Nostalgia, ultra

Hang ten

Right before Christmas, I flew down to North Carolina to visit Duke, something I’d previously done five times since I graduated in 2001. Though a lot remains unchanged in my life since my last trip three years ago – same job, same apartment, same obsessive sneaker collection – I’ve since met my future wife, which qualifies as a very significant positive change.

When we stopped for a snack at the general store adjacent to my freshman year dorm, a couple of wide-eyed freshmen, still shell-shocked from their first final exams, asked me what had changed about Duke in the thousand years since I’d been a student, and it got me to thinking.

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The Afternoon After: Day in the Sun

As I explained last week, I’ve expanded my weekly football thoughts to include some non-football stuff, primarily since I don’t have an enormous breadth of knowledge about the sport and don’t always get to watch games. That won’t stop me from offering up some picks, but if you place bets based on them, I’d be forced to characterize you as foolhardy.

Heart attack on a grill

I’ve made no secret of the fact that football doesn’t rank particularly high on my sports hierarchy, placing behind pretty much every other major sport besides hockey, which I never got into. That said? It’s good to have football back, primarily because it’s woven into what I believe to be the best time of year.

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We the living

8/9/09, Nike outlet in Jackson, NJ -- The day after I turned 30
If you’ve been coming here for a while, you already know that the only holiday I truly love is Halloween. But New Year’s, I’ve always at the very least liked. I realize it’s technically just another day, but it represents to me a time to reflect and measure growth.

A clean start. A fresh slate. Another chance to turn it all around. (Word to Vanilla Sky)

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Weekend roundup: Money in the Bank, UFC’s Forest of Fear, Incubus

It was an eventful weekend for SportsAngle’s Esoteric and Epstein, who headed south down the GSP – not Georges St. Pierre, the Garden State Parkway – for a birthday celebration. (I won’t say how many years, but it’s rounder than I’d like) The highlight of the trip was a visit to Citizens Bank Park on Saturday night for the Phillies-Marlins game with Cole Hamels on the hill.

PHILADELPHIA – Though I’ve long heard its virtues extolled, I didn’t want to like Citizens Bank – mainly because I don’t like the Phillies – but at the end of my first trip to the park, I couldn’t help but admit that it’s a great place to take in a ballgame.

A big reason the park is such a success is that the atmosphere is fantastic. It makes an enormous difference that the Phillies won the World Series last year and look to be a strong contender again this year – fans gravitate to winners. The guest services booth told me the game was a sellout, as most games have been since May, and it creates a special environment when the seats are completely filled.

Mets fans probably won’t like to hear this, but though Citi Field was an attempt to mimic the vibe of Citizens Bank, the Mets’ lack of success and inability to develop stars have left them far behind their neighbors to the south. Even when Reyes, Delgado and Beltran are healthy, they simply don’t generate the trust that Utley, Howard, Rollins, Victorino, Werth and Ibanez do.

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