Gleason Page #5

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His only way to teach

how to live life

was to teach it

out of fear.

STEVE:

As much as possible,

try not twist like that.

You got all

your questions there?

Yeah.

That's good.

So I think a good place

to start, Dad, would be--

How about your birth?

Yeah, the very

first memory of me

as a very young child.

What were some of

the things that you remember?

Is that thing on?

Yeah.

It can hear what

you just asked me?

Yeah.

Okay.

He was a reader,

pretty cerebral.

He wasn't an introvert, but he

was more on the quiet side,

I can remember he was

about 6 years old,

and I had him in the backyard.

He was at the farthest end

of the lot in the backyard.

I bought him a Wiffle ball

and a bat.

I said,

"Keep your eye on the ball,

and watch the ball hit

the bat."

So I tossed it to him.

First time he swung the bat.

He hit the ball over the house.

And we're talking

plastic Wiffle ball.

And I thought, "Holy crap.

What do I have here?

Our parents got divorced

when I was 15,

and you were 11 maybe?

Something like that.

And so growing up,

what I remember

is that they would fight

all the time.

A lot of verbal abuse.

Our parents literally

screamed at each other

for hours, just like screaming

as loud as they could

for hours and hours and hours.

There reached a point between

Mike and I where things got

pretty bad

and the boys

did not like that,

especially when I started

going to therapy

and learning how to stand up

for myself again.

Then that got pretty tense.

I didn't have experience

in how to raise somebody.

My father was never home

when I grew up.

So I didn't really have

an example of how a father

should be.

So I was just doing

the best I could do.

I probably over pushed

in some areas

just because I just saw

a lot of talent there

and somebody that had

fierce determination.

So I thought, well,

there's a lot

this kid can do.

And here come the Cougars!

MAN:

There's Stephen right there.

When you saw--

How the interaction was

as a family--

And things weren't right

between your mom and I--

That you can take all that

frustration out on the field.

And it was a great way

for you to release

pain, anger, uh...

And I hate to say it,

but that was

one of my motivations

when I played ball.

'Cause my own life

with my parents

was pretty dysfunctional.

And you grew up in a pretty

dysfunctional marriage.

STEVE:

The biggest thing my dad

has contributed to me

is just determination,

perseverance. Hard work.

I mean, the guy

to a fault, he works hard.

I ended up in a 12-step

recovery program

for workaholism and anxiety.

This a biblical principal

and it's in the Old Testament,

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