Some friendships outlast the final out.
Baseball has a way of giving us people we never would have known otherwise.
Teammates. Coaches. Opponents. Families. Friends.
Sometimes those relationships last for a season. Sometimes they last for a lifetime.
For my father, Mike Link, one of those relationships was his friendship with Bobby Valentine.
Their connection went back to their years at USC, where baseball, college life, and Sigma Chi became part of a shared chapter that continued long after they left campus. What began during those years became a genuine friendship that lasted across decades.
And because of my dad, some of those baseball relationships became part of my life too.
More Than the Games
Growing up around my father, baseball was never simply something we watched.
It was connected to people.
The stories he told, the players and coaches he knew, the games we attended, and the friendships that continued long after everyone stopped wearing a uniform were all part of how I came to understand the game.
Bobby Valentine was part of that world.
There were baseball games, conversations, and memories over the years, but what stayed with me most became clear only after my father was gone.
The Call I Never Wanted to Make
My father passed away in 2021.
One of the most difficult things I had to do afterward was call Bobby and tell him that his longtime friend had died.
It was a conversation I never wanted to have.
But what followed was something I have never forgotten.
Bobby shared memories of my dad.
For a little while, the conversation wasn’t simply about loss. It was about the years they had known each other, the experiences they had shared, and the memories baseball had given them.
Shortly afterward, I wrote about that conversation on Facebook.
I thanked Bobby not only for speaking with me that day, but for something much larger: his contribution to so many of the baseball memories I had shared with my father.
That distinction matters.
Because baseball didn’t just give my dad games to watch.
It gave him people.
And through him, some of those people became part of my own baseball story.
The Fellowship of Baseball
This is what we mean at Link Baseball when we talk about fellowship.
It isn’t a slogan.
It’s the teammate you haven’t seen in years who can make you feel like no time has passed.
It’s the coach whose lessons remain with you decades later.
It’s the friend you met because baseball once put you in the same place.
And it’s the phone call made many years later when the games themselves have become memories.
The scoreboard eventually goes dark.
The uniforms get put away.
The seasons end.
But some of the relationships remain.
Mike Link and Bobby Valentine are one example of that.
And for me, their friendship is another reminder that some of baseball’s greatest gifts have very little to do with what happens between the lines.
Baseball gave them more than memories. It gave them a lifelong bond.
That is the fellowship of baseball.
Built on Generations of Baseball.
— Tim Link
Founder, Link Baseball