There's something about spring and fathers and sons and baseball.

I know more than one dad who has placed a baseball glove in his son's cradle and more than one dad who has given up golf to coach his son in Little League.

And every dad would be lying if he said he didn't entertain, however fleetingly, the belief that his son one day would play in the big leagues.

For most of us, fathers and sons alike, reality intrudes, and other dreams take their rightful precedence.

Nelson Marshall, my son Kyle's Little League manager, like all of us, had that dream for his sons Sean and Brian, Kyle's teammates on the Chesterfield Little League Red Sox a dozen years ago.

But unlike most of us, Marshall's dream came true. His son Sean, now a grown man at 23, took the mound for the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field last Sunday night.

The former Manchester High and Virginia Commonwealth University pitching star, who was drafted by the Cubs in the sixth round of the 2003 Major League Baseball draft and who never had started a game above AA ball, had made it to the majors.

Nelson was there, of course. So were Sean's mom, Carol, and Brian, his twin and fellow left-handed pitcher and a major-league prospect himself, as well as 14 other family and friends from all over the country, as far away as California.

Sitting there at Wrigley Field was highly emotional, Nelson said, as one would expect. "You just sit back and think and look at your parents and grandparents and it makes you well up."

In fact, the Marshalls knew it would be so emotional they came to Chicago to see the Saturday game just to get the "Wrigley thing out of the way," Carol said. Neither parent ever had been to one of baseball's most famous shrines. "We knew what a big night it [Sean's Sunday start] would be."

After all, here was Sean, a rookie player pitching opening week at Wrigley to one of the best-hitting teams in baseball on national television.

Despite the nerves, Carol Marshall said, "it was one of the most fun nights I have ever had."

"The fans are awesome," she said. "Some came up to us and said, 'Oh, Mr. and Mrs. Marshall, this is my little boy. He wants to grow up and be on the team like Sean.'

"There is something special about baseball. It's every little boy's dream. It's every father's dream."

How did Sean do? Pretty darn well. He walked the mighty Albert Pujols and then gave up a homer to Scott Rolen in the first inning, but he retired 10 of the next 11 batters.

ESPN captured the Marshall party cheering wildly for Sean when he was taken out after loading the bases in the fifth inning. The Cubs won the game in the eighth inning on a grand slam.

His dad watched his son sit down beside future Hall of Fame pitcher Greg Maddux. "It was the old-school veteran and the rookie," Nelson said.

"What should I have thrown on the home run ball?" Sean later told his dad he had asked Maddux.

"You probably should have thrown the change-up instead of the fastball," Maddux answered.

Kyle said he remembered Nelson Marshall as his "favorite coach ever."

"Except my father, of course," he quickly added. Of course.

He also remembers Sean and Brian: "I really liked catching both of them. They threw strikes. I didn't have to run back to the backstop to chase the ball down."

When the TV announcer noted Marshall worked fast, Kyle remembered Sean got agitated with him whenever he didn't get the ball back fast enough.

"It wasn't that I didn't want to," Kyle said. "I was just so slow."

As for Sean's performance on ESPN, Kyle said, "It made me think maybe I didn't have as much to do with winning the Little League championship as I thought I did."

Sean is expected to start again tonight in Pittsburgh against the Pirates, and his mom and dad expect to be there.

Oh, and they're waiting for youngest son Chris' shoulder to heal so he can pitch again in high school, and for 8-month-old grandson Ryan, oldest son Adam's little boy, to get old enough for T-ball.