Last Father’s Day was fun, with my dad in the stands and hitting the game-winning homer against the Yankees. That’s probably the best one I’ve ever had in my career. I tried to pull the line that it was his present, but that didn’t work out too well. But I think he liked the home run more than anything.

I have a real good relationship with both my parents; I talk to them three or four times a week and they make it up for one weekend of games every month.

What I like is that they’ve never been pushy. Both of them played sports in college. My dad, Keith, was a baseball player for Atlantic Christian College, which is now called Barton College, in North Carolina. My mom, Cheryl, was always driving us around. Or she would go out and play catch with me or my younger brother, Shawn (he’s now a golfer at Radford and wears me out — but he could be a lot better). So she was a pretty big part of it also.

But my dad never pushed me into baseball so I played other sports, too, like basketball and football.

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My dad was never my head coach, but he was an assistant coach on my teams for two or three years. That was fun; for some people when their dad is the coach it’s a little different because they’re real pushy. But he was good about it. He wouldn’t just concentrate on only helping me. Some kids get worn out and don’t want to play anymore because everyone is telling them what they’re doing wrong.

Many times we would stay after practice and he’d pitch more to me or I’d throw to him. Or we’d go home and I’d play some more. One time in Virginia Beach, we tried to build a batting cage under our house but that didn’t work out too well. We spent a week trying to build it and we only used it for a week because we realized it had no chance of working.

What he taught me is the work ethic and the mental side of the game, like thinking about what you do with the ball before it’s hit to you. That seems elementary but if you’re younger and you do those things, you have a better chance than other kids. Baseball is a pretty mental game.

Even now he’ll sometimes call and say something about how I look at the plate — he’s seen me play longer than anyone else and has a good idea of what I’m doing and not doing. A lot of times if I’m hitting balls at people and getting frustrated, he’ll say just relax and keep hitting it hard. Or if I’m swinging at bad pitches he’ll say that I’m lunging and not waiting back.

My parents did a good job. It would be nice to have a repeat of last Father’s Day.

As told to The Examiner’s John Keim.

Nats third baseman Ryan Zimmerman is one of baseball’s rising stars and, at 22, the face of the franchise. Now he’ll share his thoughts with The Examiner’s readers each week throughout the baseball season.