Tag: Sports

  • Tottenham Dodged That Bullet (Unedited)

    I was out of town this past weekend for Memorial Day. The wife had found a cabin in the Vermont woods. A very last minute find and deal at the same time. I say all of this because we, as a family, were attempting to disconnect for three days in the woods and spend time together.

    Except for Sunday morning, when I had to take my phone, and hide in the back bedroom to watch and see if Tottenham was going to get relegated.

    I, several times in fact, had written off Tottenham Hotspur’s season. I had high hopes with Thomas Frank coming in at the start of the season, but I had hope, so there was my first mistake. I gave up on the team, first time around, at the end of 2025. For me, that was the moment that I realized that Spurs was not going to make the top six on the table, so not chance for European play next season. Then I gave up on the team, the second time, when they sacked Frank. Then the third time of giving up on them was when it looked like they were about to get relegated, and West Ham was going to squeak by.

    But the “Relegation Fight” turned out to be way more exciting than I expected. Exciting in a gallows humor sense, I guess. I mean, I was expecting the worst. And to be honest, I sort of felt like the club deserved it. (Not the players, of course. I don’t fully blame them for what happened.) Almost seven years of mismanagement was finally coming to a head, and in a weird way, I thought the only way for Spurs ownership to learn their lesson was for them to go down to the Championship, pay out the nose, and have a half full world class stadium on match day. And the true salt in the wound would be how American football would come into Hotspur Stadium and sell the place out.

    What I got was a mediocre match between Tottenham and Everton. The person I felt very back for was Pickford giving up a goal to these losers. (Good thing Pickford plays better in the World Cup than for his club.) But a winning goal is still a winning goal, and though Tottenham could have made it through with a draw, I was happy that the season did end on a win.

    That will leave next season. I hope Madison stays healthy and can get back into the starting lineup. Same thing for Kulusevski. Maybe some more help on the attack would be good. And the backline still feels like it’s missing one piece to make it solid. I’m not expecting Tottenham to win the League, but I would be happy with a top ten finish.

    Anyway… I got a World Cup to get through, and then I can start putting all my efforts into getting my hopes.

  • My Heart is Bigger than My Head

    Not that anyone asked, but here are the teams I follow:

    MLB: Chicago Cubs

    NFL: Dallas Cowboys

    NBA: Sort of the Dallas Mavericks and the New York Knicks

    NHL: Nope

    Premier League: Tottenham Hotspur FC

    It breaks down like this:

    My family is from the Chicago area, and my grandfather on my mother’s side was a huge Cubs fan; it’s in my DNA.

    I grew up outside of Dallas, and that should explain the Cowboys.

    Never was a huge basketball fan, but I had fun during the Durk/Nash years, and I live in NYC now and the Knick are the least offensive sports team to me, due to my being a Cubs and Cowboys fan.

    I was a huge Dallas Stars fan in the late 90’s and early 2000’s, BUT I never forgave the league or the players for the 2004-5 Lockout. Hockey is dead to me.

    The first Premier League match I watched was Tottenham, and threw my hat in with them. I made my choice and I can’t change it.

                The reason I bring all of this up is because, in my life, being a sports fan is not a logical thing. It more based on an emotional response than anything logical. I sort of have a low simmering distaste for people who move to a new city and stop following their old teams and latch on to the ones in their new city; where’s the loyality?

    I will never not be a Cubs or a Cowboys fan. No matter how bad they are, or dwelling in the middle as they seem to do of recent, I will still show up for those teams. Sure, it’s hard to be a Cubs and Cowboys fan in the land of Yankees, Mets, and Giants, (Luckily, Jets fans give me a pass) but I take their ridicle as a badge of honor.

    But I am sure having some issues with Tottenham right now. I had written the team off a couple of weeks ago, but then the tied Liverpool and played a good match against Madrid. I thought for sure they had turned a corner, and would beat Nottingham Forest on Sunday, or at the worst, force a draw. I never in a million years thought I would watch a whole team give up in the second half of a game.

    I picked my club, and come hell or high water, I’m with them.

    Lord in Heaven, though… they are sure as hell testing me. Seeing how far they can push me. Will I follow them into a relegation into the Championship? Will I join in on the protest against the owner group? Should I just put a paper bag on my head when I watch the final seven matches of the season? Cause it seems like that’s what the team is asking me to do.

  • Personal Reflections: The Super Bowl, Commercials, and Bad Bunny

    Personal Reflections: The Super Bowl, Commercials, and Bad Bunny

    The Super Bowl sucked. Let’s just start right there. Not that it was bad so much as it was boring. Defensive battles, or whatever people are calling it, are dull to everyone except defensive players and defensive coaches.

    In the end, I’m glad that Seattle won, as I do think they were the better team, not just in the game last night, but the best team for the whole season. And it was a rather exciting NFL season, with lots of drama and close games. Which makes this “meh” of a Super Bowl such a letdown.

    But that’s sports for ya!

    This bring us to the commercials, and for the life of me, I cannot remember a single one. Nothing stood out as particularly interesting or creative. Just felt like the same old slop. And there was lots of AI slop on display, too! The impression I was left with is that America is a sickly nation that needs more drugs and screenings, likes to bet on everything, and still thinks crypto isn’t a scam. There might be something to be said that the cost for a fifteen to thirty second commercials is so expensive now, that it has made brands, marketeers, and ad wizards hesitant in trying anything new, as so much money is on the line. This situation has made what used to be entertaining advertising into something that is homogeneous now.

    Which gets us to Bad Bunny who was the real big winner of the evening. (Other than the Seahawks.) I’m not going to go into the controversy, because there was no controversy, because Trump only said the stuff that he said to try and create a distraction from the Epstein Files/Poll Number/ICE, and Turning Point USA was just a little too thirsty to get involved and in the end created a half-assed badly lip-synced train wreck of a dumpster fire that 6 million people watched which isn’t bad if you consider that 12 million tuned in for the Puppy Bowl…

    But I’m not going to get into it.

    What I will say about Bad Bunny’s show was that it was fun, and cool, and was exciting to watch and had guests and Easter Eggs, and what I thought he did was show off how wonderful, and complex Puerto Rico’s culture and people are, AND he did that really great thing that great performers do, which is makes his audience feel connected and vital to the show being performed. It was great.

    But I did make Buffalo Wings, and they were really good.

  • Playing Sports (Unedited)

    My kid is on her school’s soccer team, and she loves it. We love it too, as it is the best way for her to burn off the huge amounts of energy that she has in reserve, and it keeps her off a screen. I don’t know if she will be a life longer soccer player/fan and honestly, I don’t care. I like that she’s playing on a team, and doing something physical.

    If you are not aware, I come from a very competing family. I wasn’t blessed with the athletic gene (though I wasn’t too bad at tennis) but playing and winning at games was a big thing in my family growing up. Lots of board games and wiffleball in the back yard. With two older brother who were nine and seven years older than me, it was difficult to beat them at sports as a kid, but that didn’t stop me from trying. My oldest brother played baseball, and my other brother was all about basketball. I tried my hand at both, but didn’t have the skills. I could through a baseball well, but couldn’t hit to save my life. As for basketball, I don’t ever remember feeling that I was coordinated enough to be good at it.

    My father had a rule in our house, which was we had to play a sport up until we turned sixteen. After I washed out of Little League, and junior high basketball didn’t have a place for me, my father suggested that I take up tennis, which was a sport he played. I took lessons once a week for two years, and I got kind’a good, but not that good. But my father’s point did sink in; you have to stay active and physical, or you will just go pot.

    So, I guess I am keeping the tradition alive. Going to keep her in a sport until sixteen, when she can decide for herself if she wants to continue.

    When I turned sixteen, I stopped the tennis lessons, and committed myself to my high school’s theatre department. Which, in a round about way, is also a team sport.

  • Thoughts While Disc Golfing (Unedited)

    Early this past Saturday morning, I got in the car and I drove north to go disc golf at Beacon Glades, which just so happens to be in Beacon, NY. It’s a free course, volunteer supported, and the place is designed around an abandoned summer camp. There is a slight “Friday the 13th” vibe, especially around the hole that are in the abandoned cabins and bunks. It’s a great place, I’ve shot it twice, and the people out there, players and volunteers, are friendly and supportive. I plan on going back again this Fall if not more often.

    Normally the kid and the wife go with me, but this weekend they wanted to stay in The City, so I went out on my own. I was a little disappointed that I was going alone, as I had looked forward to some company, but I didn’t let that hold me back. Heading out on my own did mean that I was going to be able to listen to my music in the car, and to also play it loud, and to sing off key with it.

    Depending on how you look at it, it was either wonderful late summer morning, or a crisp early Autumn day. WAZE told me it would be best to cross the George Washington Bridge and take a Palisades Parkway up to the Bear Mountain Bridge to cross back over the Hudson. The Palisades is a great drive because, even though you are cutting through northern Jersey and heavily suburban Rockland County, NY, the parkway is lined and covered with trees which makes you believe that you are cutting through the middle of the woods. Everything is still green and bright here, but if you were to look at the tops of the trees, every now and then you could make out the tiniest splash of red, orange and yellow. Autumn isn’t too far away.

    Once I crossed over the Bear Mountain Bridge, I was to take state route 9D north to Beacon. This is one of my favorite drives, as the route runs parallel to the Hudson River, and gives you a clear understanding why the Valley has been an inspiration to people for hundreds of years. It’s a pleasant drive, several curves, a tunnel and lots of hikers. The drive isn’t too long, and on the out skirts of Beacon is the disc golf course.

    Like I said, I had played Beacon Glades before, and it looked exactly the same. I had an arrived at a good time, not many people playing, and I was welcomed by two guys sitting near the first hole. Not sure if they were volunteers, or just nice guys, but they pointed me to the first hole, and let me know that the conditions were good today.

    Even when I do a little warm up, stretching and throwing some practices discs, it does take me three holes to feel like I know what I’m doing. I say that because I do shank everything to the left, and cannot throwing anything straight to save my life. I am aware that there are techniques I could follow, and other tips, but to be honest, I don’t care that much. If I shot even on the course, I’d be happy; a birdy or two would be cool, but I can honestly say that’s not why I am there. Beacon Glades is the type of disc golf course that I love because it is like hiking-lite. After the fourth hole, the course heads into the woods, going up and down the side of a hill. There is a ruggedness to this place, and I’m not implying that it’s unkept, as what I mean is that the holes work with the land, and don’t feel like they were carved out.

    For the record, I shot awful; +22. Though I did par hole 10 with one of the best putts in my life that no one saw.

    It took me a little less than two hours to complete the course, and I discovered that if I am alone throwing, I talk to myself. Not that I was having a conversation with myself, just saying things out loud, like “That was awful,” “Not bad,” and “Where did that go?” I did just enough talking to only seem a little crazy.

    Walking around the woods on that Saturday, I realized that it had been years since I had gone out and done something for myself, by myself. I think it’s been over five years, when I headed out to the beach at Bodega Bay, going to the secret parking lot that a local told me about, and just watched the surf rolling in under the slightly gray sky. Since the Pandemic, I pretty much spend every day with someone. That isn’t a complaint, I love being with my family. But I give my time to them. And when I am alone, there is always something that I need to do that occupies my time.

    Heading home, I went back the way I came. I thought about heading home in a different way – maybe drive through Sleepy Hollow. But I knew the kid would be upset if I did that without her. Maybe next weekend.