Who are/were your parents favorite teams and players?

[Chuck9788]

My father grew up in Baltimore during the 1950's - 1970's. A diehard Orioles fan, his favorite players were Brooks Robinson and Boog Powell. We used to go to games at old Memorial Stadium. My mother grew up in New Jersey and loved Joe Namath, John Riggins and the New York Jets.

[D. Bergin]

Via my Dad (Mom never cared about any team other then my Little League/Babe Ruth League teams).

Yankees, Giants, Whalers, UCONN Huskies (basketball, football)

I inherited all those teams until the Whalers moved out of town.

My first Yankee game my father took me to was 1978 in the nosebleeds at Yankee Stadium. I was 7 years old. I remember it was a night game. I remember the Yankees lost. I remember Thurman Munson hit a foul ball backwards and completely out of the stadium, which for some reason I thought was some sort of super-human act, and I swore I would find that baseball in the grass somewhere after we left the stadium (spoiler alert - I did not).

I also remember it being some off-brand team they were playing (non-AL East Team), and some sort of big lumbering 1st Baseman/DH type hitting 2 homers against them, though I might have imagined it as I can't find any corroborating evidence of this no matter how hard I try.

Also...it might have been 1977 or 1979. Kids brains are still forming, and who knows what really happened that night, or when it actually occurred.

[JustinD]

Strangely, my dad talks more about Rocky Colovito more than anyone I have ever met.

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by JustinD

Strangely, my dad talks more about Rocky Colovito more than anyone I have ever met.

At least Colovito was a Star. My dad talks about the oddball guys waaaay more then the Superstars on all the teams he rooted for.

I swear every time we talk about the Yankees, he regales me with the same stories about Ryne Duren and his Coke Bottle glasses and his wildness.

With the guys he grew up with, he never talks about Maris, Mantle, Yogi and Whitey Ford.

It's Duren, Tommy Tresh, Joe Pepitone, Roy White, Tony Kubek, Bobby Murcer and Mel Stottlemyre, etc...

I think he figures, the superstars are obvious and boring to talk about.

[Snapolit1]

My dad’s guy was Duke Snyder. Only a few years ago I looked up Snyder’s numbers for the first time and was like “oh … shit …”. He still holds a number of Dodger offensive records.

[NiceDocter]

My Dad got his Masters at Columbia and watched his favorite fellow Marylander play at Yankee Stadium …. Charlie “King Kong” Keller. His nephew ( a 6 foot 5 guy with a Marine Flat top haircut) …. Jack Keller …. was my Drivers Ed teacher and our Varsity Baseball coach.

[philliesfan]

My father only liked baseball of the four major sports. His team of coarse was the Phillies. He was a smoker and had lung cancer. During the 1980 World Series, (and playoffs) I watched all the games with him instead of hanging out with my friends watching at local bars. He was so happy when the Phillies got the last out to secure the title. He passed away a year later and I know it meant a lot to him that I was with him. It meant a lot to me also.
Bob

[Snapolit1]

Great story Bob.

[mortimer brewster]

My father was pushing 50 when I was born. In the early 70's we would spend Sunday's watching football. Especially the 4pm game on NBC featuring Curt Gowdy or Charlie Jones. MNF was a must (first half for me only).

He loved George Blanda of the Oakland Raiders and other crusty old pros like Sonny Jurgensen and Billy Kilmer of George Allen's Over the Hill gang.

[Mark17]

My dad and I listened to the Twins on the radio and watched them on TV. We'd also go to a few games each year. His favorite was Zoilo Versalles and mine was Camilo Pascual (and later, Cesar Tovar.)

[commishbob]

My Dad grew up in Brooklyn practically in sight of Ebbets Field but was a Yankee fan. His favorites were Joe D and Allie Reynolds. And years later, when he took me nearly every Sunday, his guy was Hector Lopez.

As close as he was to Ebbets (he lived about 15 blocks down Flatbush Avenue) he only went twice, to see the Yankees in the '41 and '47 Series. He told me he and his friends camped out for tickets in '41.

He was also passionate about the football Giants and especially the NY Rangers The Rangers were the only team we 'shared'.

My Mom never cared about sports although she played high school hoops in Pennsylvania. Back then, it was 6 on 6, and you only played in the front or backcourt. She still had a fairly good set shot when we'd all go out and shoot around in our driveway on Long Island when I was a kid. LOL

[seanofjapan]

Brooklyn Dodgers, then Montreal Expos.

My dad was a kid in Montreal in the 50s. The Montreal Royals were big back then and most of the Dodgers famous names came up through Montreal so everyone was a Dodgers fan (in the summer at least, hockey was number 1 the rest of the year).

In 1969 he was in his mid 20s when Montreal got the Expos and he naturally became a fan, with Rusty Staub being his (and everyone’s) favorite. I was born a few years later and he took me to my first game at Olympic Stadium in 1980.

Sad thing for my dad of course is that both of his favorite teams got stabbed in the back and moved. He is not an LA Dodgers or Washington Nationals fan. He tries to follow the Blue Jays but his heart isn’t into it (neither is mine).

Only a return of MLB to Montreal will really spark his interest (mine too, I haven’t had a favorite MLB team since 2004).

[GasHouseGang]

My Dad was a Cardinal fan, having grown up just outside of St. Louis. He was drafted and went through basic training the year that the St. Louis Cardinals and the St. Louis Browns met in the World Series, 1944. He told the story that they had training on "booby traps" and what to watch out for. The drill sergeant asked if anyone was from St. Louis, and my Dad was the only one that was. Since St. Louis was the only city in the World Series that year he made him go through all the booby traps and set them off! They would shoot powder and that sort of thing to simulate explosions. He laughed about it but wasn't so happy to be selected at the time. I always heard stories about how great Stan Musial was, but also about Satchel Paige who played with the St. Louis Browns from 1951 to 1953. He would tell how "Satch" would sit in a rocking chair in the bullpen to emphasize his age and then come in and still be great.

[quinnsryche]

We are all White Sox fans in my house growing up. Nellie Fox was/is his all time favorite.

[clydepepper]

You guys were so lucky to have a father growing up...it was tougher, in some respects, without one, but better than being with the wrong one...


Mom was always a Braves fan (at least since they moved down south and our cousin, Whitlow Wyatt, was their pitching coach)


and my grandmother loved Phil Niekro (I think because he was older) - one of the last days of her life, she asked me if Niekro was pitching today.
.

[fm6434347]

My stepdad love Joe Namath, John Riggins cause i wan still young when my dad passed away he has always be there with me I love him while mom favorite is Yankees, Giants, Whalers, UCONN Huskies (basketball, football)Grew up in new jerseys..

Sent from my oraimo using Tapatalk

[cubman1941]

My dad and my aunt were big Cubs people as we lived in northern Wisconsin. Therefore I grew up a Cubs guy. I remember listening to Cubs games with my dad (before TV) and him getting a little perturbed when our minister came over one day while we were listening to a game. This lasted until 1953 when the Braves moved to Milwaukee and both Dad and my aunt switched to the Braves. I stayed a Cub guy and took a lot of heat and ribbing while they were both still living.

[mr_luck07]

My mom is a casual sports watcher and my dad was partial to the Knicks NBA wise.

[icurnmedic]

Not living anywhere near a MLB team, we always watched TBS /Braves growing up. Not dirt floor poor, but certainly not an abundance financially, so that was more or less our family entertainment. Great times that wasn’t realized then.

Only went to Atlanta one time , over the 4th of July 1987. Did get to see Jack Clark hit a big fly.

Dads and thus my favorite was Dale Murphy.
Mom always liked Julio Franco.

[robw1959]

My mom was the diehard in the family, and had to endure so much disappointment, especially in 1967. She was a Boston Red Sox fan, and especially fond of Carl Yastrzemski. I still remember her shouting, "Come on, Yastrzemski; come on Yastrzemski!' every time he was up to bat. I, being only seven years old at the time, was naturally curious. So I asked her, "How come you keep calling that guy a stremski?"

[Republicaninmass]

My father spoke of

Pee Wee Reese
And
Pumpsie green

[nolemmings]

My dad was Dodger fan, especially Brooklyn Dodgers, even though born and raised in Minnesota. He and a buddy hitchhiked from small-town MN to NY at age 18 to watch the 1947 World Series and saw the Bill Bevens game. I remember Campy was one of his favorites.
My grandpa was a Cardinal and Stan Musial fan, at least until the Twins arrived.
My aunt had a crush on Bob Allison.

[judsonhamlin]

My father was born and raised in Paterson NJ and went to HS in Fair Lawn (where he was good friends with Ron Perranoski) but was (and remains) a die-hard Cardinals fan. Stan Musial was his guy with Marty Marion a close second. Then Gibson, Simmons, Hrabosky and Tudor. Not sure he could name too many of the current team but still keeps an eye on the team as much as he is capable of.

[scooter729]

My dad (89 and still going strong) grew up as a Boston baseball fan, but his team was the Braves in the 1940s. An older friend that lived on his block was the Braves bat boy, and it was thanks to his friend that he got to attend the 1948 World Series.

It wasn't until the Braves packed up for Milwaukee that Dad shifted his attention to the Red Sox, and he was there when Ted hit his final home run. He actually didn't miss the ball by much; that's him in the red box in the pic below, as the Boston Globe showed the ball landing in the bullpen. Another 5 feet on the ball, he says, and it was right to him!

[sports-cards-forever]

Stan the Man Musial and the Cardinals

[Balticfox]

Hah! My father was right-off-the-boat in 1948. The only thing(s) he knew about sports he picked up from me while i was watching a game on TV.

Several memories do stand out though. He of course quickly picked up on the fact that I liked the Chicago Blackhawks. I still remember him commenting in 1969-70 that he absolutely couldn't bear to look at Bobby Hull wearing that hairpiece/wig. The word "wig" in Lithuanian sounds particularly effeminate and thus risible.

He of course realized that I liked the Edmonton Eskimos and noticed that Canadian teams played only other Canadian teams while American teams played only other American teams. He wondered why they didn't let them all play together.

He also noticed that NASCAR races in 1974-76 almost always came down to Richard Petty's Dodge (for which I was cheering) and David Pearson's Mercury battling for first in the final turn.

Baseball though he didn't like at all because of the slow pace and the fellow just standing there waving his bat. But then one day circa 1982 he was astonished to notice that the pitcher seemed t. actually make the ball curve. "You bet they can!" I replied.