teams and dreams

Previously having mentioned that I will try to be unbiased, I probably should disclose my favorite teams and general feelings about sports.
Many of my friends and family were Carolina fans, I had to be different, thank God I picked the Duke Blue devils.
It's good to know that every season Duke has a fighting chance to win it all, well in basketball. We don't mention Duke football on this blog!
People either love or hate Duke, they are my only hope as you will soon find out.
In baseball, I'm always enduring a long season with my Baltimore Orioles.
When I first started to figure out baseball and that one could fall asleep in the first inning, wake up in the 3rd, the Atlanta braves were all that mattered here o both TV and radio.
They were a boring last place team to a superficial kid so I was looking for a better alternative.
A friend of mine was a big Oriole fan so naturally, I sure didn't want to become one.
However, they were on TV and Mel Proctor and John lowenstein were 2 of the best broadcasters I have heard to this day.
The team was so miserable starting the 1988 season off 0 and 21, how was that for an initiation. But as ugly as it was, the 1989 season when they fell just short to the dang Toronto Blue jays in the division race sure made up for it.
I loved Cal Ripken, Eddy Murray and others. The organization seemed so much different than other teams and I totally bought in to the oriole way although as a 12 year old I would have probably guest they would have many winning years ahead.
After 12 straight losing seasons, I'm thinking not so much, thanks to a difficult owner and a lot of bad decisions, the Oriole way became a shadow of itself and became laughable.
Hopefully, the recent hire of Buck Showalter and inclusion of great Orioles in the organization can restore the Oriole way despite the owner of the franchise.
I also follow the Seattle Mariners because they grew on me a bit when I lived in Oregon and thanks to Pat Hughes and Ron Santo, my wife Rainee became a cub fan and I've always followed them some what anyway.
My dream is to see a Cub Oriole world series, then someone would win! If that ever happens, my great great grandchildren will update this blog about it.
Like college Basketball, I got in to the NBA very early with 2 teams, the Charlotte now New Orleans Hornets and the great Chicago Bulls. The Bulls started a dynasty with Jordan and Pippen, and other great roll players and were just dominant and the atmosphere around them was some kind of electric.
The bugs were an expansion team and brought professional ball to the Carolina as well as crowd favorites like 5 ft 3 inch Mugsy Bogs and eventually became pretty good with Alonzo Morning and Larry Johnson.
The Bulls pulled the plug so I did as well although they have a nice team again, the Hornets broke our hearts and moved to Nolins so I started following the Portland trailblazers having no idea that I'd move and get married eventually in Portland.
The Blazers have one of the best radio broadcasters in the league Brian Wheeler and have weathered the storm from the horrid jailblazer days and now have a fun young team.
As for football, both in the college and pro game, I really love it but not a huge fan of any one team although there are several I love watching.
In college it's anyone who's playing UNC, sorry tar heel friends. In the NFL if I had to choose 2, they'd be the Chicago Bears and Carolina Panthers.
The first football game I ever watched was the Bears and Patriots superbowl in 1985
I didn't no a dang thing about football, I just knew bears were giving the guys from Boston a windy city beat down and they had a cool song, I loved the shuffling crew!
The panthers were yet another expansion team awarded to the Charlotte area in 1995 and it has been fun following a team throughout it's existence. The solid veteran Panthers with the late Sam Mills, Kevin Greene and Lamar Lathan were great, we want mention Tim biakabutuka or heaven for bid horrible Ray Carruth who helped murder his pregnant girlfriend.
The 2003 team was great as well with the emergence of Steve Smith as a star but right now, it's going to be a rebuilding job.
The cats are the youngest team in the NFL and they sure looked like it against the giants last Sunday.