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Monday, June 20, 2011
Little League Dad of the Year
Great player, great dad:
The former Edmonton Oiler and father of five has a lot of kids in his neighbourhood wishing their own dads would be as patient and supportive and fun as he is. “He’s making us look bad,” joked local businessman James Williams, whose son plays in the same Pony baseball league, but on a different team, as Gretzky’s fourth child, the plucky 10-year-old Tristan Wayne.
“Gretzky is always there on the sidelines, smiling and in a good mood. He’s this superstar athlete, but he never second-guesses the coaches and he doesn’t get in the kids’ faces like we can. He’s this really nice guy. And all the kids are crazy about him.”
There’s really nowhere that fathers can get uglier than watching their offspring make mistakes during a Little League baseball—or pee-wee hockey—game.
During the league playoffs two weeks ago, Williams said the baseball fathers screamed at their kids for any errors they made on the field. “There was one kid who struck out and the father screams, ‘I didn’t come here to watch you lose!’” Williams said. “It’s not the nicest thing in the world, but it’s typical. Most of us breathe down our kids’ necks at one time or another.”
Except, yes ... well ... the Great One. During the same league playoffs last week, Tristan—usually a top switch-hitting player—gave up a reported four runs in a row while on the pitching mound. But Gretzky kept his cool—and so did his son.
“I think it’s because he didn’t get this crazy pressure thing from his father, the kid recovered,” Williams said. The next inning, Tristan smashed a line drive and drove in two runs and the team ended up winning the game. Tristan’s team ended up placing third in the league playoffs.
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