Telephone Dad

Usually, Clare is the one to call me with baseball-related news. Wednesday, I turned the tables on my daughter, who’s expecting a boy, if I forgot to mention it. First item of news came courtesy of the Marquee Network; they’ve named Beth Mowins as one of three broadcasters to fill in for new play-by-play guy Jon “Boog” Sciambi when he has work for ESPN. I’ve been listening to Mowins since the first time Clare turned on the NCAA D-I softball championships, what, going on ten years now. Mowins calls a good game, and, unlike, Jessica Mendoza when she did color for ESPN baseball coverage, won’t have to dance around the baseball-softball divide. How can a woman more versed in softball do baseball, you ask? Well, how did Harry Caray ever get to do baseball? It’s not like he had a HOF career or anything. I also scooped my daughter on the signing of one of our favorite ballplayers, ex-Sox infielder Matt Davidson, he who liked to walk barefoot on the grass at Guaranteed Rate Whatever. Davidson is the kind of guy you wish could just hit twenty-thirty points higher. Anyway, Davidson signed a minor league deal with the Dodgers that includes an invite to spring training, where he’ll be one of 31 non-roster invitees fighting for a spot come Opening Day. Davidson’s oddness extends from a gently goofy personality to the ability to crush breaking balls, where most power hitters prefer heat. Oh, he can also pitch, with a career ERA of 2.84 over six games and 6.1 innings for the Sox and Reds. Davidson is a Southern California boy, and he won’t have the weight of the world on his shoulders anymore, unlike on the South Side, where he was projected as the next Bill Melton or thereabouts. Why not a feel-good story, for me, my pregnant daughter and a guy who always gives it his quirky all?