NEW YORK -- Louis Trivino has clocked thousands of miles in transit around the country to see his son pitch -- all from the comfort of his car.
The 59-year-old Pennsylvania resident has never been on a plane.
"I wouldn't say [he's] afraid," the A's Lou Trivino said, "but he does not like flying."
The senior Trivino would rather grind through a 20-hour drive to Florida, as he did for one of Lou's college tournaments -- "He didn't even stop. It was nuts," Lou said -- or commit to a 12-hour drive to see his son pitch on a Minor League stage in Nashville.
The trek to Oakland, however, would take days by automobile; 2,800 miles separate the Trivino home and the Coliseum. A flight, in contrast, is five hours.
Trivino believes he's convinced his dad to take the leap sometime in June. For now, though, they're enjoying time together on the East Coast, beginning at Yankee Stadium. Friday marked the first time Louis saw his son pitch in a Major League game.
"They've seen me play, but not in front of 40,000 people," Trivino said. "It was awesome. They had field passes before the game, and to see them all looking around, smiling, it's one of those things ... Not only did I dream about this, but my parents dreamed that hopefully one day it would happen, and it happened, so it was cool seeing their faces as they were standing around and watching BP. It was pretty special."
Trivino's parents will follow the team to Boston on Monday, and catch up with the A's later in the season in Cleveland and Baltimore.
"If [my father] can drive, he'll drive," said Trivino, who didn't board his first flight until college. "We didn't really go anywhere. We just stayed in Pennsylvania. If it wasn't for baseball, I wouldn't see anything but Pennsylvania."
A flight was nearly in the works when Trivino was promoted for his big league debut on April 17, but his parents wouldn't have been able to arrive by gametime, even by plane, and he was sent back to Triple-A Nashville the next day.
Now a key cog in the A's bullpen, Trivino won't be straying from Oakland any time soon.
"If I have to put my dad on the flight myself," he said, "I'll do it."