Dominant Performance by Phil Hughes Brings Back Family Memories

Phil Hughes was absolutely dominant on Wednesday night against the Oakland Athletics. He had his best stuff of the season, possibly his career last night as he came ever so close to no hitting the A’s.

Hughes’s control was terrific. His stuff was electric. The young pitcher took a no hitter into the eight inning before giving up a infield single to Eric Chavez on a ball hit up the middle that went off the glove of Hughes, then off his chest. Hughes could not find the ball in time and Chavez was on with the A’s first hit of the night.

Entering the eight, Hughes had only given up a walk to Daric Barton in the first inning. The night seemed easy for Hughes. He used mostly a fastball and cutter all night. That shows how good his command was. Hughes only threw a couple curveballs, which were very good as well.

As great as Hughes was and as close as he came to a no hitter, thats not what stood out to me as I watched this game. The part that stuck with me happened when the pitcher left the game with two outs and two runners on in the bottom of the eight inning.

As Hughes walked to the dugout, he tipped his cap and looked up into the stands. In that stands were his parents. That moment took me back to my days of high school ball when at least one of my parents attended every single game. Thats right, they never missed a game.

Now, Hughes’s parents do not get to every game he pitches. Thats just to hard. However, since Hughes was pitching in Oakland and his parents live in Southern California, they wanted to make the trip up to watch their son pitch live. It appeared however that that would not happen as his parents had trouble finding flights that would work for them.

His parents had thought about not making the trip as its quite a drive to Oakland from Orange County. However, they did indeed make the roughly seven hour trip up the state of California and you could see the joy in their faces as they watched their son come so close to baseball history.

Before anyone else in the crowd stood up, Hughes’s mother was standing and clapping as Yankees manager Joe Girardi walked to the mound to remove his young pitcher from the mound. For a minute it reminded me of my mom. She was always the biggest supporter. She made every game that she could and no matter what the result was, she was there to offer support and comfort. I know it felt great to pitch well, or get a hit and look up and see my mom or dad standing there watching intently. Mom was always the proud but soft and concerned supporter while my father was and still is the best person to go to for advice on the actual game.

It was easy, my parents were always there. I can’t imagine how great it must feel for a Major League Baseball player to be able to look up in the stands and see his parents supporting him just as much as they did in Little League.

I had to share this with you all because it truly did bring back some great memories for me. It is always nice to be reminded of those days.