By the time I was born in 2002, both my grandfathers had passed away. While the thought of it sometimes devastated me, thinking about how I never got to meet them, all those thoughts would go away as soon as Pop Pop walked in the door.
Bernard Suger, aka Pop Pop to me and the rest of my family, was the man my father’s mother married and he is the only person we’ve ever had the chance to call grandpa.
Raised in the early 1930’s in Houston, Texas, Pop Pop was always a fan of sports. It didn’t matter if it was the Rockets, Oilers or even Houston’s minor league team at the time, the Houston Buffalo. But once the National League granted Houston an expansion team and gave them a major league team in 1962, my grandad found his favorites, rooting for the Colt .45s.
That love for Houston baseball stayed with him his whole life, even after having four girls. None of his kids were ever really big fans of the Astros growing up and without televisions, Pop Pop was left by himself to listen to the games on the radio.
It wasn’t until he married my grandmother, Sandra Schwartzberg, that his love was able to be resparked in a fun way.
Never having had a boy, he didn’t get the chance to go out and watch his children play the game he loved watching so much. One of his daughters did play softball one year, but that didn’t last. But once he married my grandma, he had not one, but two different children he could go watch and cheer for.
For starters, he had my first cousin, who is a few years older than me and lived about 45 minutes away from the city, but Pop Pop didn’t care. He was more than happy to make the drive as many times as he could to go out and watch and cheer on my cousin no matter where he was playing, always sitting right next to my aunt and uncle in the stands.
And he had me. As the only one of me and my two brothers that played sports, Pop Pop made sure he was there for everything. It didn’t matter the sport or the location, he would be there in the stands with my parents. If it was watching me get my ass handed to me in football or it was coming in to pitch relief in baseball, he was there.
That love of sports between us also was shared off the field. I remember countless times going over to their house for dinner and just sitting around the TV with him and my dad either watching or arguing about some sort of sports topic, mostly baseball.
And that same spirit continues today. Every holiday, every time going over to their house for dinner and every family gathering. The one place you will almost always find Pop Pop is on the chairs in the living room watching sports. And right there beside him is almost always me.
I am lucky. I almost didn’t have a grandfather. But that changed the day my nana said yes to my Pop Pop and gave me, my two brothers, and my two other first cousins someone they can sit with and be around and share times with.
Whether we are sitting there silently or talking about the game, that connection between grandson and grandpa is one that will live on forever. Now 96 years old, Pop Pop is still one of the most passionate sports fans I have ever met. Right there next to me.
