My son never ceases to amaze me.  As a lifelong Reds fan, I have managed to brainwash my son into the same agonizing torture of pulling for the Reds that I have endured over the last 30 years.  It can be said however, that despite my love and loyalty to this club, my 5 year old son’s love and loyalty may have just surpassed mine last night.
Let me preface by saying that my son LOVES the Reds.  Since the age of 3, he has been copying the swings of some of his favorite Reds.  He’s copied Brandon Phillips routine at-bat, he’s mimicked Adam Dunn’s stance, and in my opinion, has reproduced Griffey’s sweet left handed swing at the bat to the letter.  This past season, he even took a page out of Jay Bruce’s at-bats by raising his back hand up during his tee-ball at-bats to “adjust his sleeve.”  He’ll watch every game with me on television, even knowing when the Reds are on so we can watch.  If I miss the score from the previous night, he informs me the following morning, or vice versa.  Well last night, we achieved a new first for him.
About a week ago, we bought my son a new radio to put in his bed room so that he could go to sleep at night while listening to music.  I placed the channel on a pop station, since that is the type of music he likes to listen to.  The radio and music had worked wonders as he has gone to sleep rather easily this past week listening to the radio.  Last night, as I took him up to tuck him in, I turned on the radio, to the same pop station.  My son crawls in bed and says to me “Dad, aren’t the Reds on the radio?”  He’s used to listening to the games on the radio in my car via my XM radio.  I tell him “Yeah son, but your radio probably won’t be able to pick up the Reds, but I’ll try.”  Now I live in Virginia, and it is usually hit or miss as to whether or not I can pick up 700 WLW on any radio, let alone my son’s little clock radio.  As I dig through the tuner, low and behold, I hear Marty and the Cowboy coming through and without skipping a beat, my son goes “There it is!”
So last night, instead of listening to some of this new age pop music to put him to sleep, my son drifted to sleep listening the voices of Marty and the Cowboy.  It’s not as nice as the Marty and Nuxy that I used to listen to at a much later age than he, but it makes no difference to him.  What have I created?  I just hope last night’s game, nor listening to Jeff Brantley, gave my son nightmares!
As I type this past midnight, I can’t wait to hear him re-tell everything that he heard in the morning!