Abby Wambach
Last year my favorite World Cup hashtag was #IBelieveThatWeWillWin. This year for the Women’s World Cup, the hashtag du jour is #SheBelieves. After winning Group D, aka the Group of Death, Team USA is in great shape to go far in the tournament and bring home the Cup.
I believe.
Dodger Stadium, aka Heaven.
Rather than update my previous post about the Dodgers’ Filipino Heritage Night, I’m recapping that great day here.
My family and I left early so we could beat traffic and enjoy a pork BBQ plate at Bernie’s Teriyaki. We succeeded on both counts: we experienced no traffic and beat the dinner crowd at Bernie’s. We’re onto the third generation of our family who have eaten here (they opened in 1977) and the taste and quality have remained the same over the years. It also seems like they haven’t upgraded the facilities in nearly four decades of business, but if ain’t broke, why fix it, right?
Our bellies full of delicious Filipino-style BBQ and rice, we made the quick 10-minute ride to Dodger Stadium and, having paid half-price for parking online, we zoomed right to the shortest Pre-Paid Parking line and made it to Lot 1. Although it’s a trek to the Right Field Pavilion, it’s normally not a problem, especially if it means saving money (the closer Preferred parking lots cost $35 online and $50 at the gate). Unfortunately, my knee was sore from a Monday full of driving and moving, so I had to take it at a slower trek.
Once we got closer to the stadium, we noticed people at a truck handing out freebies. Normally, this thing would be swarmed by fans, but once I saw the name on the side of the truck, I knew why most fans were ignoring it: [INSERT NAME OF CABLE COMPANY THAT WON’T SHOW DODGERS GAMES TO MOST OF LOS ANGELES HERE]. The young interns were all smiles and giving away free Dodger cups to the masses. From what I saw, fans were just walking by, but I’m sure the workers got some verbal abuse as more fans walked in. For the record, I decided to take a cup, but vowed to scratch out the cable company’s name.
So, my ambivalence about taking said cup aside, I was fired up for the game. It was the first game I’d been to in a few years, after the previous non-Magic-Johnson owners nearly ruined everything great about the Dodger Stadium experience. Mainly, however, the thrill of celebrating Filipino Heritage Night with my family and my brothers’ families outweighed everything else.
We met up, collected our cool Filipino Heritage Night Dodgers shirts, caught part of the Filharmonic performing a few songs, and found our seats. The weather was sunny and mild and once the game started, we were treated to a back-and-forth affair, with the Dodgers prevailing on a walk-off single by Howie Kendrick. The highlights of the game: Yasiel Puig nearly hitting for the cycle and crushing a 3-run home run and Joc Pederson climbing the center field wall to rob the D-Backs of a homer.
Although I would’ve preferred sitting in the reserve section like we did during our last trip to Filipino Heritage Night, there’s something to be said for sitting in the Right Field Pavilion; mainly, it’s the spot where Gibson hit The Home Run. I’ll never forget sitting in my buddy’s truck in 1988, listening to Vin Scully’s perfect call on AM radio: “High fly ball to right field … she is out of here! [long pause as Gibson rounds the bases, then hugs his teammates] In a season that has been so improbable, the impossible has just happened!”
That home run is one of my favorite Dodger memories. My other favorites? All of the games I attend with loved ones.
Dodgers
A great night: my brothers, our families, and I celebrated Filipino Heritage Night at Dodger Stadium. Love the free shirt commemorating the evening. Go Dodgers!
King James
Like every NBA fan in the world, if you would’ve told me at the start of the playoffs that the Cavs would lose Love and Irving to injuries and then they would go up 2-1 against the best team in the league in the Finals, I would’ve asked you to submit to a random drug test. What we’ve seen so far through three NBA Finals games is LeBron giving a performance for the ages. He’s averaging nearly a triple double against a team that won 67 games. He’s gone beyond what I’ve been calling him for years: Magic Johnson 2.0.
No matter how the rest of this series plays out, what LeBron has done so far won’t be forgotten. He’s slowed down the game for the Cavs, who have outmuscled, outhustled, and outplayed the Warriors so far in the series. I still feel like the Warriors have enough talent 1-12 on their rosters to figure the Cavs out (David Lee played some great minutes for them tonight), but if the Cavs hold on to win a title, it’ll go down as one of the greatest upsets in NBA history.
I’m still stunned that the Cavs managed to win not one, but two games against the Warriors. I don’t know how I’ll feel if they actually win the championship. Flabbergasted? Bewildered? I’ll have to dig up my old Roget’s if that happens.
A change in plans today meant I could watch some sports while cleaning up the garage. What a day! I woke up to Serena Williams winning her 20th Grand Slam title. Next, FC Barcelona completed the Treble by beating Juventus. Finally, American Pharoah won the Triple Crown, becoming the first horse in almost four decades to do so.
I had planned on watching the opening of the Women’s World Cup, but after the Belmont Stakes I was wiped out. There’s still work to do in the garage, but that’ll wait until tomorrow. For now, a tip of the cap to Victor Espinoza and American Pharoah. A misspelled name never looked so good.
My favorite horse racing game
It’s hard to believe that no horse has won the Triple Crown since Affirmed in 1978. That’s 37 attempts and no winner; the closest was Real Quiet, who lost by a nose in the heart-breaking 1998 Belmont. I’ve got my fingers crossed that American Pharoah can break through this Saturday. I’m not a horse-player anymore, but I still follow the Sport of Kings on occasion, especially during the Triple Crown season and the Breeder’s Cup.
Pictured above is a horse racing game my parents gave to me and my brothers after Affirmed joined the exclusive Triple Crown winners club. We loved that game and it had the same thrill for us as watching the real thing. We would name each of the game’s six horses before every race: Affirmed and his nemesis Alydar were regular names, while Seattle Slew, Spectacular Bid, and a few others made it onto our little racetrack.
It’s currently listed at $99.00 on ebay, so unless I make it out to the track and hit a few exactas or trifectas, the game will remain on my wish list for another 37 Triple Crowns.
Go Lakers!!!
Remember Bizarro, the Superman villain that did everything the opposite of our hero? As a Lakers fan, I’ve felt we’ve been in a Bizarro world the last few years as the Lakers have become the laughingstock of the NBA while the Clippers are perpetual playoff contenders. Instead of dissecting the next opponent in the playoffs, fans are dissecting the next NBA draft. June used to mean parades in L.A.; now, it means fully devoting oneself to the Dodgers or even the Kings.
Bizarre-o. And then some.
Hopefully today begins the return to glory for the Lakers. In today’s NBA draft lottery, they nabbed the second pick in the draft, which gives them plenty of top-notch players to rebuild around. I’m hoping that the Timberwolves take Karl-Anthony Towns with the first pick and Jahlil Okafor falls into the Lakers’ laps. Or vice versa. Frankly, any good young talent will be a welcome addition to the team.
Whatever the case may be, it can’t be any worse than this year, when I watched the fewest Lakers games in a season since I’ve been old enough to cheer for the Purple and Gold. I miss watching basketball played at its highest level. I miss getting together with family and friends for the annual playoff run. I miss living in a non-Bizarro world.
L.A. Clippers
My friends will tell you that I love L.A., but here’s a little secret: I don’t love all of it. Obviously, crime, traffic, and smog make my Don’t Like list. And when it comes to sports, I chose my allegiances a long time ago: the Clippers are not one of the teams I root for.
The Lakers, to me, are the quintessential Los Angeles sports team. There’s a glamour to them that only comes to professional teams that have consistently won over many years and decades, like the New York Yankees. They have a championship legacy that generations of Southern California families (including my own) have enjoyed for decades. The last few years of bad basketball have tarnished some of the shine of the Lakers franchise, but it won’t result in any permanent damage.
When the Clippers, aka L.A.’s other NBA team, were eliminated today, it was like a continued penance that franchise is paying for all of the years they were owned by someone eventually be banned by the league. Obviously, I feel bad for the players; Chris Paul and Blake Griffin don’t deserve that type of heartbreak.
But for me, like most L.A. NBA fans, I only care about whether or not the Lakers can contend any time soon. Until then, I’ll have to make do with all of the things I do love about L.A.: the food, the people, the weather, days with no traffic, etc.
No surprises in tonight’s “fight.” Floyd is the smartest fighter, no, boxer of this generation. Just like Sugar Ray Leonard waiting years for Marvelous Marvin Hagler to lose his best stuff, Mayweather followed the game plan to a T. The Manny of 2015 is nowhere near the Manny of 2010. Great job, “champ.”
Pacquiao-Mayweather weigh-in.
We’re less than 24 hours away from the Fight of the Century and I’m bracing myself for a letdown. As I wrote on Day 28 of my Quest, both fighters are past their primes and no matter who wins, there will always be the “well, if they had fought five years ago…” question hanging over this fight. Millions of people are paying over $100 to watch on television, while others are forking over thousands and thousands of dollars to be in the arena. The revenue from the match will be half a billion dollars. Today’s weigh-in already had the crowd and energy of a superfight. There’s no way this thing is living up to the hype. It’s sickening, it’s insane …
And I’m fired up.
Pulitzer-Prize-winner Jose Antonio Vargas wrote a recent article on why Manny means so much to Filipinos and Filipino-Americans. It’s a terrific piece that doesn’t gloss over Manny’s shortcomings and Vargas, like millions of us, still root for Ang Pambansang Kamao (The Nation’s Fist). He’s forever tied into our identity, someone that Filipinos can proudly declare as their own, mainly because so many of us can relate to his rise from poverty to the pinnacle of his profession. We might not have gone days without food or received an eight-figure paycheck, but in Manny we see the struggles of our parents and grandparents. We see his hard work providing for the ones he loves. We see his smile and we see ourselves, our families.
No matter what happens tomorrow night, I hold my head up high. Just like Manny Pacquiao.
