Difference of Opinion

Nothing like getting into a fight with your daughter over the phone. Clare called yesterday to say that Luis Robert Jr. was going to participate in the Home Run Derby next Monday and then asked what did I think. She knew full well what I thought, that it’s a bad idea. “I knew you’d say that,” said the Smug One. What she didn’t expect was me using her own performance as proof, but I did. Fathers are a wily lot. We were in the steamy environs of southwest Missouri for nationals in July of 2008 for an end-of-season super tournament that fastpitch-softball travel teams had to earn their way into. My daughter was hellbent on winning the homerun derby, and she did, almost. The nine balls she put over a fence in ten swings netted her a share of the crown. Here's the thing. For the tournament itself, it was mostly singles and the occasional double. All in all, the five homers Clare hit in thirty-six hours during a tournament the next summer were a lot more satisfying, if only to me, because they helped win the tournament. I don’t remember there being a homerun derby at nationals that summer. But I do recall Bobby Abreu of the Phillies winning the contest in 2005. Abreu had twenty-four homers that season, only six of which came after the All-Star break. I don’t want to see the same power outage happen to Robert.