For a season to remember and this West Philly view on a very necessary run the day after Thanksgiving…

I’m thankful for what’s ahead and what’s past. It will all come together to inevitably determine what’s to last.

I attended an incredible wedding in the Ballroom at The Ben with longtime friends on Thanksgiving Eve. A night which, for a stretch, took place at the Field House by way of a Township school bus. There was still plenty of booze but it was in a much different setting. A few days prior, it was booze & babies at a friend’s 1 year old’s birthday party. We’re 30. My friends have all turned out to be awesome parents. No surprise there. Thankful for a week of reconnecting.

I’m a massive pop shot fan and used to love playing at the Field House, but my week began with real hoops at the Phield House. Thankful that I’ve still got some game and that I know a little dedication will go a long way in due time. Further thanks to my bum wrist(s) holding up through fractures and bone bruises and a genetic impaction syndrome to grant me a solid summer of basketball before I get the left surgically corrected. The right may need the same eventually.

I wanna play pickup till I’m dead. That being said I am a little nervous how the natural wear and tear of phone use, writing, basketball, lifting, daily life will wear on my wrists over time. Arthitis runs in the family and is surely going to get my rickety ass.

Speaking of the fam—very thankful to be able to visit a full, comfy home for a heavenly feast and a devilish game of Cards Against Humanity where my mother won a round with a card involving a hard boiled egg and her husband’s ass—immediately scarring me for eternity. 

Thanksgiving week as a whole consisted of a necessary excess of incredible food, cold drinks, and belly laughs. It was a good holiday.

Personally, I feel primed to finish out 2022 with a bang and come into 2023 swinging. I’ve calculated and I’m not quite at ten thousand hours but I’m close. Regardless it’s certainly time to take shit to the next level. It’s an exciting and anxious place to be.

I’m thankful that I have the ability to chase what greatness means to me, and that I live In a first world that allows me to focus on those dreams rather than running to bomb shelters or sheltering from heavy artillery in my home country like citizens in Ukraine, Myanmar, Yemen, Nigeria, along the Gaza Strip; or famine in Sudan, Ethiopia, Yemen; or kneeling to a dictator’s whim in North Korea, Russia, China, all over Africa & Asia.

I’m thankful for what appears to be ahead in Philly. The news and politics of the day are showing minor signs of improvement but it feels like a positive shift is occurring to me. A safer, more prosperous Philadelphia. Finally breaking free from the shackles of a poorly handled pandemic and a dangerous few years of gun violence.

In less important but still VERY important news, the Philadelphia Eagles are chasing football greatness once again at 10-1. The best record in football. The team possesses a magic like no other Eagles team has since the ‘17 and ‘04 teams. A deep playoff run will certainly be applauded but it’s still a Super Bowl or Bust situation with an aged nucleus and a Quarterback on a rookie contract. It’s a long season and I wouldn’t be surprised if we encounter another bump or two, but the team is GOOD. If we remain healthy and the defense continues to do what it’s supposed to do against average quarterbacks, we can hang tight to that 1st seed, get a CRUCIAL first-round bye, and a home-field advantage that the entire sports world—don’t matter the country, OR the sport—would probably admit is one of the best.

They’re doing all this on the heels of, dare I say, a COURAGEOUS run by a baseball team that embodied everything it meant to represent Philadelphia as an all-time Fightin’ Phils team. Harper left his damn arm on the field after hitting .400 and creating all-time Phillies baseball moments along the way. Not just him, but NLCS Rhys, Realmuto, Bohm, Schwarber, and Castellanos all made massive plays at one point or another throughout the run. The pitching was consistent and the bullpen stepped up big time. The future is bright. Treaaaa Turnerrrrr

The irony that I said “baseball is still boring” while interviewing Big Rube Harley (mostly as a joke after a deep dive into MLB marketing and Bud Selig’s failed attempts to recognize what Rube, Tori Hunter, CC Sabathia, J-Roll and other players were trying to promote). I was in Pitchers Pub eating from his kitchen, by chance rather than plan, for the first playoff game against the Cards. After that first legendary, come-from-behind win, setting the tone for the entire epic run, I didn’t miss a game.

Maybe I didn’t watch a bunch of regular-season baseball this year but I tailgated too many playoff games during the ‘07 - ‘11 run to be considered a bandwagoner.

Thankful for the ‘22 Phillies reminding me that baseball is a beautiful game.