How family fueled Bard's epic comeback

This story was excerpted from Thomas Harding’s Rockies Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

Father’s Day is Sunday, but one of the motivations for Rockies closer Daniel Bard’s 2020 comeback -- after seven years out of the Majors, because of control problems -- was to make every day possible a Father’s Day. Bard explains below how special it is to share baseball with his three children -- sons Davis (6 1/2) and Sykes (4), and daughter Campbell (2):

If you ask my wife, it was one of the biggest reasons I decided to play again. Back in 2020, I felt like I could pitch again. Odds of me getting back to the big leagues weren’t great. But I didn’t really care. I was like, 'Maybe I would play independent or Minor League Triple-A ball and have my kids around it.' That was one thing I regretted that I never really got to do. Just to have memories of them being on the field was one of the reasons I decided to play again."

In 2020, it didn’t happen [because of COVID protocols]. Last year, it was pretty limited. This year, with most of the reins being taken off, I decided to take advantage as many times as I can to get them on the field, in the clubhouse, in the bullpen.

My oldest, Davis, is really learning the game. He’s able to comprehend. 'These are the different kinds of outs, this is how many outs you need. This is why strikeouts are good.' Adair, my wife, has been telling me he knows what to cheer for now. He gets really fired up when I strike a guy out. He knew it was good before. Now he knows why it’s good.

We that are around it every day take it for granted, but at one time, baseball was really confusing for all of us.

Sykes is 4, Campbell is 2. They love the environment. They love the lights.

We walked into a restaurant on the off-day and they were showing highlights. Then she started going, 'Rockies win! Rockies win!' when she saw us celebrating. It was pretty funny.

I want to let them know they can be Shohei Ohtani and to both pitch and hit. I just hope they find interest and love the game. If they learn to love it, I figure it will be a lot easier to teach it to them -- rather than teaching it and trying to force them to love it.