Father S Day

It is one thing to father a child - most males are capable of that biological feat. But there is a profound difference in being a loving and caring father, one who accepts the emotional and financial responsibility for the safety, well-being and nurturing of a child. Far too many men fall short in that regard. Sunday is Father's Day, a day to remember and honor those men who truly embody the meaning and values of fatherhood. One man whose life epitomized the positive qualities of fatherhood was State Rep. David P. Richardson Jr., who died last August of a heart attack.

Derrick Clay and his son Markell spent yesterday as they do most Sundays: at Fairmount Park, where Markell played the drums. But yesterday was Father's Day and though 5-year-old Markell didn't know it, Derrick Clay, 33, knew something special should be going on in the park. There wasn't. The planned Father's Day rally at Memorial Hall fizzled. "In the past, it's usually been a bigger thing," Clay said halfway through the afternoon. "I'm sure that more people will be coming out later.

THIS JUST IN for Father's Day: Prince Albert of Monaco has done it again. The only son of Prince Ranier III and Princess Grace (Philadelphia's Grace Kelly) recently acknowledged through his lawyer that he is the father of a 14-year-old California girl named Jazmin Grace Grimaldi. The young lady is welcome in Monaco but cannot take the throne, and the royal family does not recognize her use of the Grimaldi name. Media reports say Albert, 48, had a brief affair with the girl's mother, Tamara Rotolo, in 1991 when she vacationed on the Cote d'Azur.

Just in case you thought no good could ever come of car trouble, consider the experience of Jack and Rodli Crew of Kensington. Forced to the sidewalks yesterday morning by their balky family car, the Crews and their five sons enjoy a walk to church along Lehigh Avenue. The Father's Day gift for Jack: freedom from the quiet, air-conditioned blandness of a drive to church and the chance to share a special few moments with his loved ones.

Before they became known as the Fizz Kids because of the greatest late-season collapse in baseball history, the 1964 Phillies looked like a team of destiny. Veteran righthander Jim Bunning, then 32 and in his first season with the Phillies, contributed mightily to that feeling, especially on Father's Day. It was on that day, 40 years ago, that Bunning pitched the National League's first nine-inning perfect game since 1880. Twenty-seven batters up, 27 down - 10 on strikeouts - as the Phils defeated the woeful New York Mets, 6-0, in the first game of a doubleheader at Shea Stadium.

Larry Dixon has good reason to be excited about his chances in this weekend's NHRA Powerade Drag Racing Series event at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in Englishtown, N.J. By advancing through the qualifying sessions today and tomorrow, Dixon would put himself in position for a fifth consecutive Father's Day victory celebration, with final-round eliminations for the 36th annual K&N Filters SuperNationals set to begin Sunday at 11 a.m. ...

There was a look of serenity on my friend Larry's face when he stopped by my office on Monday. It was a surprise visit. About a month ago Larry had taken a new job in Portland, Ore., as an executive with a national corporation. Although he planned to come back on Halloween weekend to visit his ailing dad in the hospital, it was fortuitious that Larry had come ahead of schedule. If he hadn't, he wouldn't have been able to say goodbye to his Dad, who died last Saturday night. Luckily, senior officials of his company had scheduled a Philadelphia conference and offered Larry a free ride on the corporate jet. Larry jumped at the chance.

"THOSE WHO CANNOT remember the past are condemned to repeat it," Spanish philosopher/poet George Santayana observed in 1905. But history repeated is not necessarily a negative. Take the Paterno family, for instance. Angelo Paterno sent his son, Joseph, to Brown University in preparation for a career as a lawyer, which was how Angelo made his living. But young Joe was a pretty fair football player, and it was with some apprehension that he informed his father that he would "temporarily" be taking a job as an assistant coach at Penn State, ostensibly to save money for law-school tuition.

FOR GASPARE "GAMP" Pellegrini, the best part about relinquishing the Malvern Prep football job was being able to execute an inside handoff. He not only knew his replacement, a guy named Kevin. He fathered him. "This was always my master plan," Gamp Pellegrini said. "I'm not sure it was his, but I'm glad it worked out this way. " With a laugh, he added, "If the school had hired an outside coach, he would have brought in his own people. I would have been cut off, immediately.

CONSIDERING THE success he has enjoyed, it's hard to believe Lynn Greer II once was quite the reluctant basketball player. Oh, he enjoyed playing mess-around games with buddies, and dashing onto the court for a few quick shots during breaks in the action at rec-league games involving his father, Lynn, but he wanted no part of organized hoops. "Then, one Saturday morning, my dad asked me if I wanted to go to his practice," Lynn II said. "I said sure. So, we're driving along, and I'm looking out the window, and I'm thinking, 'Man, this doesn't look like the way we usually go to his practice.

Get ready, Phillies fans, if you want to buy tickets directly from the club. In the next 48 hours, thousands of seats will disappear, and some games at Citizens Bank Park may no longer be available. After all, the team has sold out its last 204 home dates. Today's the last day to buy a three-game deal that includes a Fireworks Night (June 25 or 26), Fan Appreciation Night (Sept. 27), or a choice summmer weekend game (June 2 or 23, July 7 or 21, Aug. 4 or 11). Already sold out are the Three Game Packs with Mother's Day (May 13)

ED ALLEN could wind up playing his college basketball at Holy Family, then getting a job in law enforcement. Hmm, that sounds familiar. Maybe we should have saved this story for Father's Day. Allen is a 6-6, 175-pound senior center for happy-again Cardinal O'Hara, which yesterday topped visiting Father Judge, 59-54, to claim a Catholic League playoff spot for the first time since 2001. His dad, also named Ed, played for North Catholic and HF and is now a Philadelphia policeman.

ED ALLEN could wind up playing his college basketball at Holy Family, then getting a job in law enforcement. Hmm, that sounds familiar. Maybe we should have saved this story for Father's Day. Allen is a 6-6, 175-pound senior center for happy-again Cardinal O'Hara, which yesterday topped visiting Father Judge, 59-54, to claim a Catholic League playoff spot for the first time since 2011. His dad, also named Ed, played for North Catholic and HF and is now a Philadelphia policeman.

A week after a botched June 18 robbery and shooting, relating what happened to a police detective, Darnell Griffin still seemed stunned that the old man would bluff. Griffin, 21, of Francisville, told Philadelphia homicide detective Philip Nordo that he held his .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol at North Philadelphia grocer Felix Rodriguez. "It was in his face," Griffin said. "I think he didn't believe me. " Griffin's alleged confession was the main evidence against him, and Tuesday, he was ordered to stand trial for murder in the slaying of Rodriguez, 60, in his Los Ingenitos bodega in the 2400 block of North Ninth Street.

When Ed Hallinan became a priest, he took a vow of obedience. In the last few weeks, he's come to appreciate "a whole new meaning" to that word. For the last 14 years, Father Ed dedicated himself to the city's poorest and neediest as pastor at St. Martin de Porres Catholic Church at 23d Street and Lehigh Avenue in North Philadelphia. "I was always ecstatic, and I was always thrilled, and sometimes, being ecstatic and being thrilled, I talked to you for 40 minutes," Father Ed said in his final homily, on Father's Day. "The Lord was whispering in my ear, 'Ed, sit down.

WASHINGTON - President Obama said Saturday that children needed quality time, structure, and unconditional love from their parents, calling being a father sometimes his hardest job - but also the most rewarding. Just ahead of Father's Day, the president devoted his regular Saturday radio and Internet address to fatherhood, talking about growing up without a father, his own failings as a father, and the values he hopes to teach his daughters Malia, 12, and Sasha, 10. He described the responsibilities that all fathers have to their children and said his administration is trying to help during tough economic times and long deployments for U.S. troops.

Waking up on Father's Day without a plan? I have a suggestion: Take a drive and walk the grounds of the Garden of Reflection, Pennsylvania's official memorial to the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. It's just two turns off the New Hope/Yardley exit of I-95. The garden is a beautiful environment to remember fathers like Victor Saracini, who left behind a wife and two daughters on 9/11. Today is the 10th Father's Day that Ellen Saracini will spend without her husband, who was the captain of United Flight 175, the Boeing 767 whose flight from Boston to Los Angeles was violently interrupted by terrorists who crashed the aircraft into the South Tower of the World Trade Center.

PHOENIX - Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' staff said Friday that the Arizona Democrat would visit Tucson for Father's Day weekend in her first trip back to her hometown since she was shot in January. "We've been dreaming of this trip for some time," Giffords' husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, said in a news release. "Gabby misses Tucson very much and her doctors have said that returning to her hometown could play an important role in her recovery. " He said the trip "is sure to be very emotional" and voiced hope the news media would respect their privacy.

Showers and thunderstorms are in the forecast tonight into Friday night, but Saturday and Sunday - Father's Day - are looking good. After a couple of days in the lows 80's, both weekend days should be sunny or mostly sunny in the mid to upper 80's, according to the National Weather Service. (Ninety-degree heat isn't likely to arise until possibly Wednesday.) The same pattern will be seen at the Shore except that temperatures should be cooler by 5 degrees or so. In the city, scattered showers and thunderstorms could arrive this evening after 8 p.m. But there's a 50-50 chance of no rain at all. Rain's more likely than not Friday, especially in the morning, with up to a half-inch possible during the day. The chances of storminess aren't expected to end until a couple hours after midnight.

Looking for a last-minute Father's Day gift? How about giving Dad a copy of "God Bless the Spectrum"? This 160-page book, produced by the staff of the Daily News, looks back at the history of the recently demolished Spectrum, "America's Showplace. " The book is now available in paperback. You can pick one up at amazon.com or at local bookstores.