10 years

3,650 days

219,000 hours

13, 140, 000 minutes

788, 400, 000 seconds

Those are the numbers as of April 18, 2021.

I have always been fascinated by numbers. I don’t know when it started, but I love numbers. I like to see how numbers relate to one another. I like what numbers have to say or sometimes what they aren’t saying. Numbers can be both positive and negative…figuratively and literally. I look for number patterns in everyday life. Numbers are fascinating. So once again, when did this love of numbers start? I think it is tied to my love of sports.

I took a sports history course several years ago. If you ever get a chance to study the history of sports, do so, its rather fascinating…especially the history of baseball. Baseball has always been about numbers. It’s deep rooted in numbers. I am sure there is a statistic out there about the number of times a red headed-left handed batter, has hit a home run on a Sunday in June in odd numbered years. That would be a crazy statistic, but that’s baseball. Henry Chadwick is the person you can thank for the obsession with numbers in baseball.

Henry Chadwick or sometimes called the “Father of Baseball”. He is credited with creating the box score and the “K” for a strikeout. He assigned numbers to the different positions for score-keeping purposes, which still stands today. If you have ever read a baseball box score, you know exactly how the game went. Numbers…

So how did this post divert from numbers to baseball? Don’t worry, I am getting back to that.

Numbers…

The Ohio State Buckeyes football team has not been beaten by that TTUN (aka University of Michigan) since the 2012 season. The last time they lost was during the 2011 season. OSU has became National Champs in 2014. They went 14-1. The only team to beat OSU that year was Virginia Tech (in Columbus). VA Tech’s quarterback that day–Michael Brewer. Michael Brewer was a transfer from another Tech school…Texas Tech. Connections with numbers…

1970…6th OSU National Championship

Numbers…

I listed 5 numbers at the top of this post. 5 numbers. Numbers that increase each and every day.

These numbers as of April 18 are the years, months, days, minutes, seconds, that my life has existed without my father.

My father was killed in a car accident on April 18, 2011. I miss him every day. This is the time I haven’t had a chance to talk about Ohio State football with him. This are the numbers of time where he hasn’t see my children. These are the numbers where I can’t ask for his advice about life. These are the numbers that dictate the hole in my heart because he is no longer alive.

As an only child, it’s been difficult to live without my father. I lost my mother in the same year 2011) eight months later…numbers. So yea…it has been difficult for me. I told someone once that if you have never lost a parent, you don’t know the pain. I lost part of who I am. I lost the one person who I could turn to talk sports…and I mean really talk about it. I lost the person who understood the Ohio State fandom. He just understood.

So with that…my Dad.

Claude Wendell Crews–born in 1940 to Goffrey and Pearl Crews in West Virginia. He was the youngest of 4 children. He had two brothers and one sister. He was the last of his siblings to pass away. He was married twice, the second time to my mother. They had one child…me. He served in the Air Force for 4 years. He worked all his life in the aerospace industry working on airplanes, helicopters, and any other flying machines. He loved fishing, golfing, and watching sports. He loved drinking beer and could shoot a mean game of pool. He was stubborn and had a temper. He moved his family to Texas in 1975 from Ohio. He taught me to love the Ohio State Buckeyes, how to change a tire, fish, hunt, drive a car, and I hate to say it, quite a few cuss words from him. His work ethnic was undeniable. When he was on strike from Bell Helicopter during a spell, he took a job at a gas station to provide for his family. He would give you the shirt off his back. He loved talking to people. He didn’t care if he didn’t know them or not. It’s the one thing I wish I had learned from him. He loved country music. His favorite song…”Amarillo by Morning”. I would suspect he would have preferred that he had a son, but lucky him he got a daughter.

There is so much more to this man I call my Dad. If you knew him, you know about him. Like with anyone he had his faults and failures, but who hasn’t. But in the end, he was my Dad. I miss and love him each and every day.

Thank you for letting me share my father with you.

I love you Daddy.

**Footnote…the last time the Ohio State football team lost to Michigan was 2011…the year my daddy die. Coincidence…I think not.**