“It’s been amazing, travel being what it is, I’ve been able to spend every day of my baby daughter’s first three months, with her, holding her.”
— Chad Pipkens
Elite angler
Dad to 7-month-old Emerie Rae … The Tiniest Pip
Dateline: St. Clair … Motown
“The only way I can describe fatherhood is at the end of How the Grinch Stole Christmas, you know how his heart grows like five times? Everything is full; it’s just full all the time.”
– Matt Damon
I sit as an old man and wonder, where did it go, this thing we call, time.
I still remember when my daughter could wrap her whole tiny hand around my thumb, still remember when the doctor all in green scrubs stood up, turned around and said to me, “Mr. Barone, meet your new son.”
I sit as an old man and wonder, where did it go, this thing we call, time.
Even though we play this game for all the marbles, even though there are pages and pages of how to catch fish and what to use to do it, even though most days are on the highway, most nights in cookie-cutter hotels, the greatest catch of our lives comes not from under the water, but from the hearts of those who give us theirs.
Those who love us, our families.
You are no less a man if you feel that way. In fact in my book your are more of a man if you know the greatest trophy is your family standing on the bank, not the fish under the waves.
“Chad has been home with our daughter the majority of her life, put her to bed, woke up with her, held her, laughed with her, kissed her, it’s been one of the greatest blessings in our lives.” — Melanie Pipkens, Chad’s wife and the mother of The Tiniest Pip
“The guys who fear becoming fathers don’t understand that fathering is not something perfect men do, but something that perfects the men.”
– Frank Pittman
To The Tiniest Pip, if someday you read this about your daddy, please know this story, is for you.
So let’s do it.
“One shot…”
“For me, winning isn’t something that happens suddenly on the field when the whistle blows and the crowds roar. Winning is something that builds physically and mentally every day that you train and every night that you dream.”
– Emmitt Smith
To get the measure of the man you need to push the man some, only one letter separates a champ from a chump.
“So Chad dude, when are you going to become good?”
I have asked that exact question to some of the greatest athletes to walk this Earth in the last four decades.
Get this, as I ask that Chad is in eighth place in the Bassmaster Angler of the Year points race and is about to fish on basically his home lake.
With 102 events in his Elite time, 62 times he finished in the money: .608 is his batting (fishing) average.
I know all that when I asked the question. I’m not saying a word just waiting, on the reporter’s notebook pad next to me I have two letters written down: U and A waiting to hear his answer as to which one will be crossed out.
“db, in my mind I’ll never be good enough, you can never be good enough you have to always keep working to be good, to be great, never stop reaching for that goal.”
And with that I put an X through the letter “U.”
“That’s the right answer, champ.”
“…or one opportunity…”
“Winning solves everything.”
— Tiger Woods
Home field, in this case home lake, Lake St. Clair is basically Chad’s lake. He lives near it, he is staying with his in-laws who live close to it and in 2014 he won a Bassmaster Opens event on it.
So … advantage … Chad … right?
Um, not so fast. Let’s look at this “home-field advantage” stuff. A University of Rochester research study that looked back at 60 years of home-field wins found that the home teams win “slightly more than 60% of the time.”
In the NFL, home teams win about 57% of the time.
NHL: 55%.
MLB: 54%.
Flipping a coin 50/50 right for heads or tails … nope … 51/49 … not even. It’s close but not 50/50. If you’re in college reading this consider that as extra credit for you this semester. Free tip: It’s 51/49 with 51 being tails because that side is a tiny bit heavier.
So if there is a home-field advantage it may only be in the stands, on the field it is almost a flip of the coin.
“I’d like to think there is a home field advantage here, db, but in fact it’s consistency that wins, learned that in hockey.”
Oh?
“…to seize everything you ever wanted…”
“Success isn’t always about greatness, it’s about consistency. Consistent hard work leads to success, greatness will come.”
— Dwayne Johnson
“I played D-II Club Hockey at Central Michigan, left wing/center, we played in three national championships.”
Chad told me he is a big Detroit Red Wings fan and that hockey has helped him with fishing as an Elite: “In hockey you are only on the ice in shifts, maybe 40-45 seconds total so you have to let the play develop in front of you and then be in the right place at the right time to make the play.”
We talk some NHL stuff for a moment, like how Mario Lemieux freaked me when he walked into the locker room in uniform and on skates and how big the dude was.
“You don’t want to be offsides,” said Chad, “so that is a huge help to me on the water, instead of just going from spot to spot in some sort of panic I let the lake and the fish develop in front of me, I sort of take what it gives. Hockey helped me be much calmer on the water, think more, anticipate more.”
I tell him that Jaromír Jágr was young and not as big as Mario when I covered the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1992.
“In hockey after your shift you get to sit on the bench,” he said, “not here, here you have to get prepared or you get gassed pretty quick. While I was home those 50 days due to the COVID stuff every day I ran 3 to 4 miles just to get in shape for this season.”
“Oh.” Not me.
“…in one moment…”
Melanie Pipkens: “I thought all they did was drink beer and sometimes maybe catch a fish.”
Me too when first told I was going to be covering a “professional fishing tournament series.”
“I had no idea when they said fishing he meant fishing.”
“How did it go over with your parents when you told them you were dating a professional angler?”
“Um, well, you know, um …”
Being the father of a daughter myself I’m extremely aware how that conversation would go.
“… after a while they, you know, got it, figured it out, lots of questions you know.”
Yep, I do.
“And now?”
“All in, they love it, and they don’t really fish. I do now though.”
“So what do you think about this professional fishing gig thing now?”
“I love it. Chad, you know, is the most positive, positive person I’ve ever known, sometimes I tell him when things don’t go well, ‘Can’t you get mad? Can’t you ever get mad?’ and he always tells me, ‘Nope all good, all good.”
As I’m writing down those quotes suddenly from the speaker phone I hear this: “You know, db, you know what? He’s happy, he’s happy to be fishing and he’s so happy to be a dad, he’s …”
And then there is a short pause, the kind of pause you take when you realize there are happy times in life and you are in the midst of one of those times right now.
“… he’s just happy.”
“…would you capture it, or just let it slip…”
They say a person needs just three things to be truly happy in this world: Someone to love, something to do, and something to hope for.”
— Tom Bodett
To The Tiniest Pip:
May all your dreams be within reach, may the universe be yours and the stars above be your stepping stones.
May you smile more than frown, may you laugh more than cry, and may your hair be much better than your dad’s.
May good turn into greatness.
And for you The Tiniest Pip may you know that we’ve already crossed out the “U” because we know you will one day, be like dad, a champ.
db
“…you can do anything you set your mind to.”
Lose Yourself
Eminem
“Never underestimate the power of dreams and the influence of the human spirit. We are all the same in this notion: The potential for greatness lives within each of us.”
— Wilma Rudolph