Published: August 05, 2008 09:18 am            

Three's a Charm

Tapping Out

Could this be the year my favorite teams give me my very own triple crown? It has never happened in my lifetime, mainly because the Cubs haven’t won a World Series since 1908, but I believe this is the year.

The Cubbies are sitting on a five-game lead in the National League Central division and are 22 games over .500 for the first time I can ever remember this late in the season. The pitching staff is doing great with two Cy-Young Award candidates — Ryan Dempster and Carlos Zambrano — in the starting rotation and Kerry Wood, who will soon be back from the DL, closing games with his heat.

Derek Lee, Aramis Rameriz, Ryan Theriot, Jim Edmonds, Kosuke Fukudome and Alfonso Soriano are getting the job done at the plate. Don’t forget “Sweet” Lou Piniella is now guiding the team as the manager and that may be the biggest key of all to the Cubbies’ success.

The Cowboys are my NFL hopeful. I have been a Cowboys fan since I can remember. My parents used to try to make me mad by making fun of Roger Staughbach, calling him “Strawback” and things like that. I fell in love with America’s team when Tony Dorsett was running touchdowns and Ed “Too Tall” Jones was harassing quarterbacks. I have loved them through the rough years, such as the 1-15 season before the team turned things around to start winning Super Bowls again in the 90s.

Emmitt Smith, Troy Aikman, Daryl “Moose” Johnson, Michael Irvin, Jay Novacek and many others were the team that brought the Cowboys back onto the scene as Champions again. Jimmy Johnson had his war of ego’s with Jerry Jones and along came more coaches. The Tuna couldn’t even really get the job done in big “D,” but Wade Phillips seems to have solved the riddle of Tony Romo and Terrell Owens. I think this is the year of the Cowboys, but of course, I think that every year.

The Celtics have already started the year off right by winning the NBA Championship. The team pulled its weight in the trio of titles for my favorite pro sports franchises. The “Big Three” slam dunked their way to the first title in Boston (basketball) since 1986 when I was in eighth-grade.

I had been miserable in almost every basketball season watching all the Celtic fans jump ship and become Spurs fans, Lakers fans, Hornets fans and well... you get the picture.

Larry Bird may be my favorite athlete of all time. The man played basketball like no one I have ever seen. He made players around him much better and he made his team win championships.

Of course I liked other Celtic players over the years. Who could forget Cedric “Cornbread” Maxwell, Dennis Johnson, Danny Ainge, Bill Walton, Kevin McHale, Robert “The Chief” Parrish and many others? These players, along with their L.A. Lakers counterparts, made the NBA what it really is... or was.

Anyway, the Celtics made it one down and two to go. If the Cubs and Cowboys bring home their respective titles, it will be the first time in my life that my favorite teams will have run the table.

I have joked around and said that this could be the last year of my life if all goes well. I don’t think the perfection is going to as sweet as it could be, however.

It is very difficult for a team to win a title in a pro sport no matter how good they are. Just ask the almost unbeaten Patriots from last year’s Super Bowl.

My college sports mania is not exactly on par with my pro sports teams.

It’s true that when I am cut I bleed blue. I am a Kentucky Widcats fan through thick and thin.

Unfortunately, I think times are going to thin out quite a bit before they get any thicker.

Billy Gillispie turned things around a lot after midseason last year, but the Wildcats still lost Ramel Bradley and Joe Crawford to graduation and it seems like we have had more transfers out of UK than Scott Couny gets coming in... that is a lot.

Football Cats will have to prove some things this year after Andre  Woodson graduated. We will see how many people praise Rich Brooks after this season.

        

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