{"id":284375,"date":"2025-06-09T21:27:50","date_gmt":"2025-06-09T21:27:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/recipes\/category-a-b\/barbecue\/memories-with-my-father-brett-mandel-baseball-bbq\/"},"modified":"2025-06-09T21:27:50","modified_gmt":"2025-06-09T21:27:50","slug":"memories-with-my-father-brett-mandel-baseball-bbq","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=284375","title":{"rendered":"Memories With My Father: Brett Mandel\n\u2013 Baseball BBQ"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n        Baseball means fathers and sons for so many and it is very much the case for me. My dad taught me to throw and was my very first coach. I don\u2019t remember the number of wins and losses on that team, but I do remember plenty of happy post-game Slurpees. One enduring memory for me of my dad as coach was that he liked to put the four kids on the team named \u201cBrett\u201d at the infield positions and hit pop-ups to us \u2014 and then laugh as we all scrambled to make the catch when he yelled, \u201cBrett, get it!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While he was a long-haired anti-war protester and a bit of a free spirit, he was always pretty old-school when it came to baseball. He taught me to play the right way, to respect the game and my opponents, and to cherish my time on the diamond. My dad continued to catch in adult leagues until well into his 70s. Years ago, when I was a few years out of college and he was in his 40s, my adult-league team played his in a fairly evenly matched game that featured us in a bang-bang play at the plate. When the cloud of dust settled, I was safe, but dad doesn\u2019t let me forget that his team ultimately won the game.<\/p>\n<p>Over decades, baseball facilitated conversations and cemented our relationship. When conversations between us were easy, talking baseball could keep us entertained for hours. When conversations were harder to start, baseball was always one topic that could bridge troubled waters. From the back-and-forth of a simple backyard catch to debates about robot umpires, baseball has been a conversation that started from the first time I could hold a bat and continues today.<\/p>\n<p>Last year, our Baseball BBQ Forkballers team won the 40+ Men\u2019s Senior Baseball League World Series. As we hugged each other and patted each other on the back, I remembered back to getting a phone call when I was a senior in college. It was from my dad, telling me that HIS team had won the MSBL World Series. They were so happy celebrating together and all he wanted to do was share it with me. Even as an old-guy myself, celebrating with my guys including my Baseball BBQ partners, I thought about my dad and the connection that baseball provided for a lifetime.\n      <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Baseball means fathers and sons for so many and it is very much the case for me. My dad taught me to throw and was my very first coach. I don\u2019t remember the number of wins and losses on that team, but I do remember plenty of happy post-game Slurpees. One enduring memory for me [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":284376,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[136],"tags":[5346,2872,5410,3141,20621,5952],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-284375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-barbecue","tag-baseball","tag-bbq","tag-brett","tag-father","tag-mandel","tag-memories"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Memories With My Father: Brett Mandel \u2013 Baseball BBQ - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=284375\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Memories With My Father: Brett Mandel \u2013 Baseball BBQ - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Baseball means fathers and sons for so many and it is very much the case for me. My dad taught me to throw and was my very first coach. I don\u2019t remember the number of wins and losses on that team, but I do remember plenty of happy post-game Slurpees. 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