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A story about my “surplus father”, who passed away at the beginning of the month. 1/
Kevin, or “Big Guy” as us adopted siblings called him, introduced me to @AlabamaFTBL approximately 15 years ago.
At the time, I was a diehard @ArizonaSoftball fan.
At the time, I was a diehard @ArizonaSoftball fan.
As my love for Bama football grew, my interest in @AlabamaSB grew as well. In 2012 I watched from North Pole, AK as the team won the WCWS and from that moment, Arizona’s softball team slid into second place in my heart.
Now, my Raff family, they didn’t watch softball. They knew I played, they knew I watched, but they were diehard football fans. (A Raff cousin I’ve met once played college ball, but MY Raffs weren’t big softball people)
When Big Guy was diagnosed with cancer, two years ago, he ended up spending a lot of time at home, unable to work. February of that year, I got a phone call.
Big Guy was watching Bama play ball, and knew I would be too.
For the 2019 & 2020 seasons, Big Guy would call me during every televised game I was home for, and we would “watch” the game together, him from Florida and me from Alaska.
I think every game I regurgitated the same details from my 2017 interview with @UACoachMurphy for a homework assignment I’d done, and he’d tell me his opinion on if Fouts or Kilfoyl should be pitching.
Unfortunately due to Covid-19, our 2020 softball phone calls were limited, but I made sure to check in on him & he would call me every other week or so.
About three weeks before he died, he told me he really wanted to see Bama play at the St. Pete/Clearwater Elite Invitational.
I promised him that if he was alive in February, I would fly down from Alaska and take him to the games. Unfortunately we won’t make it.
But gosh darn if that guy didn’t become a diehard Bama softball fan because he loved me, Alabama, and riveting games.
I miss him so much, and his portrait & I will watch every game of the St Pete/Clearwater tourney from my apartment in Alaska.
But God, does it hurt that I can’t tell him for the 101st time that Coach Murph was in a Starbucks in California when we spoke, or argue with him about Krystal Goodman being on the mound, or both of us just dumbfounded at how fast Elissa Brown is.
Don’t take those moments for granted.
