Home For The Holidays

After Malcolm stormed out of the room, Artie decided to change the subject and try to salvage what was left of what could be his only Christmas dinner for quite some time. He turned to Dick first, eager to use a favorite subject both he and his eldest child liked to use to break the ice.

"That was quite a season you had this year, slugger." Artie said with pride, "You made the forty-forty club; that is not an easy feat. I cannot begin to tell you how proud I was of the effort you and team made in the playoffs. A tough ending but you guys put your all into it."

"Thanks Dad," Dick said as he something seemed to be festering inside him much like it had with Malcolm. "When was the last time you saw me play?"

"Excuse me?" Artie asked, surprised by the grilling.

"Really, Dick?" Kim said as she tossed her fork down. "Is fighting the only thing we're going to do tonight?"

"It's all right Kimmy," Artie said as he held up a hand to wave her off. "He clearly has something he wants to get off his chest; let him."

"I can count on one hand how many games you saw as I was growing up." Dick said as he seemed hurt by it, "It seemed like you didn't have time to take part in something that was really special."

"Tell me Richard," Artie started as he also put down his fork, "How did you play the few times I did show up?"

Dick paused for a moment. "I can't remember."

"That's bullshit." David said from across the table. "Those were some of the most awful games you ever played. I think you struck out four times during one of them."

"He did." Artie confirmed, "For some reason, if you knew I was there you played terribly. I felt like a bad penny, holding you back from what you could be."

"So you stopped going," Dick said as he didn't seem to understand the logic, "Does that seem reasonable to you?"

"I never stopped going." Artie corrected him, "I just stopped telling you that I was there."

"What?" Dick said as he wasn't ready to hear that. "You were there? When?"

"How about I answer your first question," Artie said as he got up out of his chair and walked over to the cabinet that held the fine china. He took out a small box and walked back to the table with it. When he opened it up, there were a lot of small pieces of paper inside it. But Dick could tell immediately that they were not just regular pieces of paper. They were tickets; a lot of tickets to baseball games.

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David looked at it from his side of the table, "How many tickets is that?"

"At least fifty," the old man said as he filed through them and finally pulled out a ticket stub that had the logo to Dick's team on it. "Here we go, July 4th of this year. You guys whopped the Athletics by a dozen runs. You hit three homers that day. Funny thing about that game was on TV there was a delay after Dick hit his third homerun. The fans assumed it was because Dick got a long standing ovation but it wasn't. There was a streaker that was pretty fast, it took security a few minutes to catch him. But because Dick was still waving his hat around, they assumed the delay was because of the applause."

"That's right, there was a streaker." Dick said as he took the ticket and looked at it. It was a legitimate ticket stub to his stadium and according to it, he was in the top deck which fans called the nose bleed seats because they were so high fans would joke their noses would bleed from being so high. He looked back up his father. "You were in town all these times and you never told me?"

"So I could watch you strike out four times again?" Artie said as he took back his ticket. "That wouldn't be fair to me or the thousands of fans who paid to be there."

"How many games did you see this year?" Dick then asked.

"I'd estimate I've seen at least a dozen every season." Artie said as he then gestured to the living room, "I caught the rest on TV."

"On television?" Dick asked, "How you get all of my games from California here in Wisconsin?"

"That's really interesting," Artie continued to explain, "I got a machine that I needed one of my neighbor's sons to help me set it up. Yet once it was online and connected to the internet I was able to use program that lets me see every game for every team outside the state. It records every game so if I missed the game live; I could still watch it later. I saw every game Dick, you were amazing to watch."

"I had no idea." Dick said as he took the box and looked at all the tickets. Not only did he attend quite a few games in California, there were even tickets to all-star games and even some playoff games. "You were in New York for last year's playoff?"

"I was." Artie confessed as he beamed with pride, "I even took some trips to see you play when you were in college. Your mom and the kids thought I was on a business trip, but I made the trip to campus to see you play."

Now Dick felt bad for attacking the old man. Turns out he had hidden his visits to prevent Dick from buckling to the pressure he felt as a kid. He had a tear in his eye that he wiped away as he handed the box of tickets back to him. "Are you going to a game next season?"

"Of course I am," Artie said as he planned trips at least once a year. He was already making plans for his next trip to Los Angeles.

"Well, no more hiding in the nose bleeds." Dick told him, "I want you front and center. I'm a professional now and small stuff like that doesn't get to me anymore."

"Alright," Artie replied, "But only if you let Kimmy and the kids come with me. I have a feeling your nieces and nephews would like to see Uncle Dick play now that they realize who he is."

"Oh yeah," Kim said as she put her arm around Dick, "The boys definitely want to see a few games next year."

"I'd love to be there with them too." Artie said, "If you can handle it."

"I can and I will," Dick said with a fire burning deep inside.

"Here's to next season," Artie said as he raised his glass, "Maybe next year you'll join the fifty-fifty club?"

"Really?" Dick said as he couldn't believe the gall, "Forty-Forty isn't enough?"

Everyone had a good laugh as the dinner had finally taken a lighter tone but it wasn't going to last very long.