Belated Father's Day Post

Good morning Fackers. In our gross absenteeism over the past several days we've neglected to mention a handful of things that have happened over that time. One of those was Father's Day this past Sunday. So three days a late and a buck short, we'll extend our best wishes to all the fatherly Fackers out there.

After Father's Day last year, we ran a couple posts about former Yankees who are part of two generation baseball families. While Nick Swisher and Robinson Cano remain second generation Big Leaguers on the Yankees roster, the team has spent the past two series playing the sons of former Yankee pitchers.

Father's Day weekend was spent playing the Mets and their rookie first baseman Ike Davis, the son of former Yankee reliever Ron Davis. The elder Davis was drafted by the Cubs in 1976, and was shipped to the Yankees two years later in exchange for Ken Holtzman. After making just four appearances that season, Davis established himself as a reliable bullpen arm. He spent the next three seasons as Goose Gossage's primary set up man, posting impressive numbers. He won fourteen games in 1979 without making a single start and made the All-Star team in 1981. He also made headlines that year by working as a waiter during the players' strike.

That post-season, he worked 9.1 scoreless innings in the ALDS and ALCS, before getting knocked around in the World Series. The following spring he was part of a three player package sent to Minnesota for Roy Smalley, himself a second generation Major Leaguer.

Meanwhile, Diamondbacks' first baseman Adam LaRoche, just like his positional counterpart on the Mets, is the son of a former Yankee reliever. Lefty Dave LaRoche was at the tail end of his career when the Yankees signed him as a free agent early in the 1981 season. He spent the following two seasons, plus a one game cameo in 1983, as a member of the Yankee pen, going 8-3 with a 3.12 ERA. His time was probably most notable for employing his eephus pitch, dubbed "La Lob". Following his retirement after the '83 season, he spent three years as a pitching coach in the Yankees minor league system.

It won't be long before the sons of players I grew up watching will be populating MLB rosters, at which point I will feel really old.