{"id":52020,"date":"2021-06-18T22:04:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-19T05:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=52020"},"modified":"2021-06-18T22:29:51","modified_gmt":"2021-06-19T05:29:51","slug":"the-peterson-principle-2292016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/?p=52020","title":{"rendered":"The Peterson Principle: 2\/29\/2016"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Dad<\/a>

Dad was still trying to keep me in line<\/p><\/div>\n

This is a column I wrote February 29, 2016, six days after my dad passed away. In honor of him and with Father’s Day being celebrated this Sunday I thought I’d post it again.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Tim Peterson<\/p>\n

He loved me so much that he once got tossed out of a junior high basketball game because I was fouled and the official missed the call.<\/p>\n

He was also brutally honest, especially when it came to the people he loved. Once after I was out of high school,\u00a0I asked him if he would help me get into a career in construction like he had with my brother. He said \u201cHave you ever considered retail?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I’ve gone with you on a couple of jobs. You’ve seen me use a hammer,\u201d I protested.<\/p>\n

\u201cUh, how about sports writing?\u201d he replied.<\/p>\n

He hated Las Vegas but because he loved his kids he once agreed to take us through \u201cSin City\u201d at the end of a family vacation\u00a0on the condition that he\u00a0would show\u00a0us the evils of gambling. As he pulled down the handle, he explained to\u00a0the family how throwing money in a slot machine was like throwing it down the drain. He continued to explain how what an extraordinary exception it was and that it was only an aberration when he hit the jackpot on the first quarter.<\/p>\n

He loved me but he also loved to win which is why when I made the next basket after he said \u201cnext basket wins\u201d in a game of one-on-one, he would grab the ball and proclaim \u201cOk, next basket wins!\u201d as he drove by me towards the hoop.<\/p>\n

My Dad’s 81 year journey here on earth came to an end when he went to be with the Lord last Monday night. God has a new carpenter in heaven. He’ll be named Foreman soon.<\/p>\n

I’ll miss my Dad\u00a0putting me in a choke hold and wrestling me to the floor like Freddie Blassie. I’ll miss him hitting me ground ball after ground ball in the front yard\u00a0to prepare me\u00a0for a\u00a0Little League tryout.<\/p>\n

My Dad was constant, never changing. He was the same guy 50 years ago that he was when he was called home. He was the same moral, upstanding, Christian, God-fearing, feisty, cantankerous guy throughout his life.<\/p>\n

When his Pastor in Carlsbad, Dwayne Edwards, told us we wouldn’t believe the effect he had on his church over the last 21 years, my sister Traci and brother Todd, looked at him and said \u201cNo, actually we would believe it. He was the same way in Temple City for 30 years.”<\/p>\n

My Dad may have worked for 33 years as a Union Carpenter but worked for his local church for over 50.<\/p>\n

He was old school. He couldn’t have told you a thing\u00a0about Facebook or Instagram\u00a0but he wrote hundreds of cards and letters offering encouragement to people he came in contact with. I received a card from him two\u00a0days after he passed away.<\/p>\n

Favorite Laker? Magic Johnson? Kobe Bryant? Jerry West? Nah! Mel Counts was his guy. \u201cGood steady ball player,\u201d he would say. Counts, a seven footer who had two stints with the Lakers between 1967 and 1974, was a hard working, lunch pail guy, with the same kind of work ethic that my Dad brought to the table every day.<\/p>\n

My Dad\u00a0considered\u00a0old-timer\u00a0Bob Cousy\u00a0one of the greatest players ever.<\/p>\n

That may not be true. But what is true is I considered Emery C.L. Peterson to be the greatest Father\u00a0ever. I love you Dad. I’ll miss you. Next basket wins.<\/p>\n

That’s my principle.<\/p>\n

Tim can be reached at tim@midvalleysports.com<\/a> or follow him on twitter @tspeterson40<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is a column I wrote February 29, 2016, six days after my dad passed away. In honor of him and with Father’s Day being celebrated this Sunday I thought I’d post it again.\u00a0 By Tim Peterson He loved me so much that he once got tossed out of a junior high basketball game because […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12817],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52020","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-petersonprince"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52020","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=52020"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52020\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72213,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52020\/revisions\/72213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=52020"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=52020"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=52020"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}