baseball – Canadian Dad

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He Would Have Loved This

August 10, 2017/4 Comments/in THE BLOG, The Daddy Files /by Chris Read

As my kids are growing older and developing into incredible little athletes, I find myself thinking more and more about my dad and how much he would have loved having sporty grandkids. I’m guessing he’d especially love the fact that my son is playing baseball.

I can still remember how our double car garage was set up as a batting cage instead of a place for cars, and while my garage isn’t nearly as large, I still have the batting tee and net set up in much the same way. One of my great sporting regrets is not realizing how good my dad was as a coach and taking our garage lessons more seriously. You’d think watching Canadian national team members come over to hit in our garage, or seeing him coach in the Olympics would have sparked me, but I was simply too lazy to put in the extra effort. That part hasn’t changed much, I guess.

The funny thing is that as much as I told myself that I would blaze my own path with my kids, I seem to be instinctively following in my dad’s footsteps, and that’s not a bad thing. As I helped coach with my son’s baseball team this year, I understood what it was that drew him to coaching. It’s not just that you get to be around your own child to watch them grow into a sport, it’s the rush of helping other kids grow and develop physically, mentally and socially.

The first moment a child thanks you for helping them overcome a hurdle, or a parent tells you that their child raves about how much fun they’re having, you get hooked. I understand now why my dad put in so many hours studying drills and taking coaching courses to better learn the game. The winning was a lot of fun, and we won A LOT, but we had fun as a team even when we lost and we worked harder because we had great coaches.

He may not be around to help me as a father and coach but I know he would have loved this time in his grandkids lives and it gives me motivation to give both my kids and the kids I coach the kind of attention him and his coaching staff gave to us when we were young.

What I am also saying here is that you can expect a slew of sports related posts in the years to come!

A Weekend We’ll Never Forget

July 17, 2017/0 Comments/in Guest Posts, THE BLOG /by Chris Read

What started as just another travel baseball tournament weekend quickly morphed into one of the better trips we’ve had as a family in a while. A week before we were scheduled to leave for London, Ontario for my son’s baseball tournament, I was already whining in my head about the 6+ hour drive ahead. You see, I love the actual tournament experience, I just don’t like the driving part. It’s not even because of the kids because they are excellent passengers, it’s just the physical act of driving that I don’t enjoy at any time whatsoever.

To break up the trip a bit, we decided to take in a Toronto Blue Jays game the day before the tournament began. Through an exclusive opportunity from both Rogers and the Toronto Blue Jays organization, I managed to get passes to watch the Jays batting practice before the game, which I figured would be a cool way to make my son’s experience that much more special.

The batting practice sounded like it was going to be fun as we would get access to the stadium before the gates opened and I assumed we’d sit in the seats behind home plate, watch them hit and then leave. Imagine my surprise as they walked us out onto the field, right behind home plate, and plopped us mere feet away from the whole Blue Jays team, who were warming up right in front of us.

Had that been the whole experience we would have been more than happy, but then the players started coming over with game balls, signing them for the kids and taking pictures with them. My son stood, wide-eyed, as his favourite players passed by, high fiving the kids, and then it happened. While wearing his Aaron Sanchez jersey, my son looked up to see none other than Sanchez himself. I was so excited for him that I forgot to ask Aaron for a nice photo but I guarantee it’s something my boy will never forget.

All in all we got to meet players like Ezekiel Carrera, Ryan Goins, Danny Barnes, Roberto Osuna and manager, John Gibbons. Oh, and the fact that after the Jays finished batting practice, the potential MVP of the league from the Houston Astros, Jose Altuve, came over and posed for a picture with my son and signed his ball. I can’t say enough good things about these players and the Blue Jays organization for putting these kinds of things together.

The game itself was everything we could have asked for as well. A few other boys from the baseball team were there and the kids had a blast. We saw a Russ Martin homerun, Kevin Pillar made some Superman-like plays, we got the full Roberto Osuna experience and the Jays beat the best team in baseball! Oh, and our hotel, the Radisson Admiral, was a 3 minute walk from Rogers Centre, which, if you know downtown Toronto at all, is so incredibly convenient.

Speaking of the Radisson Admiral, I can’t imagine I will ever swim in another pool with a view like this one!

I woke up before the rest of my family the next morning, grabbed a Starbucks from the Radisson’s lobby (yeah, the Starbucks is IN the lobby!) and set out on a walk of Toronto’s Entertainment District. I can see why people love it there as it’s the best of both worlds, being so peaceful in the morning and so much fun at night. This is a trip I look forward to every year and it was magical as always.

Thank you so much to the Toronto Blue Jays organization, Rogers and the Radisson Admiral hotel for helping to make this a weekend we won’t soon forget!

Summer Is Here & It’s Time To Get Outside!

June 21, 2017/0 Comments/in THE BLOG /by Chris Read

“This post is sponsored by Bayer. To make sure these products are right for you, always read and follow the label.”

In the age of electronics, we’ve been pretty lucky when it comes to making sure our kids get enough outdoor time. Both kids ended up loving sports, which keeps them outside from morning until night and makes this dad a happy camper. I figure if the only downside to this is that they sometimes don’t want to come inside, that’s a trade-off I’ll take.

While we aren’t much of a classic outdoors family, with the camping and hiking and whatnot, we love spending time outside together. With that said, here are a few of our favourite summertime activities!

1. Baseball

I can’t tell you how happy I was when my son decided he wanted to try baseball as one of his activities. I played competitive fastball my entire youth and while I purposefully didn’t push my son into it, I’m excited that he discovered a love for it on his own. That means I get to coach, which also means I’m using muscles I hadn’t used in a looooong time. Luckily for me, I have discovered ALEVE® Back & Body Pain, because I’m not sure how else I’d be able to get through running up and down the baselines for 5 tournament games in one weekend!

2. Soccer

While my son chose a sport I was familiar with, my daughter has gone in the opposite direction. As if 16 hours of gymnastics a week wasn’t enough, she also decided to excel at soccer. I will admit that when I was a kid the baseball kids were trained to dislike soccer, I really love watching her fly up and down the field like a bolt of lightning. It’s also kind of nice to not know anything about a sport because I can pay more attention to my daughter and worry less about the rules.

3. Glamping

I mentioned earlier that we are not a campaign family, but that doesn’t mean we don’t hit a campground for the weekend on occasion. In our case, however, we choose to book a cabin at nearby KOAs so it feels like we are camping without the uncomfortable feeling of a deflated mattress at 2am! The only real downside to this is that my wife is an allergy sufferer and occasionally needs to pop one of her Claritin® Allergy tablets to get through the day’s events, but then we are back on track!

4. Water Fights

Whether it’s just us with water balloons or the entire neighbourhood with water guns, I don’t know anyone who doesn’t love a good water fight! That is, as long as the people getting soaked know that they are in said water battle…

5. Trampolining

We are officially a trampoline family now and I have never seen the kids want to be outside more in their lives. Seriously, they wake up and before I can remind them to brush their teeth they are outside jumping in their PJs. Even on the hottest days of summer so far they are out there, jumping and melting in the hot sun. You can imagine how eager they are to stop jumping to come and get their sunscreen on… Luckily we found the Coppertone® Sport Sunscreen Continuous Spray SPF 30 which not only gets them back on the trampoline in minutes but also handles the sweat with ease and holds its SPF for at least 80 minutes of activity.

There’s so much more we love to do in the summer but this covers the major items on our yearly checklist! How about you? I’d love to hear what your favourite summer activities are, so feel free to go ahead and leave them in the comment section!

“This post is sponsored by Bayer. To make sure these products are right for you, always read and follow the label.”

How Much Is Too Much When It Comes To Kids Activities?

March 1, 2017/2 Comments/in THE BLOG, The Daddy Files /by Chris Read

Dinner? Check! Water bottle? Check! Healthy snack? Check! Leotard? Check! Shorts that go over top of leotard or the whole outfit is ruined? Double Check! I quickly run over my list before picking up my daughter from school and rushing her to her 4:30 gymnastics class at Kanata Gymnosphere. We usually have about 20 minutes to eat dinner in the minivan, yes, I’m a proud minivan owner, and chat a little about our day before she has to get dressed for class.

This may sound chaotic to some parents, and admittedly it was at first, but it is normal routine for us now. To be perfectly honest I’ve grown to really enjoy that 20 minutes between school and gymnastics because we get a chance to talk, laugh and turn off life’s distractions for a little while. My daughter spends 16 hours a week at this gym so that one on one time before class starts is important for both of us.

I know what you’re probably thinking, “16 hours a week for a 6 year old?!? That’s crazy!!”, and I would have definitely agreed with you a year ago when we first walked into the gym. We started in a regular once a week class, which then jumped to 9 hours a week, then 12 and now 16. Every step of the way we hesitated, wondering if it was the right decision for our daughter. The thing is, she loves it, and she is really good at it. It also helps that the staff at Kanata Gymnosphere treat her like family from the minute she walks in until she leaves her session, and the focus, determination and discipline she has shown lets us know as parents that she is able to handle the workload.

All in all, between our daughter and son, we spend just over 20 hours a week at various organized activities and while the kids don’t ever complain about it, my wife and I definitely worry about the effects it could have on them, and ourselves. We keep a close eye on things such as the kids’ schoolwork, sleep patterns and general moods to make sure that the activities aren’t negatively affecting their day to day lives. It’s not just the kids we have to worry about either, as shuttling them all over the city and coordinating schedules for two working parents can be tricky and stressful as well, so we’ve had to be mindful of how this is affecting us as partners.

I’d love to sit here and act all-knowing but the truth is that I have no idea if we are doing the right thing for our kids by letting them spend so much time in extra-curricular activities. They don’t seem to be showing any signs of fatigue and their teachers have no complaints so we allow them to continue doing the things that bring them joy. We make sure to grab hold of any family/snuggle time we can get, eat dinners together when possible and talk to the kids a lot about how they are feeling. We’ve managed to strike a balance in there somewhere for the time being and hopefully we’ll fine tune it as time passes.

So, what’s the answer to the question of how much is too much when it comes to your child’s activities? I think the answer is that it depends on the child. Only you can know how your child reacts to different environments and workloads. What works for my kids may not necessarily work for yours, and that’s perfectly alright. As a former sports brat myself, my advice would be to let them experiment with new activities, gauge how they interact in them and talk to them about how they feel while doing it. Letting your children guide you as opposed to making the decisions for them is always a step in the right direction.

If you want to talk more about youth sports and activities, I’d love to hear from you in the comments or over on my Facebook page at facebook.com/canadiandad! Cheers!

Baseball Season Is Upon Us

May 19, 2016/1 Comment/in THE BLOG, The Daddy Files /by Chris Read

I’m struggling to express the joy I felt when our son let us know that he wanted to give baseball a shot this year. Having played ball for my entire youth and well into adulthood, I was excited to have the opportunity to help him on his way to baseball mediocrity as my father had done for me.

We are two weeks into the season and things seem to be going according to plan. The kids love kicking their feet around in the dirt, creating mini dust tornadoes and making it impossible for anyone to see what they are doing, as we did in our youth. Wrangling twelve 7 & 8-year-old boys and getting them all to pay attention at the same time is always a fun challenge but you learn to appreciate all of their individual quirks and mannerisms. That said, one of the many perks of volunteering to be on the coaching staff is that you can always keep your own child inline and paying attention!

True to the chaos that is parenting, right before the season started we realized that our son had no proper baseball equipment. Flashing back to my youth I can remember the excitement of my dad bringing me to Canadian Tire because I always new I was about to get some new gear. The only downside to shopping when I was a kid was that we were at the mercy of the stock on the store shelves. We live in a slightly different time now so I was excited to present my son with the new Canadian Tire WOW Guide so he could pick out the items he wanted and then I had them ordered right to our store.

Tell me this kid doesn’t look like a seasoned baseball player now! Through the Canadian Tire WOW Guide, we were able to score him a new Troy Tulowitzki glove, a Raptor baseball bat, a new Rawlings baseball, new cleats and an amazing Easton bag to carry it all in. I loved watching his face as he flipped through the WOW Guide and excitedly circled all the things he wanted. I obviously had to shave the list down as he circled about 6 pages worth of sports gear but it reminded me about the fun of going through catalogues when I was a kid.

I highly recommend that you grab the WOW Guide from your local Canadian Tire store or check it out at Canadian Tire’s website. The guide covers everything from lawn and garden and home décor to power tools and tires, plus you can use the Canadian Tire app to hover over the products you love in the WOW Guide to unlock dynamic digital extras like videos, how-to’s and DIYs. Well, what are you waiting for?!

Disclosure: I was compensated for my participation in this program, however I used that money to buy more baseball gear from Canadian Tire because I have no self control.

I Wonder If They Know

February 27, 2016/8 Comments/in THE BLOG, The Daddy Files /by Chris Read

I see a lot of great clips in the media that show professional athletes or celebrities interacting with children and putting a huge smile on the children’s faces in the process. I often wonder if the athlete or celebrity truly understands the lasting effect it can have on a child when they take the time to make them feel good about themselves.

This past weekend while I was away at the Dad 2.0 Summit in Washington, DC, my family visited with my in-laws in Florida. While they were there my father-in-law took my son down to watch the Tampa Bay Rays pitchers and catchers as they took to the field for the first time this year. Any time you get to see professional athletes up close it is a treat but my son’s experience went beyond simply watching them from afar.

Before I get into the story, here’s a little background. I played pretty high level fastball growing up and loved everything about baseball. There was nothing I wanted more than for my son to love the sport I grew up with but I also wanted him to make his own decisions about what he liked and disliked, so I tried not to force baseball on him. Early on it seemed like he wouldn’t be interested and I had since made my peace with that. This year he asked to sign up for winter baseball skills lessons but after seven or eight classes still hadn’t decided if baseball was for him. Fast forward to this past weekend, however, and he came home from Florida begging for me to sign him up.

What changed, you ask?

As luck would have it, the Tampa Bay Rays are really good with their fans and especially the kids. They probably thought nothing of tossing a ball to a young fan but to my son it was one of the coolest things that has ever happened to him. For Chris Archer and Blake Snell to come and sign the ball and his newly purchased Rays hat made the experience even better for my future slugger. If this is all that had happened my son would have walked out of there an excited young baseball fan, but there was one more interaction that pushed him over the top and has since convinced him to want to be a baseball player.

One player took a little extra time chatting with my son and it was his excited recollection of the conversation that convinced me to write this story. So to pitcher Mark Sappington, thank you for making my son feel extra special. Thank you for signing his ball and thank you for not only asking him to show off his arm for you but also for praising him after his throw and telling him you think he has what it takes. What was most likely a common fan interaction for you meant the world to him and gave him more confidence than I could ever give him with the same compliment. He finalized his decision to play baseball this year because of you. How cool is it to have that kind of influence over a young person?

Thank you to the Tampa Bay Rays for treating my son so well and for giving him the confidence to believe in himself. I also promise not to steal the signed ball or hat that he has yet to leave out of his sight…!

Who Cries About Professional Sports?

October 1, 2015/3 Comments/in THE BLOG, The Daddy Files /by Chris Read

There I sat on my couch with my 7 year old son, watching the Toronto Blue Jays clinch the AL East title for the first time in 22 years. It was nice to be able to share something I enjoy with my son and I assumed that we would watch it and then go on with bedtime as we do every night. That isn’t exactly what happened though.

As we watched the Blue Jays celebrate, my son snuggled up next to me, I started to feel the sting that usually precedes a good cry. Trust me, I had the same thought you just did, “Who cries about professional sports?”. It only took me a minute to figure out what was going on and once I did I took an extra couple minutes with my son to sit and enjoy the moment we were experiencing.

It was 22 years ago that I sat in my basement with my dad, watching as Joe Carter hit a home run to win the World Series. I remember jumping up and down, numerous high fives and the feeling of pure joy in that moment. Every time I see that clip and hear the famous, “Touch ’em all, Joe”, I am transported back to that moment and I can’t help but smile at remembering that special time with my father.

I often worry that my memories of my father are going to disappear but this was an excellent reminder that they are just being stored away for when I really need them. My son is younger than I was on that day 22 years ago but that doesn’t mean his mind won’t come back to this moment one day when he is experience something similar with his own kids.

So I guess the answer to the question, “Who cries about pro sports?” is, I do, and I’m perfectly okay with that.

A Father’s Insecurity: What If My Son Hates Sports?

February 3, 2012/39 Comments/in THE BLOG, The Daddy Files /by Chris Read

I’ve always been an athletic person. Even in my older, chubbier dad years, I still feel like I can hold my own on a sports field.

I got this from my Dad. In a bittersweet and cruel twist of fate, I lost my father on the same day my wife found out that we were pregnant with our first child. Regrettably, I never got the chance to sit down and talk dad stuff with him. I didn’t get to ask him questions about my youth, or his for that matter and that’s one of those things that you regret as a son and father.

From the young age of 6 and maybe sooner for all I can remember, my dad encouraged me to take part in sport and I gladly obliged. Really by the time I was a teenager, sports was all I knew and I loved the feeling of being able to excel in something that I knew made my dad proud. He didn’t force anything on me, I truly enjoyed the time it afforded us together.

He coached almost every team I ever played on and when we weren’t at the diamond or on the ice, he always made time to ask if there was anything I wanted to work on in my respective disciplines. He went as far as building a rink in our backyard every year and also making a huge net for me to take batting practice in the garage. We grew very close through sports and when I found out that I was going to become a father, I couldn’t help but hope for the same type of result with my son.

Flash Forward to today, my son is almost four years old and is more than ready to start carving his niche in the world. Obviously I would love for that to involve sports but I worry about the prospect of him not wanting anything to do with it. After all, sports is really all I knew growing up, so naturally I have a lot to offer as far as coaching and experience go.

I have also developed a love for music, but as a singer with no formal training and no instrumental skills, there’s really not much I can teach him other than a brief history of rock and roll and what I learned from the Foo Fighters documentary. So that brings us back to sports as my main source of expert knowledge to share with my son.

I’ve started trying to get him into sporty things. I tried to get him to watch hockey with me but without Lightning McQueen or Buzz Lightyear on either team, my efforts fell by the wayside. I still remember the first day he asked me if I wanted to go outside and play hockey, I beamed with joy and shot outside so fast that I forgot to bring him with me. The hockey game lasted 5 minutes before hide and seek became all the rage.

Now we’ve begun soccer lessons and I can’t tell if he enjoys it or not. I know he has fun at it but I wonder if it’s because of the sport aspect or because he has a couple buddies in the class. He’s starting to understand that when the ball or puck goes into the net, he’s done something worth celebrating and while I try to make a big deal out of his goals, I also don’t want to look like one of those crazy parents at a sporting event that makes their kid and themselves look ridiculous.

The point of this article is not to criticize my son on his ability or interest in sports, it’s to shed light on my insecurity that if he decides sports aren’t for him, what do I have to offer him as a father? It’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot as a father who doesn’t want to fail his son.

In the end, no matter what he decides his path will be, I am going to be supportive (unless he chooses a life of crime I suppose). I also want to be able to help him grow into the kind of person my father has helped me to become, regardless of his life choices. And I guess I would just feel more confident if that life included something tangible I knew how to teach him, other than life necessities such as using the toilet and brushing his teeth, which my wife and dentist will attest to as being things I’m not even that good at, lol.

Thanks for letting me share a little bit of my inner workings with you. It feels good to put it all down in writing, even if no one reads it. I often wonder if Mom’s struggle with the same insecurities that us Dad’s do? They always seem to have such a level head about everything and look to have it all put together as natural parents. If I had to do half the work my wife does or that my mother did, I think my head would literally explode into tiny pieces.

If you have anything you want to say about this topic, please feel free to leave me a comment below. I check and respond to them all and love hearing from everyone.

Cheers!