He’s Adding Ringmaster to Cowboy Chores List

Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys, will induct simultaneously three of the franchise’s greatest players into the team’s Ring of Honor during the Cowboys’ home opener Sept. 19 against Washington.

Quarterback Troy Aikman, running back Emmitt Smith and receiver Michael Irvin -- “The Triplets” -- helped the Cowboys win three Super Bowl titles from 1992 to 1995 and six NFC East championships in seven years. They will become the 15th, 16th and 17th members of the exclusive group.

With last year’s inductions of Rayfield Wright and Cliff Harris, five former players will have been added to the Ring of Honor in the last two years.

Only 10 players, along with former coach Tom Landry and former president Tex Schramm, had been honored in the franchise’s first 44 years.

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Trivia time: How many games did the Cowboys win in Aikman’s rookie season?

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Sitting streak: Seth Hawkins of St. Paul, Minn., has been in the stands to witness the last 18 major league players to reach the 3,000-hit milestone, beginning with Hank Aaron in 1970.

Most recently, he was in Seattle on July 15 when Rafael Palmeiro got his 3,000th hit.

“I guess I’m obsessive-compulsive,” Hawkins, a retired Southern Connecticut State sports broadcasting professor, told the St. Paul Pioneer Press. “At these milestones, I represent fans who have work schedules, who can’t get to these games or don’t have the money.”

How long does Hawkins, 63, plan to keep his string of games alive?

“As many as I can until I go watch Ty Cobb and Walter Johnson play in the afterlife,” he said. “They’re waiting for me.”

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Cowabunga: To help celebrate the Honda U.S. Open of Surfing, which is taking place through this weekend in Huntington Beach (a.k.a. Surf City), we turn to magicsurfbus.com, a United Kingdom website that reminds us that “Pet Sounds,” the Beach Boys’ most influential album, “actually contains no references to surfing whatsoever (unless ‘Sloop John B’ is some obscure form of longboard).”

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But who’s cuter? Seen the full-page magazine ad for the IndyCar series that features a large image of Danica Patrick in front of six small images of male drivers? It reads: “Get used to it, boys.” Asks Jerry Greene of the Orlando Sentinel, “Get used to what? Giving up ninth place?”

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Looking back: On this date in 1959, plans to form a third major league, the Continental, with Branch Rickey as president, were announced by attorney William Shea.

The league never came to be established, but because of the threat, New York and Houston were awarded National League expansion franchises.

The Mets’ stadium in New York was named for Shea.

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Trivia answer: One. Aikman threw for an NFL rookie-record 379 yards against Phoenix and was selected to several all-rookie teams in 1989, but the Cowboys finished 1-15.

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And finally: Bill Lankhof of the Toronto Sun, on Croatia hammering Canada, 19-4, at the water polo world championships: “Figures. We’re just not used to playing our games on such bad ice.”