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The 300s Official Oscar Nominations Round-Up

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As many of you know, I like to go to the movies. A lot. Thanks to AMC rolling out their $20 a month for unlimited movies plan, I try to go at least once a week to see whatever is playing, good or bad. I’ve really gotten into the Oscars the last few years or so, and I’ve seen “pretty much” every movie nominated for the big awards this year, so I figured I’d run through the list and give some of my thoughts.

A good thing about this year’s batch is that there aren’t any movies nominated for Best Picture, that I’d classify as “Oscar-bait.” You know what they are when you see them. The “Call Me By Name’s, and the “Roma’s,” of the world. You absolutely have to respect them because of how well they are shot, directed, and acted, but the plot just never really hooks you or appeals to you at all. None of those this year, thank goodness.

(Note: there are still two or three movies that were nominated for the big awards that I haven’t seen)

On to the nominees.

BEST PICTURE


Ford vs. Ferrari: The ultimate Dad movie. Christian Bale, Matt Damon and race cars. What more could a guy in their mid 50s wants. My last two cars have been Subarus, so I wouldn’t be exactly what you’d call a “car guy,” but the last third of the movie where it focused on the 24 Hours of Le Mans, had me at the edge of my seat. That being said, the movie is a little too long, and Damon and Bale don’t make the characters all that memorable. I wouldn’t have nominated it for Best Picture.

The Irishman: Speaking of LONG movies, here we got The Irishman. An absolute epic made by and with some of the gods in Hollywood. Scorsese, De Niro, Pacino, Pesci. This is something I feel like I need to re-watch again because I watched it over three sittings on multiple days. I’d classify it as a “liked, but not loved it” movie. Pacino steals the movie with his role as Jimmy Hoffa. Just an absolute crazy man with some legendary rants throughout. Definitely deserves to be nominated for Best Pic, but I’d throw it in the middle-tier of nominated flicks.


Jojo Rabbit: One of my Top 5 favorite movies of the year. Taika Waititi can do no wrong for me. First Thor: Ragnarok, now this. He’s on an absolute heater and now he’s bringing Christian Bale into the MCU with his next Thor movie. Let’s. Go. A perfect mix of comedy, drama and tension. Waititi as a young, confused Nazi’s imaginary best friend (who happens to be Adolf Hitler), is just a ridiculous concept and he pulls it off so well. Sam Rockwell is in this too as a Nazi general, and you know he’s going to kill in every movie he’s in.  Also full marks to Thomasin Mckenzie (go see Leave No Trace, a great movie which literally no one saw. She kills her role in that.) and ScarJo! The year of ScarJo! Her two best acting performances in back to back flicks. I feel like not a ton of people saw this, but once it gets on high demand, I highly HIGHLY recommend it. 

Joker: Feel like this is the most divisive movie on the list. People either loved or hated it. Well except me, I’m kind of in the middle here. Joaquin Phoenix killed his role as Arthur Fleck turning into the Joker, and it’s a fascinating character story which dives into the problems of mental illness, and the lack of support for those struggling with the disease. I just didn’t like the “twist” at the end. It was pretty clear to me, that (SPOILER) he was making a lot of shit up in his head. The last scene of the movie with De Niro’s talk show host and Fleck was great tension, but there was also a lot of meh parts in it too. I didn’t think we needed to include the Thomas Wayne subplot. Don’t think it added much to the plot and it seems like it was shoehorned in there so you could be like “Oh, yeah this is a Batman movie.” I would have been fine with just subtle easter eggs that could have appealed to the comic book fans in the room.


Little Women: I clearly wasn’t the demographic this movie was intended for, but I still enjoyed this, DESPITE, the incessant chatter commentating on every single scene of the movie by the two middle-older aged women sitting next to me. And people think millennials are the problem with society… Greta Gerwig is one of the best directors in Hollywood and it’s a shame she wasn’t nominated for this. I hadn’t seen any of the older movies or read the book, so I was only vaguely familiar with the story coming in, which probably made me more engaged with the movie. Florence Pugh (Midsommar, Fighting With My Family) was probably the highlight of the movie for me and I was pleasantly surprised to see her earn an Oscar nom. She was definitely the highlight for me over her more-acclaimed co-star Saoirse Ronan. My biggest complaint was that they told this movie in a non-linear way, when I think they could have told it without switching back and forth between present and past timelines. I could see Gerwig choosing this method to differentiate this version from all the previous iterations, but as a first-time viewer it was a little muddy at times.

Marriage Story: If you were to ask what movie had the best overall acting this year, this would be my number one choice in a heartbeat. Adam Driver and ScarJo absolutely kill it in each of their roles and they have great chemistry together, despite the disintegrating chemistry of their characters. Laura Dern and Ray Liotta also provide a really interesting look at the cutthroat nature of divorce lawyers, although I wonder how realistic some of the tactics that they used actually are. It’s a really well-done movie that has you going back and forth siding with each side of the couple during the course of the movie, while highlighting the tiny details which can make divorce such a painful and messy process. The fight scene in the condo which was getting memed all over the internet may be one of the best scenes of the year. 

 

1917: HAVEN’T SEEN YET. 

Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood: We’re getting to my two favorite movies on the list now. I am a big Tarantino fan (Inglourious Basterds might be my favorite movie of all-time and I even enjoyed The Hateful Eight, which many people hated.) This is just Tarantino, Leo and Pitt at their absolute best. I could watch Leo and Brad do anything together, and it’s crazy that this is the first time they’ve ever worked together. Margot Robbie as Sharon Tate is awesome as well, and she puts in a great performance showing a burgeoning actress at the peak of her life who was on the cusp of superstardom. The whole movie, you are just sensing the obvious dread for her, until Tarantino throws a complete u-turn into the whole movie with one of the most incredible sequences I’ve seen in a movie in a while. My biggest gripe with the movie is probably that the acting scenes of Rick Dalton go on a bit too long, but I understand the necessity of them to fully understand and flesh out Dalton’s character.


Parasite: My favorite movie of the year. I was absolutely blown away. I came into this movie pretty much completely blind, just knowing that the film was completely in Korean and that it had a positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes. And it was awesome. It is essentially two different movies. The first half being a social commentary about class and wealth, and then halfway through, the movie is completely flipped upside down and becomes something else completely. It is a completely original concept and there really has never been a movie anything like this one. I really hesitate to say more, because I feel like not many people have seen this movie yet as it wasn’t even released in the AMC theater near me. Had to venture into Providence to go find it. Now that it’s nominated for Best Picture, it’s just going to get more and more buzz, I cannot recommend this enough. Don’t let the subtitles scare you away.

SNUBS

Knives Out: Damn, I wanted this to get nominated so bad. Such a fun experience. Daniel Craig was just born to play a Southerner, I guess? I love movies that plant little clues throughout the movie that are eventually tied together at the end, and this does it with the best of them. Also one of the funniest movies of the year, the running gags they have and some of the one-liners are just hysterical. Brilliant script and I’m glad Rian Johnson got at least nominated for screenplay. Only nitpick I have,is that the true “mastermind” was a little predictable, even if the reveal of how they did it was not.

Uncut Gems: Adam Sandler, Kevin Garnett AND Mike Francesa??? Yes, please. No Oscar nominations for this movie is super sad, because this is one of the more anxious and tense movies I’ve ever sat through. It’s also one of the noisiest. There’s no time to breathe, no silence. Something loud is happening in literally every scene. Just a whirlwind of a movie that absolutely flies by. Julia Fox is going to be an absolute star in the future. Must-see.

Avengers: Endgame: Obviously, no chance of getting nominated for Best Pic, but it would be criminal for me not to include it here. Brilliant end to a decade-long stretch of incredible movies.



Now, some rapid fire takes on the other five major noms :

Best Actor:

Antonio Banderas — Pain and Glory

Leonardo DiCaprio – Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood 

Adam Driver – Marriage Story 

Joaquin Phoenix – Joker 

Jonathan Pryce – The Two Popes

Haven’t seen Pain and Glory or The Two Popes. Still sounds like a three-way race between Leo, Driver and Phoenix either way. I’m a big Leo fan so I will be rooting for him to win it, but I think Joaquin Phoenix will get an overdue first Oscar. Sandler needs to be in here.

Best Actress

Cynthia Erivo – Harriet 

Scarlett Johansson – Marriage Story

Saoirse Ronan – Little Women 

Charlize Theron – Bombshell 

Renée Zellweger – Judy

Haven’t seen Harriet. Give me ScarJo here, although quick shoutout to Charlize Theron, she looks and sounds so much like Megyn Kelly in Bombshell, that it’s a little scary. Zellweger as Judy Garland will probably win and she was very good in her role, but the movie was a snoozefest.

Best Supporting Actor

Tom Hanks – A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Anthony Hopkins – The Two Popes

Al Pacino – The Irishman

Joe Pesci – The Irishman

Brad Pitt – Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood

Haven’t seen The Two Popes. Just a couple of no-name struggling actors in this category, eh. A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, was a little different than I thought it would be, but very enjoyable movie, and Hanks absolutely deserves a nomination, and it is rightfully as a supporting actor. I would give this to Pacino, but I have no qualms if Pitt wins it.

Best Supporting Actress

Kathy Bates – Richard Jewell

Laura Dern – Marriage Story

Scarlett Johansson – Jojo Rabbit 

Florence Pugh – Little Women 

Margot Robbie – Bombshell

Not the strongest batch in my opinion. Robbie was better in Once Upon a Time, than she was in Bombshell. Dern was really good, but she was basically playing the same character as she did in Big Little Lies, and she had limited screen time. Bates was fine, but nothing spectacular in Richard Jewell. Comes down to Pugh or ScarJo for me, and I’ll take ScarJo here, but I think Dern wins.

 

Best Director

Martin Scorsese – The Irishman

Todd Phillips – Joker

Sam Mendes – 1917

Quentin Tarantino – Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Bong Joon-ho – Parasite

Bong Joon-ho is my new king, and he absolutely deserves this award. Although I wouldn’t be that upset if Tarantino wins. Mendes won the Globe, but I’ll reserve my opinions until I actually see the movie. Gerwig should be here instead of Phillips.

Top 5 Movies of the Year (NON-ENDGAME DIVISION):

5. Jojo Rabbit
4. Knives Out
3. Uncut Gems
2. Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood
1. Parasite

Lippa’s Leftovers

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After an absolutely enormous news weekend in the world of Boston sports, what better time to take a few steps back and try to collect some thoughts now that the dust has settled a little bit.

  • I could not love the Antonio Brown signing more. Is he an unhinged lunatic? Absolutely. Is there a chance that he could go off the reservation and be kicked off the team by tomorrow? Yep. But, we are at the point now, where if Bill Belichick thinks it’s a good idea. I think it’s a good idea. Bring him on.
  • But my absolute favorite part of the signing was the collective groan by fans of 31 other franchises. The Big Bad Wolf strikes again. When the news broke, I was at a party with Vikings fans, Redskins fans, Giants fans, Jets fans, Cowboys fans, etc, and it was like they had seen a ghost. I love being the villain of the league. I love being the team that everyone hates. Hate us cuz they ain’t us.
  • I’ll say it. It’s starting to feel a little like 2007 again. But maybe even better? And that’s because of the defense. This is the best defense the Patriots have had in years. They have the best secondary in the league, led by the best cornerback in the league (Stephon Gilmore). There’s a ton of no-names in the front seven aside from Hightower, but they looked fast and powerful while completely dummying a pretty good Steelers offensive line.
  • The potential undoing of this team? The offensive line. Marcus Cannon’s already banged up. Shaq Mason got bullied around a little bit on Sunday, and some of those floaty snaps from Ted Karras were frightening. Man, this really does feel like 2007. 
  • It was interesting to see Belichick get a little defensive in his conference call on Wednesday morning in this exchange with NBC Sports Boston’s Tom E. Curran.

 

I can’t remember a time when Belichick brought up a media criticism from years ago out of the blue. So much for “Ignore the Noise.”

  • Is 16-0 a possibility, well yes. Of course it is. They are loaded. Obviously it is VERY EARLY to be talking about this (but I mean come on look at the first half of their schedule). However, were some interesting comments from Belichick in the preview of that HBO documentary with Nick Saban.



    “In retrospect, maybe it would have been better if we had lost one along the way.”I think that’s the first time I’ve ever heard him say that publicly. It will be fascinating to see how Belichick handles this team down the stretch if this starts to become a real conversation.
  • In more depressing news, we have the local baseball team with an absolute NEWS DUMP in firing President of Baseball Operations Dave Dombrowski at midnight immediately after the Patriots season opener.  I get the move, Dombrowski was not the guy to lead the Red Sox in the future. He was great at signing and trading for big stars, but not so much at restocking the farm system. I have no problem with them moving on. 
  • And to the surprise of absolutely no one, there was zero accountability taken by John Henry and Tom Werner. No press conference, no explanation. Nothing. Just unacceptable from an ownership that my distaste for grows more and more by the day. 
  • This was hidden in a Peter Abraham column, but I perked up when I saw this potential nugget.

Come home Theo, come home.

Joe Torre is Looking to Take Some Fun Out of Major League Baseball

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NY Post – There never has been more information available when it comes to arguments with umpires, players and managers — and Joe Torre isn’t thrilled with that fact in his role as MLB disciplinarian.

“That’s a little concerning,’’ said Torre, the former Yankees manager and now the league’s chief baseball officer, a job which includes overseeing on-field discipline and umpiring. “You take what you can get, but it wasn’t supposed to be that clear. It shouldn’t happen.”

The preponderance of that information has become more common lately, as microphones have picked up what’s said on the field, leaving little to the imagination. Torre will take the information, but he’d rather it wasn’t available to anyone with a Twitter account.

“That’s not the way I want to hear it, for everybody else to hear it,’’ Torre said Tuesday at Yankee Stadium. “I wish I could hear it, only. It makes it easy to make my decision.”

Typical, typical baseball. God forbid we let the managers and players have any type of personality. Between the Aaron Boone “savages” rant this year and the epic confrontation between Terry Collins and umpire Tom Hallion that resurfaced last year, we’ve got two viral clips that had everyone on social media actually talking about baseball in a positive way.

What’s the harm in letting these clips go public? The umpires’ reputation? Do a better job and you won’t get berated. They already are shielded enough, as only a select pool reporter from the media can even talk to an umpire after the game.

I’d even argue that in the Hallion/Collins confrontation, I gained a better respect for why Hallion and the umpires did what they did (we also of course got the famous “ass in the jackpot line.) Hallion seemed composed and calmly explained that they were directed 

So while ratings are down and games routinely go past the four-hour mark, perhaps Joe Torre and the rest of Major League Baseball should lighten up and just embrace little moments like these. 

P.S. I’m sure Joe is glad the mics weren’t hot for this confrontation.

Steve Smith Has No Shame In Getting Fantasy Tips

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Just an absolutely hysterical clip taken from a Carolina Panthers practice last year. Former Panthers wide receiver Steve Smith, Sr., always known for being uhh… outspoken, has apparently developed a passion for fantasy football. And just like the rest of us, he’s looking for an inside edge wherever he can get it.

We’ve all been in the position of trying to figure out who to start in your last flex spot (which means you can start a player at any offensive skill position, Cam). But we don’t get the opportunity to go directly to the source while making the decision. And clearly, Panthers rookie WR DJ Moore knew that his performance wasn’t cutting it as of late.

Unfortunately for DJ, Steve might have been right to bench him based on how he ended the season. Including two games (in the fantasy playoffs no less!), where Moore ended up with… two points.

A little pro tip for Steve for this year when it comes to Panthers receivers, just draft Curtis Samuel instead. You’ll get the same production a few rounds later. Just don’t tell DJ that.

Marc Savard Joins the Enemies

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Really, Savvy? Really. One of the more underrated members of Bruins Twitter has now jumped ship and is a member of the Stanley Cup Champion St. Louis Blues. Savard would openly root for the Bruins during playoff games, and seemed to be invested in how the team did despite the ugly ending to his career.

Seriously, though good for him. It was a long, dark road to recovery for Marc Savard and I’m happy to see him back in the NHL.

Would love to be a fly on the wall though when he speaks to fellow Blues assistant coach “Brave” Steve Ott for the first time though.

How I Became a Diehard European Soccer Fan

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As a Boston sports fan, I’ve been a bit spoiled over the last two decades. I’ve seen my teams win 11 championships in 17 years (I’m not a Celtics fan, that one doesn’t count.) We’ve been in the championship round 16 times. We’ve been in the Conference Championship round 21 times. Yeah, it’s been pretty sweet.

But, there is a downside to all this success.

*This is the part where if you’re not from Boston you might want to skip a few lines.*

I just can’t get myself up for regular season games anymore. It just doesn’t have the juice. Yeah, I’ll “watch” the Red Sox or the Bruins in the regular season. (Patriots are different because of the nature of the NFL.) But usually, it’s on an iPad on mute, while the majority of my attention is devoted to a TV show or movie or some funny internet video. I know the storylines surrounding my teams during the regular season, and I still root for them and everything, but the days of me having my main focus on them during some mid-June game against the Texas Rangers or a late-December game against the Calgary Flames are over.

As a result, there’s been a void in my sports life. I have seen all my teams win a championship, and while winning subsequent championships are awesome, nothing quite compares to that time you see your team win their first championship. Everything changes after that. It’s not life or death anymore. Yeah, it really sucks when the Bruins put up an absolute stinker in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final. and it did sting for a few days. But that was nothing compared to blowing a 3-0 series lead vs. the Flyers in 2010. That was real heartache.

So I found myself missing that feeling while watching sports. I needed a new journey for a championship. A new team that hadn’t won anything before. 

Enter Tottenham Hotspur.

*****************************

I’ve always enjoyed watching soccer. But I was one of those “once every four years” type of fans. I’d watch every United States Mens National Team match in the World Cup and would love watching the best players in the world, even if I only recognized Messi, Ronaldo and a handful of other players. But once the World Cup was over, my attention would move elsewhere and I would barely give soccer a second thought.

That changed in the summer of 2018, when the Americans didn’t qualify for the World Cup. With no rooting interest, I was able to really just enjoy the entire tournament more. Really focus on the top teams and players. I wondered to myself why I don’t watch this more, why not pick a team to root for.

So that’s what I did.

After the World Cup was over, me and my buddy were both equally amped about soccer and needed more of it in our lives. So we set on a quest to pick a team to root for.

We knew we were going to pick an English Premier League team. That league was generally regarded as one of the best leagues in the world, and it would provide us the opportunity to watch the majority of our team’s games on a basic cable plan.

I also knew I wasn’t going to pick a team that was already really, really good. Manchester City had just won the EPL title last year, so they were out. Manchester United would basically be like rooting for the Yankees, no thanks. Chelsea? Arsenal? Nothing really drew me there. And again, those were all teams with a storied history of winning.

I won’t lie, I had a natural inclination to want to pick Liverpool. They are owned by the same owners as the Red Sox, so that could be a natural partnership. They have a long domestic championship drought. Liverpool is the home of the Beatles, the best musical group who has ever lived. They had a recognizable player that even a casual fan knew in Mo Salah. I even had a Liverpool flag as a child from a trip my dad took. All the signs were there.

But the more I thought about it, becoming a Liverpool fan made no sense to me.

First, John Henry and Tom Werner annoy me. So out of touch with what the basic fan wants. Why would I voluntarily choose to root for a team owned by them? They were just coming off a Champions League final and had won a European championship in 2005. Yeah, they have that long wait for a domestic championship, but it just felt too EASY to be a Liverpool fan. They were one of the favorites to win the EPL. I wanted it to be hard, I wanted a championship to mean something.

So we turned our attention to North London. I was vaguely familiar with Tottenham before, but all I knew of them was that they were a good, not great team who always had a knack for choking in the big games. It sounded like pre-2004 Red Sox to me. I was also familiar with their star player Harry Kane. He had just won the Golden Boot in the World Cup and led England to the semifinals.

Their kits weren’t ugly. They were playing Champions League football next season. They were building a new stadium and had a ton of young players to build around. They were a team on the rise who was poised to continue getting better and better in the next few years. It also didn’t hurt that they were located in London, so it could be an ideal place to combine a vacation and a game.

So we went with them. I wasn’t sure how long my Spurs fandom would last, and figured it might just be a fad that would dwindle eventually.

Instead, they took me on one of the most incredible single-season sports roller coasters that I’ve ever experienced.

*****

The best thing about soccer is the morning games. 7:30 AM is the perfect time to hold a sporting event. You’re able to get up at a decent hour, sit on the couch and watch your team play, and still have the rest of the day to do everything else you need to do. Waking up every Saturday or Sunday morning to watch Spurs play became something I eagerly looked forward to every week.

They got off to a hot start, going 15-4 in the EPL’s first half of the season, and I quickly started to become familiar with all the players on the team. Harry Kane was the star and you could tell right away. He had the most scoring chances, and scored the most goals. An obvious leader. There was Dele Alli who could seemingly nutmeg (which I quickly learned was dribbling the ball through your opponent’s legs) defenders once or twice a game. There was the poise and brilliance of midfielder Christian Eriksen on set pieces.  Moussa Sissoko was basically like watching a bull in a china shop. Danny Rose was the Brad Marchand getting under every opponent’s skin. Jan Vertonghen and Toby Alderweireld were the Belgian rocks on defense.

But my favorite player became Heung-Min Son, a South Korean national. He always seemed to show up in the big matches, including this incredible goal against Chelsea early in the season.

)

He also played with the biggest smile on his face and seemed to just enjoy being out on the pitch every day. I mean look at this adorable boy.


As soon as I knew every player’s quirks and weaknesses, I knew I was hooked. My yelling at Kieran Trippier letting attacker after attacker waltz right by him reminded me of how I used to scream at Dennis Wideman or Joe Carlo or Kyle McLaren. Backup striker Fernando Llorente’s inability to do anything positive was infuriating. I genuinely cared about this team.

Watching the EPL during the weekend mornings was great, but I found myself more drawn to the Champions League. The Champions League was my chance to watch the biggest players in the world, and to see how my Spurs matched up against them. They were drawn in a group with Barcelona (Messi!, Suarez!), and Inter Milan (I had heard of them!) so I was immediately hyped to see how they matched up against the best in soccer. 

Their Champions League campaign started horribly. They let up two goals in the last 5 minutes to lose to Inter, then lost to Messi and Barca, before drawing some Dutch team I had never even heard of. They basically had to be flawless in the last three games of the group stage to even have a chance to move on to the knockout stage. All the blogs and Twitter follows I started reading over the last few months all said the same thing, this was “Spursy”, which you can find so elegantly defined here in Urban Dictionary. “To consistently and inevitably fail to live up to expectations.” This is why I told myself I became a Spurs fan. I knew there would be lows.

But then a funny thing happened. Spurs started pulling some magic out of their ass. After letting up an opening goal to the Dutch team, Kane scored two goals in the last twelve minutes for a miraculous win. Then Eriksen scored in the 80th minute to beat Inter. They got some help along the way, and all they basically needed to do was draw Barca and get some help to move on.

They let up a ridiculous goal in the opening seven minutes, but Spurs kept coming and coming before this from Brazilian striker Lucas Moura



I jumped off of my couch, something I hadn’t done in the middle of December since god knows when.

I then became obsessed. I woke up early one morning just to watch on my iPad who they would be drawn with in the Round of 16 (think NBA lottery). I was stoked to see it was Borussia Dortmund, a top German team who featured the next American star in Christian Pulisic, but a beatable team. Spurs dominated the first leg 3-0 while Kane was out with an injury. I spent the next two weeks until the next leg constantly watching highlights of the victory, before they finished them off.

They got a poor draw in the quarterfinals. Manchester City, who led the Premier League and was the favorites at the time to win the Champions League. I figured this would be the end of the run. City was just such a deep team. Fortunately, City thought the same thing, and came out with a conservative approach. Still, when Harry Kane suffered a brutal injury halfway through the first leg, I figured they were cooked. Until my guy Sonny came to the rescue.

So up 1-0 heading into the final leg on the road without Kane, still didn’t feel confident. I had been trained that my team wasn’t good enough. What unfolded in that second leg, was one of the craziest sporting events I’ve ever witnessed.



Just watch those highlights. They are must watch if you haven’t seen them. Four goals in the first 11 minutes! In soccer! There isn’t supposed to be scoring in soccer! It went back and forth, there was controversy, heartbreak, overturned goals, edge on your seat tension. It was incredible. I swear it’s one of the most phenomenal sporting events I’d ever seen. European soccer analysts were debating whether it was one of the best matches EVER. I’d been a soccer fan for nine months and I’ve already seen my team win one of the best matches of ALL-TIME. Was my Boston fandom spreading across the pond?

We got Ajax, a scrappy Dutch team, in the semifinals. The first leg at home sucked. Out-played and fortunate to only be down 1-0. They then let up two goals in the first half of the second leg. They had run out of gas. Still, the semifinals of the Champions League is the furthest they had ever gone, and they are taking steps toward the future.. but then wait a minute, no…



THEY DID IT AGAIN. That’s two completely emotional, unbelievable victories in about a three-week span. I will put this game up against any other sport-watching experience during my sport fandom as well. Well maybe not 28-3. But this was close! Back from the dead! Onto the final. Just jaw-dropping. How did I become so lucky?

It was around this time I started thinking about the Lippa Quadruple. The Red Sox and Patriots had already won titles in the last six months. The Bruins were on their Stanley Cup run, and Spurs were in the Champions League Final. If all four of my favorite teams (yes, by this point I cared about Spurs just as much the other three teams), won championships in the SAME YEAR, where do I go from here? I think I’d have to retire from sports fandom? I don’t think it could get much higher.

Well, those dreams came crashing quickly. Of course we were facing Liverpool, and they capitalized on an early penalty and pretty much put a stranglehold on the final. After such an incredible Champions League run, the final was a complete dud of a game, even for neutral observers. It was brutal, they’d gone this far only to put in a terrible performance. This was an experience I’d feel again just two weeks later.

I still couldn’t get enough Spurs though. I found myself reading British newspapers, trying to figure out what their offseason moves would be. Who’s coming, who’s going? Speculating on who they could get, and how they would get them. I was diehard.

Sunday morning, I woke up to watch the Spurs first preseason game. Pre-season! No chance you’ll see me watching Red Sox or Patriots or Bruins pre-season games. But I wanted to see how our new signing, Tanguy Ndombele, fit in (spoiler: he looked great) and just be able to watch the team again. Oh, and Harry Kane scored one of the most remarkable goals you’ll ever see.

That preseason goal gave me more joy than anything our floundering baseball team has provided this season.

So here we are, the Red Sox stink and are a lifeless team, the Patriots season doesn’t start until the AFC Championship game, and it’s a long nine months before the annual Bruins-Leafs first round playoff series. But the biggest thing circled on my sporting calendar right now is Aug. 10.

Spurs opening day.