and girls) and their Dad’s who long to “have a catch” just one more time together.
A Catch With Dad – Field of Dreams (Movie Clip – 1989)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_wnD6jxREU
Happy Father’s Day… one and all.
Oh… rest in peace Daddio… rest in peace.
As always, when you can, please attend a school board meeting!
Wayland Union Schools – Board of Education Regular Business Meetings, Work Sessions, Committee Meetings
June 22 6:45 p.m.- Administration Building, 850 E. Superior (Annual Budget Hearing)
June 22, 7:00 p.m. – Administration Building, 850 E. Superior (Regular Business Meeting)
Some items likely to be on this month’s agenda:
- 2014-15 Revised General Fund Budget
- 2014-15 Revised Food Service Fund Budget
- 2015-2016 General Fund Budget
- 2015-2016 Food Service Fund Budget
- 80/20 Insurance Contribution Resolution
- School Loan Revolving Fund Board of Education
- Century Driving School Contract
- District Used Equipment Sale
- Food Service Lunch Rates
- Athletic Event Admissions
- 2015-16 Schedule of Rates
- Layoff/Reduction Resolution
- 2015-16 Administrator Contracts
- Custodial/Maintenance Agreement
- High School Orchestra Trip
July 13, 2015 7:00 pm – Administration Building, 850 E. Superior (First Regular Business Meeting of the 2015-16 school year)
During the PUBLIC COMMENTS, tell Board members to:
- Question Every Aspect of the District’s Essential and Non-Essential Educational Programming and Personnel Expenditures (Needs versus Wants)
- Set General Fund & Casino Revenue Spending Guidelines
- Track and Trim All Expenditures & Make Targeted Programs & Personnel Cuts As Needed
REMIND THE BOARD TO:
- “Build ONE Budget” – combine general fund revenue (local, state and federal dollars) and Gun Lake Casino “in lieu of taxes” revenue.
- “Pay Yourselves First” – restore the fund equity – which dipped from 15% to 7% in the last four years
- “No More Loans”.
BOARD MEMBERS CONTACT INFORMATION:
- Nancy Thelen, President, Email: nancyboe@waylandunion.net Phone: 616-877-3098
- Tom Salingue, Vice-President, Email: tomboe@waylandunion.net Phone: 269-792-2061
- Toni Ordway, Treasurer, Email: ordwayt@waylandunion.net Phone: 269-910-3297
- Theresa Dobry, Secretary, Email: theresaboe@waylandunion.net Phone: 616-681-2119
- Janel Hott, Trustee, Email: hottj@waylandunion.net Phone: (h) 269-792-0297 (c) 269-250-0286
- Gary Wood, Trustee, Email: glw_boe@yahoo.com Phone: 616-681-2120
- Pete Zondervan, Trustee, Email: zondervanp@waylandunion.net Phone: 616-450-1468