BOWLING GREEN, Ohio — Tyler Haas is a senior catcher at BGSU. His grandfather is Gary Haas who was a four-year starter for the Falcons back in the 1970’s and went on to become a BGSU hall of famer. But somewhere in the middle, Tyler’s dad crossed over the rivalry. From 1992-1995 Gary Haas Jr. played at the University of Toledo.
“A lot of our conversations between my father, myself, and Tyler, a lot of times it always comes back to baseball,” Haas Jr. said “We’re always talking about the game, that’s a common language that the three of us speak.”
“I think before Tyler came here there was some dueling back and forth between my son and I,” the elder Haas said. “Once Tyler came here, he came over to the good side.”
“There are some times when they still talk about ‘oh I did this in college, or I did this’ it’s fun going back and forth,” Tyler said. “It’s nice to now where I’m at, I can have those conversations with them.”
One thing they all have had in common, though, is the love for this sport that has brought them all together.
For Tyler, the recruiting process was actually a pretty easy decision. When BG came calling, he jumped at the opportunity. Dad, the Rocket, had no issues with that.
“Basically, he told me to go wherever I could play,” Tyler said. “Wherever I could go and make an impact. When they called, two days later, I committed.”
“It was a real simple conversation,” Tyler said. “I asked him two questions when he got the offer. Are you sure you want to play college baseball? He said yes. I said are you sure you want to go to Bowling Green? He said yes and that was the end of it. It was a pretty simple discussion.”
This past weekend the Battle of I-75 was renewed, and even though dad was a Rocket, he’s joined grandpa and Tyler on the BG side of the rivalry.
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