It seems like exactly the sort of human interest story ESPN eats for breakfast and then has leftovers of for lunch. After LSU's 9-7 win against UC-Irvine, 55-year old Curt McCarty died suddenly at Alex Box Stadium, leaving a wife and at least one son, Logan. Logan was at the game with his father.
Via Senator's Forum, a blog I don't entirely understand, I was pointed to this story , detailing how various Baton Rouge-area businesses, the LSU baseball team, and the Tiger Athletic Foundation made sure that Curt McCarty's final dream came true: the dream of taking his son Logan to Omaha to see LSU play.
"Really sad week, probably the worst week of my life. And then, it turned out to be one of the happiest." It's the happiest because on the same day that Logan buried his father, he got a call from LSU infielder Buzzie Haydel asking him to join the team in Omaha in memory of his father. "Well, what you think about that? Is that alright? You alright Log?" Haydel asked. "That's pretty awesome! Hasn't sunk in yet. I guess it will once I get there," Logan says. ... He says there's nowhere else he would rather be than on the field with LSU, with his dad smiling down on him on Father's Day and with his mom cheering on his father's team.
I don't want to gush about LSU, TAF, TigerMania, and Enterprise Rent-A-Car making everything better, because frankly whenever Logan returns home he will still be a teenage kid who just lost his father. No amount of baseball will cure that. However, it's still a great story. He not only gets to see his favorite team on the biggest stage, but he gets to honor his father while doing it.
Lots of men and boys, myself included, have over the years bonded with their fathers over a mutual love of a particular sports team. My father loves the Yankees and the Celtics. I was always a Lakers and anyone-but-the-Yankees fan. But we both love LSU, and have all my life. To this day, it's probably the most frequent topic of conversation between us. Well, that and his newest grandchild who, as I type this (at 10:00pm), is refusing to sleep.
In a world where sports is mostly just a glorified distraction from the really important things, one of the few genuinely positive impacts of sports is that it brings people together, both within families and outside of families. James Carville and RightWingAnti-Media both agree that LSU is awesome. If they were to talk about any other topic of conversation, there would probably be a fight.
I'm happy for Logan. He gets a great time, and what is essentially the world's most awesome funeral for his father.