Tortillas and Father’s Day Thoughts

• Where do we start this week? A lot has happened, but maybe one of the posts I’ve gotten the most feedback ever was the Tortilla chronicles last week.
  
  I reached out to a business connection of mine in Mexico to get the truth on the Tillas. He gave me some great advice, and asked if I had a tortilla press. I said yes to be nice but then had a panic over whether I needed to spend $40 on a Tortilla press, I didn’t, and I ended up using a Can of Diet Coke as a Tortilla roller.
  
  

  

• I’m very pleased with how my maiden voyage went, the first few tortillas were a little thick like Pancakes but by the end I had them nice and then. The Tortilla press is in the mail. I will say, they were very good, but it took me 30-45 to prepare the tortillas. If I was hosting a big party with plans to impress I would make them again, but I may focus my attention to finding elite tortillas online, and have ordered some testers to try out. Shoutout to some of my readers for the Recs. I bought Skirt Steaks from Mckinnons and made a Chimichurri marinade that was pretty awesome, the fajitas were great, and my wife who is a tough critic sometimes on my meals gave me a high rating. Fun experiment, will definitely do it again.
  

• Speaking of my wife, we had a great first Father’s Day as a family. She and my daughter made a very cute water color footprint golf hole that I’m very proud to display in my office as I write this. We went to the Andover Country Club Centennial party, which was very well organized and a lot of fun. My 2 year old nephew had the time of his life and it was a great reminder of the community we have there. I think because of the lack of a pool or really anything but golf you lose some of the perspective on what the community is and events like that are really special.
  
  

  

  
  

• Father’s Day as a Dad was really cool. My Dad and I played in the tournament together, and he was really proud to wish me a Happy Father’s day, it was a really cool moment for us. I love my dad, he’s the best guy I know and I want nothing more than to make him proud. My brother and I were talking on Playstation about him the other night, he was definitely a hard ass at times but looking back I’m very grateful for that, it made us really appreciate the work he did for us and he expected an equal level of effort in return. My Dad would also surprise us a lot growing up. He showed up to the beach in a Brand-new Jeep one year, a car that I would late drive throughout my senior year of high school and a little during college, he bought it for himself, but he knew what he was doing, and he did it without giving me a car without working for it. We always take trips down to see the Cowboys, and it’s a joy for me to treat him to Dinner or to an event like we did last year seeing the Buckeyes play at COSM. He can pay for it and not look at his credit card bill, but I love being able to give back a little bit and invest in our time together.
  
  We are very lucky, and grateful for NFL Sunday Ticket. I can’t tell you the impact that Sunday Ticket has had on our family. We’ve never missed a Cowboys game. I don’t think it would’ve been possible for me to be a fan of my Dad’s team without the Ticket. Every Sunday, our whole family, now up from 5 to 10, gets together and watches the game together. As you know, they don’t always go well, but I will do everything in my power to watch as many games on that couch next to my dad as I can, and he knows that too. Having a 150-inch 4K projector to watch the games on helps too. That was the hardest part of going to college for me. I had to watch the games by myself or with my friends who just didn’t get why I cared so much, I’d call my Dad or text during the games just wishing I could high five him or bitch about a bad call with him.
  
  Dad and I play on our Men’s League team together, and though at times our competitive spirit’s get the best of us, like when I hit a wedge to only 20 feet from the stick instead of in tight, and he lets out a disappointed “ah what the fuck Timmy” I know it’s because he wants to win with me, he wants the high five and the phone call on the drive home to talk about how we got the win. I love that shit.
  
  But that’s why when you see me around and I’m always wearing some kind of Cowboys gear, it’s not about Dak Prescott, Tony Romo, Jerry Jones, the Star to me represents my Dad, and the relationship that I am so grateful and proud to have with him. Some families have a seal, we have the Star, and I’ll wear the shit out of that logo regardless if they ever reach the mountaintop. That’s why I want it so bad. That’s why 29 years later I’m still rooting as hard as I did as a 7 year old up late at night watching Monday Night Football with my Dad after he negotiated with my mom to let me stay up. That’s why I drive over on Thursday’s after my Wife is ready for bed to go watch the games. I want the high fives, I want the phone call the next day to talk about the game, there will never be enough of those. So next time you’re wondering why the Cowboys are on National TV every week, take a second to think about the Fathers and Sons, maybe the ones that aren’t as lucky as my Dad and I to watch the games together, the Star, or whatever logo is on the helmet of the team you root for, that logo means a lot more than 24 year olds in shiny laundry smashing into each other.
  
  My love for the Cowboys and love for golf is something I dream of sharing with my kids. You run out of time with your kids, they get friends, relationships, jobs far away, and you’re left waiting for the phone to ring hoping that the amount of money they’re asking for isn’t enough that you have to say no. My Daughter has no idea what’s going on around her, she knows her Mom is the greatest Mom in the world, and I hope she knows her Dad is trying his best to provide and give her a great life, if she and her siblings have to root for the Cowboys or tee it up with their old man, that's a small price to pay.
  

• This is a long post and I apologize or understand if you scrolled past, but I spent my Sunday thinking about a lot of the Dads in my life. My Grandpa Al, who shared his love for golf and sports with me from a young age, that we lost a couple years ago, I wore his watch all day Sunday, I know he’s watching whether I lip out or drain a long putt to win a match. I’d love to text with him and chat about Curb Your Enthusiasm or Razz him about Russell Wilson starting for the Giants this season. I know he’s enjoying a Sambuca and playing a golf match in the sky smiling down on my family. My Pop Pop, Tim the 3rd, who was a hard nut to crack, but there was nothing better than getting a joke past him, where he’d laugh as hard as he could, that was a high bar to hit, and I loved the chase to getting there. He’d ask about my grades and always ask about the lowest one even if it was an A-, he set a high bar, and I see the good parts of him in my Dad and Uncles every summer when we all get together. I think about my friend’s Dads, who I spent a lot of time with growing up, going to and from sports practices in games. I think about the Dads I play golf with, the guys who have kids my age and the guys who had kids a few years before me that have loaded knowledge and Parenting war stories onto my hard drive over the years. I think about my Father in Law who is a quiet guy, but one of the best and most genuine people I’ve ever come across, kind, reserved, but when his voice needs to be heard it is heard, and I’m so grateful to spend my days living life with the wonderful Daughter he raised, and I hope I can do half the job he did with my daughter.

Best Game I watched this week

The US Open has to be the event this week. JJ Spaun, what a stud. I’m in a Major Pool that has over 200 entries, and not one person had JJ Spaun on their team. My wife had him in the Masters and I filled out her entry for this one and forgot to include him. She knows ball. I can’t imagine the relief JJ felt when that putt left is club. When you hit the ball right with a LAB Putter you just know it’s going in. After getting the read from Hovland, he must’ve had a good feeling on how he needed to hit the putt. Sure a 2 Putt still wins the tournament, but especially after they replayed Tiger’s 2008 putt, how could you know think about anything other than late nights at the Putting Green as a kid hitting long putts to win the US Open? And to be the only guy to finish under par? It’s inspiring when a guy breaks through like JJ did this week. He’s been so close this year, and he’s not some massive presence when he walks into a room. He practices at Muni’s to stay grounded and remind himself of his love for the game, he’s a guy you want to root for and he’s a guy we’ll get to root for at Bethpage Black this year. What a goddamn putt.

Might be a good one to add to your practice sessions.

Also in the golf world, want to shoutout my High School Teammate Steven Dilisio for his victory at the Mass Open last week. Steve shot -5 in 3 rounds to take home the trophy at Saconnesset which is an absolute bear from the tips with how hot those greens are, and buried a 50 footer for birdie to put him out front on 16 to get his first win as a Professional.

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He might be the best player I’ve played with. I was a senior just happy to be on our Varsity team after getting cut my junior year. I was in awe of his skill as a High School Sophomore. We’d all leave class at 1:30 to get to the course and warm up before a match, and Steve’s parents would drop him off after school and he’d go straight to the tee and shoot -3. He is one of the nicest and most humble guys, when he was at Duke they were down in Orlando for some Spring work, I was there with a few buddies for a Spring Break golf trip. I hit a drive and when the ball was in the air, someone yelled out “That looks like a State Champs drive right there.” I turned around to the entire Duke Golf team watching me tee off, thankfully I striped it, but it made me feel pretty cool, and I always get a chuckle out of that story. Everytime we see each other or text, the first message is “State Champs!” Which we both know has a lot more to do with Steve and a couple of the young studs we had at the Prep than it had to do with me, although I would get some good tunes going on the bus rides.

Steve became just the 8th player to win both the Mass Am and Mass Open, looking forward to seeing how he capitalizes on this momentum. If you’re looking for a place to hit balls in the North Shore, check out the Dilisio Driving Range in Salem, awesome set up to practice.

Best Show I watched this week

I’m back in on Full Speed, the Netflix NASCAR Series. I never watch NASCAR, and it makes the show great because I genuinely don’t know what’s going to happen each episode. I love Full Swing the golf show, but I watch all the tournaments, I know the results and usually spend the episode waiting for the winner to show up. Full Speed shows guys I wouldn’t know anything about if not for the show, and it makes me appreciate the other shows in that sphere as well for fans who may not follow the sport like I do.

I also went back to the “Clubhouse” the Netflix show about the Sox last season. I loved the episode focused on the Minors. I would love a Hard Knocks or Full Swing style show on life in the Minors. Find a few guys from different organizations, maybe a lifer, a blue chip prospect, and a couple of middling guys. That life is such a grind and there are so many good players that have great stories.

Podcast Episode of the Week

Busy week for me so I didn’t venture off my usual Podcast Queue. I really liked the interview with Owen Wilson. I’m a big fan of his and it was funny to hear him talking about the evolution of his fan interactions, where he used to just have people ask him to say “Wow” and now he has guys our age just yelling “KACHOW” and “I AM SPEED” at him after Cars has settled into the Nostalgia world. Also I watched Cars a few weeks ago with my Nephew, still holds up.

Nostalgic Athlete of the Week

I haven’t been this sad about a Sports Move my team has made in a long time. I was a big Raffy Devers guy, the only Red Sox Jersey I’ve bought since I was a kid is a Red Devers #11, grateful it has no name and 11 is a popular number. But I just don’t understand what happened. The Aftermath seems that he was getting some flack from the Organization and the team for not really becoming that Big Papi like figure for the Red Sox, and Papi has even said similar things, but even he is on the Payroll. I get the money is a ton and you have to be a certain type of guy to commend that money, and I’m honestly fine if you decide to trade a guy like that, but how do you not shop him around and get a haul for him? He is your only Superstar hitter, and he’s having arguably the best year of his career. You should be able to get some serious return, or even some prospects and a decent MLB level rental. I don’t get it. I love that they have some young studs who could be Superstars, but now the last 3 home grown SuperStars have all been shipped out for less than impressive returns, what tells the guys you are bringing up that they are anything other than the next guy up for that treatment? Frustrating.

Here’s all his homeruns against the Yankees. Thanks for the Dingers, 11.

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Til Next Week

TT