Rob Reiner Says Dad Carl Reiner Taught Him and Son Jake to Love Baseball: ‘Passing the Game Down’

Director Rob Reiner and his son Jake say they’ve attended a baseball game in every U.S. city where the MLB hosts a team.

“There’s nothing like the ballpark,” says Rob, 76.

The father and son duo, also both actors, share a mutual love for America’s favorite pastime, a tradition that began with his dad, late actor Carl Reiner, he says. “My dad was a huge, huge baseball fan. He passed it onto me, and I passed it onto Jake.”

“Ready for a great story? My dad took me to my first game. It’s 1951 at Yankee Stadium, and it’s a doubleheader. The Yankees were playing the Washington Senators. It was Mickey Mantle’s first year in the Majors and Joe DiMaggio’s last,” Rob recalls from the dugout club at Dodger Stadium, where he and Jake, 31, are spending Father’s Day afternoon.

Rob says he fell in love with baseball on that day in 1951, even though his father Carl worried he’d get “bored” during the nine innings. “I was four years old and I stayed through both games. I was fascinated. I was hooked at that point.”

Carl’s love of the sport stemmed from his early years in the Bronx, and he eventually became a Dodger fan because of Jackie Robinson, his son says.

Now a father of three, Rob has passed his love of baseball onto his son, Jake. “We would go to at least 25 or 40 games a year,” he says.

As a high school student, Jake interned for the team as a Junior Dodgers broadcaster. Now, the Syracuse alum hosts a podcast that follows the team.

Along with co-hosts Kevin Klein and David Rosenthal, Jake says the Dodgers Incline Podcast is an opportunity for him to combine his love of baseball with his broadcasting skills.

It also gives him some new debate buddies outside of his father. “My dad and I talk daily about the Dodgers,” he tells PEOPLE. “I’ve got a lot of opinions, and so does he.” Rob, a regular listener, says, “His grandfather would be absolutely thrilled to know about Jake’s Dodgers podcast and that we’re here today at the game.”

According to the When Harry Met Sally director, the Reiners have had season tickets at Dodger Stadium for about 60 years. “When I was younger, I used to go to 50 to 60 games a year,” he says.

“Every time we come to the ballpark, even today when we walked in, I said to Jake, ‘There’s nothing like being at the ballpark.’ I love coming here. We look out at the grass. The green, it’s so beautiful.”

Attending that many games over the years, Jake and Rob have stories from the field that would make any baseball fan jealous.

“Jake loved Shawn Green as a kid, so we take him to the ballpark for his 8th birthday and he had made a little ceramic thing at school that he wanted to give to Shawn as a present. We met him down in the locker room and Shawn takes the gift. That day, he hits two homers.” Rob adds, ‘That’s not even the best part of the story.”

Year   later, the Reiners saw Green at a game again.

“He saw that Jake was there, and he used to have this habit of throwing his batting glove to one of the fans after a home run. He threw it to Jake and Jake asked if he still had the ceramic gift. Shawn goes, ‘Are you kidding me? It’s been in my locker ever since that day. I keep it there.”

Of all of their baseball memories together, a trip to the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown best explains why the sport means so much to them.

“We sat down in this theater there and they start showing the history of when Black players first came into the league. I’m sitting there next to Jake and I’m just tearing up. The lights come up and we hear that this exhibit is new. It’s designed to make a grown man cry. I said, ‘Wow. You succeeded because the whole idea of fathers passing the game down to their sons was beautiful and personal. My dad passed it to me and now I’m sitting here passing it to him.”