More Golf

The people are clamoring for more golf highlights! Well, here you go:

Dream Team vs Angola

Here's the game preview by Sir Charles Barkley, considered by at least one YouTube commenter, the greatest quote in history:




So how did Angola do? They stormed out to an early lead!

Could they pull the upset?

See if I was their coach, I would have tried not to give up a 52-6 run in the first half.

Classic Letterman Bits

I've written at length how watching Letterman influenced me and how I got to see his show in person in 2010.

YouTube is amazing. Even though we're getting farther away from when these originally aired, there's more 90's clips on the internet now than in 2010. Of course, these can get taken down or deleted, but for now, here's some classic Letterman.

Dave at Taco Bell (the clip they played to the audience in 2010)


Dave and Rupert Annoy People


Stop Calling Me Chief

best song of 2019

Worlds of Fun - Roller Coaster History

When I was going to Worlds of Fun as a kid, there were three roller coasters:

Zambezi Zinger (opened 1973)
Orient Express (1980)
Timber Wolf (1989)

I only rode Zambezi Zinger because I was 7-9 years old and the other two were too intimidating/I probably wasn't tall enough anyways.

Well the Zambezi Zinger was closed in 1997 and Orient Express closed in 2003. So here's the list of current roller coasters:

Timber Wolf (1989) - everyone describes as rough/rickety
Mamba (1998) - steep af
Boomerang (2000) - no desire to ride backwards/upside down
Spinning Dragons (2004) - spinning while on a coaster
Patriot (2006) - an inverted coaster that goes upside down
Prowler (2009) - this one looks the best for my style

Cast-Iron Honey Garlic Chicken

Add some olive oil, then butter to a medium-high pan. Season the chicken thighs and place skin down in the pan. We're not trying to cook it through, so all you need to worry about is getting the perfect golden brown skin. Remove the chicken and add potatoes and carrots to the pan. Same idea, cook for 8-10 minutes to get some nice brownage on the veggies. Meanwhile, make a sauce and preheat the oven to 425. This time I did honey, barbecue, soy sauce, chicken stock, soy ginger vinaigrette. Remove the potatoes and carrots and add onions. Then add garlic and the sauce. Simmer for a few minutes then add the chicken and veggies back in.

Above is ready to go into the oven. It gets 15-20 minutes in the oven. Below is after it comes out of the oven. The veggies are tender, the chicken is cooked through. 

Plate with the sauce over top. 

Board Man Gets Trophy

I was all set to write a post about the NBA. It was going to be about how the Warriors won 4 titles in 5 years, and the one year they didn't win was the year they won 73 games and were up 3-1 in the Finals. I was then going to make a point how the Warriors are obviously incredible, but also that you have to give LeBron a ton of credit for being able to interrupt that dynasty to bring a title to Cleveland of all places.

But thanks to Toronto, that's not the post I'm writing today.

- - -

Let's look back at how the Raptors did it. In the first round, they dropped their first game to the Magic at home before reeling off four straight.

The Raptors trailed the 76ers 2-1 in the next round. In Game 7, with the game on the line, Kawhi got the ball and did this.



His shot hit the rim, he crouched, and still had time to wait for the ball to go in.

And then in the next round, the #1 Milwaukee was up 2-0. The Warriors were in the process of sweeping Portland so everyone was already talking about if they needed Durant back to beat Giannis in the Finals. And then the Raptors won 4 straight.

Then the Raptors beat the Warriors in 6. 3-0 at Oracle. They closed that arena for good by owning it. They trailed in every playoff series except the Finals.

And now the Raptors have their first title in franchise history.
For the first time in history, the NBA Champion is not from the United States.
A Canadian team has won the World Series and NBA title more recently than the Stanley Cup.

Kawhi has a Finals MVP in multiple countries, which is a record that is unlikely to be matched anytime soon.

- - -

Since the Spurs and Wade have retired, the list of active players with multiple titles is short.

There's Curry-Iggy-Draymond-Klay-Livingston with 3.
There's LeBron with 3.
Durant with 2.
Kawhi and Green with 2.

(And it's hard to tell because there's not a great tool out there that has active filters, but I don't think there's that many more stars that I'm missing.)

- - -

And after all that, I have to remind everyone how fragile these narratives are. How things outside of your control affect your narrative all the time. At the end of the game, Curry had a good look to win. Klay is out with a torn ACL and Durant is out with a torn achilles. But Curry's shot affects their ring totals and legacies. And times that times a million, with all the plays and transactions and injuries.

No title should have an asterisk. But in a way, every title could have one because of all the little things outside your control that alter your legacy. (When you look back at Brady, if you change 3 plays of things outside Brady's control (Dee Ford offsides, Falcons sack in 28-3, Seahawks passing from the 1) the Patriots could be 0-6 in the Super Bowl since 2004. And then if you change 3 in the other direction, the Patriots could be 9-0 including 19-0. All without changing a thing from Brady's actual play. That's the fragileness that I'm talking about. Do everything the same and you might win 6 Super Bowls in or you might win zero.

Klay and Durant played at an All-Star level this year. But whether or not they get a ring was outside their control.

Lucky / Unlucky Sports Highlights

I used to embed random videos all the time on this blog. Don't really do that anymore, but this one was too good to pass up.

Golf Highlights

I subscribe to the theory of "Give the people what they want." And clearly what the people want is highlights of me playing a golf video game. Here you go!

I created a golf course: In the Clouds

I wanted to record a playthrough to show off my course, somehow I played way worse than normal--I guess the pressure of knowing this was being recorded got to me.

Bowling Scores

Today I played two games with the boys. I rolled a 133 and then a 145.

Edit: And then on June 2 I rolled a 145 followed by a 130.

Previous scores (found via the family blog):
162, 122 and less than 122 - July 2012
147 - August 2016
137 - August 2015