Prison journalism: A father and son's game of catch before, during and after prisonA simple game of baseball holds powerful truths about family.
by Prison Journalism Project
14-06-2023 16:02
in Prison Journalism
Father and son. Photo: PEXELS/Photo by Anete Lusina
Prison Journalism Project trains incarcerated writers to become journalists and publishes their stories. Subscribe to Inside Story to receive exclusive behind-the-scene looks at our best stories, as well as author profiles and other insights.
--
THE SON'S STORY
Baseball and my dad - the two are inextricably linked inside of my brain. When I was younger, nothing brought me more joy than playing catch with him. We would play until it was too dark to see the ball.
After my dad went to prison, I missed playing catch with him as much as I missed hearing him cheer my name at my baseball games. I would stand on the pitcher's mound and hope he had somehow escaped just to watch me play. I never looked towards the bleachers to avoid the inevitable disappointment.
--
Once my dad was finally released, the first thing we did was play catch. I had dreamed about this moment for what seemed like my entire life.
But it wasn't the same. I was crestfallen. My dad was not the hero my 7-year-old self had frozen in time. He was a man worn down by San Quentin State Prison, and I was a boy who had grown up without his father.
ALSO READ: Prison journalism: The feelings I hold for Nelson Mandela
--
At that moment, I felt immense satisfaction. It came from realising that I didn't need my dad to be whole. I was no longer the broken little kid who would have done anything to play catch with his dad one more time. I had healed without him, and my character was forged by his absence. Now when we talk about baseball, I don't feel the sadness created by loss. I don't feel like a helpless child. I feel at peace.
THE DAD'S STORY
We were playing catch, father and son. As a father in prison, there were few opportunities that created deeper communication than when working in tandem, keeping a sphere in endless back-and-forth motion.
My son and I used to share this flow on beaches, baseball fields, parking lots and hallways. It was our shared time outside. Inside, in the visiting room of San Quentin State Prison, it was no different, but perhaps more meaningful.
I was serving a seven-year, eight-month sentence for gross negligent vehicular manslaughter while driving under the influence. Both of us needed this time because the opportunities for us to talk were few and short.
It really doesn't matter what or when you share the flow. Any ball will do.
ALSO READ: Prison journalism: Forgotten Youth
At San Quentin, it was an orange purchased from a vending machine in the visiting room. To us, it was the same as being at AT&T Park with mitts and a hardball.
As the orange floated between us in its parabolic arc, my son would tell me as much as he could remember about his life since he last saw me.
While I listened, I thought of how I grew up wandering the bluffs, coves and inlets of the rugged Northern California coast. Here he was under the fluorescent lights of a prison visiting room in sweatpants and a loose shirt that fell within the visitation guidelines. I knew he had waited in a long line with others visiting their loved ones. I knew his mom had shown a guard his papers as he exchanged $20 bills for quarters to use in the vending machine, our only access to refreshments during our time together. I knew he took a bus down past all the other prison blocks through more security to reach the visiting room. My son was growing up faster than he should have.
He stopped tossing the orange. It was a sticky mess anyway, and our flow time had passed. He looked up at me and said, I love you, Dad.
ALSO READ: Prison Journalism: Life in Pollsmoor prison for the first time
When I was released after six years and three months - I earned good-time credits - my family did not meet me at the gate, which is a tradition for many of the incarcerated. The kids were in school and my ex-wife was working. I had a good morning as an old friend met me and we shared the day with breakfast, clothes shopping and real coffee. I got a Korean sauna scrub because I needed to shed the feel of prison by removing the outer layers of my skin.
I didn't feel at home, however, until my son came home from school and wanted to go play catch.
It was one of those misty San Francisco days, but this was important. We geared up. He had found my old glove in the garage, and we went down to the park. I want to practice my pitches, he said, but the reasons were irrelevant. We began by tossing the ball and existing together.
In that moment of flow, we were one, a team working together with purpose and skill. Time stopped and the world faded away, leaving just the ball as it danced to gravity's law. I was home.
Disclaimer: The views in this article are those of the author. Prison Journalism Project has verified the writer's identity and basic facts such as the names of institutions mentioned.
Written by FATHER AND SON IN CALIFORNIA
Do you have any question you would like to ask our prison journalists, WhatsApp us on 060 011 0211
Do you have contact with a prison inmate who would like to write for The South African website?
If so, send an email to info@thesouthafrican.com or a WhatsApp to 060 011 0211
You can also follow @TheSAnews on Twitter and The South African on Facebook to get the latest prisoner journalism articles.
Are you a true Scandal!' soapie superfan? Then ENTER our soapie quiz and WIN R1 000 in cash!
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
Prison journalism: A father and son's game of catch before, during and after prisonA simple game of baseball holds powerful truths about family.
