Tim McGraw is taking a trip down memory lane. Reflecting on Tug McGraw's distinguished career, the music star shared a photo of his late father on Instagram. Referencing Tug's infamous quote, Tim captioned it: "You gotta believe…Mets Vs Phillies today!! Who's your pick @thetugmcrgaw."
Tim, 57, was raised by his mother Betty and stepfather Horace Smith, with two younger half-sisters from their marriage. By the time he was 11, however, Tim had discovered that he was not the biological son of Horace, but former New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies baseball player, Tug McGraw.
"I think a lot of people don't realize I didn't grow up with Tug," he told Today in 2019. "I didn't know Tug was my dad. I found my birth certificate when I was 11 years old.
"We didn't have a whole lot, and I was in my mom's closet, I was digging through something and found my birth certificate. It said McGraw. My name was Smith as a kid because my stepdad's name was Horace Smith."
After connecting a few months later, Tim and Tug didn't see each other again until he was 18, but they eventually became close.
Speaking to Esquire in 2021, the A-lister explained that he was never "angry" with his dad.
"People ask me, 'How could you have a relationship with your father? You were growing up in nothing. He was a millionaire baseball player. He knew you were there, and he didn't do anything.'
"But when I found out Tug McGraw was my dad, it gave me something in my little town in Louisiana, something that I would have never reached for. How could I ever be angry?"
Instead, Tim was filled with gratitude and felt motivated to pursue his dreams. "In a lot of ways, that probably was a good driving force for me. You know, knowing that his blood was in me, you know, it inspired me. It did," he revealed to Oprah Winfrey.
"Whether he knew it or not or ever thought about it, he gave me something that you could never quantify. He gave me a dream of what I might become because of who he was. He was my father, and what he had done with his life put something in me that I probably would have never had—I might not have ever had, who knows—but I certainly think that that was a driving force in me to think that I could become somebody."
Tug passed away from a brain tumor on January 5, 2004. He was 59 years old. In the 20 years that have followed, Tim has continued to pay tribute to his father on his birthday each year, sharing photos on social media. He also works closely with the Tug McGraw Foundation, which aims to help people affected by brain-related military trauma and glioblastoma brain tumors.