The scoreboard read “Virginia 6, Tennessee 0.” The TD Ameritrade Park grounds crew was watering down the field.
In April 2018, the elder Michaels was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, given a five percent chance of survival just as his son had made the decision to leave Wisconsin for Charlottesville and a coveted spot on the Virginia baseball roster, more than 1,000 miles from home.
He only made it to a few games during his son’s first two seasons and finally made to Charlottesville in April, almost exactly three years to the day of his diagnosis.
In Section 108, the catcher’s dad thanked them for their recognition and craned his neck to see if he might catch the eye of his kid on the field.
Every corner of the College World Series is draped in imagery of paternal relationships, whether it be selfies with one’s pops taken in front of stadium landmarks or the “Awkward Dad Dance Cam” scoreboard feature that had Sunday afternoon’s crowd of 22,130 in stitches.
And in the offices of that old ballpark the tickets were managed by D-Day veteran Eddie Sobczyk, who shuffled, sorted and sold tickets for more than five decades, joined initially by his son and eventually by his grandson.
Last week, Vitello and his father, Greg — a Missouri Sports Hall of Fame coach — told stories to the Knoxville News Sentinel about six-year-old Tony hiding beneath the scorer’s table at the high school gym, learn about coaching at the literal feet of the father.
Douglas III was only four years old, but he made a Father’s Day trip to Rosenblatt Stadium with his family and told his dad that one day he wanted to follow in his cleats and play in Omaha as a Longhorn.
Jake joined the team this season as a first baseman and on Sunday they became the first brothers to start a College World Series game together since 2009, and they did it on Father’s Day with Adam watching from the first base stands, Section 108, watching Zach bang out three hits with an RBI and a run scored.
When an associate of John’s was commissioned to sculpt a College World Series statue to be placed outside the stadium, he was discussing it in John’s office and spotted a photo of Brian celebrating a Creighton win.
But by Game 3’s end, their focus had shifted to another dad, a gray-haired man in a blue-and-orange Cavaliers golf shirt.
“I wasn’t able to be with them really at all while Logan has been at Virginia, but they have always done everything they could to keep me included.
They were sitting in the left-field bleachers, almost the exact same spot where the Gelof brothers took their prophetic Father’s Day photo in 2014, when the baseball that Logan Michaels blasted in the third inning was coming in hot.
Then the people in Section 127 who were watching the game on their phones started telling Sinclair about Logan Michaels and his father.
But as the innings moved forward, Virginia extended its lead, Logan kept getting hits and Jeff’s location became the focal point of the stadium.
“I told that ball means so much more to that man and his son that it does to me,” the wise eleven-year-old said after spending a half-inning sitting with the Michaels family.