Category Archives: Sports

February 11, 2024 · 23:43

Superb Owl 2024

We were ready.

BBQ imported from Joe’s BBQ in Kansas City. So many appetizers and snacks and sides and salads and sodas and drinks and beers.

So many friends and family.

A good time was had by all. The game was close all the way, going into OT for only the second time in Super Bowl history.

There was tension, there was suspense, and in the end there was cheering and champagne.

There were a lot of lousy years for Chiefs Kingdom in the 1970’s, 1980’s, 1990’s, and 2000’s. There were only a handful of playoff appearances in a span of almost 50 years, and no playoff wins.

But we’ve been in the AFC Championship game for a ticket to the Super Bowl six years in a row. We’ve won that game gone to the Super Bowl four of the last five years. And we’ve won the Super Bowl three of those four appearances.

Next year will be next year. For now – it’s good to be a Chiefs fan.

Oh, by the way, Angels pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training camp on Wednesday.

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Filed under Castle Willett, KC Chiefs, LA Angels, Sports

January 15, 2024 · 23:30

Random Old Photo – January 15th

Yet another “proof of life” post…

In honor of the victory at Arrowhead by my beloved Chiefs in sub-zero temperatures…

It wasn’t from this weekend and it wasn’t sub-zero, but it was most certainly colder than I’ve been in many, many years.

This is from the December 30, 2018 game we saw at Arrowhead, a week after seeing the Chiefs play the Seahawks in Seattle. That was a great trip!

And we beat the hated Raiders to boot!

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Filed under KC Chiefs, Photography, Sports, Travel

April 29, 2023 · 23:17

Ten Years Of WLTSTF

It snuck up on me. It wasn’t until this afternoon that I realized that today is the 10th anniversary of my starting this website.

I guess this is sort of a big one.

10 years.

3,653 days.

3,745 posts.

8,921 images. (90%+ are taken by me. The rest are images from the news, from cell phone screen captures, and so on.) To be perfectly honest, some of my favorite images of those 8,921 were posted yesterday. Still just a bit gobsmacked by that.

72 videos.

10 audio clips.

2,978 total comments.

75,498 total views.

49,522 total visitors to the site.

11,438 total likes.

1,827 followers (730 from WordPress, 703 from Twitter, 280 from FaceBook, 10 from Tumblr, 58 from post.news, and 46 from Spoutible)

God alone knows how many words.

The last time I either was too busy or, more likely, simply forgot to post anything was April 10, 2020. Since they I’ve posted 1,115 days in a row.

In total there have only been fourteen days of those 3,653 days when I didn’t post anything at all.

I’m not only here (which is probably the most reliable source since I have the most control over the site’s existance) but also on:

  • Twitter (@momdude56)
  • Facebook (/paul.willett.56)
  • Mastodon (@momdude)
  • Post (@momdude)
  • Spoutible (@momdude)
  • Instagram (@momdude56)
  • Tumblr (pauljwillett)
  • Snapchat (pauljwillett)
  • Hive (@momdude)
  • BlueSky (waiting for an invite, but I’ll give you three guesses what it will be…)
  • Email (pwillett@ix.netcom.com)

I hope that at least a few of the 1,827 folks who get notified every day that I’ve posted something take a minute to look and/or read and get a moment of zen or pleasure from it. I enjoy creating it.

As always, I hope that in the next year there are many more occasions to share a pretty picture, a goofy story, or something clever.

As always, I hope that in the next year there will be many fewer occasions to descend into a venting rant about something stupid, annoying, or depressing.

As do we all, I’m sure.

As a lovely parting gift, couple of favorite pictures from the last year:

Stick around for the next year. It’ll be a slice!

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Filed under Airshows, Astronomy, Birds, Christmas Lights, Critters, Entertainment, KC Chiefs, LA Angels, LA Kings, Los Angeles, Paul, Photography, Sports, Sunsets, Writing

April 9, 2023 · 23:32

Opening Weekend 2023

We don’t ALWAYS make it to the home openers for the Angels, but over the past twenty years or so we’ve probably made it to better than half of them.

I’m not there just for the pomp and circumstance, but I don’t not enjoy it either.

It does slay me that all teams (including the Angels) introduce the visitors’ “training staff and reserve players” in one mass group, then introduce the Angels’ reserves individually and the training staff individually down to the 2nd assistant massage therapist. Home field advantage!

Of course, the best part of the opening ceremonies is the flyover. Most previous years the Angels get a big cargo jet like a C-5 or C-17. Which is fine, they hang there just the way bricks don’t. But this year we got two F-18s tearing over on afterburners and setting off half of the car alarms in the parking lot, so that was FANTASTIC! Once that’s all over they have to fold up the humongous flag and get ready to play ball.

The sunset over the 3rd base side of the stadium was fantastice.

Then it was time to play!

After it was over (we lost on Friday night) it was time for the dash to the parking lot under a full moon rising in the east. The “Big A” was not happy with the loss.

Meanwhile, out in the parking lot, with a sold out crowd most folks got to their cars, started them up, and moved about six inches every fifteen minutes. We just sat in the car and chilled until most of the crowd cleared (an hour or so, but hey, we have cell phones to play with!) and then left in two minutes.

Saturday night we were back!

At sunset, looking straight out over center field we can see snow on the mountains still, and the Pond on the other side, home of the Anaheim Ducks.

We won the Saturday night game and then got fireworks, so it was a good weekend!

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Filed under LA Angels, Photography, Sports

February 15, 2023 · 23:35

Random Old Photos – February 15th

With the NFL season over and my beloved Chiefs having won their second Super Bowl in four years and their parade through downtown Kansas City held today…

With the NHL season about 2/3 done and my beloved Kings hanging onto 2nd place in their division and in a good position to make the playoffs and make a run at what would be their third Stanley Cup…

…it’s getting time to think about Angels baseball! Pitchers and catchers reported to spring training yesterday, position players report on Monday, and we’re about ten days out from the first spring training game, about forty days out from the first regular season game.

This photo I found from ten years ago, March of 2013, when my son and I were in Arizona for a couple of spring training games. The rest of February, and March, and already into April is looking busy, busy, busy, but it’s not THAT far to drive for a long weekend, right?

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Filed under KC Chiefs, LA Angels, LA Kings, Photography, Sports

February 12, 2023 · 23:56

Super Bowl Champions Again

It was a GREAT game, very evenly matched, very tight, comebacks by both theams, could easily have gone either way. In the end, my beloved Chiefs prevailed for their second Super Bowl win in the three Super Bowl appearances in the last four years, and the franchise’s third Super Bowl win overall.

May be an image of 4 people, people playing American football and text that says "IHDE OMBARDI TROPHY CHIEA SUPER BOWL CHAMPIONS H" (From The Kansas City Chiefs)

The party here was a ton of fun, a good time was had by all! Tons of snacks, both ours and those brought by friends and guests.

There was much to eat and drink, desserts, all highlighted by BBQ up the ying-yang from world-famous Joe’s BBQ in Kansas City.

In the end, I was grateful to once again pop the champagne.

And now? Sleep. Much needed sleep…

It was a great day!

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Filed under Castle Willett, KC Chiefs, Photography, Sports

February 11, 2023 · 23:41

The Stage Is Set

If you’ve read this site for very long, you know that I’m a passionate fan of the Kansas City Chiefs football team. (Kansas City is one of the places I grew up, the grade school years.) If you’e American and haven’t been under a rock for the past two weeks, you know that the Chiefs are in the Super Bowl tomorrow against the Philadelphia Eagles. It’s their third trip to the Super Bowl in four years, having won three years ago and lost two years ago.

Tomorrow we’ll be throwing our “traditional” Super Bowl party for family, friends, and coworkers. We’re ready to rock & roll!

We’ve played Tetris with the fridge to get everything in.

The “spare” fridge out on the back porch is responsible for holding all of the cold beer, water, and soft drinks.

The champagne is ready for cooling, the margaritas for mixing, and the red wine for those who swing that way. (We don’t have a ton of the “proper” glassware, but we’re not going to lose a single second of sleep over that. If push comes to shove, we have an industrial sized package of “Chiefs’ Red” Solo cups.

We ordered in an emergency package from Joe’s Kansas City BBQ, a legendary hallmark BBQ site from a city legendary for its BBQ.

Of course we have desserts – I’ve heard a lot about this new cookie place taking the world by storm and they opened one nearby… Why not?!

While I’m obviously hoping for and expecting a Chiefs win, I’m also expecting a legendary Super Bowl between two great teams that are very evenly matched.

We should have invited a cardiologist!

Enjoy the game, y’all!

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Filed under Castle Willett, KC Chiefs, Photography, Sports

January 27, 2023 · 22:52

Penultimate Red Friday – January 2023

A Chiefs Kingdom tradition is Red Friday. Before every game, the town lights up in red, everyone wears red, and so on. It’s a Chiefs thing.

Here that also means putting up one of this years’ “Chiefs Kingdom” flags on the flagpole. Yes, the neighbors know where my passions lie.

For several days it’s been pretty much straight out with the gale force winds. Even then it looked odd but I couldn’t quite put my finger on how or why. Now I see that it’s simply upside down.

Something to fix tomorrow. The game’s Sunday. Win and we go to the Super Bowl, lose and go home one step short for the second year in a row.

If the NFL is one of your things, enjoy the games on Sunday. GO CHIEFS!

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Filed under KC Chiefs, Photography, Sports

March 19, 2022 · 23:09

Another Year 2022

I went to my first professional rugby game tonight, the LA Giltinis hosting the San Diego Legion.

A fun game, with the Giltinis winning 26-13. I only understand the big picture on the rules and I’m totally ignorant of about 99% of the nuances and fine details, but it was still a fun experience!

The Los Angeles Coliseum has hosted two Olympics, the LA Rams, at one point way back the LA Dodgers, and for decades the USC Trojans. It seats 93,607 currently. The Giltinis drew maybe 2,000 today, so it’s an interesting experience in a stadium that big.

It was a fun day.

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Filed under Los Angeles, Panorama, Paul, Photography, Sports

March 10, 2022 · 23:42

Play Ball

So, they finally made a deal and Major League Baseball will at last get going, a month or so late. Spring training will start on Sunday and will be about three weeks instead of six or seven weeks, and opening day will be pushed back a week.

But the games originally scheduled for that first week will be re-scheduled, not cancelled, so we’ll have a full season.

A couple of COVID-related rule changes will be abandoned, which I think is great. I was not a fan of having games in double headers only being seven innings instead of nine, and the whole “start with a guy on second base in extra innings” was particularly stupid.

The designated hitter is now universal, which is meh to me. I liked the strategy in having to work around someone who realistically can’t hit (especially since most of them couldn’t bunt or do much of anything else these days) but I also like the offense, so that’s a wash.

Expanded playoffs? Okay. At least it’s not the NHL or NBA where half the league gets into the playoffs every year.

I know that I should be pissed off and I probably swore that I would never go to a game again, but we all knew that was just a temper tantrum with nothing behind it. If they had blown off half the season, or more? Sure, maybe it would have happened. Now? Sorry, I just don’t have the energy or the willpower to turn my back on one of my lifelong major sources of entertainment. There’s too much that sucks these days to give up something I have so much of a connection to, even if they did piss me off.

I’m weak.

Sue me.

But as with this strike or lockout or “work stoppage” or whatever you choose to call it (don’t explain it to me, I don’t care) I have to wonder. It doesn’t matter if it’s baseball or teachers or grocery store clerks or steel workers or whatever. In the end, when you come to a deal and move on, is there one, single compromise or agreement that couldn’t have been made BEFORE the “work stoppage?” One? Anything?

Or did you just waste all of that wear and tear on our nerves, all of that stress, all of that anger, just so that everyone could have a temper tantrum and a glorified dick measuring contest in public?

 

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Filed under Freakin' Idiots!, LA Angels, Sports