THE FRONT ROW WITH MARK NELKE: Sunday, Oct. 30, 2016

It caused a bit of a double take the other day, watching the boss eschew the normal dress code around here and traipse around the office in a Cubs’ jersey bearing the name of one of their current stars.

Understandable — that’s what diehard sports fans do, especially when you’re grown up and your team hasn’t won it all since 1908.

ANYWAY, THE fact the Cubs are in position to end the curse of the goat, the black cat and the Bartman is part of a recent trend of teams ending long droughts to win championships.

Heck, if Cleveland beats the Cubs in the Series, the Indians would end their own drought with their first world title since 1948.

The Indians’ title-less stretch is a lot less romantic than the Cubs’, in part because, well, they’re in Cleveland, and they’ve also been in the World Series as recently as 1997.

When the stadium you used to play in is known as “The Mistake by the Lake,” well, it’s hard to twist that into a good thing.

Still, very few outside Cleveland thought, despite the Return of LeBron, that the Cavs could come through and bring home Cleveland’s first championship in major professional sports since 1964.

After all, the Golden State Warriors were all but guaranteed a second straight NBA title before the Cavs pulled off the improbable, erasing a 3-1 deficit.

Could you imagine two Cleveland teams winning championships in the same year?

It would be as rare as record rain here in October.

Oh, wait ...

THEN THERE’S that Team I Refuse to Mention, which had the audacity to beat North Carolina and capture its first NCAA men’s basketball title in 31 years. Not happy about it then, and not happy now. But it’s part of the trend.

What would the NFL equivalent be? The Browns completing the Cleveland Title Trio and winning the Super Bowl?

OK, that might be a bit of a reach. More like an impossibility. But there was a time when the Browns were contenders, before John Elway and the Broncos put an end to that in the late 1980s.

Sort of gives us hope, we fans of a certain NFL team that has gone ONLY 22 seasons since its last Super Bowl title.

OK, it’s not going to happen this year, and probably won’t be a possibility for several more years, but if the Cubs and the Cavs and ... that other team ... can do it ...

Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter@CdAPressSports.