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15
The Chicago Cubs were in the middle of a long nine-game homestand in late August 2005 when the warnings first came. Cooper Madison immediately called his father, Jeffrey, after he saw a news report on the clubhouse television before a morning workout.
"You board up the house yet?" Cooper asked. "They're saying this is going to be as bad as Camille."
"Yessir, last night," Jeffrey responded in typical southern fashion, even though his drawl was adopted. "It'll probably miss us, though. You know the drill…"
"I don't know," Cooper replied, "I don't like what they're saying on TV. Calling for evacuations. Where you goin? We're in the middle of a homestand, why don't you catch a flight up here and crash with me?"
"I appreciate that, son, but I'll probably go hole-up in the high school with Butkus. My office is safer than any hurricane shelter," Jeffrey said, referencing his office deep in the bowels of the Pass Christian High School locker room and surrounded by windowless cinder block walls. Butkus, just like in the movie "Rocky", was a fawn colored Bullmastiff - and his closest companion since Cooper went north.
Cooper wanted to be more persistent in requesting that his father evacuate "The Pass" altogether, but he knew that his father was probably right. Most hurricanes that are referred to as the "Next Camille" usually turn away from the coast prior to being downgraded to a tropical storm. Hurricane season always seemed to be an exercise in futility.
Still, he couldn't remember a time when the warnings to evacuate the gulf coast seemed so persistent. Even if it did turn away, Hurricane Katrina was going to be one big storm.
"I'm fixin to go throw a bullpen in a minute. Keep your phone on you," Cooper advised, "and give Butkus a hug for me."
"Yessir, will do, son," Jeffrey said before ending the phone call as he typically did, "I'm so proud of you. I love you, Cuppah."
"Yessir, love you, too, Daddy," Cooper said as he hung up.
Cooper chuckled as he imagined his father and Butkus, who he bought for Jeffrey his first Christmas as a professional, huddling in his dad's smelly office. Butkus, along with a new pick-up truck and the balance of his father's mortgage, were not just gifts, but rather the result of a promise he made himself if he was ever able to afford it.
Jeffrey had always loved the movie "Rocky" and the main character’s big tan dog. He also loved pick-up trucks but was never able to afford a brand new one on his teacher salary.
Cooper cherished the memory of seeing his dad's face as he led him outside on that December morning in 1997. Sitting in the passenger seat of the brand new, full-sized crew cab pickup truck, was an 8 week old Butkus. Taped to the steering wheel was the deed to his father's house.
Jeffrey had always told his son that he didn't want a dime of his son's money. He knew that if something happened to Cooper's arm, God forbid, that he'd have to live off of his signing bonus. He didn't want Cooper falling into the trap that so many young athletes experiencing money for the first time often did. He even set Cooper up with a financial advisor that he trusted, as he was one of his former college teammates that made it big managing the portfolios of professional athletes.
All that aside, Jeffrey knew that his son was trying to give him the gifts every kid dreams of giving their parents one day. He made Cooper promise that would be the last of the extravagant gifts, hugged him, and took Butkus for a quick spin down the street in what would be the first of his many rides in the new truck.
When Coop watched his dad pull away in that shiny new truck with Butkus by his side, he remembered feeling a sense of accomplishment that he was never able to obtain on a baseball diamond.
