Pittsburgh Pirates’ Trevor Williams’ Moment Baseball at its Finest

Pittsburgh Pirates Rookie Trevor Williams’ Debut Win Shines a Light on Fathers, Sons and the Magic of the Game of Baseball

It’s already made its way to SportsCenter, the Today Show and is filling up twitter timelines and Facebook pages nationwide – Trevor Williams’ touching moment with first his own son and then his father after winning his first game in his major league debut at PNC Park.

If you’ve been living under a rock, here it is:
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First, Williams speaks to his sleeping son – who is small enough that the video footage of this moment will likely serve as his only memory. Then Trevor turns to his father, reaches out to him to help him climb over seats then they share a few words and embrace.

It was a moment custom-made for September baseball and added a much-needed reminder to stewing Pittsburgh Pirates fans about what this game really is all about.

Because team wins and losses only tell a small part of the story.

In a vacuum, it has made an impact on the country because of the raw emotion and symbolism between a father and a son. I mean, if a picture of those two guys embracing isn’t on the front of a Father’s Day card this June then I will be massively disappointed with Hallmark and its efforts to commercialize every human emotion. The interesting thing is though, in baseball terms, a very similar scene has played out countless times on countless baseball fields since the game was born.

Parents want the best for their kids, of course. But to actually see them get it? To be able to watch your child achieve lifelong goals, to be counted among the very best of their craft, to play on the biggest stage possible? That’s incredibly special.

For me, the moment was a gift.

I smiled when Trevor spoke to his son. I touched my hand to my heart when he kissed his wife. When he reached out for his dad, the tears started rolling. And when he handed his dad that ball and you could see the emotion on his father’s face, well let’s just say I’m glad I bought tissues at Walmart earlier that day.

My dad died almost two years ago.

I notice his absence in my life every day, but with the time that has passed, it’s not every moment of every day. Like the phases of the moon, my grief, my sadness, my need to hug him just once more waxes and wanes. Lately, it has been growing – for a million reasons, most of which I recognize, some I’ll never understand.

[perfectpullquote align=”left” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]This is baseball. It is why we fall in love and stay in love through the eight-game losing streaks and decades of losing. [/perfectpullquote]

Watching Trevor Williams celebrating such a milestone with his father reminded me of all of the things I will never get to share with mine. And, because his father is battling lymphoma, he’s perhaps thought about those things as well, since anytime a loved one is in ill health our thoughts turn to the “what ifs.” All of this made the moment between he and his dad even more special and heart-touching.

I have gotten to know a few guys affiliated with the Pittsburgh Pirates this past year who’ve recently lost their dads. I wondered how they felt watching the Williams’ celebrate and if they were, like me, grieving all over again.

This morning, seeing that it had gone viral on social media, I watched the Root video again. And instead of seeing Trevor standing there in that number 57 Pirates throwback jersey, pulling his dad into an embrace – I saw myself. And when his dad patted him on his back and said (as Trevor later revealed,) “I’m proud of you,” it was my dad. I hope that my friends, watching from their jobs in the stands and clubhouse, saw that too.

This is baseball. It is why we fall in love and stay in love through the eight-game losing streaks and decades of losing. No other sport can capture the heart and transport us to a time and place like baseball. There is not another sport played today that fosters such a deep and emotional connection between fans and its players. We learn their stories, we watch them triumph, we watch them fail and we watch them pick themselves back up when they fall. And whether it’s while playing shortstop for our office softball team or sitting on our couch missing our dad, we all sometimes imagine we are them.

And for me, that meant I got to hug my dad one more time.

Thank you, Trevor Williams, for that moment.

Photo Credit – Root Sports via Twitter