“Hey, dad. Wanna have a catch?” A simple sentiment that STILL brings grown men to tears ...

Have you ever played Catch? A simple tossing of a ball back-and-forth? Perhaps you did so when you were of a younger age. Perhaps you still do with a son or daughter.

Catch is one of the more-underrated games we play. Sure, you can deride it as essentially a child’s activity, something that you stop doing in your teenage years, the same with foursquare, hopscotch, and kickball. Catch doesn’t feel “cool” when you’re 19, or 26, especially when you’re playing with a parent.

If one of us dropped the ball or a throw went errant, we would start over. If a streak got going, suddenly a challenge was presented, and I felt like I accomplished a small athletic feat at the end.

However, does Catch really need that stigma? Think of the simplicity and complexity in the game. Yes, you throw a ball from one person to the other. Pretty basic, right? However, Catch is as effective a practice as swinging a bat in a batting cage or running fielding drills, all building focus and enhancing ability in an activity. How many times do we see professional baseball players drop “easy” catches? Might those balls have been caught with a little more Catch?

The complexity arises in how you play Catch – in the degrees of difficulty you present yourself and your throwing partner. With my father, I would always have him move far back and throw to my side, forcing me to run down the ball and reach out to grab it. Or, he would throw extra-hard to see if I could catch a heater (he wasn’t a pitcher, but could he throw a “driller” that made my palm hurt).

At the conclusion of a game of Catch, we would aim for a streak of consecutive catches. We would set a number and try to achieve it, and if one of us dropped the ball, or a throw went errant (usually mine), we would start over. However, if a streak got going, suddenly a challenge was presented, and I felt like I accomplished a small athletic feat at the end.

I recently did something I hadn’t done with a parent in many years: play Catch. In a 2009 “Athletic Aesthetic” column where I eulogized my then-recently-deceased father, I noted how we used to play Catch, and did so well beyond my years as a kid. What stood out to me was how, a handful of days before his passing, the thought crossed my mind that I had not played Catch with him in some time, and was due to do so. Alas, I never got that chance to play Catch again with him.

This August, I suggested to my mother that I wanted to play Catch with her. She had also played the game with me as a kid, yet, for whatever reason, it had been a good two decades since we tossed a ball over the grass. One clear Saturday afternoon, we headed out to the yard, the same place I threw with my father for so many years, and with my mother in the 80s as well.

Understand, she had not really thrown a ball since the last years of the U.S.S.R. Yet her tosses were good, and soon enough, we were throwing a baseball back-and-forth, trying to aim for each other’s glove. No underhanded lobs really needed by me; I could throw overhand and give some momentum. She did the same to me: suddenly, she revved-up and tossed one with some extra “oomph.” I felt a twinge of pain on my hand. My mother sure can throw the ball after all these years. I should have remembered that she was a decent athlete in her youth, as well.

At this point, it was “game-on:” me reaching to catch balls to the side and doing the shortstop spin to throw back, then attempting to make ten-in-a-row to conclude the session. Sure, it was a bit simplified from my father, but my mother made it such that it became a game with skills and challenges, and what a fun time we had.

I’ll be playing Catch again with my mother. Perhaps yet this autumn. For sure next year. Be sure you play Catch again, as well. Pull out those dusty gloves and balls, find a spot in your yard, and throw. And catch. And have some of the most fun you will have all year.