WASHINGTON -- Chris Cron’s Father’s Day came early this year.

Chris, the former Major Leaguer who is now the D-backs Triple-A Reno Aces manager, got to tell his son, Kevin Cron, that he was headed to the big leagues a few weeks ago.

And then he got to see his debut.

Kevin was playing for Chris with the Aces when the organization made the decision to promote Kevin.

The Aces were on the road when the decision was made and with Kevin’s flight to San Francisco just an hour away from taking off, Chris had to break the news to his son quickly. So, he went to his hotel room and knocked on the door.

“He came in, first words he said were, ‘Let’s go, start packing, let’s go,’” Kevin said. “Gave him a big hug, starting crying a little bit. Five minutes later I’m out the door with my suitcase, clothes unfolded, thrown in the bag, it was awesome. I ran it through my head hundreds of times growing up about how it would happen and none of those hundred ever included my dad being the one to tell me. This year, it just ended up working out to where he was there. I don’t know how many people, if any, have ever been able to say their dad gave them the call. Something very special for both of us, for sure.”

To make things even more special, the D-backs allowed Chris to have the weekend off to watch Kevin make his debut against the Giants in Oracle Park.

“It really says a lot about the D-backs organization that they would let my dad do that,” Chris said. “It was an amazing time.”

During Father’s Day games, for the fourth consecutive year, players wore specially-designed New Era caps to raise awareness and funds for the fight against prostate cancer. Players also had the option to wear Stance multi-pattern blue-dyed socks. MLB will again donate 100% of its royalties from the sales of specialty caps and apparel emblazoned with the symbolic blue ribbon -- a minimum $300,000 collective donation -- to the Prostate Cancer Foundation and Stand Up To Cancer.

This effort also includes the annual Prostate Cancer Foundation “Home Run Challenge,” which has given fans the chance to make a one-time monetary donation or pledge for every home run hit by their favorite MLB Clubs during the time period of June 1 through Father’s Day, all the while tracking where their team stacks up in a “Team vs. Team” competition. Every dollar donated through the Home Run Challenge goes to PCF to fund critical research to defeat prostate cancer. As of Thursday, more than $1.26 million has been pledged via the Home Run Challenge in 2019. Since inception, the Home Run Challenge has raised more than $51 million for PCF, the world’s leading philanthropic organization funding and accelerating prostate cancer research.

Founded in 1993, Prostate Cancer Foundation has funded nearly $800 million of cutting-edge research by 2,200 scientists at 220 leading cancer centers in 22 countries around the world. Because of PCF’s commitment to ending death and suffering from prostate cancer, the death rate is down more than 52% and 1.5 million men are alive today as a result. PCF research now impacts 67 forms of human cancer by focusing on immunotherapy, the microbiome, and food as medicine. Learn more at pcf.org.