It's not a curse, it's a collection.

I have a hat collection that started when I was about nine.

In the past couple of days, I've looked at the hats and jerseys I regularly wear, or at least try to, and recently I've realized that a lot of people would be embarrassed to wear the colors, numbers or logos depicted on most of them.

As much sports as I read, write about and watch, the teams and athletes I cheer for sure aren't very good. Or, they're unfortunate. Depends on what mood I'm in.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. Mountain Dew hat. Carolina Hurricanes hat. Cam Ward jersey. Jake Delhomme jersey. Marco Andretti hat. Charlotte Bobcats hat. A who's who of what a lot of bloggers call, 2009 epic fail.

Dale Jr. is 40th in today's Coca-Cola 600, but look on the bright side...OK, that's the problem. There isn't one. Forget watching a NASCAR race and hoping Junior will win. Or finish top-5, top-10 or top-20 even. He has become NASCAR's David Duval: a title contender for a long time, and then all of a sudden, a nobody. He's a backmarker and his 88 team, at Hendrick Motorsports, home of 3 of NASCAR's 7 best teams, isn't even 30th best right now in my opinion.

Last season, in the May stretch of Richmond, Darlington and Charlotte, Earnhardt was wrecked while leading in the closing laps, finished 4th at Darlington and 5th at Charlotte.

This year? 27th 27th, and (after what else, a 27th place start) 40th. Utterly terrible. From 2000-2008, I remember him missing his pit maybe four times. This year he's done it about 10. I can't honestly see him ever winning another race and people may say I'm jumping to conclusion but prove me wrong. He ran a solid 2nd at Talladega and other than that is pretty much the same as 2006 Kyle Petty. It's frustrating. But it's not just him. Crew chief (and I use that term loosely) Tony Eury Jr. has been horrible and today, it's not Junior's fault, because Jimmie Johnson couldn't handle the pig of a car that is the 88.

Next year Junior will be in the All-Star qualifying race for, let's not pull punches, NASCAR's rejects. While David Reutimann and Brad Keselowski will be in the big show because they won a race, not a fan vote.

Some call it a slump; as the awful starts and even worse finishes pile up, Junior continues to lose fans and respect among his fellow drivers. It's not a good thing. I'll not give up on Junior, even when/if he falls to 30th or 35th every week the rest of his now-disappointing career. But it's very painful to even consider wearing the black Mountain Dew hat. But I do and will keep doing it, because I have to. For my own sake and the off chance he finishes 26th someday.

My "fandom" is spared being called a curse because of the 2006 Carolina Hurricanes, who won the Stanley Cup. Aside from a Daytona 500, a Super Bowl appearance and one IndyCar win, it's all I've got. The Canes have had a good season, they've overachieved, but now in the Eastern Conference Finals against Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin's Pittsburgh Penguins, they're down 3-0 and are done. Cam Ward has surrendered 16 goals, but poor defense in front of him hasn't helped.

The Canes have been good to me; they won a title, and they've gone deep in the playoffs three times in nine years.

Ahh, the Panthers.

2003 Super Bowl appearance and a near-win thanks mostly to Jake Delhomme. A 2005 NFC Title appearance that was a train wreck due to awful defense and 3 Jake picks. A 2008 division title that led to a playoff train wreck due to uninspired defense and 5 Jake picks.

They're never bad (unless it's the playoffs recently, apparently) and unfortunately, never great. But I stick behind them, because I've loved them longer and more than any other team, and always will. My Jake poster no longer adorns my wall. But it's still sitting in my room framed and I'm not taking it out. I still love it.

The Bobcats hat. Michael Jordan, buy the team please. Next.

Marco Andretti hat. Marco suffered the heartbreak of losing the '06 Indy 500 at the last possible second, and yesterday was crashed by rookie Mario Moraes, or as I'm sure Marco calls him, Mario "Needs" More Eyes. No wins since '06 at Infineon, but this year the only thing that's kept him out of the top 10 is mistakes by other drivers. He gives me some hope.

I wonder if sports will turn on its axis if I start to cheer for Kyle Busch, Danica Patrick, the Patriots, the Lakers, and the Penguins.

Doesn't matter. I won't turn on my favorites even when the athletic planets all align in the exact way necessary for them all to suck at the exact same time. Don't ask me about Super Bowl XXXVIII, the '06 Indy 500, George Shinn, Dale Jr.'s 2009 season, or anything that deals with Evgeni Malkin.

Sports has become all cringing and no clapping for me, for quite some time now in most cases.

But I'll trudge on, because that's what you're supposed to do. I won't leave my favorite teams, players and drivers when they're struggling, because they're my favorites. I don't want to be a fairweather fan, so I'll buy some time.

But no more hats.

One city's heartbreak, another city's dream

The last twenty years of professional sports have earned several nicknames: The Steroid Era, The Jordan Era, and The Way Too Much National Attention on Every Aspect of Brett Favre's Life Era.

I prefer to call it, The Relocation Era. (Although the Era When All of My Favorite Teams Were Started could be more fitting.)

In 2002, the NBA Charlotte Hornets, North Carolina's first pro team, went through a nasty divorce with the city of Charlotte, and the state. The real loser?

The fans.

The Hornets lasted only 14 seasons in Charlotte, and in that time, there was The Shot, The Trade that Saw Us Lose Kobe and Gain Vlade, and three trips to the Eastern Conference Semi-finals.

Can you tell I'm reminiscing?

George Shinn went from beloved to behated (It's not a word but it fits him all the same), and after a failed bid for a new uptown arena that we got in 2004 with the Bobcats anyway, he packed the Bugs' bags and headed south for New Orleans. Then a short stay in Oklahoma City, and back in New Orleans.

We were heartbroken: our first team, our beloved team, taken from us by an evil owner who wanted an unnecessary new arena, and a bunch of skyboxes.

We wouldn't do that to another team. We wouldn't accept the heartbreak of bringing in a team who never should have left its original home.

Or would we?

I give you, our 2006 Stanley Cup Champion Carolina Hurricanes.

Remember when they started out in Greensboro in 1997 until their new digs in Raleigh were finished?

Of course you don't. Very few people went to the Canes' games initially. Outside of Raleigh the media placed Canes news just below NASCAR Truck Series qualifying and Ric Flair's endorsement-du-jour.

Then, the Canes made a run to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2002, and won the whole thing in 2006. Now they're eight measly wins from another Cup. Our good 'ole Canes.

They weren't originally the Canes. It amazes me how few of my friends know this. Hopefully you do. Probably not.

From 1971-97, they were the Hartford Whalers, based in Hartford, Connecticut in the Shirley MacLaine of sports arenas, the Hartford Civic Center.

Then Peter Karmanos, affectionately referred to as "Satan" in Hartford, bought the team in a package in 1994 and after being refused his $175 million new arena (Does Hartford even HAVE $175 million?) he decided to relocate the Whalers.

St. Paul, Nashville and Kansas City were the favorites, just like in 1988 when Orlando, Miami and Minneapolis were the favorites to get an NBA team BEFORE the Hornets. (So much for that...)

Karmanos moved the Whalers to the Research Triangle in North Carolina, ready to set up shop in Raleigh once the arena was ready. He picked out "Hurricanes" as the name, and the rest is history, just like the Whalers. History.

The hardcore fans, some of them call them the Whalercanes. They know what happened. But put two and two together. We, as in North Carolina, gained a team in the Hurricanes, only to lose one in the Hornets in similar fashion.

Now the cash-strapped Phoenix Coyotes are possibly on the move, reportedly to Hamilton, Ontario.

Word of advice, Hamilton: if you get the Coyotes, especially if you rename them the Mounties or whatever, have some respect for the forerunners to the team you're getting. (If you get them.)

I don't like the uncertainty that comes with a few losing seasons, a little red in the books, and boom, your team is moving.

Here's hoping the next 20 years doesn't see as much relocation.

But aside from ticket buying, we have as much of a say in it as the guy at the tower who rejected Maverick's flyby. (Damn it Maverick!)

Let's Light this Candle

A few thoughts since hockey, motorsports, baseball and that postseason tournament Kobe mysteriously can't be eliminated out of, are in full swing...

If five of F1's biggest teams, such as Ferrari and Red Bull, leave because of the 2010 $40 million team cap, the sport will certainly suffer.

But it won't die.

There will still be McLaren, Williams and Brawn to carry the mantle, and the proposed all-American team based in my beloved Charlotte, NC would be wonderful. I'm keeping an eye on this situation, but remember: Ferrari is a big part of F1, but it is NOT F1.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., I don't know what happened that has made your season go down the toilet, well, wait, actually I've got several ideas, but I hope you can salvage it. You're a good guy and a good driver. Now tell yourself that before you go down pit road. You're a good guy and a good driver. Don't forget.

Brandon Tate is a New England Patriots wide receiver, and in my opinion a great understudy to Randy Moss. I really like Tate, and even though he's not been affiliated with the Super Bowl, think of the bowls of which he has been a part: his team just finished playing in a classic one for instance, which I was fortunate enough to see, the Meineke Car Care Bowl. And that's not counting the bowls he's lit up. Off the field.

I'll be going to Pats training camp one day this summer, and hope to see Tate there, doing well. I went to school with his brother, former Lenoir-Rhyne cornerback Barry Tate, also an NFL hopeful, and wrote a feature about him that you can read here.

I guess now would be a good time to point out that as soon as Cape Cod Baseball League action starts this year, the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox will be getting some writeups here, since I'll be covering their games. Hopefully they'll fare better than the other three teams for which I've covered a beat: The 2006 East Burke Cavaliers, four wins and God knows how many losses, American Legion Burke Post 21, who lost in the state quarterfinals, and the 2008 Single-A Hickory Crawdads, who finished last in the South Atlantic League before changing affiliates from the Pirates to the Rangers.

They were all glorious to talk to and entertaining to get to know, and here's hoping the Massachusetts charm (does that exist? Please exist!) does the team and myself well.

It didn't do anything for the Boston Bruins, who lost the Eastern Conference semifinals 4-3 to my Carolina Hurricanes. Boston fans, you can channel your hatred, and Carolina fans your love, to Scott Walker, who fought a Bruins player in game five and scored the game-winner in overtime in game seven to break Boston fans' hearts. (Do Boston fans have hearts anymore? Red Sox fans...heartless since October 2004. Just kidding, I wanted to inject some humor into the conversation. Again, America, I like the Sox. Don't get mad.)

Ok, sure the Canes lost game one of the East finals to Pittsburgh. It's fashionable to lose the first game. At least it is for Carolina in this year's playoffs.

My final take: So, Michael Vick, you want to get back in the NFL. And it sounds like a lot of the fence-straddling fans are thinking that they want you to play for their team.

If you're one of the fence-straddlers, first of all, you know what happens when you do that.

And second, before you go out and buy a Vick jersey on clearance, think of this.