The nightmare scenario has arrived: Who to root for, who to root for...

 

Remember when Donna Kelce – the Cleveland Heights-based mom of Travis Swift-Kelce and Jason Kelce – would wear that split Kansas City-Philadelphia football jersey any time her sons played against each other? It looked like this:

My situation isn't quite like Mrs. K's, but I think I know how she felt.

Major League Baseball's American League Championship Series kicks off tonight at 8:00 at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida. The Cleveland Guardians will face the Tampa Bay Rays in a best-of-seven series for the right to advance to the World Series.

In any other universe, my rooting interest would be clear cut. I've been a fan of the Cleveland Indians/Guardians for nearly half a century. I attended my first game at old Cleveland Municipal Stadium in 1978 and consider the '79 Indians to be the first team for which I was truly passionate.

I have rooted for the Indians/Guardians in horrible seasons (1991 comes to mind...) and near-championship seasons (1995, 1997, 2016). I've sat through games in all sorts of weather, both at Municipal Stadium and the current Progressive Field.

You would naturally assume that "Go Tribe!" will be my rallying cry in this series.

But...

Anyone who knows our family knows my son Jared works for the Tampa Bay Rays. He is in his fourth season there, and his current title is Manager, Baseball Information and Communications.

He does a lot of different things, but essentially his job is to write a whole lot of daily media game notes, help facilitate media interactions with the team, draft official team communications, etc.

Jared works closely with the players and manager Kevin Cash when they interact with reporters and broadcasters covering Rays games. He also takes several road trips a season, so of course he's on the team plane and stays in the team hotel in each city.

Jared interned with the Guardians (in addition to spending a short time with the Washington Nationals before landing the Rays job). He grew up an Indians/Guardians fan thanks to his dad, who took him to games early on and talked about the team often.

Believe me when I say, I'm not the only one in this family who is at least somewhat conflicted.

But Jared has grown close to these Rays players, coaches, and fellow front office staff. He says they're a fun, likeable, tight-knit group for whom it's easy to cheer.

Despite his Cleveland roots, he's pulling for his Rays to win this series and move on. And I get it.

We own lots of Tampa Bay merchandise in our family. Shirts, mugs, hats, etc. We're very likely the only people in Northeast Ohio displaying a Tampa Bay Rays flag in our front yard (it's pictured at the top of today's post).

You always want your kids to be happy. I love the success Jared has built for himself, and I love that the Rays have supported him and his soon-to-be-wife Lyndsey these last few years...even if it has meant them living 1,000 miles away from us.

If the Rays should win this match-up and move on to the World Series, no one in Cleveland will be cheering louder for them than I.

But...

Since the Guardians clinched their divisional series against the Chicago White Sox on Friday, I've been asked several times who I want to win between the Guards and Rays. And I've given the same response each time:

I love my son and want him to be happy, but I can't turn my back on Cleveland baseball. I've been a true fan for 48 years, and I have no plans to abandon that loyalty now.

I'm all in for the Guardians in this one.

I'll admit it's not going to be easy. Terry and I saw the Rays play twice in Kansas City earlier this summer, and we had a good time cheering for them while sitting in a sea of light blue-clad Royals fans. They're our team, no doubt.

Well, they're Terry's team. She's pulling for the Rays in this one.

For me, the Rays are Team No. 2. A solid Team No. 2, but #2 nonetheless.

I want Cleveland to win. The saving grace is that, if the series goes the other way, I'll be genuinely happy for Jared and the Rays. In some ways, I can't lose here.

But you have to pick a side when it comes to this sort of thing, and I'm picking one.

Go Guards!

(Sorry, Jared.)

The 10 bucks I spent to become a licensed "minister" was the easiest part of my son's upcoming wedding

I read that more a million weddings are performed each year in the United States "by friends, family, or online-ordained non-traditional officiants."

In three months, I will become one of those "non-traditional officiants."

My son Jared and his fiancée Lyndsey are getting married this New Year's Eve. It's one of the more popular topics of conversation in our family, second perhaps only to almost anything my grandson Cal does.

(I've always assumed that at some point, relatively new grandparents like Terry and me stop obsessing over their grandchild. So far it hasn't happened for us.)

Anyway, regardless of Cal's exalted status, we're all excited for the big December 31st wedding shindig. It will be the social event of the year for the Tennants, though I admit I harbor some degree of worry over the weather.

If you live near us, you may recall that last New Year's Eve was a meteorological mess. Snow, ice, wind, etc. It felt like Terry and I were taking our lives into our hands as we drove home from my daughter Chloe and son-in-law Michael's house at 1 in the morning.

Pretty typical late-December stuff in Northeast Ohio, but we're hoping that weather situation doesn't repeat itself this year.

Regardless, I have a role to play in the wedding beyond just being the father of the groom. Jared and Lyndsey asked me to officiate their wedding, and of course I said yes.

Becoming a licensed wedding officiant in the State of Ohio is a pretty quick and painless process. I filled out a form on the website of an organization called American Marriage Ministries and was instantly ordained, free of charge.

I then took their certificate of ordination and submitted it to the Ohio Secretary of State's office, along with a $10 administrative fee. My minister's license was approved a day later, and they sent me this lovely document making the whole thing official:

The bureaucratic part was easy. Now comes the real challenge, which is figuring out exactly what I'm going to say and how this whole wedding ceremony thing is supposed to work.

I've sat through a dozen or more weddings, so I generally know how they go. And of course I'll need to talk with Lyndsey and Jared to see what they want their ceremony to look like.

Both are now in their late 20s and more mature than I was when I got married at the age of 22. In most cases when I was asked what I wanted when it came to my own wedding, I deferred to Terry. I'm guessing my son and future daughter-in-law are going to come at it in a more adult fashion than I did.

A lot of planning for this wedding (including my specific role) will be done in the last two months, as Jared's job with baseball's Tampa Bay Rays puts a ton of demands on his time until the seasons ends in October. There's simply not much he can do until the Rays' last out is recorded.

I figure my job during the wedding will be to keep my comments short and sweet, emphasize whatever it is the bride and groom want to emphasize, and make sure I stand back and allow Jared and Lyndsey to be the stars of the show.

There is likely to be a dad joke or two, and I make no promises that I won't shed a tear. Or two. Or possibly 10.

All I know is, I will feel a mixture of relief and happiness when the ceremony ends and we can all get to eating our catered dinners and doing the Chicken Dance.

I can't wait.

Car trips with my wife are fun but often involve stopping at places like the Libbey Glass Factory Outlet

Last month, Terry and I drove up to Detroit to spend a little time with our son Jared. He was on an extended road trip with the Tampa Bay Rays (his employer) that included some games in the Motor City. Since we're only 3 hours from Detroit, we thought it would be fun to hop in the car one morning, meet Jared for brunch, and attend a Rays-Tigers game.

And it was fun, no doubt. Jared lives in St. Petersburg, Florida, and while Terry travels down there quite frequently, we still don't get to see Jared and his fiancée Lyndsey nearly as often as we would like.

The morning after the game, we again met Jared for some brunch (actually for pastries at a bakery in the tony suburb of Birmingham, Michigan, not far from the Rays' hotel). Then Terry and I hit the road again to return home.

We made the usual lunch/bathroom stop, but before that we took a detour into Toledo, Ohio, to visit the Libbey Glass Factory Outlet. This store is situated maybe 1,000 feet from the banks of the Maumee River in what I assume is the heart of Toledo, and as you might imagine, it features a lot of glass products.

Like, a lot of glass products. Several thousand square feet of glass products and related merchandise, much of which is priced ridiculously low.

This store is – again, as you might imagine – much more Terry's jam than mine. My interest in glassware was limited to seeing if I could find a coffee mug to add to my collection (I did not) and discovering if I could successfully navigate the store with a shopping cart without breaking anything (I managed it).

Terry, on the other hand, happily walked around the Libbey Glass Factory Outlet for 45 minutes, leaving with an array of items, not all of which were made of glass.

I followed her around patiently and was actually way more engaged than I thought I would be. There was some pretty cool stuff in there, though that may simply reflect the fact that I'm entering old manhood. Thirty-year-old Scott never would have been as interested as I was.

My favorite part of the experience was being there with my wife and watching her enjoy herself. Because that's what you do when you're married: You take pleasure in your spouse's pleasure. Even if it's not your favorite activity in the world, you do it because he/she wants to do it.

And honestly, it wasn't any sort of big sacrifice. We walked around laughing and talking as we do, then we paid for the stuff Terry had picked out, carried it to our car, and took off east toward Cleveland to finish the drive home.

Do I look forward to returning to the Libbey Glass Factory Outlet any time soon? I do not.

Do I want to make my wife happy and preserve my marriage? I do.

I have to admit, though...it was fascinating to see just how wide a selection there is for anyone interested in discount glass stemware.

We're going to have a wedding in the family

 

Recently my son Jared proposed to his longtime girlfriend Lyndsey, and she said yes.

None of this was a surprise to us. It was eventually going to happen and was just a matter of when.

Lyndsey and Jared have been together for nearly eight years. They went to the same high school but didn't become a couple until the summer after graduation. As I often say, she is as much a member of our family as any of our kids, as Elissa's boyfriend Mark, or as Chloe's husband Michael.

Now it becomes legal.

Whenever this wedding occurs, it will be the first involving one of our kids. Chloe and Michael have been hitched for 5 1/2 years, but they never had an actual wedding (though not for lack of trying).

They were married by a judge back in October 2019, in part because Chloe was beginning her academic research career and wanted to change her name before she began publishing. This was to maintain consistency and avoid any confusion further down the line.

Their plan was to have a formal wedding in June 2020, but you might remember a little pandemic that popped up a few months prior to that, causing them to push the wedding to October 2020.

That little pandemic refused to cooperate, though, and eventually their wedding was cancelled altogether.

So Jared and Lyndsey's big day will be Terry's and my first time as parents of the groom/bride.

As I write this, we don't yet have a date or a location for that wedding. But whenever it is, it's going to be quite the shindig, I'm sure. These kids have a large army of family and friends who love them and want to be there when they tie the knot.

I can't wait. It's not often I get to show off my Hokey Pokey AND Chicken Dance skills in the same night.

The shock of nice weather in the middle of a Great Lakes winter

Terry and I have made a habit of traveling to Florida in February and March to visit our son Jared and his girlfriend Lyndsey. We just did it last week (Terry is still down there, as a matter of fact).

This is usually a pretty good time to get out of Northeast Ohio with its wind, snow and ice and spend some time in St. Petersburg with its sunshine, blue skies and...more sunshine. And this trip was no different, as temperatures reached about 80 degrees every day I was there.

When we arrived at the Tampa/St. Pete airport on Thursday and went outside to wait for Jared to pick us up, I immediately felt like I always feel when I fly to a warm place in the middle of winter: Pale, haggard, bloated, and more than a little disconcerted.

It always takes me a day or so to adjust to wearing shorts and a t-shirt outdoors.

On Saturday, Terry and I took a short morning walk with Jared around a nearby lake. (Also on the walk was Jared and Lyndsey's cat Salem, whom Jared carried in a little kitty container hung around his neck.) The conditions were perfect, with low humidity and temperatures right around 70 degrees.

It was so nice that I started wondering – as I have before – what it would be like to live in a place like Florida. A place where it rarely snows. A place where the sun doesn't disappear for weeks at a time. A place where outdoor activities are in play year-round.

From time to time, Terry and I have mused over the idea of someday moving south, or at least spending significant time there. It wouldn't happen for another decade, if at all, but the thought never quite leaves our minds.

Then I begin to consider the drawbacks. And there are several.

For one thing, it may hardly ever snow down there, but hurricanes and tropical storms are a thing. While Tampa/St. Pete doesn't get hit as often as other areas of Florida do, Hurricane Milton did force Jared and Lyndsey to evacuate south to Miami last fall.

Then there's the day-to-day weather. Not the winter weather, the summer weather. It gets hot in June, July, August and September. Really hot. Hot and humid. To the point that you don't really want to be outside.

There's also the simple fact that it isn't home. Having lived in one city and one city only, I have deep roots in my hometown. I know where things are located. I know lots of people. I understand how things work around here.

Would it be worth turning our whole world upside down in exchange for more pleasant winter and spring days? I don't know. I really don't.

Right now, it all depends on when you ask me. At the moment, having just spent time outside with Jack shoveling heavy, icy snow off our driveway, I'm feeling very pro-Florida. In a couple of months when it starts to warm up around here? Maybe not.

To be continued...

Hockey, Jared and me: Bonding over sports with your kid

That's my son Jared at his office in St. Petersburg, Florida. It's an awfully big office.

All of my children have been involved in athletics of one kind or another, but only one is what you might call a "sports fan" like me.

That would be my son Jared. Since he was very young, our main connection has been sports. I coached him in t-ball and youth soccer, and over the years we have attended baseball, basketball, hockey and football games, and have made visits together to three professional sports halls of fame.

I assume this had at least some influence on Jared's choice of profession. He works for the Tampa Bay Rays baseball team as Coordinator, Baseball Information & Communications, which means he spends a lot of time researching, writing and disseminating stats and information about the Rays to media and other stakeholders.

A lot of fathers and sons (and mothers and sons, and mothers and daughters, and fathers and daughters) connect through sports, whether it's competing or spectating or both. For us, most of the memories revolve around hockey.

For example, we're in our 17th year as season ticket holders for the Cleveland Monsters of the American Hockey League. Jared and I have probably attended more Monsters games over that time than anyone else in the family.

We have also travelled to Columbus, Pittsburgh and Buffalo to watch National Hockey League games, and we even co-own a fantasy hockey team together.

There was also a stretch during the winter of 2010 when I would take Jared to a nearby ice rink every Sunday afternoon so he could learn to skate and play hockey from a coach. While he didn't take up the sport competitively after that, I do believe it deepened his appreciation of and love for the game.

All of this is to say that, while he and I talk about a lot more than just hockey and sports in general, that's where our strongest ties have been formed. We have cheered together for various hapless Cleveland teams, mourned playoff losses, and celebrated the Cavaliers' glorious NBA title in 2016.

Next month – one month from today, as a matter of fact – I will join him in Florida as we attend an NHL game in Tampa between the host Lightning and my beloved Ottawa Senators. It was a Christmas gift from Jared and his girlfriend Lyndsey, and I think it was a perfect one.

He's a good guy, that Jared. And an excellent fantasy hockey co-owner.

Most of all, he's my best sports friend.