I’d be remissed if I didn’t mention the controversy surrounding LeBron James leaving Game 1 of the NBA Finals early due to cramps and heat exhaustion from the air conditioning inside the AT&T Center breaking. Fans on social media said that James shouldn’t have been such a pussy and should’ve continued to play the game because great players have played through worse and guided their teams to a victory.

I guess some of these people have never suffered from heat exhaustion and/or cramps. I have.

What James went through was no joke. When you get leg cramps, you can’t walk. What the hell was he supposed to do? Try and limp his team to victory? I thought this was the Miami Heat, the team of superstars. Why didn’t the other superstars on this team try and get the Heat over the hump? The real controversy should be over the fact that the Heat wilted down the stretch and lost by 15. Where’s the outrage about that?

James did everything he could in the circumstances he was in to try and help his team win. The other 11 guys on his team didn’t.

Saturday in Elmont, New York was the 146th running of the Belmont Stakes and Yuba City’s own California Chrome was the 12th horse since 1978 to attempt to be the next to win the Triple Crown. He didn’t and his co-owner was not happy.

Chrome finished in a tie for fourth while Tonalist, a horse that did not run the Kentucky Derby or the Preakness, took the win. Steve Coburn, Chrome’s co-owner, said that it was unfair that Tonalist was allowed to run this race when he didn’t run the first two.

“It says Triple Crown. You nominate your horse for the Triple Crown. That means three,” Coburn said in the track-side interview with ESPN on Sunday. “Even the Triple Crown trophy has three points on it. So when you earn enough points to run in the Kentucky Derby, those 20 horses that start in the Kentucky Derby should be the only 20 allowed to run in the Preakness and the Belmont for the Triple Crown.”

Only three of the 11 horses in Saturday’s Belmont Stakes competed in the first two races.

Coburn has a great point. If your horse runs the first two Triple Crown races, only those horses should be Belmont eligible. I think it’s a part of the reason why it’s been 36 years since the sport last had a Triple Crown winner. Now,was California Chrome robbed in my opinion? Not necessarily. Chrome had a bad day just like the 11 other horses before him and was later found to have a hoof injury during the race, which obviously hindered him. What isn’t fair is having horses who didn’t race the first two legs of the Triple Crown in order to derail history.

I don’t think the system will change but I do hope to see a Triple Crown winner in my lifetime. I think that would be great for the sport and may revive it a little.

There’s been an epidemic in recent years that I hope stops immediately. Hats in the colors of other teams.

You’ve seen them. A lot of the time it’s the colors of a rival team or a team in close proximity,and it’s kind of sickening.

I don’t know about you,but the last time I checked, the San Francisco Giants did not wear green and gold, so why the fuck are there green hats with gold bills and white SF emblems on them? Same deal with the Oakland A’s, their colors are not black and orange, so why have I seen in the past black A’s with an orange A’s logo?

Not only do I think these hats need to go as I have in several years, but they violate my Sports Fan rules. Also, if you ask me, if you’re not willing to sport the colors of your favorite team, you shouldn’t be rooting for them. My friend Kim said it best, “The colors and the team are a package. You can’t pick and choose which parts you like”.

The team’s colors are the team’s colors. Sometimes they’re awesome,sometimes they’re not (Like when the Oilers were wearing blue,red,and copper…yuck!). If your team’s colors are chartreuse and carnation pink, you better be sporting that hat. Being a loyal sports fan includes sporting their colors, not yours.