My, how time flies.

It seems like yesterday when I was covering the Arizona Diamondbacks for the Arizona Republic and wrote about the signing of shortstop Jay Bell as a free agent by the expansion team in 1997.

It seems like yesterday when I watched him score the winning run in Game 7 of the World Series against the New York Yankees in 2001.

It seems like yesterday when I saw Bell’s young son, Brantley, running around the clubhouse, almost small enough to fit in a stirrup sock.

Now we’re all a little older and Brantley is playing for Phoenix Mountain Pointe High’s baseball team in the Class 5A Division I state tournament.

It didn’t hit me until Thursday, when I saw Brantley swing the bat and run to first base. It was a familiar gait.

“Is that . . . Jay Bell’s son?’’ I asked Jason Skoda of the Ahwatukee Foothills News. Skoda nodded affirmatively, and later said that Jay is one of the assistant coaches for head coach Brandon Buck.

Jay came up to me afterward and shook my hand. He is a smart guy. He knows that I now write for the Arizona Interscholastic Association’s Web site, AIA365.com.

“I keep waiting for you to write something profound,’’ he said with a smile, in midseason baseball needling form.

I told them that if you’re around long enough, sometimes you can run out of words.

But I haven’t run out of words yet.

This was one of those moments for the memory book.

It is good to see Brantley Bell adding to his own memory book, and good that Jay Bell can be a part of it.

It is good for all fathers and mothers to support their athletes.

Good luck to all as the state tournaments in all the spring sports wrap up this weekend.