My Son Bleeds Pinstripes

My 3-year-old son Jack woke up Saturday morning and demanded his Pinstripes.

Jack is a typically active little boy, but he's extremely vocal and speaks very well with very strong pronunciation skills. He says names such as Joba Chamberlain, Mark Teixeira, CC Sabathia, Jorge Posada and Francisco Cervelli with such aplomb that it would make Chris "Mad Dog" Russo insanely jealous. Not bad for a 3-year-old.

He's a sweet kid with a great disposition (if I do say so, myself). But he also knows what he wants, when he wants it and is not afraid to let everyone know it.

Well, Saturday he woke up at 6:30 a.m. demanding to wear his Derek Jeter T-shirt, which he had worn the day before. Of course, the shirt was beyond dirty, but Jack wasn't buying any of it. "No, no, no! Not t'dayyyy! Not diiiirty!" he'd say.

He wanted to wear that shirt and wasn't taking no for an answer. He proceeded put forth a screaming fit that would have woken Sleeping Beauty.

"I --- WANT --- YANKEESHIRT!" he'd scream at the top of his little lungs.

My wife Amy came into the room to help calm Jack. And after going through every other shirt Jack had in his entire wardrobe, we finally got him calmed down by promising to get him another Yankee shirt later in the day. (He ended up deciding to wear a green T that had a picture of a pickup truck with two surf boards coming out of the back. He said it looked like a tow truck.)

Well, once I woke up for good for the day (I had gotten home from work at 3:30 a.m. and needed just a little more rest), our quest began.

We ran off to Kohl's, but all they had were overpriced, generic Yankees Ts. No player Ts. Jack, of course, was disappointed, but we soldiered on.

Next I decided to head to Milford, about a 20 minute drive from Trumbull, to Babies R Us, the store where I had bought the Jeter T in the first place. Well, they were all out of Yankees paraphernalia. (Interestingly, they had a rack full of Red Sox stuff. ... Dave, just saying.)

Well, I had one last hope: Toys R Us.

Now running from store to store can be very tough on a 3-year-old, as millions of parents can attest to. But Jack was on his best behavior. He held my hand in the parking lots and stores. No screaming, no fits when we left the first two stores empty handed. He knew what we were after, and he wasn't going to be denied. He was going to get that shirt Saturday -- forget the Internet and waiting for shipping!

As we pulled into the lot for Toys R Us, Jack said, "Daddy, I like this store." Well, what kid wouldn't like a toy store?

We walked in we hit the jackpot. Jack saw the paraphernalia and said, "Look Daddy! Yankee shirts!"

I went through the stock, just Sabathia and Chamberlain shirts, but that was good enough for Jack. As I put two shirts (one of each player) in our cart, Jack turned to me and said, "Thank you, Daddy. Can I have a car?"

Of course, he got a Mater truck from the movie "Cars."

Afterall, how was I going to refuse my son on the day he demanded and seized his Pinstripes?