2013's Finest: A Review of Sports and Pop Culture

Credit: Breaking Bad

Time flies fast. In a few days’ time, 2013 is about to end. This is the time of the year we look back on what happened in the year. It is also the time we appreciate how good it was. For me, it was an awesome year. It did have low points and it was not as adventurous as last year (when I got to venture to a world of unknown in the land of the brave and the free), but this year was interesting and charming in a lot of ways.

How was 2013 amazing for me? You have to talk to me personally (and frankly, it is not an assurance I will share you everything or even most of it). As for other things else like my appreciation for sports and pop culture, well you are in the right place. We celebrate the highlights of these in here.

SPOILER ALERT: I will avoid spoilers as much as possible so I am sorry if I will not be able to expound on some details here. I have placed the unavoidable spoiler topics in the last part for you, dear readers.

Halftime Break

The famous Hickory High Halftime Speech | Credit: Hoosiers

"I wanted a fresh start, okay? I'm entitled to that." -Betty
"There is no fresh start! Lives carry on." –Henry

From “Mad Men” Season 4 Episode 13 entitled “Tomorrowland”

Christmas Break 2013. Yes.

I heaved a huge sigh of relief when I finished my last conference call last Friday because I was about to experience some good break in the following days. (Technically, I am still working this week but at least it is not as intense as it was in the previous weeks.) Christmas break 2013 has arrived and I needed it more than ever.

No Music, No Life Pt. 8

Paramore returned this year. Are they back at the top of my yearly list? | Credit: Fanpop.com

I tweeted last week that I have not yet written about pop culture this year. Most of my blog stories this year - and I seldom write these days - have been about sports. This blog has always been about sports and pop culture so I think I am due to write about pop culture. It is not about the usual TV show/movie critique, but hey music is still pop culture.

I know that this seems like a cheat because I always write about my favorite songs every year anyway. OK, fine. I will try to write something about movies or TV series that is not about ranking them (something I do annually as well) before this year ends. But for now, let us tackle about my year in music.

This year has been unintentionally similar to 2007 for me. Three of my favorite bands (Paramore, Jimmy Eat World and Fall Out Boy) released albums in both 2007 and 2013. The Boston Red Sox won the World Series. In case you do not know, the last time they did was 2007. Same goes with the La Salle Green Archers (yuck!). Fall Out Boy performed in Manila in 2007 as well. Although I was not able to watch it this time around, they were still able to rock the house in the Philippines this year.

Thus, I am writing this in the same format as I did in 2007.

Never Say Die

Credit: nfl.si.com

“Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” – Hebrews 11:1

The New England Patriots and the Denver Broncos met last weekend for Sunday Night Football. The game featured Tom Brady and Peyton Manning battling it out for the 14th time as their teams’ respective quarterbacks. By then, Tom Brady' Patriots had a commanding 9-4 record over Peyton Manning-led teams. The Pats had the homecourt advantage but the Broncos were tagged as the favorites to win because of their plethora of offensive and defensive weapons. The Patriots were still fresh from a Monday night defeat the previous week against the Carolina Panthers. Furthermore, their two best defenders (Vince Wilfork and Jerod Mayo) were out for the season. The Broncos, on the other hand, had crazy momentum as they defeated the last unbeaten team in the league – the Kansas City Chiefs. Peyton even has longtime elite Patriot receiver Wes Welker on his side. The Broncos were favored by 2.5 points.

Boston Strong

Champions!!! | Credit: Fansided.Com

“…and by that, I also mean GG to my Boston Red Sox. Pasas mode na lang muna teams natin this year.” (Translation: Both Boston and New York will suck in baseball this year)

This was what I tweeted to my Yankee fan friend Teme early on the baseball season of 2013. The New York Yankees were hampered by injuries while my Boston Red Sox were fresh from being the worst team in the league. All I actually wished from them was to have a steady transition period.

Tough Times

Let's Go Red Sox! | Credit: Sports Illustrated

Do not blame me for my low expectations – being a Red Sox fan the past few years was tough. Things have gone south after they won the 2007 World Series. We had to watch the New York Yankees win it all in 2009. It being spearheaded by none other than Alex Rodriguez did not make it any better. In 2010, the Sox missed the playoffs. 2011 out-sucked it. I am both an Atlanta Braves and a Boston Red Sox fan. In 2011, both of my teams went into self-destruct/choke mode in the final month of the season. They had the wild card spots in sight with a 95+% chance of entering the playoffs at some point late August or early September of 2011 (Red Sox’ chance was at 99.6%. Not a misprint. 99.6%!!! on September 3). All you just need to do is win a few games or (Note: OR, not AND) you hope the other trailing teams lose normally as they should. Instead, both the Braves and Red Sox crumbled and lost in dramatic fashion. Yeah, they did win some games along the way, but the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and St. Louis Cardinals both caught fire as well. By the final day of the regular season, both the Braves and Red Sox’ playoff tug-of-war with the Cards and Rays respectively was up in the air.

Eight Steps on How to Exorcise the Ghosts of the Past

Credit: Peanuts

October 1994:

I was fairly new to being a basketball fan. It was just one and a half years when I first started watching Philippine hoops but I had quickly developed a passion for the sport as I rooted for the Purefoods team in PBA. It was also a good time to be a Filipino sports fan as the country was fresh from Onyok Velasco’s gold silver win from the previous Olympics. The country had talented athletes like Alvin Patrimonio, Johnny Abarrientos, Nelson Asaytono and Vergel Meneses. It was the first time I would get to root for the all-star players from the other rival PBA teams. With the unified force, I was hopeful we would bag the gold.

I followed the games and reality started to sink in that the Philippine team wasn’t that great as compared to the other countries. We lost our gold dreams when China defeated us. I was still hopeful for the bronze when we faced Japan on that Sunday afternoon. The team was quite putting an effort from it with flashes of brilliance from Johnny A (a player I used to root against) from time to time. Alas, the Philippine national team lost in a dramatic ending. I was devastated as I could not believe that we could not even grab the third place in that tourney.

End of an Era

It was a lazy Sunday afternoon some time in July 2009. I just came back from our team outing and I tuned in the television to check the first Ateneo game that year. I was feeling positive for my team’s chances because we just won the championship the previous year while most of the core players were back (with the very much promising rookies of 2008). I was also excited to find out who was Ateneo’s courtside reporter. I was single again that year so it would be guilt-free to have a crush on someone. And, voila! A cute mestiza named Jessica Mendoza (who was nicknamed “Je”) was shown in the screen. Ateneo always had the best balance of beauty and skill when it comes to courtside reporting but I was never charmed the same way that Jessica did. Little did I know that it was the start of an era.

It was the start of an era indeed. The Ateneo Blue Eagles went on to achieve a bucket list kind of a winning run with Coach Norman Black at the helm. They won the next four seasons to complete a half decade dominance. Even the most confident fans from our archrivals just accepted the fate that Ateneo would rule UAAP for a long time. Watching UAAP games became a breeze for me as the Blue Eagles trounced their opponents easily. If there was ever a golden age of sports in my life, it would easily be this stretch as the Blue Eagles assured me of an annual taste of championship.

Summer 2013 Random Thoughts

March Madness time! Oops! It's already April! | Credit: ESPN

 Back when I was a kid, I used to love these warm summer days. I would run around, play basketball or finish our video games. I did not mind the heat. I was living my life carefree. Fast forward twenty years from then, I find the weather excruciating. I avoid running outside as if there is a signal number one storm. I still play video games but even if two electric fans are set at my direction, I still end up getting dehydrated. Upon checking Manila’s historical weather then (from https://weatherspark.com/history/33313/1993/Metro-Manila-Philippines), it was pretty much the same as what we have now (35 degrees Celcius).

Twenty years back, we suffered those untimely brownouts because of power plant concerns during the Ramos regime (our president was even jokingly called “The Prince of Darkness” then). I can still remember my cousin and I going outside to play his Gameboy during one of those brownouts. In the present time, we never have those electrical failures yet I would not dare going outside for an hour. You probably need to bribe me with a scene of bikini-clad women and sand if you want me to stay out for that long.

As people would ask now, anyare? (What happened?)

Things change. As Yoda said, “always in motion is the future.” I would not be able to predict what I will do months or years from now. Am I going to view life differently? Will my attitude change? I do not know. Case in point, I wrote forty seven blog write-ups in 2010. This year, we are already past the first quarter and I am just writing my third article (that is, if I end up finishing this). There are external and internal factors of which I am not able to fully control. (Those or I blame Twitter because it makes expressing my views a lot easier and up-to-date.)

Either way, let us make this summer count (before the heat starts to burn my brain cells further).

Fake Mailbag

And we got Bradying | Credit: washingtonpost.com

 We are midway at the end of January and things have been crazier than ever in sports and pop culture. The wildest of them all happened last week when news came out that Manti Te’o, college football star of Notre Dame, had a fake dead girlfriend. To put things into bigger perspective, Manti had one of the sweetest storylines last year. He delivered a very strong performance on the next game after both his grandmother and girlfriend died of leukemia. Movie-like story, isn’t it? Only problem was, his girlfriend never existed. The Twitter account was fake and the picture used in there belonged to a chick who did not even know who Manti Te’o was.

Fake Mailbag for the fake artist | Credit: ESPN

Insane, right? How the heck will someone have a relationship with a person he never met person-to-person? If Manti was indeed fooled, that says a lot about him. I know that technology has “advanced” the way we communicate with people in the present time, but seriously, you haven’t met the person you love? He even mentioned his dead girlfriend’s parents understood why he wouldn’t attend the funeral. Really? He was able to talk to fake parents? What is happening in this world?

That story was a total shame. Whether he got fooled or is trying to fool everyone, Manti Te’o has been receiving a lot of flak these days for this sick and twisted idea of having a fake dead girlfriend. Now, there are teowing pictures (which is posing as if you have a girlfriend right beside you) over the Internet now. Lies. Fake. Lies. Fake. Tsk. Tsk. Tsk.

And with that, comes the conception of this blog entry – a creative way of inserting my random thoughts about current stories and non-stories. Since we are talking about ‘fake’ anyway, it is just apt to have fake celebrities throw out mails to me.

2012: Year in Review

It was a Bucket List Year for me. Cheers!

For a lot of people, 2012 was branded as the last year of mankind due to the Mayan prophesy. For some, it was the much-awaited Olympic year. The superstitious ones would highlight it as a boom year because of the Year of the Dragon. I have some friends who wanted to have their baby to be born during 2012 so it would be a Dragon baby. As for me, 2012 would go down as one of the best years in my life.

You have to forgive me if this would turn out to be a self-indulgent writeup. I always infuse my biases on my blogs but 2012 was the first in quite some time when I made it more personal. It would feel right if I end the 2012-centric write-ups with a focus on myself.

My year began with me adjusting in America. It was my lifelong dream. I guess I just wanted to experience living in a different place, culture and people. If there was one thing I could empathize with LeBron when he left Cleveland a few years back, it was the fact that he wanted to live in a different place. You are in your mid twenties and you are at the height of your life. Of course, you would want to experience something different. It is not a ‘restart’ button but it is more of a ‘refresh’ button. After all, you would be at a point of your life where your work gets routine. If you are like me who is too lazy to study for a masters degree, then you would need this ‘refresh’ button.