PHILLY (Loosely Related to The Philadelphia Phillies)

This is so good

CHICAGO — Tears start to fill Bobby Dickerson’s eyes.

The Phillies’ infield coach is standing in the hallway of the visitors’ clubhouse at Wrigley Field as he pulls out of his phone to relive the moment. Even rewatching the video and reminiscing causes him to choke up.

“Honestly, it was my best baseball moment in my career,” Dickerson said. “A lot of great memories, but there’s nothing even close to your son doing well.”

Dickerson’s son, Dustin, starred as a pitcher and shortstop this season at West Jones High School in Mississippi, helping his team reach the Class 5A state championship game. Dickerson had planned to find somewhere to watch a livestream of the championship after the Phillies’ day game on May 16. Unbeknownst to him, the other Phillies coaches had a better idea.

Dickerson was already scheduled to go home over that weekend for Dustin’s graduation, but the coaches decided he needed to head back early to see Dustin play. Bench coach Rob Thomson approached manager Gabe Kapler before the state title game and looped him in.

“I’m like, of course, this is a no-brainer,” Kapler said. “Thoms executed it perfectly, the coaching staff executed it perfectly. For me, philosophically, I think that stuff should happen all the time. … Whenever there’s a family event, there’s no one person here that isn’t replaceable for one day or two days or three days. We can cover for you and we act like a team in the coaches’ room.”

Kapler approached Dickerson and told him he needed to take the day off and go home to watch his son’s game. Dickerson didn’t tell anyone outside of his brother and college roommate that he was going to the game. Not even his wife knew. Dickerson didn’t want his son to know he’d be there.

“They’d been playing so well, I didn’t want anything bad to happen, I didn’t want to jinx it,” Dickerson said.

A friend who works with the Braves helped Dickerson get a suite at Atlanta’s minor-league ballpark where the game was being played. He entered through a backdoor. Nobody saw him. When the game reached the seventh inning with his son’s team leading 7-2, Dickerson walked out and waited at the edge of the field. After celebrating on the field with his teammates, a stunned Dustin spotted his dad near third base.

Dickerson greets his son, Dustin, after surprising him following the state championship victory. (Courtesy of Bobby Dickerson)

Dickerson has spent 32 years in professional baseball, and it has required sacrifices. His baseball seasons always overlapped with his son’s, which meant limited opportunities to see Dustin play in person. Dickerson previously watched a few early-season scrimmages but never had seen Dustin in an actual game. To make the night even sweeter, Dickerson watched as Dustin, Mississippi’s 5A player of the year and a Southern Miss commit, delivered a go-ahead 2-run double en route to the school’s first baseball state title.

What better time to see his son play in person than with a state championship on the line?

“It was unbelievable,” Dickerson said. “Best moment ever.”

Over the course of West Jones’ playoff run, Kapler, Bryce Harper, Rhys Hoskins and other players recorded video messages with words of encouragement that Dickerson sent to his son for the team. The entire experience left an indelible impression on Dickerson.

“You talk about the Phillies family and you hear about it, but I lived it,” Dickerson said. “Family’s first here, 100 percent. I saw it in action. People said this is where you need to be and made it happen.”