Jay and Chase Buhner gave us a feel-good father-son moment
If you need a brief distraction from the Adam LaRoche-Chicago White Sox dispute that has dominated the baseball news cycles this week, Jay Buhner and his son Chase have you covered.
It was March 18, 1996, that the longtime Seattle Mariners star and his son appeared together on the cover of Sports Illustrated. And with the 20th Anniversary of that issue hitting newstands coming and going on Friday, they, along with the people at SI, decided it would be fun to recreate their classic photo.
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Needless to say, it was a pretty awesome idea.
Buhner never reached superstar status like former teammates Ken Griffey Jr., Alex Rodriguez and Randy Johnson. His career has never been the subject of a Hall of Fame debate like Edgar Martinez’s has. Yet still, Buhner has remained a beloved figure in Seattle nearly 15 years after his retirement.
He was certainly a productive player on those late 90s-early 2000s Mariners teams, helping guide them to three postseason appearances during his still productive years. His success was the main reason he was chosen to grace the Sports Illustrated cover. However, as FOX Sports’ Aaron Torres points out, the original photo was not planned. Sports Illustrated photographer V.J. Lovero, who was a friend of Buhner’s, only decided to take the shot when a then two-year-old Chase came by to say good night to his father.
The timing could not have been, nor the cover shot that was taken.
Fast forwarding to 2016, a now 22-year-old Chase was eager to recreate the shot. He donned a larger version of the same shirt and along sunk his teeth into the bat again, along with his father. And, quite honestly, it still works.
Given the news this week surrounding LaRoche and the White Sox, it’s both fitting and refreshing to see the Buhners take some of that spotlight. It’s a reminder that regardless of how each team and each player feels about having kids in the clubhouse, the connection baseball can create between parents and their children is something that can never be taken away.
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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Townie813
