Stein's Blog: Sweet Revenge

I'm sure every parent goes through it. It just can't be helped.

As your child grows up, there's a series of movies you must suffer through in the road toward maturity.

Those movies probably aren't as bad as some of the television you are forced to witness.

What parent can honestly say they liked Teletubbies or purple dinosaurs called Barney.

The movies for your kids begin with a lot of animation. After the age of five, cartoon-like characters gradually are joined and then replaced with action heroes.

I have to admit, I kind of enjoyed the second Toy Story when Buzz Lightyear was introduced. My son, Sam, ordered me to stop shouting, "To infinity and beyond!" My annoyed my wife, Michele, too.

One Christmas, my main present from Sam was a CD with the songs from Toy Story. The first song was my favorite, You Got a Friend in Me. There were a few others animated movies, too, like the first Shrek, which came out when Sam was two. I might have gone a little overboard making Sam watch the whole movie. He was afraid of the orge.

When Sam was young, I stayed wide awake in the movie theater. You never knew when Sam needed a bathroom break or a run to the popcorn stand. However, as Sam went from toddler to a youth, he became more independent and I became more bored.

As a college basketball coach, regular sleep often had to be ignored. I would take the trips to the movie with Sam and my grandson, Jacob, as a chance to grab a catnap. The sleep usually occurred in the early part of the movie, so I could be alert for the first run to the bathroom.

I must have taken it a little too far one night because the boys complained about my snoring. I didn't know I snored sitting up.

As cartoon-like movies evolved to more action movies, my sleep habits remained the same. I just couldn't get into movies where cars changed into aliens.

The thing that bothered me most about the Transformers, X-men, and G. I. Joe movies is I had a hard time figuring out who were the good guys and the bad guys.

In my youth, the good guy always wore a white hat and rode a palomino horse. That is until Clint Eastwood's spaghetti westerns came along.

I would nod off shortly after the previews and wake up in time to see the good guys escape certain destruction and save the world. There was one type of movie that I would be alert through the entire time, a sports movie. The problem for father-son (grandson) bonding at a sports movie was they were often rated "R".

It started with tapes at home of Field of Dreams and Rookie of the Year. Then we went to watch The Rookie at the theater. It was the one type of movie Sam, Jacob and I could stay alert through the entire two hours.

A year or two ago, Money Ball came out. It's the story of how Billy Beane, the general manager of the Oakland A's turned his small market, small payroll baseball team into a winner. He was the first general manager to make use of statistical information rather than the gut reaction of over-the-hill baseball scouts. Sam and Jacob loved the movie.

I had read the book and was anxious to see it. Brad Pitt played Billy Beane and even looked like a legitimate baseball guy.

Billy Beane's daughter sang him a song and cut it to a CD that he played as the movie ended. It was called, I'm Just a Little Bit Caught in the Middle. There's a commercial out now with the same general tune. I think it's a car advertisement.

You have to understand, though, the naps far outnumbered the hits. I finally got my revenge last Friday night. The Spoofhounds were playing a 0 – 4 team in Cameron and Jacob's school, Stanberry, had an easy time with West Nodaway.

Saturday was Sam's 13th birthday, so we started the activities the night before with a late movie at The Hangar. It was a sports movie, Trouble with the Curve, starring my favorite bad-good guy cowboy, Clint Eastwood.

I loved the movie, but it really wasn't a sports movie. There also wasn't any violence, end-of-the-world, cliff hanging rescues or injections that make ordinary men turn green and bulging.

There weren't any sex, drugs or rock-in-roll. Another words, it was pretty boring for my soon to be teenage son and my 14 year old grandson.

As the movie neared its conclusion, Sam asked for the 10th or 11th time if it was about over and a strange noise was coming from Jacob's chair. It was the sound of snoring.

He was sound asleep.

Revenge is sweet.