Sussex County Sports Blog

By Dan Cleary

6/15/2008 - A Special Thanks to Dad

As I was brainstorming for a topic for this week’s blog, I came up with a couple of ideas.

One, was to recap the spring sports season, which was tremendous, by the way, and the other one was to use Kittatinny as an example of why all the sports in the state do not need to be realigned, just football.

Both were decent ideas and had a local flavor, something I try to do with this blog. But after reading my five newspapers Sunday morning (Yes, I am a newspaper junkie. You don’t work in the industry for as long as I did and just get it out of your system) I was touched by some of the terrific Father’s Day columns I read.

Now, some special “holiday editions” of columns can be maudlin and meant to be tearjerkers, but that never was my style. But it got me thinking of my Dad and what he has meant to me and my family.

But this will be written tear-free because I’m very fortunate to still have my father around and he wouldn’t have it any other way. In fact, he will be probably plenty upset that I’m even wasting valuable space on the Internet with a story about him. But here it goes.

My father grew up poor and proud in Manhattan in the 1940s and played all the city sports you see in the movies, stickball, stoopball, etc. He never played high school sports and joined the Army before his draft number came up just after the active fighting in Korea had ended.

He received an honorable discharge from the Army, where he did a little boxing, and bounced around from job-to-job before landing one of the jobs that all Irish-Catholic kids of his era craved---a patrolman for the New York City Police Department.

He met my mother, an Irish lass from the neighborhood, married and eventually had five kids. He moved us out of the Bronx to New Jersey when the neighborhood was taking a turn for the worse and we landed in what he called “paradise.” And paradise for my father was Highland Lakes in Vernon Township.

As a kid, he didn’t have the luxury of beaches, beautifully maintained baseball diamonds or a backyard. He loved being at “The Lake.” Although not a huge sports fan, he encouraged all of his kids to get out and play.

But with a wife, five kids and a mortgage, he really didn’t have much time to show us the ropes and coach Little League, but he tried to make the games when he could. My father wasn’t an absentee dad and this is no “Cats in the Cradle” whine fest. It was just the fact. He had to work two jobs to keep us in paradise and then he decided he wanted to better himself and at the age of 37 he enrolled in college.

One of the proudest moments in our family history was when at 41 my father accepted his degree from Queens College with honors, despite working around the clock. His dedication to education was a huge inspiration to his kids and all five us have gone on to earn our degrees as well.

And although he wasn’t a Little League coach he did what he could to keep us interested in sports because he knew the value of athletics. This brings me, in a long about way, to how he got me interested in sports.

You see, one of the perks of being a police officer in the Bronx was he was able to work the “detail”, as it was called, at Yankee Stadium during summers in the early to mid 1960s. He would work inside and outside the stadium providing security. So when I was old enough to attend a game, he took me to my first Yankee game back in 1971.

Now I would be lying if I told you I remember all the details. I just remember how loud it was and that the Yanks were playing the Kansas City Royals. I do remember the old columns that blocked people’s view at the old Yankee Stadium, but we had good seats because my father still knew most of the cops on the detail.

I do remember that the Yanks won and that their catcher’s name was Herman Munster, just like the monster on the black-and-white reruns on Channel 11. Later I found out, if you haven’t guessed by now, the man’s name was Thurman Munson and he became one of my favorite Yanks right along with Bobby Murcer.

But going to that game piqued my interest in baseball and started a lifelong passion for all sports. My father had no idea what going to that game meant to me, and probably doesn’t until this day. He would subsequently take me to several more games, including a couple of Old Timer’s Games. Those were his favorites and he loved pointing out his favorite Yankee from his childhood, outfielder Tommy Heinrich, “Old Reliable.”

My love of sports has never waned since that day. It is a passion I share with my siblings who were all active in athletics in one way or another in high school, like I was. But my love all started that day, thanks to my dad. We still watch ballgames together on TV, although he was very disheartened by the whole Mitchell Report.

He has since changed his allegiance over the years and pulls for the Mets for the same reason why a lot of people hate the Yankees (“They buy all their players,” he says), so it makes it fun during the Subway Series.

But thanks, Pop, for always being encouraging when it came to sports and for taking me to Yankee Stadium that day in 1971. You may not have known it, but you changed your son’s life forever.

ODDS AND ENDS-- Just a couple of things, congratulations to all the winners that attended the Mugs Media/Eastern Propane Spring Sports Awards Breakfast Saturday morning.

We had a great turnout and it was nice to meet and see the player’s parents, who deserve a lot of credit for molding their children not only into fine athletes, but outstanding young men and women. And thanks to everyone for their kind words about this blog. It is appreciated and I hope I can continue to inform and entertain you.

And finally, the moment you have been waiting for. Yes, the answers to last week’s trivia questions. Lenape Valley was the first school from the Sussex County Interscholastic League to send either a baseball or softball team to the state final. The Pats under Bob Quinn lost to Hopewell Valley in the Group 2 final in 1977.

The second answer is, Sussex High School, which closed when High Point Regional opened its doors in the mid 1960s. Sussex was the first baseball team in county history to win a section crown as it won the North 2, Group 1 title in 1960. Back then, schools only played to a section final. Overall group championships weren’t decided until 1971. Before 1959, section champs were selected by the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association.

And the final answer is Jefferson’s softball team has reached the state final an amazing seven times, with its first one coming in 1981 when it lost to Sterling in the Group 2 final. The Falcons went onto lose in their next four appearances before bringing home back-to-back crowns for Ed Levens in 2003 (Group 3) and 2004 (Group 2).

That’s it for now, have a happy Father’s Day and I will see you on the sidelines.

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Sussex County Sports Blog

By Dan Cleary

6/15/2008 - A Special Thanks to Dad