On college ills, vote with remote

December 4, 2008

You actually have a choice, you know. You can gripe and whine about the unfairness of the Bowl Championship Series and the stupidity of the entire college football bowl system - again. But you don't have to do it while glued to your television.

Recent columns

• Big-play day for Clayton

  December 1, 2008

  The Ravens kept insisting that Mark Clayton was going to bust out any game now. Derrick Mason, Joe Flacco, John Harbaugh and Cam Cameron made the claim more often as the season wore on. He's close to popping one. We're just a fraction away from clicking big with him.

• Ravens' secondary is first-rate

  November 30, 2008

  There are all sorts of reasons the game the Ravens' secondary played last week against the Philadelphia Eagles will go down as one of the wondrous achievements of this surprising season. No reason, however, looms larger than the fact that it was pulled off by a defensive backfield in which exactly one player has started every game.

• Vasquez fills UM void early, but how often?

  November 27, 2008

  You can call Greivis Vasquez a lot of things - and for two-plus years, he has been called a lot of things. But you definitely call him self-aware. After another of his patented "No-no-no-yes!" shots to send Maryland's game against Vermont last week into overtime and toward an eventual victory, he was asked what he was thinking as he launched it.

• No fluke, no flinch, no contest

  November 24, 2008

  This is how good the Ravens feel right now, not only about themselves, but also about their chances down the stretch of the regular season - and beyond. When Ed Reed was asked about the Gatorade shower given to John Harbaugh at the end of the near-gratuitous 36-7 beating of the Philadelphia Eagles yesterday, he said: "We plan to be doing this in late January and February. This was just practice."

• Monroe looking to spread magic

  November 23, 2008

  Earl Monroe can still grab a crowd's attention, nearly three decades after he last played a pro basketball game. He proved it last week at the Men's Health Center on North Avenue, where he promoted prostate health awareness. Just by walking into the room, before officials from the city's Total Health Care program could introduce him, he got a standing ovation.

• Florida State's studious Rolle draws double coverage at Maryland game

  November 22, 2008

  Two significant local athletes will be rooting for different teams in tonight's pivotal Maryland- Florida State football game at Byrd Stadium. But both will be cheering on one particular player - one who might not even play.

• After cruising, Flacco hits choppy waters

  November 17, 2008

  Last week, as the Ravens prepared for yesterday's game against the New York Giants, offensive coordinator Cam Cameron said of Joe Flacco's season-long development, "It doesn't get any easier."

• Who's that on radar? The Ravens?

  November 16, 2008

  Today concludes a week of perfect convergence of time, place and circumstance. If the Ravens' faithful were poised to play their favorite card - the Dangerfield card - they had to tuck it back into the deck this past week.

• 'Baltimore' hits the road

  November 13, 2008

  You did not have to be around for the glory days of the Orioles to understand why putting Baltimore back on the road jerseys is so uplifting to the city's soul.

• Back in the swing: McGahee grinds out 'best game' of year

  November 10, 2008

  This was a game defined by spectacular moments, on offense, defense, even special teams (hello, Steve Hauschka). But it was dominated by a player whose longest gain was a mere 12 yards and whose two most significant plays covered a total of 5 yards.

• Timeout: Don't trivialize this

  November 9, 2008

  We've reached another point in the nation's evolution where we try to explain the inexplicable, make sense of something that once seemed impossible. A black man being elected president of the United States - how did that happen?

• Maryland gets golden chance to school ACC's new bully

  November 6, 2008

  Week by week, Ralph Friedgen is training himself and his Maryland players to be the most nearsighted football team in America. Good for them, especially this week. That allows the rest of us to cast our gaze far and wide, toward what the Terps can accomplish by beating Virginia Tech in Blacksburg tonight.

• Pep talk from Lewis provides big lift

  November 3, 2008

  Nothing pushes Ray Lewis' buttons like winning, hardly a big revelation at this stage of his career. So there was almost no chance he would be satisfied with the course that yesterday's game at Cleveland Browns Stadium was taking.

• Double vision 20/20 for Harbaugh

  November 2, 2008

  You have to give John Harbaugh a lot of credit for how he handled the twisted quarterback situation on the very first NFL team of which he has been in charge.

• Baseball, basketball: Enough already

  October 30, 2008

  Tomorrow is Halloween, and until last night I was petrified with fear, scared almost out of my wits … of an asterisk.

• Notable exclusion: Put Chester in Hall

  October 29, 2008

  You don't have to go far to find friends, family and teammates eager to state Raymond Chester's case for induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

• Suggs helps turn this one into a laugher

  October 27, 2008

  Terrell Suggs couldn't have flown under the radar yesterday even if he had tried. But anyone who knows him knew he wasn't going to try.

• Loewen could give Orioles ultimate bad appearance

  October 26, 2008

  You could make a case that losing a player whose pitching career has gone bust, and whose career as a fielder has barely started and is nowhere close to guaranteed, is no reflection on the organization that lost him. Tough break, and better luck with the next player you're trying to keep, or attract.

• Series putting on good show of sport's young, black talent

  October 23, 2008

  All those concerned about how large an audience this year's World Series will draw might be overlooking a demographic that, after a long absence from nearly every aspect of baseball, is showing signs of coming back.

• Setting down the baggage to pick up a victory

  October 20, 2008

  The Ravens insist that revenge wasn't foremost on their minds yesterday when they returned to the site where last season hit rock bottom.

• Give it to Friedgen, Franklin for getting ball into Heyward-Bey's hands

  October 19, 2008

  Ralph Friedgen and James Franklin would like to once again remind everybody that they're not idiots. They do not go into every Maryland game thinking, "If there's one guy we don't want getting his hands on the football, it's that fast No.8."

• Terps can convert on both

  October 16, 2008

  It doesn't have to be either-or. That's the way this issue has been framed: You can either have a high graduation rate or that banner hanging at Comcast Center; pick one.

• Suddenly, it all falls apart for Ravens

  October 13, 2008

  The specific question was about Joe Flacco's three interceptions. Were they the result of bad throws, bad decisions, bad protection, good defense, what?

• All the rage? No more

  October 12, 2008

  Jan. 13, 2007. That's when Baltimore's rage over the departure of the Colts to Indianapolis flickered out.

• Hold off on the calls to fire Friedgen

  October 9, 2008

  No one has started a Web site that's called firefriedgen.com. Or firethefridge.com. Or fireralph.com. Or, it appears, any combination of these. Honest. I checked.

• Ravens' loss a real head-slapper

  October 6, 2008

  What are you madder about this morning? The injustice? Or the collapse?

• Flacco starting well, but so did Young

  October 5, 2008

  Not to throw ice water on the Joe Flacco story, but everyone surely is aware of who will be on the opposite sideline from him at M&T Bank Stadium today.

• Wild pitch: O's should re-sign Cabrera

  October 2, 2008

  I think I speak for all long-suffering Orioles fans when I say to Andy MacPhail and the rest of the big decision-makers for the 2009 season …

• Flacco keeps poise, shows nerves of steel

  September 30, 2008

  Shouldn't Joe Flacco have fallen apart after coughing up that ball? That should have done it for him, and for the Ravens, and for the idea that a rookie quarterback could win his first NFL road start.

• Newsome shows that actions trump words

  September 29, 2008

  It's one of life's funny coincidences that Matt Millen finally got fired by the Detroit Lions the same week Ozzie Newsome's Ravens got ready to take a 2-0 record into Pittsburgh to face the Steelers. (And the same week Jerry Reese's defending Super Bowl champion New York Giants took their bye at 3-0. But that's getting ahead of the story.)

• Win games, win fans

  September 28, 2008

  A statement - of faith, or just of their sense of history - could have been made by too-long-suffering Orioles fans in this final weekend of another lost season. But long before today's regular-season closer against the Toronto Blue Jays, the biggest statement already had been made.

• UM looks to break off pattern, go up top

  September 25, 2008

  Now, with Saturday's game at Clemson, comes the start of Maryland's quest to win a berth in the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game.

• Weathering a long, hard road ahead

  September 15, 2008

  Think of it this way. Imagine if, in the first game of the John Harbaugh Era and the first game of the Joe Flacco Era, the Ravens had lost. With Hurricane Ike shaking up the remaining schedule (among other things), everybody would have had an extra week to marinate in the gloom and doom.

• Postponing game the right call

  September 14, 2008

  As soon as you woke up yesterday morning, turned on the TV and saw the reports from Texas, you knew there wasn't going to be any NFL game played in Houston this week. NFL officials had to know it then, too.

• With UM, expect the unexpected

  September 13, 2008

  This could end up being just another classic Maryland football tease, you know.

• Terps' Williams spectator to history

  September 11, 2008

  The fact that a Texas Western team with an all-black starting lineup was facing an all-white Kentucky team for the national championship is not what first caught Gary Williams' attention as he sat at Cole Field House on a March afternoon in 1966.

• Defense shows its mettle is rust-proof

  September 8, 2008

  How often does this defense, the near-legendary Ravens defense, find itself in the shadows of its offensive counterpart? Even on a day like yesterday, when that offense managed to be uncommonly clever and efficient yet still shoot itself in the foot time and time again?

• If Reed walks away, it should be with his head held high

  September 7, 2008

  Nobody should feel bad at all if Ed Reed is not in uniform this afternoon for the Ravens' season opener. Not the fans, not the Ravens, definitely not Reed himself.

• No need for overreaction in QB battle

  August 7, 2008

  One of the many positive and exhilarating aspects of any NFL team's first preseason game is the opportunity for everybody to wildly exaggerate the outcome.

• Anthony exhibit step in right direction

  July 14, 2008

  It was a day full of new and surprising experiences for Carmelo Anthony. He was the center of attention yesterday as the Sports Legends Museum at Camden Yards unveiled the exhibit dedicated to him - but he was unaware some of the artifacts, such as a photo of him as a child taking a jump shot on a Baltimore playground, would be in the exhibit.

• City sits on sideline in NBA competition

  July 6, 2008

  The two news items from early and late Wednesday weren't exactly related, but they were more than coincidental. In the morning: a front-page story in The Sun about how The Relic on Howard Street (aka 1st Mariner Arena) still makes a decent profit. At night: a settlement that allows the NBA's SuperSonics to move from Seattle to Oklahoma City.

• Ogden top of the line

  June 13, 2008

  When Brett Favre officially retired that day in March in Green Bay, he drew a big crowd, much as Jonathan Ogden did yesterday in Owings Mills. Just like Favre's announcement, and like Michael Strahan's earlier this week, Ogden's farewell was carried live on national TV (in homes that get the NFL Network, at least).

• O's charm is not limited to city

  June 8, 2008

  Putting "Baltimore" back on the Orioles' road jerseys next season is a good thing; no one can argue that. Anything the franchise can do to cater to the core of the fan base - after all the years of alienating it in so many ways - is welcome. You don't have to be an Orioles lifer to get that.

• Caught a break

  January 19, 2008

  Not that Jason Garrett isn't making enough money now, but the Ravens should send him a bonus. A thank-you for not taking the head coaching job. A token of appreciation for sparing the franchise a big potential headache and, possibly, for opening the door to a better candidate.

• Bisciotti should take chance, put Ryan in charge

  January 1, 2008

  Rex Ryan should be hired as the Ravens' next coach before he gets away.

• Throw out the lead runners

  December 16, 2007

  After everything the Mitchell Report laid out about the depth and breadth of performance-enhancing drugs in baseball, after all the suggestions and recommendations, after all the names were named and blame was assigned ... the same two foxes were left to guard the henhouse.

• Unanswered questions with hasty conclusions

  November 28, 2007

  Roger Goodell, commissioner of the NFL, said it as well as it could be said. The sudden, violent, premature death of Washington Redskins safety Sean Taylor, he said yesterday, "leaves many people behind struggling to understand it."

• Arena first step in filling basketball void in city

  March 25, 2007

  Enough area basketball fans and observers said it while walking around HSBC Arena last weekend to make it more than a fleeting thought by a niche audience:

• Another Colt in No. 88 jersey is more injustice for Mackey

  January 29, 2007

  Old-time Baltimore football fans weren't the only ones who thought there was something strange about the sight of No. 88 on the Colts.

• Robinson's dismissal is crying shame

  October 1, 2006

  For the second time this season, Frank Robinson was moved to public tears. The first time, in May, after he had to bench an overmatched catcher in mid-inning, showed the depth of his humanity beneath that famously tough exterior.

• Memory of shock, emptiness still fresh 20 years later

  June 19, 2006

  I was sleepy. But I couldn't have been that sleepy.

• Lonise Bias: reaching people since 1986

  June 18, 2006

  Lonise Bias has made it her mission over the past 20 years that her son Len's death not be in vain. Tuesday was the latest proof that it was not.

• Cheers for Palmeiro's last at-bat could be start of new beginning

  August 15, 2005

  WITH TWO OUTS and two on in the bottom of the ninth inning yesterday afternoon, the Rafael Palmeiro saga officially turned back into a baseball-only story.

• Forgiveness is in air at yard as team's fallen hero signs in

  August 12, 2005

  IT WAS big, almost as big as the girl waving it over her head. It was bright orange with black lettering, and it read, "Welcome Back Raffy."

• Fans can make a stand -- by sitting at home

  August 11, 2005

  SO, Rafael Palmeiro is still lawyering up. Fine. He spent the last nine days of his 10-day steroid suspension in silence and solitude.

• Anthony saves face; message saves lives

  May 12, 2005

  OFFICIALLY, THE gathering in a vacant lot behind Johns Hopkins Hospital yesterday afternoon was the kickoff of a state-run anti-violence project.

• As a voice is stilled, memories are stirred

  March 7, 2005

  IT WAS THE spring of 1977. I was 12 years old, living in Landover, pondering my upcoming ascent to high school and sitting at a crossroads. I needed a baseball team to call my own, and it was obvious by then, six years after the Senators moved, that my hometown was not going to provide me with one.

• Heading back to East Coast a long, strange trip for columnist

  September 9, 2004

  YOU'RE NEVER coming back from there.