The Gamecocks, the CWS, and Dads

I thought this would make a good, if belated, Father’s Day post. Somehow the link to a video of Samuel L. Jackson didn’t have the same tone.

For those of you not tuned in to the world of College Sports, or even those who just don’t care about anything other than football and basketball, you may not be aware that the Gamecocks of the University of South Carolina are currently defending their national championship title in NCAA men’s baseball at the College World Series (the CWS for short) in Omaha, Nebraska. Go Cocks! (See, we are allowed to say stuff like that out loud in South Carolina without anyone raising an eyebrow. Try that in Chicago.)

So far, so good. The Gamecocks are 2-0 in CWS play and have tied the NCAA baseball tournament record for consecutive games won (carried over from last year) with 13 straight. Not bad for a few kids from Columbia. They currently need one more win to get to the best-of-three national title series for the second time in two years (and I believe the fourth time in the program, but don’t quote me on that). They will get their chance on Friday night against the winner of the loser’s bracket game (Cal v. UVA), which will be played on Thursday. We will anxiously await the results of both of those games.

What you may not be aware of, even if you have followed the CWS, is this little item. David Roth, the father of Gamecock’s pitcher Michael Roth, was forced to choose between his job and following his son to Omaha. David missed seeing his son play, in what essentially was his breakout performance, at last year’s CWS, because he could not get the time off from his job selling cars in upstate South Carolina. He vowed that if they made it back to Omaha this year, nothing would stand in his way. Ultimately he quit his job to follow through.

David Roth has taken some flack from members of the public for this - giving up a stable job in this economy seems like the height of foolishness. But he has his supporters too, and personally I think the odds are good that his job may still be available for him after this tournament is over, or some member of the Gamecock nation might have an opening for a salesman and dedicated father. But who knows? Frankly, I doubt all that was much of a consideration for David. I suspect he just wanted to watch his son play.

Parents - the good ones, anyway - make all kinds of sacrifices for their kids. I know, because I can’t imagine there is anything in this world I wouldn’t do for my daughter, and I haven’t even had the pleasure of meeting her yet. Most of the time though, parental sacrifice is not of the big gesture variety exhibited by Mr. Roth. Not to take anything away from Mr. Roth’s actions, but it’s the everyday, unsung sacrifices that make the biggest difference: foregoing a trip, or purchase you were looking forward to so your kids can take a field trip or go to camp; putting hobbies on hold so you can spend a little more precious free-time at tea-party or soccer games; working a job you hate, or even a job you like for longer hours than you want to so your children have everything they need.

The thing is, I doubt most of those parents - again, talking about the good ones - see any of that as a sacrifice. Still, it bears saying thank you. So, thanks Dad.




...and Mom, but Mother’s Day was a lot longer ago.