I am writing this the morning after Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees hit his 62nd home run of the season, breaking Roger Maris’ American League record of 61, which he set 61 years ago. I immediately thought of my dad, his youth, my life as his son and our relationship with the American pastime. Anthony Quilico was born in 1901 in the coal mining Italian enclave of Seatonville in Bureau County, Illinois.

His dad worked the mines until 1909, when the mine fire in nearby Cherry, Illinois, convinced him to take a job with the railroads. Many miners of Italian descent died in the Cherry Mine fire, and it had a profound effect on survivors. By comparison, Anthony’s childhood seemed pretty idyllic, and one of his favorite pastimes was sandlot baseball. He earned his lifelong nickname of “Dido,” the word for speedy in the Piemontese dialect, because of his baserunning prowess.