AP photo by John Peterson / Virginia's Logan Michaels (12) scores a run in the ninth inning during a first-round game against Tennessee in the College World Series on Sunday in Omaha, Neb.If you're a University of Tennessee baseball fan, it might have been difficult to have a much worse start to the College World Series than what the Big Orange Nation experienced this weekend.
First, Vanderbilt - a Southeastern Conference brother but not exactly a favorite relative of most Volniacs - dug its way out of a 3-0 first-inning deficit against Arizona to win 7-6 in a 12-inning marathon that finished late, late Saturday night at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, Nebraska.
Then came Sunday afternoon at the same stadium, where the Vols rather listlessly fell 6-0 to Virginia for only their third shutout loss of the season.
But he also said this, perhaps because his own father was in the stands: "For all those fans that did watch, certainly not the happiest Father's Day for our crew, but it is Father's Day so that will be the next thing that everyone needs to celebrate in our locker room."
The irony is that for every college baseball fan except those rooting for the Vols, Virginia's victory provided one of the best Father's Day moments ever courtesy of Cavaliers catcher Logan Michaels and his father Jeff.
AP file photo by Sean Rayford / Virginia's Logan Michaels played a key role for the Cavaliers in their shutout win against Tennessee on Sunday at the College World Series.It would have been a sweet enough story to learn that Michaels hit his first home run since February 2020 to give the Cavaliers the only run they would ultimately need against the Vols. Then he added to his rare star turn by driving in the team's second run in the decisive seventh inning, when Virginia added four more runs to ice it.
But that's not really what made this one of the best Father's Day stories ever, even if his father Jeff was sitting in the stands to watch and celebrate.
No, what made this one of the all-time special Father's Day moments was that Jeff is a pancreatic cancer survivor, the deadly disease at least momentarily in remission, though, as Jeff told NCAA.com during the game: "Unfortunately, what I have is one of those cancers that wants to come back."
How often does the cancer that was first discovered inside Jeff in 2018 ultimately defeat its victims?
"My surgeons told me I have a 2% chance," he told the website. "When you have a 2% chance, you live for every moment."
But that also means your family, including your three children, dread every moment the phone rings unexpectedly or they see their father looking less than chipper.
During the height of Jeff's treatments, Logan once cried for more than an hour on the plane taking him back to Virginia's campus after flying to Wisconsin to visit his father.
Said coach Brian O'Connor of those dispiriting days: "There was a time three years ago that I didn't know if Logan Michaels would show up to campus."
But there Logan was on Sunday with the Cavaliers, successfully swinging for the fences, then finding out someone had generously returned his home run ball to his dad.
"When I hit the home run, all I thought about was him," Logan told a television reporter after the game. "All he's going through. All he's done for me. All he's meant to me."
Logan's next words in the interview were directed to his father: "I just want to say I love you with everything I've got."
They were wonderful words, the sentiment every parent hopes to hear from their children. But it was what happened in the dugout after Logan drove home his second run and then came around to score himself in the seventh that said more than any words could.
Returning to the dugout as his team continued to bat, he buried his head beneath a towel and wept, understandably overcome with emotion.
In the big picture of the College World Series, this win by Cavaliers may ultimately mean nothing, though as ESPN announcer Tom Hart noted Sunday, "They almost feel like a team of destiny."
And maybe Virginia will be. But it could also become Vanderbilt. Or maybe Tennessee will bounce back. Maybe fellow SEC member Mississippi State will ultimately be the last team standing. It is a double-elimination tournament, after all, with two brackets setting up a best-of-three championship series that starts June 28.
That will all shake out between now and the end of the month. But on the first Sunday of the event, on Father's Day no less, a memory to last forever was summed up perfectly by Jeff Michaels, who said of the home run his son Logan hit for him: "I think I'm the luckiest man on the face of the earth."
The rest of us who watched it all unfold, either in person or on television, should consider ourselves pretty darn lucky as well.
Mark WiedmerContact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @TFPWeeds.