She is alone and the game is about to start. So, she puts on her red hooded sweatshirt. Her Cardinals hoodie. It’s her ritual. She wore it in Pittsburgh, when her son made his debut and “it was 28 degrees or something.” Every game she wears it. It’s comfortable. Comforting.
The mother likes baseball. She was raised in Cincinnati, her favorite player was Joe Morgan. But the father — well, baseball bonded the father and the son, like red stitching on a baseball itself.
“Baseball is what we did together,” said the son, Matt Bowman.
The father is gone.