I consider my dad my best friend. I have guys my own age who are good friends, but I haven't known anyone longer than Dad and I don't get into detail about my professional and personal life with anyone else but him. He's the guy that's responsible for not only bringing me into this world but responsible for getting me to where I am in this world. We were talking last night on the ride home and he was telling me how proud he was of me, here on the cusp of achieving 400 homers. He was talking about who I'd tied and who I'd passed and who was next and I started to get a little chill bumps myself. I think back on all the days when we didn't have anything else to do and we went to the ballpark to work on the game and now it's all paying off.

My appreciation for my dad grew after I became a dad myself because he's the only example I have to fall back on.  All the lessons that he taught me, I'm trying to teach my kids.  There's a country song that says something like, 'If I'm half the dad he is, that's all I have to be.' I can't imagine being any better than he is and I know I won't be because of my career taking me away so much. It just makes me cherish when I do get the time to interact and do things with my sons, to be the father figure. Last night is a perfect example, my son (Trey) brought home all A's and B's on his report card and sitting him down and looking him in the eye to tell him, 'Man I am so proud of you.'  Encouraging him to keep it up, rewarding him, and letting him know that good deeds by him are appreciated by his parents. Little things like that are the things my dad and mom did for me.