Part of the magic of baseball is the bond the game creates between generations — especially for fathers and sons.
That’s true even when your dad is the owner of the team.
Baseball is all about family for Mark Lerner, the principal owner of the Washington Nationals, and his father Ted, who brought the franchise to the District in 2005.
And the younger Lerner would like nothing more than presenting his 94-year-old dad — born in Washington on Oct. 15, 1925 — with the ultimate birthday present Tuesday night: a trip to the World Series.
“It is certainly a magical ride we are on. I would love for that to be a birthday present,” Mark Lerner told The Washington Times.
Heading into Tuesday night’s Game 4 of the National League Championship Series, the Nationals are one win away from eliminating the St. Louis Cardinals and advancing to the Fall Classic.
Mark Lerner isn’t the only son looking to put a smile on his father’s face Tuesday.
Mike Rizzo, the Nationals president of baseball operations and general manager, also shares the baseball bond with his dad, Phil Rizzo.
The elder Rizzo, a long-time baseball scout, was born in Chicago in 1929 and was inducted into the inaugural class of the Professional Baseball Scouts Hall of Fame in 2008. He was named senior advisor to the Nationals general manager the following year.
“Mike and I, we want to win this for our fathers,” Mark Lerner said.
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