“Dad, Can We Have a Catch?”

Everyone keeps telling me that I win the “Best Daughter of the Year” award for taking my dad to the Field of Dreams in Iowa for Father’s Day. Yes, it’s true. Just two days before Father’s Day, I hatched a plan to take a road trip from Chicago to Dyersville, IA, to play catch with my dad on the legendary baseball field. There’s more to the story, though. Growing up, I played Little League with the boys, and he was my coach. Baseball was always our thing, and we’d play catch for hours in the front yard. How does life get so busy, that the years speed by? This year, I knew my hardworking dad was overdue for an adventure. So on Father’s Day, I came up with an outlandish idea. I gave him a baseball that said, “Dad, can we have a catch?”  If you’ve never seen the Academy Award nominated baseball movie, you wouldn’t understand. Two days later, we were driving down a dirt road to the real Field of Dreams farm. The property remains eerily the same, and as we walked out onto the diamond, the humid summer breeze rustled across the corn fields. Shoeless Joe didn’t step out to join us, and neither did Kevin Costner, but it was a priceless moment just the same. I was going to write a big fancy article for a magazine about the whole thing, but I might not. I might just save this story for myself. We played catch just like the old days until we wore our arms out, I had him hit me some grounders and flies, and then we sat on the bleachers and watched the last rays of sunlight dance across the outfield before disappearing into the fields.