Kash Ramírez will remember nothing of his father’s first MLS Cup final Saturday. In fact, he’ll probably sleep through most of it since he’ll be just 12 days old and all.
But when he’s old enough to understand, his father will certainly tell him of the role he played in making that MLS Cup possible.
“Look at my hospital bracelet. That was a little good luck charm,” a beaming Christian Ramírez said after scoring extra-time game-winners in both the Eastern Conference semifinal and final, sending Columbus to the title game against reigning champion LAFC.
The plastic talisman on his left wrist is a memento of Kash’s birth on Nov. 27, in between the two playoff matches. And Ramírez is clearly hoping its magic hasn’t worn off.
“One more week,” he said. “No better game than MLS Cup for little Kash to come to his first game.”
Give the baby credit for excellent timing, if nothing else. He was supposed to arrive three days after the Eastern Conference semifinal, plenty of time for his dad to play in Orlando and return to Columbus for the birth. But for a while it looked as if the baby wouldn’t wait. His mother, Valerie Ramírez, began feeling contractions a week early and because this wasn’t her first rodeo — the Ramírezes have two daughters, Zara and Nova — she went straight to the hospital.
“We were in the hospital for about four to five hours and they sent us home. False alarm,” said Christian, who with his wife’s encouragement went to Florida for the conference semifinal.
Time was clearly short, however, so after coming off the bench in the 90th minute, Ramírez hurried things along by scoring the game-winning goal three minutes into extra time. A day later, the couple returned to the hospital, Ramírez said, “and the next day the little man was born.”
Four days after the birth, still wearing the hospital bracelet, Ramírez rode the bus with the team to Cincinnati for the conference final, during which he came off the bench in the 65th…