It’s been two years since my dad passed away. Since then I have spent a lot of time thinking about how I can best honor the legacy he left behind.
This is a letter I was able to read to my dad at a special dinner where he was inducted into the Merced High Baseball Hall of Fame, just months before he died. It’s a long letter, but I hope you will be inspired by the way he lived his life and how that life impacted thousands of others.
Dear Dad,
Growing up as the youngest daughter of Merced High’s baseball coach, coaching was not just a career for you; it was a way of life. And by the time I came along our family was firmly entrenched in that lifestyle. The baseball field at Merced High was like our second home and the players, families and fans were like an extended part of our family.
In the Juarez house, you were many different roles: father, husband, friend, King of tap tap chair back, the ultimate mud fighter, the one who could transform our living room into a football arena or baseball stadium, the champion of home run derby and whiffle ball tournaments. You were the man who could make a million different silly faces, who loved to tell funny stories and who constantly teased our mom. You have always been an encourager and always there to remind us to focus on the positive. To us Juarez kids, who had the privilege of calling you dad, you were and still are… our hero!
But over the last few months I began to see a whole new side of you. As we have been going through pictures and newspaper articles, I read things about you like, “The best athlete to ever romp the fields of Livingston High School,” or “one of the greatest all-around athletes to come out of the San-Joaquin Valley.” And I learned about all of the awards you received and records you set throughout your high school career, including Northern California Athlete of the Year. And then it dawned on me, that you weren’t just our hero, with an athletic career like that, you were the hero of every kid who grew up in Merced County back then.
And you were the type of role model that I would want my own kids to look up to. You were known as the guy who was friendly to everyone and through all four years of high school with all the sports you played, you held a job in which you worked every day after school and every Saturday, in order to help support you and your mom. And I have heard stories about how you would go to school and then you would run over to the supermarket to work and then you would run back over to practice and then you would run home. Your former bosses will still to this day say that you have the best work ethic they have ever seen.
But when it came to a decision between work and sports, you always put work first. What high schooler would decline a free trip to visit a college campus because they were on the schedule for their job?
I have tried to imagine what it must have been like for you to have your pick of the eighteen different colleges that offered you full ride scholarships for baseball and football. And then to have those dreams shattered by a knee injury. But you kept going… because you had a goal! And I began to think about what it must have been like for you as a young twenty year old – that on the very night you were to sign a contract with the Chicago Cubs, you re-injured your knee and those hopes and dreams of playing professional baseball were gone in an instant. The scouts were there at the game, they drove you to the hospital… they heard the news right along with you. Devastating. For many people that would have been it; something like that would have broken them. But not for you. Instead you allowed that situation to fuel an even greater passion inside of you.
You became “coach.”
And I would bet that if you had it to do all over again, there is nowhere else you would have rather been then right there at Merced High School… in your number 36 uniform… influencing the lives of fine young men.
But why didn’t we know all of these things about you? Why are the majority of us here tonight hearing this for the first time? These types of accomplishments ought to give someone bragging rights. But that is not who you are. One of the greatest qualities about you is that beneath that intense, passionate and fired up coach that we all know you as, you are a very humble man. You’ve never given much weight to stats and awards and records… you care more about the content of a person’s character.
I recently heard someone say that a career is what you get paid to do… a calling is what you were made to do. Dad, you were made to coach, and you did so with such enthusiasm and passion, that we all wanted to be a part of your team. I can remember how I couldn’t wait until I was old enough to be the bat girl and sport the little #8 jersey with the homemade iron on letters that mom made. I don’t know how old I was when I finally got my chance to put that jersey on, but I definitely remember how huge it felt inside of my heart. That was when I got to become the batgirl. It was such an honor to be able to sit in the dugout with all the players and to get to be a part of the team circles.
I can still remember how proud I felt sitting next to you on the bus. It was on those rides home you would teach me little lessons about life. Although, looking back those talks must have been after wins… because we all know that if the varsity Bears lost the game, the bus ride home would be long and silent!
I can remember one particular talk you gave me about giving 100% and the importance of honoring my commitments. As the batgirl, I would do my job for about 3 or 4 innings and then I was ready to go out and play with the kids. But you reminded me about the commitment I had made to you and to the team, and the things you said made me want to do my best. It made me want to stay out there for the whole game and finish strong. And then you bribed me with money, so that is always good!
To you, it didn’t matter if we were the batboy or the ace pitcher… every person’s role on the team was significant. And you taught us to take pride in our team… whether that team be a baseball club, or a company that we work for or a family unit. From you I learned to honor my teammates and the importance of representing my team well.
Just the other day I had a chance to talk with Nicky Rocco, and he said to me, “I am the man who I am today because of your dad… He believed in me before I even believed in myself… and I was just the bat boy out there with all those incredible athletes.” For those of you that don’t know Nick Rocco, he was the manager of the undefeated 1978 team, and he was also born with cerebral palsy…
Dad, you have this amazing ability to believe the best in everyone. You see beyond the surface and look right into our hearts… to see us not as we are, but as God intended us to be. And you helped me realize that we all have an ability to accomplish far more than we think we are capable of. It was that way with everything! If anyone were to ask you who you are rooting for in a particular game, the answer was always… the underdog. You love to see people succeed beyond what is expected of them.
I know we are here to honor my dad, but I just want to take a moment to recognize my mom, Sharon! From the time she was a freshman in high school, Sharon Juarez (Nye) has been Richard Juarez’ #1 fan! We had the privilege of celebrating your 50th wedding anniversary last June, and I have to say that even after all these years, Sharon Juarez is still Richard Juarez’ #1 fan.
And Dad, I believe you are the man you are today, in great part because of the woman that mom is. She put the needs and desires of her husband and family in front of her own. I have never heard mom speak a negative word about you… not to us, and never in front of us. Mom is the ultimate encourager! You have had your share of life’s challenges, but the two of you together have been an awesome example of sacrifice, compromise and teamwork. When I look around at the couples and people you have surrounded yourselves with, I realize they are all people who share those same values. What an incredible legacy!
The greatest lesson that I learned from the example that you set on the ball field is that the first and most important thing in life is to always TAKE CARE OF NUMBER ONE. Your faith in God has had such an incredible impact on my life… and you will never know how much it has meant to me. Your faith wasn’t just about going to church on Sunday and paying your dues… it has been every part of the way you have lived your life. So much that for 22 years before and after every game, you circled your team up and began each talk with “Gentlemen, let’s take care of number one.” And together as a team you would remove your ball caps, bow your heads and pray. There was no judgment upon anyone who didn’t share the same belief, but there was no question about who your number one was.
Even in the middle of games when you didn’t know what to do in a situation, you would pray to God for wisdom. And we all have very clear memories of coming home late at night and finding you asleep at the table… with your Bible in front of you and your prayer books…
It is that faith that has cemented your marriage and held together your family through many hardships… like the loss of a daughter to Leukemia and a wife in a body cast for 18 months with 4 young children at home. And when your wife was hit by a motor scooter while unknowingly pregnant and it was recommended that you terminate that pregnancy, it was your faith that caused you to “choose life” for your fourth child. And I stand here today, with an amazing husband and 3 incredible children because when I was faced with the most difficult time in my own life, I had a dad who looked beyond my circumstances and called upon His God who can make all things possible.
It is because of you that I have committed my own life to serving your God, because once again, I want to be a part of your team!
Dad, all of my life I have heard you say, “I just want to do something great for the Good Lord!” And to that I just have to say, look around you… stop, take a moment, and breathe this all in. Each one of of these people here tonight is here because you have touched their life in a positive way. And there are so many more who wanted to be here tonight but couldn’t be.
You want to do something big for the Lord… you already have!
Forever your “Little Bit”,
The Lizard
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