Sports journalist & anchor Jay Crawford shares a deeply personal story about his father, post-season baseball, and the virtue of optimism.
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Story Production: Aaron Calafato
Audio Production: Ken Wendt
Music Contributor: thomas j. duke
Podcast Coordinator: Cori Birce
Creative Consultant: Anthony Vorndran
TRANSCRIPT
7minuteswithJayCrawford.mp3 - powered by Happy Scribe
Hey, everybody, Aaron here, one quick 7 Minute Stories update, we're taking a much needed few weeks off for summer vacation, but this is a great time for you to catch up and binge on all the stories you haven't heard yet or go back and re-listen to some of your favorites. But before we break, as promised, you're going to hear an incredible story about a father and son and Cleveland Indians baseball today. But as you'll hear, it's much more than that.
This is seven minutes with Jay Crawford and this is Jay Crawford's story. Let me set you up for what you're about to hear. It was 2007 and Jay was working at ESPN, very well-known sports anchor, and his favorite team is the Cleveland Indians. And they were having an incredible season that year. In fact, that year they were up three games to one in a seven game series for the American League Championship against the Boston Red Sox. But there was something more pressing going on in Jay's life.
His father, whom he shared an undefinable love of Cleveland sports and baseball with, was very ill. In fact, they didn't know how much time he had left or if he'd be able to see the Cleveland Indians potentially march on and compete for a World Series that year, a World Series, something the Indians hadn't won since 1948. Jay's dad was ten at that time. So ESPN tells Jay he can go see his dad in Arizona and watch the Indians potentially win the American League Championship Series.
And I say this casually because in sports, the percentages say being up three games to one in a seven game series means you're nearly guaranteed to win. So, Jay takes some time off work. And the plan was, he was going to fly out to Arizona and watch the next game, game five and potential series clinching game with his dad. But because of the time change from New York to Arizona, he and his dad had planned to record the game and watch it together in real time.
So during his trip the game is going on and Jay didn't watch the TV, he's not listening to the radio. He's doing everything he can do. He even wore a hat and sunglasses, he said, so he wouldn't be recognized in the airport, all in an effort not to hear the results of the game and to be able to view it in real time with his dad. Well, as soon as the plane lands in Arizona, Jay is about to get off the plane and some guy behind him gets up and says, Jay, oh, man, sorry to hear about your Indians.
And Jay said, What are you talking about? Well, I'll let Jay take it from here. Enjoy.
Oh you haven't heard? and I said, no, I'm going to watch game five with Pops. He's DVRing it. And he goes, oh, man, I'm sorry I ruined it for you. So without knowing how the game exactly played out, I knew they had lost. So I'm thinking in the half hour drive to my parents' house, how am I going to sit there and watch a game that I know the Indians lose without leading on to my dad, that I know they lost because for him it was the experience, each situation. Are they going to hit and run here.
They need to drop it down a bunt here. I'd go to the bullpen here. We play those scenarios out with every game we'd watch. So, I know now that they've lost I don't know how and I didn't know the score, but I knew they lost. So I get to my parents' house and my dad is like a kid in a candy store, he's so excited, you know. Can't wait to start. I've got it all ready to go. Let's go.
And he hits play. And I'm sitting there thinking, look at his enthusiasm over this game. He doesn't know what happened. I do. And right off the bat, the Red Sox have a big inning early on. Take a big lead. And I know the outcome, my dad doesn't and my dad's like, hey, this thing isn't over. This team can put together runs. It's not over until that last out the night. And I'm watching him and it's for me, it's a study in really your mental outlook.
And it was kind of a dichotomy with what he was dealing with in his life. His body's riddled with cancer. He knows he's on borrowed time. But even in those moments, he kept saying until two days before he died, he thought, God, I feel good today. Maybe I'm getting relapse or maybe I'm getting remission here. That's the way he looked at life. And I learned lessons from him in those moments. So we watched the game. Crushing defeat,
they get blown out. Hey, we'll get them tomorrow night. You know, I think it was a travel day, so there's going to be an off day. We'll get them in game six and we watch game six and same thing. They're never in it. Blown out. Game over. Hey. You've got to win seven. No one's won four yet, it's got to go seven. No one's won four yet. We're going to get them in seven.
And I remember my dad was a huge Tito Francona fan. That was his version of the Indians. And he kept saying, one thing that scares me about these Red Sox is that damn Terry Francona, his pops was a brilliant baseball guy. And Tito Terry is such a good manager. I wish he was in our dugout. And we watch game seven, and it's a defeat and we've literally snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in this series, it's over.
And I just remember knowing that my dad wasn't going to be around for another baseball season. And the Browns obviously at that point were a nonnon-factorfactor. I knew they weren't going to do anything. And I just remember in that moment, I couldn't speak because I knew if I started to talk, the emotion would get me. And it had me right by the throat and my dad said, well. You know what, good Lord willing, I'll be here next year and I'll watch them win it in 08, you know, there's no guarantee that I won't be here.
And if I'm here, we'll do it all over again. I, of course, knew better. And he shuts off the TV and he's weak at this point. But he was able to get up and he was heading to bed. My mom was already in bed. And I'm like, Dad, how are you... How are you able to do this with, you know, no emotion at all? You know, I'm sitting here crushed. I feel like crying real tears.
And he said, Jay look, here's the deal. It's always been my hope that you and I could watch a championship together. And this was one of our greatest chances that we've ever had. But it didn't happen. But does that mean that this week has been a failure? Didn't we get to watch three more baseball games together? I didn't think I'd ever get to see another baseball game with you. We got to watch three more games together. How many of those scenarios did we talk out just like when you were seven?
And I would say, here's what you do in this situation. Here's what I would do here. And so his message without saying these words was very simple to me. And this is so true. And this is one of my favorite sayings in life. Life is not about the destination. It's not. It's about the journey to get there. It's about the travel. It's about all of those nuances and experiences that you gather along the way.
And that's what he was telling me. He was like, we lost this one. The scoreboard tells us that we lost and the Red Sox will probably go on to crush the Rockies and they'll celebrate. And that will make it even more painful. But. This was a win for me. I got to watch three more baseball games with my son, three more games that I never thought I'd get, and if I'm lucky, I'll get the whole season next year and we'll be back with bells and enthusiasm to try it again.
And with that, he got up and he went to bed. And I went outside. They had a hot tub, beautiful Arizona fall night, not a cloud in the sky. And I sat in the hot tub and I just looked up at the stars feeling sorry for myself. And I bawled like a baby because I knew that was it. That was the last out I would ever see with my father. And it was so gut wrenching in that moment.
But when I was done bawling, I realized that I have nothing to be sad about. I was given the love of sports from a man who instilled the love of baseball and football and Cleveland sports in me. It was indoctrinated in me just like the language that I speak. And I thought in those, I sat there for over an hour and I thought in those moments about all the wonderful things that sports has given me. It's given me a career, a wonderful career.
It gave me... I still play baseball to this day. I'll play till the day I can't walk anymore. It's given me a lifelong love affair with what I think is the greatest sport on earth. And he told me before I flew back east, as we were talking about everything. I said, Dad, God, I said, Dad, I just wanted to win one with you. I wanted to see how it moves you.
And he said, Jay, here's the promise I need you to make. You will get to see one with your son, Corey. Who at the time was 17, 16. He said you will you WILL experience a championship with Corey and I want you to make a promise to me that nothing in your life will be so important. And nothing in your son's life will be so important that for that one game, that one day, whether it's a Super Bowl or game seven of another World Series or game seven of an NBA championship, that you won't set your life down and Corey won't set his life down and you won't celebrate that together, don't let him be in one space and you be in another because there's no guarantee there will be a second.
And I want you to promise me that when it happens, you're going to celebrate like you're 10 years old.
That's Jay Crawford, formerly of ESPN, currently in his native Ohio with WKYC in Cleveland. Thank you, Jay, for your story. Something important for all our listeners to know, you know, that promise that Jay's dad alludes to at the end of the segment? Well, in 2016, LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers basketball team had made it to the NBA finals. They were facing the Golden State Warriors, one of the greatest basketball teams in NBA history.
And ironically, it was Cleveland that was down three to one in the series. Chances weren't good, but somehow Cleveland ended up clawing its way back to force a game seven. Now at the time, Jay was still with ESPN and his son Corey was at the University of Rutgers and was training to compete for the Olympic trials for the long jump. Well, despite their busy lives and schedules and everything else going on, and regardless if game seven was on the Warriors Home Court in Oakland, they both made sure that they made the time and made sure that they were together in Cleveland to celebrate if the Cavs won game seven.
Miraculously, the Cavs did win game seven and the 2016 NBA championship. From what Jay told me, he could feel his dad's presence when he and Corey hugged. As the final seconds ticked off the clock, they definitely celebrated like they were 10 years old. We'll talk to you in a few weeks everybody. Take care.
7 Minute Stories is created and performed by Aaron Calafato, audio production by Ken Wendt. You can connect with Ken at Media216.com. Original artwork by Pete Whitehead. See Pete's work at petewhitehead.com. Our creative consultant is Anthony Vorndran. Special thanks to our partners at Evergreen Podcasts. And lastly, I'm Cori Birce. Make sure and tune in next week for another story.
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