I'm the father of a 2-year-old, so it's easy for me to get a bit, well ... emotional when it comes to the whole father/son genre. Add baseball to the scenario and forget it, I'm a worthless piece of spaghetti with even less of a backbone.

I was a wreck after learning about the tragic death of the firefighter father who, after promising to bring home a ball for his son, fell out of the upper deck at Texas Stadium while reaching for a foul ball. His 6-year-old boy was there with him and saw the entire scene unfold. The father lived just long enough to tell rescue workers to look after his boy and make sure he was all right.

The next day at Yankee Stadium, Derek Jeter's father watched him make history with his 3,000th hit. When Jeter was interviewed after the game, unlike the usual sports cliche moment where the athlete always looks into the camera and says "Hi, Mom!" he instead dropped some props for the old man.

"I take him up to every at bat," Jeter said.

See, fathers can appreciate that.

Mickey Mantle's family was from Commerce, Okla. All of the men in his family were married, had kids and were all "providers." They made their living mining coal, and it was a hard life. So hard in fact, that young Mickey knew he would die young because no Mantle he knew of had ever seen 60.

But in order for Mickey to see that night's chicken-fried steak, he had to hit 10 balls in a row off of his father's pitching. And his father wasn't tossing lightly ... in fact, he made Mickey hit from both sides of the plate. Years later, Mickey Mantle would be considered the greatest switch-hitter in history. Unfortunately for Mantle, his father did die young, another victim of "black lung," and the Mick himself ... well, he died younger than he should have, too. (And breathing had nothing to do about it.)

I was reminded of that as I watched today's premiere Yankee, Robinson Cano, perform at the All Star Game's Home Run Derby. On the mound was his father, the same man who taught him how to swing a bat as a child. When Cano had made it within reach of the win, his father stepped off the mound and said to him, "Uno mas!" Cano smiled the kind of smile all men, all children, do when they know they've "got this."

The next pitch went sailing into the seats, but not before he was able to say, "I love you, dad."

Now my friend, Nadia, she thinks owning a dog is the same thing as bringing up a kid.

"SAPFEST!" she tweeted as I related the preceding tale.

She's right, of course, but then again, so many people have it wrong about baseball, don't they?