I can still vividly recall when my Vol fandom started. The year was 1995, I was 9 and Peyton Manning was a sophomore in college. Sure, I had been to games before (or so I've been told), but the matchup with Georgia nearly 30 years ago is the one I always remember.

Manning was great - it was really the game which established him as a future star - and Jeff Hall kicked the game-winning field goal as time expired. I was sitting in the first few rows of the second deck at Neyland Stadium and could see the ball spining through the uprights before I turned around and saw the fireworks going off above the V-O-L-S letters atop the stadium. I also remember being there with my dad - something that would become a common occurrence during all of my favorite Tennessee fan moments.

I was reminded of our bond through the Vols Sunday when we watched the College World Series together. It was a throwback moment for us, something we haven't done in decades (probably because, as my boss Seth Wright likes to point out, Vol fans only started caring about baseball three years ago). 

See, back when I was young, my dad and I lived at the diamonds. He was a league commissioner at the ball parks when I was building a love for sports, particularly baseball. I would keep score, eat chicken sandwiches, play cup ball, eat chicken sandwiches, help with the scorebooks, turn off the lights and - if there were a few left over - eat some more chicken sandwiches. 

If dad was at the ball fields, I was usually right behind him. We scouted the teams we'd face, went to other fields to try to pick out the players we could add to our team in the next year's draft and just spent time loving baseball.

Over the years, my love for the game waned. At points, I wouldn't even acknowledge it existed, so much so that I recall a local telling me I wasn't American when I wrote a column saying I didn't watch baseball or care about it.

He never said it, but I think my dad always hated how I drifted away from the game. Sure, we had other things bringing us together - like cheering on the Vols - but baseball was the one thing we really had for years and almost talked in a different language when we watched together.

He may have thought it would never happen again - and maybe I did too - but Sunday, we sat together and watched the Vols get one step closer to a College World Series and fell right back into our rhythm. We were guessing pitch locations, debating the defensive placement of players, sitting in awe of the hitting, defense and pitching of the Vols and, most of all, just enjoying America's Pastime once again. 

There are a lot of reasons why I want the Vols to win it all in Omaha. Atop that list is the hope if Tennessee clinches a CWS title this weekend, I'll be able to watch it with my dad.