Cassavell: My first game as a padre

This story was excerpted from AJ Cassavell’s Padres Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

I’m back tomorrow!

First, a major thank you to Shaun O'Neill and everyone else at MLB.com who filled in for me. If you're wondering where I've been over the past few weeks, well...

Carlo Cassavell was born just hours before Opening Day in San Diego! (Mom is a champion, and baby is doing great.)

I’ve spent a good chunk of that time just watching Padres baseball from the couch with my son. And while I'm excited to get back to the ballpark, I’d be lying if I said I won’t miss that. Those first father-son baseball memories were special.

I didn’t get enough of those with my own dad. He passed away suddenly when I was 7. But so many of the father-son memories I do have revolve around baseball. Listening to games in the back of his car. Playing Wiffle ball in the backyard. That one time he hit 81 mph and won the fast-pitch competition at a Trenton Thunder game. (Man, 7-year-old AJ thought that was just the coolest thing.)

I certainly didn't realize it at the time, but after his death, baseball became an avenue for me to connect with the memory of him. It was more than that, too. There aren't many things I cherish more than baseball, but my family is one of them. Safe to say, the two are intertwined.

My childhood is littered with memories of games I went to with my mom, siblings, cousins, aunts and uncles. I can't remember a family get-together in which some cluster of people weren't talking 'ball. (No, Uncle Bob, RBIs still are not as meaningful a stat as you say they are.)

Our annual family reunion to honor my father -- set for its 28th edition this summer -- revolves around a Wiffle ball tournament (in which I am a proud 13-time champion).

Which is all just my long-winded way of saying: I cannot wait to share this sport with my son. Partly because I love it. But mostly because of what it has meant to me over the past 35 years.

As a kid, baseball gave me an outlet. It gave me countless friends and memories. It connected me with my family and, in a way, my dad. As an adult, it's given me a profession that I deeply enjoy, and it has introduced me to some very cool people.

I’m excited to find out what it brings as a father. And, heck, maybe Carlo doesn’t grow up to love baseball the way his dad does. The sport will have already played a major part in helping teach his father about family and what’s truly important. Whatever memories we make -- baseball-related or otherwise -- I just can’t wait to make them as Carlo’s dad.