"Tucked away in Matt Capps' wallet, right behind his driver's license, is the Georgia driver's license of Mike Capps, proudly wearing his Pirates jacket, the team his son played for when the photo was taken. The ID is a physical reminder that Matt Capps really doesn't need. The Twins right-hander is entering his second spring training without his dad, without the daily conversations that both humbled and buoyed him since he started playing ball at age 8, but Mike Capps remains a very real part of his son's everyday life. Mike Capps died Oct. 22, 2009, after a fall at his home in Georgia sent him into cardiac arrest, put him on life support and eventually to what Matt Capps believes is a better place. Mike Capps would have turned 63 on Monday, and perhaps on that day his son found that Keith Urban compact disc he still keeps in his truck, the one with the song he first heard as a Class A pitcher a decade ago that immediately struck him as being a perfect tribute to his relationship with his dad, and played it one more time. The song, titled, "Song for Dad," is about how alike the son and his tough-love father have become, how the son can hear the father in the very things he now says, how he's started to see his father's face when he looks at himself in the mirror. Asked what his father would say about Capps' situation this spring, with his status as a closer up in the air, the pitcher gave an answer that sounded much like what he's said to reporters about the subject this spring. "He'd say, 'Listen, they're paying you $7 million a year to get people out,' " Capps said. "He'd be the first to tell me how incredibly lucky I am to be able to do something like this. He'd also tell me if I did (complain) and moan about it, it's pretty petty. In the grand scheme of things, it'd be pretty petty for me or Joe (Nathan) or anybody in here to be upset about something like that." And so Capps is heeding that advice, perhaps mostly because he believes it's true. He reiterated on Thursday, after pitching two innings in a minor league game, that his desire to win trumps his desire to close. Still, that doesn't mean being a closer isn't important to him. "\ Read more: http://www.twincities.com/twins/ci_17648551?nclick_check=1
