Lincecum comes across very well in interviews.  He's not baseball obsessed, as one would think if he was brought up in a scary way.  Seems like an ordinary guy who know he's fortunate to be where he is, but has worked hard to get where he has gotten.  He apparently had a killer Gollum (from the Lord of the Rings trilogy) impression that he used to do but probably got tired of doing as he demurred when asked to do it.  He likes to do flips in the field, like Ozzie Smith used to do.  

He has good manners, soft-spoken and modest, and yet very confident about his abilities and clearly carries a chip on his shoulder about all the questions on his height.  I would too if that got thrown in my face all the time.  He's a bit quirky, but in a nice endearing way, kind of geeky.

He clearly feels he belongs and is bright and quick thinking, as he showed when he quickly quipped, when Steve Kline (reliever) came over and gave Lincecum a bear hug while Lincecum was being interviewed after the game - while Kline was buck naked:  Lincecum pushed Kline off and quipped something to the effect, "Get off me and next time you do that, take off your sweater."  Apparently Kline is a very hairy man all over.  But that's pretty good for someone new to all this attention and new to the team.  I know I would not have been so at ease and quick witted to do that when I was 22 years old.  I suspect most aren't.

His father Chris probably shouldn't have done the Lincecum-itis thing - Krukow did start that and continued to talk about it for a number of days on the radio, both post game and on his regular morning how - as I would think Biggio and his teammates didn't appreciate that much.  But as a proud papa, that's pretty mild.  

He does not live vicariously through his son.  His son is not his whole world, he still works at Boeing and intends to continue doing that (38 years of parts inventory; if that isn't a reason to quit, I don't know what is), while fitting his son into his off-hours.  A scary-type dad would quit his job and obsess over his son 24x7 and declare that his son is going to win the Cy Young and be a Hall of Famer.

Re-read that article.  Tim played on his high school golf team.  A scary-type dad would have had his son focused only on baseball 24x7.  His brother broke his arm playing football.  Would any baseball obsessed dad allow his son to play such a dangerous sport like football?  As I noted, Tim used to do a killer Gollum impression.  Would a scary-type dad allow his son to view useless stuff like the Lord of the Rings trilogy and take away his son's focus and time away from baseball and pitching?  And flips would be totally verboten, too dangerous a move to do, he has to protect his body.  

Also, as good as Tim was, did you see his dad advertising and marketing his son like Tiger Wood's dad showing off his 5 year old son on the Mike Douglas show (old day-time national interview show, the Regis/Oprah of his days; he once had John Lennon and Yoko co-host his show one week).  Tiger was prepared to be a national presence from a young age.  

Tim sounds like a regular person - though a confident person - but not over the top boastful confident where he think he can beat anyone, but quietly confident that he can do the job if given the chance and not that he's going to be the greatest pitcher ever, he's been pretty humble given all that he has done so far.  

He just wanted to be a major leaguer and he thought he had enough talent to deserve to be up here, but will leave that decision to management.  In all the early season interviews, it is clear that he's not chopping on the bit, he will make the majors when the time is right.  If he had a scary-type dad, he would not have been so zen about making the majors.

A scary-type dad would have been in the media last September demanding that his son be brought up and particuarly this spring, after his son continued to mow down batters in AAA effortlessly, there was not one word in the general Giants media where Chris Lincecum demanded that Tim be in the starting rotation, what are they doing wasting his arm down there, he would be golden in the majors, is Sabean crazy, why isn't his son starting, I don't care who gets pushed out, he should be starting in the majors right now!!!

Of course Chris should feel proud.  He was a nobody pitcher who never made the minors but he analyzed other pitchers to create a pitching motion that he thought was good from a variety of benefits and his son has learned his lessons well and is doing great in the major leagues.  Wouldn't you be proud of that?  

But he's not like Mike Marshall, putting down every one else's methods and calling anyone else stupid, he just says that he took some things from major leaguers and applied it to his son and this is the result.  He's not saying everyone should do it, he's just proud of his son's accomplishments and his son's accomplishments is a validation for his theories and ideas.  But he's not out to make himself like he's a guru, he's just a dad who had some ideas on how to be a good baseball pitcher and applied them to his son.  I tried to show my son my theories on hitting that helped me but he never took to the lessons - Chris's son did.

I wonder why he's being criticized in this way.  I've never heard this label placed on Bobby Bonds.  He watched and analyzed his son's swing.  He probably helped shape and guide his son's batting stance, approach, and swing.  He attended all his games to watch him.  He gave advice to Barry all his life on what he's doing right or wrong.  How is that any different, other than Chris sounds like a regular guy like any of us and Bobby was one of the great players in baseball?

Lastly, it is not that unusual that a family is taping their precious 6 year old son playing with his dad.  I have a million pictures and videos of my son doing a variety of things, my wife just loves to record everything.  Thank goodness for digital cameras, else we would run out of space at home for all the photos.  And if you had developed what you thought was a good way to throw the ball, wouldn't you analyze videos to see how your boy is doing?  You cannot always catch everything in the moment.

Let's put it this way.  Let's say you have a method you think will preserve a pitcher's arm and not wreck it.  After all, it has worked fine for you and you can still throw nearly 90 MPH while middle-aged.  Would you make sure your son is throwing correctly or would you let him wreck his arm?  Wouldn't you try to attend all your son's games? And if you are there anyway, wouldn't you provide some critique on how he did?  He was just being a father.