If there's a clock, a ball or a score - count me in...

This is an important time of the year for Bond J Bond.

You may not know me very well, and like any celebrity I may a bit of an enigma.

So let me tell you this one thing...I love sport.

I love the feel of a basketball as I shoot it over the fingers of a defender from three land...I love the feel of a September morning in the parking lot of "The Jones" and the smell of the barbeques as they crank it up on Saturday morning...I love cheering for Arsenal, a team I've only seen on TV - and wonder why most of America can't see the beauty of soccer...The first baseball game I ever went to was at Wrigley Field, so I guess you could say I was pre-destined to love the smell of stale beer and infield grass forever...When the Cowboys play on Sunday I can hardly sit down for longer than 10 minutes at a time because I'm just too nervous, to see me during the playoffs or a Super Bowl where the Pokes are involved might make you pull your hair out...I went to the very first game of the very first NBA Finals the Spurs were ever in and the crowd was so loud I learned what it means to be so loud "you can't hear yourself think" and it was awesome...I wish like crazy that I had spent more time at Dan Law field when I was in school...I think people are crazy when they say they don't like hockey - more than likely they haven't been to a game - and I still think hockey players are the best athletes. I'll never forget going to my first Stras game in Dallas and nearly crapping my pants when the crowd screamed "Stars" during the Star Spangled Banner...There's no better feeling in the world than when I'm on the green in two on my home course's number 13...And I love the Tour de France thanks to Lance Armstrong - and I still do even after he's gone on to other things - I find it so amusing when US sports fans complain about doping cyclists as it was only a few years ago they were packing stadiums to marvel at Bonds, Sosa and McGuire...I watch golf tournaments even when Tiger's not in the field and root for "Lefty" because he's the anti-Tiger...I wish like crazy that there would be an effort to consolidate boxing belts because more Saturday nights should feature title belt fights than mean something...

In general I'm just not that interested in sports where judging is involved. Maybe it's my type A personality that requires a winner and a loser. The idea that someone else would decide a winner and not a clock or a score just has no appeal to me.

And I didn't even mention half-a-dozen "Olympic" sports that I'll watch for a while every four years.

The FA Community Shield was played today which means the EPL season starts next weekend. NFL training camps are in full swing and the Hall of Fame game gave us a few minutes of a tease. My Cubbies are fighting for a playoff spot and October is right around the corner. There's only one more major to be played and I'm thinking Tiger's feeling the pressure and doesn't want to be "Oh-fer-the-majors" this year. And even though the NBA is in its off-season, the schedule was just released, and we learned that Greg Oden gets to watch another banner raised into the rafters at AT&T Center...have fun, kid.

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What the hell do you think this blog is for? Improving my marriage?