Monday December 23, 2024

#DMD

Issue #3774

april can't come soon enough

My golfing friend Jason started sending texts on the 8th hole of yesterday's PNC Championship, where Tiger Woods was teamed up with his son, Charlie, in the annual hit-and-giggle parent/child event.

"I really wish this wasn't happening," Jason wrote.

"What?" I asked.

"That he looks this good," Jason replied. "He's striping every shot. I wish he was stinking it up so we wouldn't get our hopes up for next year."

I hadn't really thought of it like that.

"He" that Jason was referring to, of course, was Tiger.

"There's a big difference between this and playing a TOUR event," I wrote back.

"I know there is," Jason replied. "But have you seen his numbers? They're all way up. His ball speed numbers are off the charts. He was playing coy last week when he said he wasn't sure if his game was sharp enough."

Jason was right about that part. Tiger's clubhead speed, ball speed and the ever-important "smash factor" -- which is all the rage these days in professional golf -- were all significantly up over this time last year according to Golf Channel data collectors.

And, yes, Tiger's golf was solid. There were a couple of mishit wedge shots on the back nine on Sunday, but Charlie was already in there 6 to 8 feet for birdie. It's not necessary to dial it in from 100 yards when your playing partner has already left you with a kick-in.

Overall, though, Tiger looked very good for someone who just 14 days ago told the assembled media in the Bahamas he wasn't even sure if he would be "game sharp" enough to play.

We've seen this act before, though. That's always worth mentioning. Several times over the last 5 years, Tiger has looked good in spots throughout the off-season, only to then experience another physical ailment in the spring that derails him for another year.

Only time will tell if somehow, this time, Tiger's off-season surgery really did fix an ongoing problem.

This weekend's tournament eventually came down to two teams, Team Woods and Team Langer, comprised of 67 year old Bernhard Langer and his son, Jason, a mid 20's financial analyst who played college golf at the University of Pennsylvania a few years back.

When I had the fortunate pleasure of playing two rounds with Bernhard at the '21 U.S. Senior Open, I asked him about his children as we strolled down the fairway. "I have a son who is a decent player," the 2-time Masters champ told me. "But he doesn't take his golf very seriously these days. He's trying to find a job in New York after graduating from college."

Well, maybe Jason Langer didn't take golf seriously in the summer of 2021. But he sure has taken it seriously recently. Yesterday's playoff win over the Woods team was just as much about Jason and as it was Bernhard, although the elder Langer had an almost laughable difference in course yardage over the 18 hole layout.

Langer's course measured just a hair over 6,000 yards. Woods played a 7,000 yard course. The amateurs -- both Charlie and Jason in this case -- played a 6,700 yard track.

If you think Langer's yardages were unfair, consider how far both Charlie and Jason were carrying it. Both of them hit several drives in excess of 310 yards, with the younger Woods pounding his driver right down the middle late in the game when his dad needed him most.

In the end, the event ended on the 2nd playoff hole when Bernhard rolled in a 16-foot eagle putt.

"I know you'd rather have Tiger and Charlie up here holding the trophy," he said, jokingly, to the crowd who stuck around for the trophy presentation. "They'll win plenty of these together, don't worry."

Alas, everyone won on Sunday.

Golf won. Tiger and Charlie headlined the show, while the Langer team fought valiantly all afternoon to keep the outcome in doubt.

Tiger won, too. He walked 36 holes in two days and showed small glimpses of his former putting greatness. He and Charlie shot 59-57 to finish 28 under par for the two day scramble event.

Charlie was a huge winner. In some ways, what he's doing, golf wise, is almost as impressive as what Tiger did when he was 15.

Yes, Tiger was winning U.S. Junior titles when he was 15. That's true. But he also grew up "just" being Tiger Woods.

Charlie has grown up trying to be a competitive golfer who also happens to have the most famous athlete in the world today as his dad.

There are certainly perks that come with that, yes. But it's never easy to be "the chosen one", which is what Charlie has been ever since he started teeing it up in this event 5 years ago.

His golf has improved incredibly over the last 12 months. His average carry off the tee over the two day tournament was 292.5 yards. And he's 15 years old.

The tournament itself is mostly a nothing-burger in terms of importance within the world of golf. There are no ranking points available and it doesn't "count" as a win or anything like that.

But it's important to the players, obviously, and, in particular, the dads. Fred Couples had tears in his eyes when he talked about getting to tee it up with his step son for the first time.

David Duval said on Friday afternoon that he'd consider a win at the PNC every bit on par with his British Open championship because of the fact he'd be sharing it with his son and beating a variety of legends of the sport.

And then Tiger, of course, got to share an incredible moment with Charlie on Sunday when the 15-year old made a hole in one, his first ever, in front of his dad and the TV audience.

There's something about watching your son reach a golfing goal in your presence that's hard to describe unless you, yourself, have a child involved in athletics.

Late this summer, I got to watch my son break 80 -- legitimately -- for the first time ever. I wrote about it here the day after because it meant so much to me to be there when he did it.

He had been talking about shooting in the 70's all summer and had a couple of chances to do it and squandered them. But on that day, he played the last four holes in even par and made a great up and down from just in front of the green on the last hole, rolling in a four foot putt to shoot 79.

No mulligans. No touching the ball in the fairway. No 2 foot putts missed that were counted as "in" anyway. No "rake and place" in the bunkers. He hit the ball 79 times. I'll never forget it.

I'm sure Tiger won't forget this weekend, either. His daughter, Sam, was on his bad as the caddie. Even Tiger's ex-wife Elin showed up to support Charlie -- and maybe even Tiger, who knows -- and the four of them, Tiger, Elin, Sam and Charlie enjoyed a quick "family" hug, if you will, afterwards.

I've given up trying to figure out if Tiger can ever again be competitive in golf. I'll just keep on saying what I say year after year.

"If he can stay healthy and can play in some tournaments leading up to the majors, he might -- key word: might -- have a shot at winning again."

He certainly looked very good this weekend, albeit in a low-stress situation where you were able to basically play lift, clean and place all over the course due to the scramble format.

If nothing else, we all got to rush to our calendars and circle that week in April where the golf world heads to Augusta National for the best tournament ever created.

April can't come soon enough.

Sunday December 22, 2024

#DMD

Issue #3773

that's settled (for now)

I told you it wouldn't be close.

Even Justin Tucker was on his game yesterday.

In a late-season showdown that sets up a wild final two weeks of the regular season, the Ravens embarrassed the Pittsburgh defense in a 34-17 win in front of 50,000 Ravens fans and 20,000 people waving yellow towels.

John Harbaugh started off his pre-Christmas post-game press conference with a reflection about the birth of Jesus and the upcoming celebration this Wednesday.

He should have also thanked God for all the fortunate bounces his team took advantage of in yesterday's 34-17 thumping of the Steelers in Baltimore.

Pittsburgh fans were lamenting "coulda, shoulda, woulda" afterwards and rightfully so. If those two early Baltimore fumbles bounce into the hands of the team in white, you never know how things might have turned out.

Alas, those early gaffes were recovered by the Ravens. And even though Pittsburgh did turn a 17-7 deficit into a 17-17 tie in the third quarter, the Ravens turned it on when they needed to en-route to a huge win that makes the AFC North a two-game sprint for the two teams.

Advantage: Ravens

Baltimore will beat up on an injury riddled Texans team this Wednesday, probably by about the same score they whacked the Steelers.

And that will leave only a home finale win over the Browns to sew up a 12-5 campaign.

Pittsburgh would have to win their final two games in order to stave off the Ravens. And that's not going to be easy. The Steelers host the Chiefs on Wednesday and K.C. still has to play hard in order to stay in the #1 spot in the AFC. And then they host Cincinnati in the final week of the regular season.

Advantage: Ravens

Two Baltimore wins and a Pittsburgh loss will give the Ravens a home game against either Denver, Los Angeles or, yes, the Steelers.

There's also this wacky stat: The Steelers could have sewed up the division yesterday with a win in Baltimore. But they can't sew up the division on Wednesday if they beat K.C. And the Ravens can lose on Wednesday in Houston and still win the division, even if the Steelers beat the Chiefs.

Sounds weird, right? Go ahead and check it yourself. I know you want to. But you're wasting your time.

If the Steelers beat the Chiefs but lose to the Bengals, they finish 11-6. If the Ravens lose in Houston but beat the Browns, they also finish 11-6.

The Ravens would then win the AFC North by virtue of a 4-2 division record. Pittsburgh, by losing to the Bengals, would finish 3-3 in the AFC North.

It's a crazy league.

One thing we saw for sure, though, on Saturday. Pittsburgh's defense is pretty lousy.

Derrick Henry just picked up another 11 yards off tackle.

Zay Flowers just caught another 17 yard pass over the middle, unmarked and untouched.

And Roger Rosengarten just shoved T.J. Watt off the edge and out of harm's way yet again. Rosengarten made quick, easy work of Watt all day yesterday. It was the JV vs. the Varsity.

This, as I wrote all week, was always going to be a blow out of sorts.

Pittsburgh's just not that good.

And here's where I'll even stop for a second and applaud Russell Wilson. He gave it a total letterman's effort yesterday. There was a point early in the 4th quarter when I even remarked on Twitter: "Russell Wilson outplaying Lamar today wasn't on my bingo card."

Wilson had two huge mistakes, though, and both were game changers. His fumble at the 3 yard line in the second quarter was the bigger of the two. If he gets down unscathed there and the Steelers score to make it 14-7, who knows where the night might have gone?

The pick six he threw in the 4th quarter was the game "sealer", if you will, but the fumble in the second quarter was a massive mistake.

Other than that, though, Wilson had a really nice afternoon. "Golf clap" for him. I was impressed.

And now it's on to Houston to smack around the depleted Texans on Christmas Day.

Tiger Woods lugged his son Charlie around for 18 holes yesterday and the result was a nifty 13-under par score of 59 in the opening round of the PNC Championship in Naples, Florida.

OK, so Tiger didn't "lug around" his very-capable 15-year old son. But the elder Woods hit a lot of great shots along the way, as the two of them are tied for the lead with 18 holes to play this afternoon.

You might be wondering, "59...isn't that a remarkable score for two players to shoot?"

Well, yes it is. But this event utitlizes the popular "scramble" format, where you and your partner both hit a tee shot. You then pick the best one of those and you both hit from that spot. You then pick the best one of those and you hit from the next spot. And so on.

It's the kind of format you play at every summer charity event you participate in.

Except you and your other three players work hard to shoot 13 under.

Tiger and Charlie, together, made 13 birdies and just 5 pars.

The younger Woods is legit. Whether he ever plays on TOUR or not remains to be seen, but he certainly has the basic skill set to start on the path to professional golf. His ball speed off the club is faster than roughly 30% of the players already on TOUR, according to testing numbers at least year's PGA Championship.

And, Tiger, of course, is just trying to figure out if there's anything left in his soon-to-be-49-year-old-tank.

As I wrote here yesterday, there's a huge difference between a scramble and, say, the first round at TPC Sawgrass or Augusta National.

But his play yesterday, where he walked all 18 holes (albeit on a flat, Florida course), was definitely "above par", no pun intended.

There's no telling what other ailment will rear its head to derail him in 2025, but if Woods can stay healthy (and that's a bigger if then saying, "If the Dems can just accept their November loss and move on"), perhaps he can produce some good golf next year.

The other interesting part of today's final round will be the TV numbers. Going up against the NFL, what will NBC draw for their window of coverage that will feature Tiger and Charlie?

Tuesday night's fiasco in Las Vegas that pitted four of the biggest names in golf (Rory, Scottie, Bryson and Brooks) drew a paltry 625,000 viewers.

What will today's final round of the PNC bring, numbers wise?

Frankly, that question is more interesting than tonight's Sunday Night NFL game between Tampa Bay and Dallas.

Saturday December 21, 2024

#DMD

Issue #3772

today's the day

We've been waiting for this day all the way back since the summer months.

Your mileage might vary, but I've had, "Saturday, December 21" circled on my calendar throughout the fall and early winter.

It looks like the weather might impact play today, which means performance might take a slight decline.

But they do play an outdoor sport, for the most part, although some cities will have an indoor version of it over the next month or so.

So, you take what the weather gives you and you go from there.

You might be the kind of fan that enjoys going out there today and watching. Me? I'll watch it from the cozy confines of my couch.

I just hope we get to see Tiger Woods hit some great shots. And enjoy the day with his son, Charlie.

He hasn't teed it up in a golf tournament of any kind since a 36-hole effort at last July's British Open.

If Friday is any indicator, Woods has once again won in the game of "cat and mouse".

Last week at the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas, Tiger avoided questions about his health and playing status for this weekend's PNC Championship in Orlando. He was cryptic with his answers. "I haven't played at all," he told reporters. "So I have to figure out if I can even be competitive with (him) out there. I won't play if I can't help him."

If Friday's practice round is an indicator, Tiger will help. He walked all 18 holes with Charlie, made several birdies along the way, and didn't look like a guy who underwent a 4th back surgery four months ago.

Now, it's fair to point out several things.

1. A Friday practice round in a hit-and-giggle golf tournament isn't anything to get overly worked up about.

2. Playing decent or even "very well" at a hit-and-giggle golf tournament is nothing like shooting 68 on Thursday at the Masters.

3. Tiger has played this tune in the past, teeing it up at the Parent/Child (PNC Championship) and looking a little bit like "the old Tiger", only to have his body blow up on him in the spring and another season goes by without the 15-time major champion staying on TOUR and playing a limited but regular schedule.

So, Tiger will tee it up today and tomorrow with his son in what has become a highly competitive silly-season event over the last 10 years because so many great players have children or grandchildren who are excellent players in their own right.

We -- that is, people who care about golf -- will be watching intently to see how Tiger handles it all.

The weather is going to be very unseasonable down in Florida today. It will be in the mid 50's when the players tee off this morning and the high will "only" reach 62 degrees. Tiger would prefer 90 and breezy to keep his surgically repaired body loose and limber.

No matter what, though, it's just good to see him back, hitting balls, playing golf and giving us all that annual small glimmer of hope that maybe next season will be the one we've been waiting for since he won the 2019 Masters.

Here in The Land of Pleasant Living, it's not going to be so pleasant today as well. Unlike Florida, though, if you go to the Ravens/Steelers game at 4:25 pm, you'll be encountering "football weather", with temps in the low 30's by late afternoon.

Some people on the internet are trying to create a "Lamar can't play in the cold" angle for this one today. OK, then. Have at it, as Brian Billick used to say.

Sure, Lamar would probably prefer 55 and sunny today. So would every player. But 35 degrees is fine. It's not like the game is being played in Fairbanks, Alaska.

We've seen Jackson have some stellar performances in cold and "really cold" weather. A lot of people are pointing to the playoff stinker in freezing temps in Buffalo a few years ago.

Yeah, and you're telling me other visiting quarterbacks haven't gone into Buffalo and had an "off day"? Give it a rest.

The big news on Friday involved a former Steeler and, now, former Raven, as wide receiver Diontae Johnson was summarily dismissed after a two week "layoff" for insubordination.

The Ravens gave up a late round draft pick for Johnson, so it's not like they're losing much by casting him aside, but, man, when you get fleeced in a deal by the Panthers, you know you've screwed the pooch.

Johnson might be able jump on with a receiver-starved team for the final stretch run of the regular season and playoffs, but you can totally have that dude if you want him.

When you tell a player his number is up and he's going in the game and he says, "Nah, dawg, I'm good right here on the bench," he has to go. Like, immediately.

Why the Ravens even kept that dude around for two weeks is wildly bizarre.

His locker should have been cleaned out at Owings Mills two hours after the loss to the Eagles, when he was asked to enter the game and refused.

Harbaugh to the equipment guy: "Hey, Schmedley, what's your schedule tonight?"

Schemdley: "Well, we have about 2 hours of laundry to do here. Clean up the locker room for 40 minutes or so. I was hoping to grab a bite to eat with the trainers and equipment guys about 9:30. Maybe Little Italy."

Harbaugh: "Yeah, I need you to run out to Owings Mills. You'll have to do dinner with the guys some other time."

Schmedley: "Owings Mills, boss? Tonight? Why?"

Harbaugh: "Clean out Diontae Johnson's locker."

Schmedley: "Can't that wait until we're back in there tomorrow morning at 7 am?"

Harbaugh: "No. It can't wait. Tonight. Right now. As soon as you can, clean out his locker."

If you're a regular visitor to #DMD, you know there's a lot on the line tonight in Baltimore.

The Steelers can win the division by defeating the Ravens. That would be the worst of the worst. It's one thing to have the Steelers win the division and the Ravens have to head to the road for the playoffs. That's bad enough.

But to have Pittsburgh win the division on your home ice? That wouldn't be cool at all.

I also have something on the line. Ten days ago, I told Glenn Clark on his daily show there's no way "a guy with manicured and painted fingernails is coming to Baltimore and beating the Ravens in a football game."

I was referring to Steelers QB Russell Wilson, of course.

And, so, if the Ravens somehow stub their toe and lose tonight, I'm obligated -- with Clark in attendance watching and heckling -- to "get my nails done" at a local salon.

I have zero worry about the game. A lot of the doom-and=gloomers around town are concerned because that's how they are. But I'm not worried in the least.

There's no way Pittsburgh's coming to Baltimore and beating the Ravens.

I originally called it 27-16, Baltimore, but amended that on Friday when the Steelers announced George Pickens was calling out sick with a supposed hamstring injury. I now have it 27-10, Ravens.

That will put both teams at 10-5 with two games to play.

The Steelers have Kansas City and Cincinnati at home.

The Ravens are at Houston and home vs. Cleveland.

There is a lot riding on this one today.

Friday December 20, 2024

#DMD

Issue #3771

bills beat lions...again?

Longing for mid-week content to satiate people like you and I, the folks at ESPN.com on Wednesday ran some sort of "simulated league" and projected the final three weeks of the regular season and playoffs.

I have no idea how they run a simulation of games when, for example, they had no idea on Wednesday if George Pickens, Patrick Mahomes and, here at home, Rashod Bateman, are going to play this weekend.

I totally understand it's just a shot in the dark sort of process. They're looking for content. I get it. And I also clicked on it, just to see how crazy it all was.

It's crazy.

They have the Ravens losing to Pittsburgh this Saturday, 30-24, and then losing 34-14 to the Texans in Houston on Christmas Day.

I already have a manicure and fingernail painting on the line (see this past Monday's #DMD), but I'll go a step further and say I'll get a pedicure as well if the Steelers score 30 points on the Baltimore defense without George Pickens in their lineup and then Houston tacks on 34 (or more) next Wednesday.

Their simulator must be nipping too much Christmas egg nog.

The Steelers aren't scoring 30 on the Ravens (and winning) and the Texans aren't scoring 34 on the Ravens (and also winning). It's just not happening.

Anyway, ESPN.com does have Baltimore bouncing back to beat Cleveland in the season finale and they also have the Ravens going back to Houston for their playoff opener and beating the Texans.

And then, get this, they have the Ravens shellacking the #1 seed Chiefs in Kansas City, 27-7, in the AFC Divisional Round.

That earns the Ravens a return trip to the AFC title game, except this time they're facing the Bills in Buffalo, where ESPN.com's "single simulator" (whatever that means) has the Bills winning an instant classic, 24-23.

They went with chalk in the NFC, as #1 seed Detroit beat #2 seed Philadelphia to make their first ever trip to the Super Bowl.

In the big game, they have the Bills finally winning their coveted first ever NFL title, 27-13, over the Lions.

Look, if it's not the Ravens in the Super Bowl, I certainly wouldn't mind seeing ESPN.com be right. I have no issue with the Bills and Lions and either of those teams winning a championship ring would be a cool story.

So there you have it. You're a winner in two ways today.

1. You now know who ESPN.com says will make the Super Bowl, which means there's probably an 80% chance that match-up isn't going to wind up happening.

2. You don't have to click over and give those guys some traffic they definitely don't need.

Baseball Hall of Fame voting is now officially in full swing, with ballots due in by December 31. You can vote for no more than ten (10) players.

Before I tell you my selections for 2025 (No, I'm not an official voter or anything like that), let me again make my annual stand against the way the Hall of Fame does their voting.

This nonsense about percentages and being on the ballot for multiple years and falling off the ballot and so on...it's silly. Very silly.

You're either a Hall of Fame baseball player when you become eligible or you're not. It doesn't matter -- or, rather, shouldn't matter -- if 14 guys get in on the same ballot one year. If 14 guys are good enough, vote them all in. Right now, the max you can vote for is 10.

But not voting for a player this year but then voting for him next year makes zero sense. He wasn't a Hall of Fame player last year but now he's a Hall of Fame player this year? How dumb is that?

Alas, that's the end of my soapbox rant.

Let me tell you who I would vote for if they gave me a ballot.

Ichiro Suzuki -- If he doesn't get in, you should just go ahead and change the locks on the doors at Cooperstown and turn the place into a craft beer brewery. There's a chance he gets voted in unanimously, which would make him the first field player to ever achieve that honor. But you know some goof will leave him off of his or her ballot "just because".

Billy Wagner -- Everyone thinks closing games is easy right up until their team doesn't have a reliable closer and their "committee" blows a save every 6 games.

C.C. Sabathia -- I've gone back and forth on him recently, but in the end, based on the data, he has to get in. He was one of the best pitchers of his era. Not the best. But one of them.

Andruw Jones -- Only a career .254 hitter but had 10 straight years with 25 or more home runs.

Omar Vizquel -- I honestly thought he was a .240 or .250 career hitter. He actually hit .272 for his career. His glove alone probably should get him in, but the rest of his numbers support a Cooperstown call as well.

Mark Buehrle -- My favorite "push" for this class is Buehrle. He made 30 or more starts in all 15 of his "full" Major League seasons. He pitched 200 or more innings in 14 of those 15 seasons. His career ERA (3.81) wasn't spectacular, but it was still a half-run below the league average. He finished his career with 214 wins. He was a massively underrated pitcher.

And that's it for me. I came close to voting for Chase Utley and and Torii Hunter, but I put my pen away after those six.

It pained me to not vote for my favorite Oriole of all-time, Adam Jones. Alas, he's not a Hall of Fame player.

Sammy Sosa said "I did steroids" yesterday without actually saying it, and by finally admitting it and apologizing for it, he's now back in the good graces of the Chicago Cubs organization.

Sosa offered the classic, "I made mistakes" line in advance of the Cubs offering him a spot in their annual off-season Cubs Convention, where he has not appeared since retiring 17 years ago.

"I never broke any laws, but in hindsight, I made mistakes and I apologize," Sosa said.

Sosa, along with other power-hitting steroid users Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire, never made the Hall of Fame.

At least now, if nothing else, he's back in the Cubs "family" after Thursday's mea culpa.

And it begs the question.

What would the last 17 years have been like for Sosa had he just admitted his steroid use back in 2007 when he retired?

I mean, the Cubs made a lot of money off of Sosa during the big home run chase and in the few years thereafter. It's not like they wanted him to go away. They could have kept him around for "Sammy Sosa Day" every year and made more money off of him. But his reluctance to come clean left them no choice.

It's also fair to point out that baseball -- as in Major League Baseball -- cashed in big time during the McGwire/Sosa home run chase and with the Bonds run at 715 as well.

Everyone knew those guys were on the juice. But while the balls kept flying out and the tickets kept getting bought, no one said a word.

But back to the Sosa situation and whether the last 17 years would have been different for him had he just spilled the beans in 2007.

Pete Rose, of course, encountered the same sort of quandary when he refused to admit that he did, in fact, gamble on baseball. Rose's refusal to acknowledge his mistakes led to a lifetime ban from the sport and no trip to Cooperstown.

What if Sosa would have retired in 2007 and then said, immediately, "Look, I did what I thought I had to do back in the late 1990's, but I obviously used performance enhancing drugs and I now realize that was a mistake."

I guess the prevailing thought is by saying that in '07, he would have been virtually guaranteeing he'd never earn entry into the Hall of Fame.

But he was never getting in anyway.

I guess this one gets filed under "hindsight is 20/20", but why wouldn't Sosa have just confirmed what we already knew and let the chips fall from there?

McGwire?

Bonds?

As Judge Smails said in Caddyshack -- "Well.......we're waiting."

I already told you on Monday of this week that I see the Ravens beating the Steelers quite easily tomorrow, 27-16.

I'm amending my score based on Pickens not being able to play for Pittsburgh.

Ravens 27 - Steelers 10

It won't be close.

I mean, it might be 17-7 at the half, which is still a ballgame, but there won't be a point in the 4th quarter when the Ravens are officially "worried" about the outcome.

But here's what I will say about the game.

It's a very important contest for the Ravens.

Not just because Pittsburgh wins the division if they win the game.

It's important because it's at home, where the Ravens should hold serve.

Lamar's playing.

50,000 of the 70,000 in the stadium will be wearing purple.

The Ravens -- as they've been all season -- are mostly healthy at all the key spots. There's a chance Rashod Bateman won't play, but Pickens being out for Pittsburgh is a far bigger bruise than Bateman missing the game.

This battle needs to go Baltimore's way, even if the Steelers somehow wind up hanging on to win the AFC North in the final two weeks of the regular season.

John Harbaugh's team simply can't afford to hand over the AFC North trophy to the Steelers in their own backyard tomorrow.

The heat is more on the Ravens than it is the Steelers.

I'll stop short of calling it (potentially) "one of the worst losses of Harbaugh's tenure", since the current records indicate Pittsburgh is on par with the Ravens, quality wise.

But it would be a massive slap in the face to the Ravens to see Pittsburgh hopping around on the midfield logo around 7:30 pm on Saturday night.

It just can't happen.

faith in sports

Luke Weaver was a big part of the Yankees late season run to the A.L. East, taking over the closer role out of nowhere just after Labor Day and shining brightly for the Bronx Bombers.

But it hasn't been very easy for him over the last couple of years.

In today's edition of "Faith in Sports", he talks about his struggles and how he read the Bible daily to help navigate his way through the tough days of professional baseball.

This is an awesome 10 minute video. Luke Weaver really has his act together, as you'll see below.

Thanks, as always, to our friends at Freestate Electrical for their continued support of #DMD and "Faith in Sports" here on Friday.

Thursday December 19, 2024

#DMD

Issue #3770

"what's happened to the rivalry?"

A friend asked me something on Monday that, at first, I didn't even think was worth pondering.

"What do you think has happened to the Ravens/Steelers rivalry?" he asked.

I just sloughed it off with the usual commentary.

"No more Roethlisberger to hate."

"No more Baltimore defense vs. Steelers offense."

"Ray's gone."

"Hines Ward is gone."

"Joey Porter is gone."

"Terrell Suggs is gone."

Sure, Harbaugh and Tomlin are still around and there's probably equal parts respect and animosity shared between those two. But they're hardly "worst enemies" or anything even close to that.

There was that time the Steelers won a big game in Baltimore and Harbaugh barely made contact with Tomlin's hand at midfield afterwards before peeling off to the locker room.

The next time the Ravens won in Pittsburgh, the handshake was again perfunctory at best, with Tomlin's feet staying in motion the whole time as he rolled out quickly without even looking Harbaugh in the eye.

But that's about as much friction as those two will create. They know both the game and the rivalry isn't about them.

Alas, something has happened to the Ravens-Steelers rivalry.

I don't know that I can put my finger on it, exactly, but there's something missing.

Now, don't get me wrong. The stadium will be juiced this Saturday afternoon in Baltimore. The tailgate lots will be packed and the energy level will be through the roof once the game starts.

15,000 Steelers fans will weasel their way in, somehow, and the environment in the stadium will be "classic", I'm guessing.

But leading up to the game? This week? I'm missing it.

I thought about my friend Jim's question yesterday and even chatted a bit with a couple of other Ravens enthusiasts to bounce my thoughts off of them.

All of those things I referenced above? The players and what not? They're part of "what's missing", for sure.

But here's another culprit, I believe: Social media.

I spent some time yesterday around 3 pm perusing Twitter and went down a rabbit hole searching for 8 or so of what I consider the best Ravens "follows" on that social media platform.

Only one of them had anything Steelers-Ravens related within the last 8 hours.

Here's their content, in short.

Lamar vs. Josh Allen MVP.

Ravens "All 22" defensive review from last Sunday's game in New York.

Why isn't Keaton Mitchell playing?

Lamar vs. Josh Allen MVP.

Steelers edge rushers vs. Ravens offensive line.

Early lines on prop wagers for this weekend's games.

Ravens offensive play calling breakdown so far in '24.

"By the numbers" look at Ravens punting woes this season.

Twitter, on the Wednesday before the Ravens-Steelers showdown, was filled with stuff not pertaining to the game on Saturday.

Now, let me say this: I'm not suggesting the content was "bad" or uninformed. The punting data was quite interesting, actually. Jordan Stout is having a very sub-par season to date. I probably wouldn't have known "how sub-par" until I read the Twitter thread.

So I'm not suggesting the content is lousy.

I'm merely saying none of it has much at all to do with the Ravens and Steelers on Saturday.

And that just seems weird.

It also might explain, in part, what's happened over the last, say, 6 or 7 years of the rivalry.

People on the internet these days are looking to be unique. Sure, they're all searching for "hot takes" and stories they dig up on their own, but for the most part content providers just want to be providing something no one else can or will provide.

I couldn't care less why Keaton Mitchell isn't playing. I assume it's because the coaching staff feels like the guys who are ahead of him on the depth chart are better fits for the roster.

But, sure, it is a story of sorts, even if it's a nothing-burger to me.

That person probably says to themselves: "I can either write about the fact that the Steelers have owned the Ravens for the last four years or I can write about something that no one else in town is really talking about."

But doing that eliminates Ravens-Steelers content that might very well stoke the fire of the rivalry for those who are consuming it.

I'm not saying I have the answer to the question of, "what has happened?"

I do think, though, that social media influence, or lack thereof, does get a slice or two of the pizza.

We'd rather argue about whether Lamar is a better MVP choice than Josh Allen than look at ways to slow down George Pickens on Saturday in Baltimore.

The internet, man. It has definitely helped ruin a lot of things in the world.

#DMD reader "BJ" reached out to me yesterday with a bit of a confrontational e-mail in connection with something I wrote here on Wednesday about college athletes.

"Your (sic) out of line saying those college football players have no shame just because they're looking to make better for themselves. I'd like to hear what you have against all of them. You act like they should play for free."

There was more. But the meat of it was what you saw above. He took umbrage with my commentary about college players having no shame with regard to their transfer habits.

The reality is this: Everything about high level college sports is pretty much broken.

Everyone involved has little or no shame.

They play football and basketball games on weeknights, which means the big schools leave the day before the game and often times return the day after the game, which pretty much means those "student-athletes" are missing bits and pieces of three days of classes.

The Ivy League still almost does it all right. They play on Friday and Saturday and their travel is such that they probably don't have to miss class except for Friday.

But these college basketball teams flying all over the country and playing at 8 pm or 9 pm? It's outrageous.

You can blame the schools for that. Or their conferences. There are a lot of tentacles attached to it. The TV networks tell the conferences they need content on Wednesday night and since the conferences like those $300 million checks they receive, they tell the schools "you're playing on Wednesday night a bunch of times this season".

Everyone is to blame for the erosion of college sports at the Division I level.

We're even to blame, as crazy as that sounds. By "we", I mean you and I. How do you think these schools are gathering up all of that N.I.L. money they're throwing around to the athletes? It's coming from their alumni base, the local business community, and any other entity they can shake hands with and score another $25,000 "donation".

If you've ever donated, you're complicit.

You're not a bad person or anything like that. But you're helping speed along the erosion.

That said, maybe the current business model the NCAA is utilizing is the way it should work, with a tweak or two to help make it balanced and accountable.

Maybe the college athletes should get paid to play.

Perhaps they should have to sign a contract and bind themselves to a school, in the same way a drafted baseball or football player has to sign a contract with their team that keeps them there for a limited amount of time.

And maybe the student-athlete should have to pay for their schooling, in the same way just a regular kid from the neighboring town has to pay for their tuition.

They get, say, $80,000 to play football at Maryland. They sign a 4-year agreement. Tuition, room and board costs them $30,000 anually. They're in the black by $50,000.

That's pretty good work for an 18-year old.

They'll have to file taxes and do everything else a normal working man/woman would have to do, but that's part and parcel with being employed.

I'm not saying that's precisely the way it should work, but something of that sort, perhaps. In the "old days", you got that $30,000 education free and clear in exchange for playing sports for the school. No debt.

That system is actually sorta-kinda still in play at the Division III level, where athletic scholarships are a no-go and academic monies are distributed based on your admission scores. A lot of Division III kids seem to deal well with the exchange of sports for a free education.

It's also fair to point out that Division III sports pale in comparison -- revenue wise -- to Division I sports.

But it used to be that way at the Division I level, too. Go to school, get a free education, play football, leave happy.

Along the way, people deemed that "unfair", somehow.

So, now, to make it fair, maybe the model should evolve into paying the players a contracted salary and charging them the tuition rate for the school year.

That removes any argument and counter-argument regarding compensation for players. And it also teaches them about personal finance and business and the life lesson of how to manage your money and your brand.

I don't like college sports all that much any longer, but there might be hope yet.

I know you're probably thinking the same thing I'm thinking: No chance.

Wednesday December 18, 2024

#DMD

Issue #3769

i just don't understand

I hate getting irritated around the Christmas season. It feels wrong to be walking around on edge because of things going on in the real world, particularly when almost all of them don't really impact me in the least.

People getting shot on the street in New York. A juvenile opening fire in a school classroom in Wisconsin. A chaotic, deadly scene last night about 200 yards from Immaculate Heart of Mary Church.

Those things bother me.

But when I stop to think about it even more, they do impact me. And they impact my children in the future. People in our society with no regard for decency impacts us all. And, as the saying goes, there but by the Grace of God go I. You never know when you might be the target of someone else's anger or frustration.

I also get bothered by the fact that people get irritated by the use of the word "Christmas".

I said "Have a great Christmas" to a woman working the register at Target on Sunday and she snarled and said, "Yeah, or holiday. Maybe I'll have a great one of those."

If not for the fact that Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, there wouldn't be a Christmas. It's a day to honor, remember and celebrate HIS birth. He wasn't named "Holiday".

So I'm already slightly aggravated at how petrified we've become in this country to say the words "Merry Christmas" when that's precisely why there's a holiday in the first place.

And then, on top of that, I run across these stories below and I really get on edge.

In case you missed it this week, the PGA of America announced they are going to compensate U.S. Ryder Cup players to the tune of $500,000 next September when the bi-annual event is played at Bethpage Black in New York.

Each player will receive a $200,000 personal stipend and also be permitted to designate $300,000 to a charity/charities of his choice.

The charity part, sure, I'm good with that. Prior to 1999, there was no charity angle involved at all, and then the guys in '99 made a stink and the PGA of America ponied up $100,000 for each player to give to his charity of choice. Fair enough.

But this latest chapter, where the players are begging and whining to be paid? It's clownshoes stuff.

That said, the PGA of America has done a poor job over the years of explaining exactly where the Ryder Cup revenue goes and how it directly helps fund the rest of the business they run over the next 23 months. So, part of this fiasco is on them, for not being more transparent with the allocation of their revenues.

Even still, though, no one should be getting paid to represent their country and play in this event next September.

I just don't understand why the PGA of America wouldn't say to all of the American players, "We're not paying you to play. We'll give you the $300,000 donation and you can distribute that however you wish. But we're not paying you to play. And if you can't accept those terms, you can step aside from the competition and we'll offer your spot to another player."

For the life of me, I can't figure out why that is so hard to do. Sure, DeChambeau or Cantlay or Schauffele might pitch a fit and say, "Well, then, I'm not playing!" and if that happens, so be it. Give their spot to Russell Henley or Harris English or Akshay Bhatia and, guess what, the team will probably be just fine either way.

Greed, man. I can't stand it.

Last weekend, Marshall's college football team pulled out of the Independence Bowl vs. Army due to a mass exodus of players to the transfer portal.

From December 9 through December 14, 29 players from Marshall exited the program and entered the portal.

It's also worth noting the team's former head coach bolted for the vacant Southern Mississippi job early last week after Marshall completed a 10-3 regular season.

The school itself isn't blameless here. The football coach, Charles Huff, attempted to negotiate a contract extension with the Thundering Herd in the summer of '23 and '24 and was unable to get that done. He then coached a lame duck season in 2024, produced a 10-3 record, and rolled on to greener pasturers as soon as he could.

The whole thing is a mess.

I just don't understand why the NCAA would ever create a transfer portal window that starts in a time when football teams are playing games still. What moron in the NCAA office said, "You know, I think December 9 would be a great day to allow football players to leave for other programs."?

Why not wait until, say, February 1st? Or, you know, how about this novel idea? START THE TRANSFER PORTAL WHEN SCHOOL ENDS IN MAY.

It's hard to blame the kids. We all know they have zero shame when it comes to packing up and leaving.

Those Marshall kids would sign on at UConn or Western Michigan for an extra Keurig machine and $44 in cash every week. If the transfer date is December 9, they're opting out on December 9. It's not the fault of the athletes that these goofs at the NCAA made December 9 the start of the portal window.

There are people making hundreds of thousands of dollars running the NCAA and they can't even tie their own shoes. It's amazing.

If we're doing year-end awards here at #DMD, the award for the most tiring, lame, exhausting topic for 2024 goes to this on-going debate about whether Lamar Jackson or Josh Allen should win the NFL MVP award.

Who gives a flying-eff who wins it?

What it is with this inferiority complex we've developed in Baltimore? We sound like 10 year olds complaining because recess got cut short due to drizzle.

Now, yes, I'm aware some people bet on it. I get that. You can bet on anything these days. But who really thinks whining on the internet about Lamar being the MVP is actually going to, in any way, connect with Lamar winning or losing the MVP vote?

And these talking heads around the networks and online who offer their opinion are doing so with three games left in the season. Sure, there's a lot of data already in the books and it's probably a two-horse race between Allen and Lamar unless Barkley does something totally crazy in Philly over the last 3 games.

But all people are doing for the most part is telling you who they like now. It's hardly a done deal.

And yet, Baltimore football fans have this completely bizarre infatuation with arguing about the MVP race with anyone who says or writes anything except, "Lamar is the MVP."

I just don't understand why the MVP award means so much to people. It's a no-calorie nothing-burger. If Lamar wins the MVP award and the Ravens lose to, well, anyone in the AFC playoffs, who gives a frig that he won the award?

In the grand scheme of things, Lamar winning a 3rd MVP does NOTHING for him. He's going to the Hall of Fame with 2, 3 or 5 of them, if he should win that many.

But if Lamar wins 5 MVP awards and fails to win a Super Bowl, his career will be incomplete.

On the flip side, if he never wins another MVP award and wins a Super Bowl or two, his curriculum vitae will need nothing else.

Super Bowls matter now. MVP awards do not.

This one is admittedly personal to me and your mileage may vary and I get that, totally. It's not a new story, per se, but I got smacked in the face with it recently and it has irked me ever since.

I attended a local high school basketball game where one of the teams blatantly disrespected the national anthem.

It started at the top, with their head coach, who stood on the sideline like a statue with his hands in his pockets staring up at the ceiling throughout the entire song.

His team wasn't any different, not surprisingly, as they stood on the sideline as well and did everything they could to not pay attention to the 90 second national anthem.

Almost every team (that I've seen, anyway) stands across the court, in unison, while the anthem is played. This team stood on the sidelines like they were waiting at the Good Humor truck in the summer.

They got their cue from their head coach, quite clearly.

He doesn't give the anthem any respect. Why should they?

There were also, by my unofficial count, 9 people in the stands who remained seated and breezed through their phone while the anthem was being played.

I don't know which team they were affiliated with, so I'm certainly not going to make any kind of speculation on that subject.

But they're adults. If they want to be disprespectful to their country, so be it. I don't like it. But it is what it is.

I just don't understand how a coach -- in position to mold and mentor young men -- could be that blantantly uninterested in the national anthem and, at the same time, incredibly uninterested in teaching his players about the importance of taking 90 seconds out of their day (night) to show some appreciation for the freedom they have as citizens of the United States.

Coaches are teachers.

They're "teaching" sports, of course, but coaching is teaching.

If you, as the coach, stand on the sideline and aren't engaged, your players are going to follow suit.

It's a terrible look. The school should be ashamed.

Tuesday December 17, 2024

#DMD

Issue #3768

well...you wanted a pitcher

OK, so I'll take the contrarian position today when it comes to the big news out of the Warehouse on Monday night.

It's human nature to be nonplussed by the O's and their signing of a 35-year old guy who has never pitched a day in the big leagues.

If you're one of those folks left scratching your head at yesterday's news, I'm not going to go out of my way today to convince you that you're wrong.

You could be right and your cynicism may very well be completely justified. This is the Orioles we're talking about, after all.

That said, I'd like for you to hear me out.

Hang with me for a minute or two and let me explain it in a way you might understand.

When you have children who grow an inch every couple of months, you become oddly dependent on thrift stores or consignment shops, particularly when it comes to one-off things like sport coats (boys) and formal wear (girls).

Not only is it a prudent way to spend money, there's something uniquely thrilling about finding an item that, brand new, would cost maybe $200 and the tag you're staring at says $20. And you know you might only wear it once or twice and then you'll thrift it back to them for $8.00 or so a few months down the road.

God's providence took me to a store called "Savers" in Towson with my son last month. He was looking for a pair of dress shoes to wear to a senior dance.

"Dress shoes" and my son don't go together very well. So we went thrifting hoping to find a cheap pair he could wear once and either keep around for another day or turn back in for store credit a week or two down the road.

While he sorted through the shoes, I naturally wandered over to the polo shirt rack. I expected nothing.

Ten shirts in, I caught the flash of a familiar logo. It was the famous "Masters" logo on a beautiful white shirt with a kelly green collar.

There's a dirty little secret I'll share about Masters apparel. They sell a variety of shirts, pullovers and jackets in the Augusta National souvenir stores during Masters week. Some are manufactured by names you've heard of; adidas, Nike, Tommy Hilfiger and others.

They also sell their own "Masters" brand of shirt. For roughly 10 years, a company named "Fairway and Greene" provided their shirts to the folks at Augusta and they then had the "Authentic Masters Apparel" tag sewed into the neck of the shirt. You were, at that point, buying a Fairway and Greene shirt, unknowingly, that happened to have the Masters tag on the back as if they made it.

There's nothing wrong with that practice. It's not illegal at all. And Fairway and Greene is a nice, reputable brand of golf shirt.

For some reason, though, I always found Fairway and Greene shirts to be about 15% too small. I don't know why. They just always seemed to be a smidgen tighter than, say, Foot Joy (15% too big) or Greg Norman Collection (15% too big). In stock terms, a Fairway and Greene "XL" was really a "large and three quarters" and the Foot Joy/Greg Normal XL was really an XL and a quarter. Make sense?

Anyway...(Yes, there's a point to this. Hang tight. It's better than hearing about my favorite Hall and Oates show. Which, for those of you who are curious, came back in February of 2016 when I saw them play at Madison Square Garden and they played my two all-time favorite H&O songs back to back; "Did It In A Minute" and "Say It Isn't So". I think I saw H&O 10 times. Maybe 11. And I think I only heard them play "Did It In A Minute" in 4 of those shows.)

And while we're on the subject of Hall and Oates, if you can ever get your hands on Daryl Hall's second solo album, "Three Hearts In The Happy Ending Machine", get it! It's a great piece of music.

OK, back we go to the Orioles and their signing of the Japanese pitcher.

Five years ago, Augusta National abruptly and discreetly changed their "licensed apparel" brand to Peter Millar which, if you ask just about anyone, is one of the best, if not best, golf apparel brands in the world. At Peter Millar, a Medium is a Medium. A Large is a Large. And so on.

Peter Millar is the best when it comes to golf shirts and general apparel.

Then, last year, a company called "Greyson" secured the contract and they started supplying the shirts for Augusta National.

No one knew Peter Millar was the shirt brand. And no one really knows Greyson is now. And, please, don't ask me how I know. If I told you how I know, someone would lose their job and you'd have to hire protective security for you and your family.

So now you know why, last month, when I saw that Masters shirt in the thrift store, I was over-the-moon with excitement. Why? Because it was a Peter Millar Masters shirt. The tag along the bottom of the shirt had a "SC23" notation, which stands for "Summer Comfort 2023".

Summer Comfort is Peter Millar's annual brand of summer golf shirts.

I pulled the hanger out of the shirt, took off my hoodie, and tried the shirt on. It was a perfect fit. My size.

I fished for the tag again to check out the price.

It was marked $24. But the $24 was scratched out. And underneath it was scribbled, "$18".

A $120 shirt -- maybe $150 -- at the 2023 Masters was mine for $18.

I have no idea why that shirt was at Savers. It looked like it had been worn once. Twice maybe. Did the person who bought it not fit it in any longer? Did he not like white shirts? Was he not a golfer and someone gave it to him as a gift?

I was beaming with pride as I approached the cash register.

It's one thing if it's a ratty, worn out looking shirt. This thing looked like it just came off the rack at Augusta National.

As someone who has been to the Masters eleven times and has purchased, roughly $1,500 or more of Masters merchandise, finding a Masters shirt for $18 was a special kind of highway robbery.

I know what you're thinking: "What on earth does this have to do with anything?"

Thrifting, I'm telling you, is a blast. Even if it winds up not being exactly as good as the same thing brand new, you also didn't pay brand new prices.

And sometimes you stumble on to something that's such a good deal you almost feel embarrassed about it.

The Orioles went thrifting yesterday when they signed that Japanese pitcher.

He's 35 years old.

He's never pitched in a Major League Game.

I've never heard of him. You've never heard of him. He was apparently very good last season in the Japanese league.

Late last night, an intrepid O's fan posted a video of the O's new pitcher striking out a bunch of Major League players back in 2017 at the World Baseball Championship.

You remember 2017. Joe Flacco was still good. Corey Kluber was the A.L. Cy Young winner.

This new Japanese pitcher was evidently also really good in 2017.

There's no telling if he's worth the $13 million the O's had to give him to pitch in Baltimore in 2025.

He might be a flop. Or the Orioles might be getting Wei-Yin Chen 2.0.

None of us know, really. The new guy from Japan might be a Masters shirt on a rack at a thrift store for Mike Elias.

Admittedly, you'd rather have them spend money on Blake Snell or Max Fried. They were the O's version of the brand new shirt.

But they didn't want to spend $150 on a brand new shirt.

Or, as it turned out, $200 million on a brand new shirt. Spending that kind of money is just not what they do.

Instead, they found this dude from the Japanese league, Tomoyuki Sugano, and got him for $18.

Who knows, he might be a Peter Millar. A perfect fit. The right size. And the O's get him on the cheap.

Or they might discover a coffee stain near the back collar they didn't even know existed, which would partially explain why he only cost them $18.

He also could be the first step in a Japanese off-season parlay, if you will. A daily double of sorts. The O's have reportedly been interested in signing 23-year old phenom Roki Sasaki, who could, perhaps, want to sign with a team in the Majors who has some sort of Japanese presence already in the clubhouse.

Sasaki, though, isn't cheap. He'd be a $150 Masters shirt and a $90 Masters blanket and a wildly overpriced $280 Masters Zero restriction waterproof rain jacket.

The O's aren't going to find Sasaki in a thrift shop, which is is where they tend to browse most of the time.

I know we are expecting more.

There's no sense in beating that dead horse. They're running the team the way they want to run it.

Other teams spend $150 on a shirt. The O's are looking for a bargain.

Which is the best way to go?

We won't find out until next summer.

In the meantime, just cling to this and remember it's true: You never know what you might find when you go thrifting.

Monday December 16, 2024

#DMD

Issue #3767

manicured nails?

On any occasion you make a statement of opinion around Glenn Clark, he almost always responds the same way.

"What are you willing to put on that?"

I made that mistake last week on his show during my (mostly) regular appearance on the Wednesday edition of Glenn Clark Radio.

We were discussing the Ravens-Steelers game when I made a proclamation.

Editor's note: Yes, I realize we were two games ahead, but we both had already written off the Giants game as an automatic win and were on to previewing the big showdown in Baltimore on December 21.

"There's no way a quarterback with manicured and painted fingernails is coming to Baltimore and beating the Ravens in a football game," I said, referencing Russell Wilson of the Steelers.

Clark let the dead air strangle me for two or three seconds.

"Is that so?" he asked.

It was at this point where I could have laughed and deflected my way out of the comment.

Instead, I doubled down.

"Come on, man," I said to Clark. "Some dude with nail polish and perfectly manicured fingernails isn't beating the Ravens at football."

And then came the challenge.

"Will you get a manicure and get your nails done if Wilson beats the Ravens?" Clark asked.

I was in no-man's-land at that point.

I had to stay the course.

If I tried to duck out of the moment, Clark would have grilled me for the rest of the show.

"Sure," I said. "I'll get a manicure and the whole nine yards if Wilson beats the Ravens. But I don't have to worry about it. Because it's not happening. No man with painted fingernails is beating the Ravens."

And, so, that's where we are today.

Wilson and his perfectly manicured fingernails will be in Baltimore on Saturday. I'm not worried at all.

Ravens 27 - Steelers 16.

There. It's done. You don't have to wait until next Saturday to find out what I think is going to happen.

Pittsburgh's not coming to Baltimore and winning that game.

On to the Texans.

So this AFC playoff race is really starting to round into shape, and it's taking on the exact look we said it would here two weeks ago.

The Bills managed to pull out a big road win in Detroit yesterday, which really helps them, particularly in light of the injury to KC quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who might very well miss his team's next two games (home vs. Houston, at Pittsburgh) in order to rest for the post-season.

The Ravens are in good shape heading into Saturday's big showdown with the Steelers. They need to beat Pittsburgh and Houston and hope the Steelers fall to either K.C. or Cincinnati in one of their final two games. If that happens, all the Ravens would have to do is beat Cleveland in the regular season finale to claim the AFC North title and the (likely) #3 seed in the AFC.

If Pittsburgh finishes 12-5 by losing to Baltimore but beating K.C. and Cincinnati to finish the season, they will win the AFC North.

The Ravens don't totally control their own destiny, obviously, but a home win over Pittsburgh will then put the Steelers in a squeeze by forcing them to win their last two games, assuming John Harbaugh's team wins in Houston and beats Cleveland.

There is a wacky way that Baltimore and Pittsburgh could finish 11-6 and the Texans also finish 11-6 and the Ravens would then be #5 seed and travel to #4 seed Pittsburgh in the first round.

Every game between AFC teams in the final three weeks has playoff implications, it seems.

Kansas City can't afford to lay down -- at least not yet -- because the #1 seed is at stake with three weeks left in the season. The Chiefs are 13-1, but their only loss came to the Bills, who are now 11-3.

Buffalo finishes with the Patriots (home), Jets (home) and Patriots (away). It's likely they'll end the campaign at 14-3, which means the Chiefs can afford one loss, but not two.

There are still a bunch of goofy scenarios at play in the AFC playoff picture, including the Bengals or Miami making it at 9-8 and the Colts actually making it at 8-9 (or 9-8).

The Chargers and Broncos are in the driver's seat(s) for the 6th and 7th seeds, but they both still play one another (this week) and they also have to finish out their regular season with at least one win in the final two weeks.

If the Ravens win out and capture the division title, there's no telling who they might host in their playoff opener. It could be the Chargers, Broncos or Steelers. Denver would be the most favorable of those to the naked eye, but if the Ravens could pick their poison, it would be best to have the Chargers in Baltimore for the AFC Wild Card round. L.A. isn't beating anyone of substance on the road.

It all starts this Saturday in Baltimore.

A Ravens win and it's a free-for-all in the final two weeks of the regular season.

A Steelers win and the Ravens are probably heading to the road for the playoffs.

Ravens and Steelers for, let's say, most of the marbles. What, you wanted it some other way?

We'll delve into this a little more mid-week, but there was a pretty substantial golf accomplishment in the area on Sunday.

2022 Loyola University graduate Brandon Berry successfully worked his way through two sets of PGA Tour Q-School and finished T43 at the final stage that ended yesterday in Ponte Vedre Beach, Florida.

That T43 finish gives Berry full status and unlimited starts on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2025, paving the way for him to not only make a living playing golf, but also moving him on step closer to full time status on the PGA Tour.

120 players teed it up at the Final State of Q-School, with the top 5 finishers (and ties) earning their PGA Tour card for 2025. Those, of course, are very lucrative and, with only 5 spots for 120 players, very difficult to obtain.

Players finishing 6th through 45th (and ties) gain their Korn Ferry Tour card for the year. The Korn Ferry Tour is the first step below the PGA Tour. It's Triple-A baseball, effectively, although it's fair to say nearly every player on the KFT is capable of competing at some level on the PGA Tour, while the same might not be said for Triple-A baseball players.

Korn Ferry Tour players actually have a lower scoring average for their top 30 players than does the PGA Tour, but players on the KFT aren't playing the same quality of golf course as those do on the PGA Tour.

In short, it's a great first step to the PGA Tour. Berry had to make a 6 foot par putt at the last hole to secure his Korn Ferry status for the year.

Sunday December 15, 2024

#DMD

Issue #3766

a giant sunday for ravens, steelers

#DMD reader "KJ" inadvertently brought up an interesting point in the Comments section below when he referenced the scorching-hot Capitals and the whole idea that sometimes the most important trait an athlete can have is "thinking they can win".

Some folks would say, "Give me the superior athlete and I'll train them how to win."

Others might say, "I'll take the mentally tough guy (gal) who doesn't think about losing in the first place. Give me that person, with whatever athletic ability they have, and we'll do just fine."

To wit, I've had a number of high school golfers over the years who were struggling on the putting green ask me what the secret of putting is at the PGA Tour level.

"How come those guys make so many putts, Coach?" they'll ask me as they practice on the green with various different contraptions designed to get their putter square at impact or take it back on just the right arc.

"Because they're not afraid to miss," I always tell them.

PGA Tour players don't make every putt. But they approach every putt the same way.

"I'm going to make this. I just have to figure out how."

Then they go into the "programming" part of the putt where they evaluate the contour, the speed required to match the break, and so on.

They never stand over a putt and say, "I know I'm not making this one." That thought merely never enters their mind, hence their status as one of the best 150 golfers in the world who play on the PGA Tour and make a (great) living chasing a white ball around in a field.

I would subscribe to you that watching the Army/Navy game every December reminds us all of that concept of, "I can't be afraid."

99% of the college football games played every year are competed with only "winning" in mind. Whether it's a conference title game, intra-state showdown or longtime rival, the teams line up and they both say to themselves, "We can't afford to lose this game today."

The Army-Navy game might have that same theory because it's Army vs. Navy, but you can tell by the way the players compete and then conduct themselves afterwards that winning is important but not the most critical thing on their personal agenda.

Perhaps that's why the game is what it is and why, no matter the athleticism or skill level on display, the whole day turns out to be perhaps the best 3 hours in college sports, period, for any calendar year.

Those kids playing in the Army-Navy game aren't afraid of anything. And they're certainly not going to let a football game in December every year define them.

One of my favorite sports axioms I've seen repeated time and time again in my now 40 years involved, at some level, in sports, is this one: The team that thinks they're really good is often better than the team that actually is good.

That's kind of why Army and Navy both win college football games against schools who are actually there on that Saturday to display their "football" talents.

Sure, they both -- Army and Navy -- have quality athletes on their roster, but that's just it. They have athletes first and football players second. They beat you with their brain and their bodies.

I don't think "KJ" in the Comments section was right when he said, "Thinking you can win is better than winning." In fact, I'm not even 100% sure what that's supposed to mean. Just "thinking you can win" doesn't equate to winning.

But where that comment does connect is when an athlete believes they're capable of doing something that they otherwise might not be able to pull off.

And in sports, I do think we see that all the time. The team that thinks they're really good because they've started off the season 8-3 or 33-20 or the kid who shoots one under for the first 7 holes of the tournament winds up being better than the people they're competing against because they start believing in themselves.

Those kids who lined up yesterday for Navy (the winner) and Army (the loser) all have one thing in common.

They believe in themselves.

Not as football players.

But as men. And, yes, the women who serve in those military branches believe in themselves as well. But they weren't on the field yesterday.

The annual Army-Navy game shows us the best of young men every December. Was the game itself "good football"? I don't know. It surely wasn't the worst game I've ever seen. In fact, I kind of enjoyed watching a game where every good play wasn't met with someone dancing around like Kevin Bacon in Footloose.

What we saw yesterday was a football game played between two athletic and enthusiastic men.

That's what you saw from 35,000 feet.

But down at ground level, the story of the day was far more about the character of the athletes, not the quality of their athleticism.

They're not afraid.

Of anything.

And that's why we're all fortunate to have them serving our country.

The Ravens and Steelers are in exact opposite spots today, so the notion that a team "thinks they can win" will play out in both New Jersey and Philadelphia today.

I sure hope the two teams that are supposed to win wind up winning.

I assume the New York Giants enter today's game with the Ravens "thinking" they can pull off the upsets of all upsets. I hope just thinking it doesn't work for them. If the Ravens somehow stub their toe in New Jersey today, it would be, for sure, the worst loss in the John Harbaugh era.

And I'm guessing the Steelers -- who probably "think" they're a really good team at this point -- also think they can go into Philadelphia and beat the Eagles. I hope just thinking that way doesn't work for them, either.

The Ravens need a win today and a Steelers loss in Philadelphia. Big time.

That scenario, if it plays out correctly, sets up next Saturday's game in Baltimore as a massive late-season showdown.

If Baltimore (8-5) somehow loses today and Pittsburgh (10-3) somehow wins, next Saturday's game is still big for Baltimore in terms of making the playoffs, but the division title would be a challenge for the Ravens in the home stretch.

But a Ravens win today and a Steelers loss and we have ourselves a dogfight with three weeks left.

After today, Baltimore finishes with Pittsburgh (home), Houston (away) and Cleveland (home).

A win today and a sweep of those last three and Baltimore ends up 12-5.

After today, the Steelers are at Baltimore and home vs. Kansas City and Cincinnati.

A loss today and losses to the Ravens and K.C., perhaps, and Pittsburgh finishes up at 11-6.

There's a lot on the line this afternoon in New Jersey and Philadelphia.

Let's hope the two teams who enter the game "thinking" they have a shot at pulling off the upset don't actually wind up doing that.

Alas, I don't you (we) have to worry about that.

The Eagles will have to fight with Pittsburgh tooth and nail before winning on a last second field goal 26-23. The Steelers aren't going into Philadelphia and winning. Ain't happening.

And the Ravens are going to make quick, easy work of the Giants.

The final score doesn't really matter, of course, but this one should not be close at all.

Baltimore leads 10-0 at the end of the first quarter.

It's 17-3 at halftime.

The Ravens extend that lead to 27-6 after three quarters.

After another Justin Tucker field goal (he goes 3 for 3 on the day to fend off the haters for at least six more days), the Giants somehow score a touchdown in the fourth quarter. But the Ravens tack on a late score of their own that makes the final score 37-13.

Derrick Henry rushes for 161 yards on the day.

Lamar throws for two touchdowns and runs one in on his own before he's yanked with 5 minutes left.

It's a rout in New Jersey.

And as the Ravens' train pulls into Penn Station just after 7:30 pm tonight, they watch that late Eagles field goal split the uprights and, suddenly, next Saturday just got far, far more important.

Sometimes you're the bug and other times you're the windshield. You might remember a few weeks back, I had a friend who had a whopper of a hockey-goal-scoring parlay get wiped out because a player (Pastrnak in Boston) scored a goal that got disallowed because of a high stick.

Instead of a 5-way goal-scoring parlay and a nice payout, my friend got zilch. Nada. Zero.

Well, wouldn't you know it...

He had another 5-goal parlay yesterday in the NHL.

Tom Wilson of the Caps.

Leon Draisitl of Edmonton.

Auston Matthews of Toronto.

Kyle Connor of Winnpeg.

And Lucas Raymond of Detroit.

Those five all needed to score a goal on Saturday. They are, of course, all some of the top goal scorers in the league, so it's not far fetched that all five might score on the same day.

That said, 5-for-5 is hard to do, hence the nice odds you can get (+2385) if it happens to hit.

Well, wouldn't you know it. The first four hit easily.

But Lucas Raymond was a no-show on the stat sheet for the Red Wings, who hosted Toronto in Detroit.

It was 3-2 in favor of Detroit when Toronto pulled their goalie with a minute left.

With two seconds left, the Red Wings scored to make it 4-2.

Who scored, you're wondering?

I'm so glad you asked. I mean, my friend is so glad you asked.

Lucas Raymond knocked the puck in the net at 19:58 of the third period to give my buddy a really nice pre-Christmas gift.

Two seconds left.

Imagine for a second if you had a parlay where you shorted Raymond to not score a goal. Wouldn't that be something?

Alas, sometimes you're the bug.

And sometimes you're the windshield.

Saturday December 14, 2024

#DMD

Issue #3765

what bothers you the most?

A longtime friend of mine, Chris, who is also a fairly active #DMD reader and contributor, checked in with an interesting question yesterday.

He texted me about the -- his words, not mine -- "heated discussion" that has been going on here over the last couple of days about the Orioles and their to-date tepid off-season.

"It seems like people are really frustrated," he wrote.

"I think some people are," I replied. "Some are losing their patience."

"What bothers them the most?" he asked.

And that's where I had to stop and take pause for a minute.

It's a great question.

What does bother me (and you) the most about the Orioles?

Have you ever thought about that?

What bothers you the most about the baseball franchise?

This might be too big of a subject for a mid-December Saturday, huh?

You thought you were going to get up today, have your coffee, and #DMD would present something simple and easy.

This topic is very complex.

It might depend on your age. It might depend on how connected you are to all Baltimore sports, not just the Orioles. It might depend on what value you put on winning.

For those of you (us) who suffered through the Colts leaving in 1984, just having a team that isn't a threat to move is a win in and of itself. That's why so many folks in this area got antsy a couple of years ago when those silly stories surfaced about the Orioles potentially moving to Nashville.

Winning the championship? Sure, that's great.

But what I really want is for my baseball team to just stay here forever.

That might be how some old heads around town think and I can't blame them.

Those are also the same people, however, who haven't seen a World Series game in Baltimore since October of 1983. We're starting to feel a little bit like Cubs and Mets fans around here. Or, at least, I am.

Our answers vary on this, I'm sure.

I don't think the O's failing to win the World Series for 41 years is what bothers me the most.

I suppose some of that stems from 17 years in the soccer business, where I saw firsthand how hard it is to win, how hard it is to stop losing and how everything has to almost mysteriously come together for the team to be the last one left standing.

Only one team can win, which is why you should cherish it when you do win.

The Ravens have definitely spoiled us here in Baltimore over the last 25 years. You'd be naive to not think otherwise. While they haven't been the Patriots or the Chiefs, dynasty-wise, the Ravens have had a half dozen or so very splashy seasons in addition to their two Super Bowl triumphs.

But, as Snoop Dog once said, "back to the question at hand..."

What bothers you most?

It took me the better part of Friday to come up with an answer. Mine is probably much different than the one you eventually come up with, I'm guessing.

I think what bothers me the most is what I'm just going to loosely call "greed".

It might not be the precise word I'm looking for, but it's what keeps coming back to me.

I have a general dislike for greed. And when it comes to sports in general, and this is not just an Orioles "take", it's a total sports opinion, I think I abhor greed more than anything else.

I absolutely can't stand what has happened in college football and basketball over the last decade.

I'm pretty much out. Totally.

College football and basketball, in soon-to-be-2025, stinks to high heavens. It's been ruined.

I assume there's a trickle down impact also being felt in soccer, lacrosse, field hockey and so on. Those kids are probably also on their way to being hired guns as well. I can't stand it.

Greed in professional sports is even more outrageous.

And I do understand the cyclical nature of it all.

The only reason Juan Soto just commanded a $765 million contract is because there's a franchise stupid enough to pay him that money.

As we saw with the Cleveland Browns a few years ago, it only takes one team to say, "Who cares about economic balance? We want to win." Once you get a team that says that, everything gets wrecked.

Is Juan Soto greedy? Of course.

But the only reason he's greedy is because Steve Cohen and the Mets are making it possible.

We all know what's going to happen in New York. Cohen and the Mets, themselves, aren't going to pay for Soto.

Baseball fans in New York and all over the country are going to pay for him.

Every time you buy an officially licensed MLB Orioles hat, in fact, you're sending a few nickels to the Mets via the league's merchandise revenue sharing formula.

The Mets didn't sign Soto at the risk of losing money on the deal, you can bet that. Their bean counters in New York have, I'm sure, carefully plotted out a long-term budget that includes ticket price increases, TV and Radio ad increases and in-stadium signage and advertising increases.

The most interesting thing about the Mets, per se, is they generated a whopping $393 million in revenue last season and spent a total of $356 million on players, which included the luxury tax penalty they had to pay.

They actually reported a "loss" of almost $300 million in 2024, somehow.

That math seems a little fishy to me, but whatever.

Here in Baltimore, though, "greed" takes on a completely different meaning.

In 2023, the O's generated a total of $328 million in revenue and, get this, spent a total of $116 million in payroll in 2024.

Now, it's obviously very fair to point out that the picture in Baltimore is somewhat disjointed because of the recent ownership change. We all know how it worked under the Angelos regime. The club generated hundreds of millions in profits and with the exception of a few years here and there, presented the city of Baltimore with a supremely inferior product on the field.

That's greed.

At least it is to me.

The jury is out on how David Rubenstein is going to proceed as the owner of the team.

I think he's going to be a good owner. People in the community that I know and trust who are friends or business associates of Rubenstein's tell me he's a quality man and is in this for all the right reasons.

I hope that's true.

So far, though, I can't say I've been overly impressed.

Maybe it's the rising salaries that are scaring him. I don't know.

He might be wide-eyed now at the Mets forking over $765 million for Soto, but he won't be surprised in four years when Gunnar Henderson becomes the first athlete to ever sign a contract for one billion dollars and Gunnar is standing there in the Bronx holding up a Yankees jersey talking about how he also wanted to follow in the footsteps of his childhood idol, Derek Jeter.

I mean, yes, sure, Mr. Rubenstein gave away free beers on opening day and danced around on the dugout like a Cub Scout who was at the game with his troop from Bel Air and he was Mr. Splash once or twice as well.

But his first real order of business as an owner was to tweak the team's ticketing platform and effectively say to the fans of the team, "You're going to have to pay more and get less."

I tend to file that stuff under "greed".

You couldn't wait 18 months to give the fan base the red-hot-poker in the eye?

If you didn't raise prices in '25, were you really going to be shortchanging yourself?

What's the difference between the club making $200 million and $180 million? I know the math: $20 million.

$20 million is $20 million, but it's all relative. $20 million to Rubenstein is like $200 to you and I. It leaves your bank account and you don't think anything of it again.

And I know what the stock answer is: "Rubenstein has to answer to his minority partners." All of them, of course, are looking for a return on their investment, which, it's worth remembering, was negligible compared to Rubenstein's.

Once again, "greed" sets in. Every minority partner of a sports franchise has more than enough money already. No one takes their life savings of $5 million and hands it over to a majority owner, then has to eat Ramen noodles and downgrade to a 1,700 foot condominium because they handed over their last nickel to be a small owner of the (insert team name here).

So, yes, maybe this season your return is only, say, $300,000 on your investment. Last year it was $365,000, but this year the club spent more on players and, with that, they didn't gouge the fan base and didn't raise the ad rates and you're "only" making $300,000 this year instead of $365,000.

You'll surive.

Greed drives all of that stuff.

The owner forked over $1.7 billion for the team so, yes, he has the "right" to make money on it. The thing is, it's pretty much just like buying a house. You buy it today for $400,000 and one month later, it's worth $410,000. All you did for a month was live in it and the value of the house has already gone up.

Rubenstein hasn't done anything yet as the owner of the team and the value of the Orioles today is higher than it was the day he bought the franchise from Peter Angelos.

So, when the topic of paying for players comes up -- not who it is, per se, but just the idea of spending money on better players -- I always say, "Yes, do it. Please."

Isn't that why you charge us $80 to sit in the box seats in the first place? Isn't that why a hot dog that costs you, eh, maybe 40 cents, has to be sold for $8.00?

Aren't we, the fans, paying for the players in the first place?

Every time we watch a game on TV, we're chipping in.

Every time we buy a ticket, we're chipping in.

Every ad that's bought on MASN helps fund the player payroll.

Every hat or tee shirt or replica jersey we buy is, in fact, "chipping in".

At 35,000 feet, it just looks like David Rubenstein is the owner and that's that.

But closer to the ground -- at drone level (too soon?) -- all he's really doing is spending the money we give him to spend.

It's only his team because he had the $1.7 billion to hand over on transaction day with the Angelos family.

He spent that money, though, assuming he was going to get it back from all of us down the road.

And, so, if I'm going to give him money, I'd much prefer he buy baseball players with it than put it in his own pocket.

He has enough money already.

Give us a winning baseball team. We, the fans who fund all the fun you're having, would like to be greedy for a couple of years, too.

Friday December 13, 2024

#DMD

Issue #3764

what is "winning" to you?

A nice little brouhaha broke out here yesterday, I see.

It's not the first time you guys have bickered here. And it won't be the last.

I don't have to highlight the names of those of you who got in the mix yesterday. It's not really who said it, but more what was said that matters.

The Orioles, of course, have this unique ability to agitate us to no end.

If you're old, like me, you haven't seen a World Series here since 1983.

1983.

I shake my head even now when I think about it.

The Orioles haven't been helped by the Ravens, either. They showed up here in 1996 and have won two Super Bowls since then and have been legit contenders for other league titles at least three other times.

Other than 2014, when the Birds mysteriously made it to the ALCS, they haven't been close to a title over the last 25 years.

The Nationals actually have a World Championship in the last decade. Let that marinate for a second.

But the O's have been decent in the last two seasons. There are no two ways about that. They won the A.L. East in 2023 but got blitzed in the playoffs three straight games by Texas. Last October, they qualified as an A.L. Wild Card team but quietly rolled over into the fetal position in a two-game sweep at the hands of the Royals.

Now what?

Some people want the Orioles to improve by spending money on free agents.

A quick scan of the most recent champions would indicate that some degree of, shall we say, "advanced spending", is necessary in order to win a World Series.

I don't know what the magic number is, payroll wise. In fact, there might not be a magic number. But good players aren't cheap. Great players, in fact, are expensive.

The issue at hand amongst the fan base is complex, but fairly simple to lay out: Are you happy with 90-win seasons and trips to the playoffs? Or do you yearn for more? And to what range do you think the organization should go to reach the top of the baseball world?

The answer is varied depending on who you are and what you want from the team. 90-win teams and playoff seasons are nice. Those kinds of campaigns are better, let's say, than 60-win seasons and empty summers, which O's fans were all too familiar with from 2000 through 2011 and again from 2017 through 2022.

But once you get to those 90-win campaigns and you then watch the team flatline in the post-season two straight years, you realize even those seasons leave you feeling like nothing much was accomplished.

Major League Baseball isn't quite like American Idol, but it's close. No one cares all that much about who finishes second.

The biggest social quandary we face these days is the deep, unrelenting need to be right.

I don't know when that officially became an American virus, but it's been here for a while and everyone catches it at some point.

Those of you here yesterday bickering about the O's off-season have been infected with it for sure.

Some of you think the way for the O's to improve is to spend $350 million on players this off-season. And you might very well be right.

Corbin Burnes is still out there. And he's available for a price. The "right price", of course, but available nonetheless.

If he wants $260 million for 6 years, just give it to him.

If there's someone else out there who can make the team better, give them their $90 million for 3 or 4 years and let's roll on. Maybe that's Anthony Santander?

The problem is, if they spend $350 million on players and finish 3rd, what happens then?

Then there are those who don't see the benefit of spending $350 million on players because the team has done such a good job of drafting and molding kids into bonafide Major League professionals.

And those people want to be right, too. "I think this is the way to run a baseball team and I want to be right about it."

I am not a baseball expert. I once ran a soccer team. I'm not sure I even qualified as a "soccer expert", but we compiled our most successful teams in a variety of ways; drafting good, young players, re-signing veterans of our own that we wanted to keep, and either trading for or signing veteran players to complete our roster.

In the end, there was no cookie cutter way to do it, just like there's no real cookie-cutter way to produce a championship roster in baseball.

I do think you need to have great players on your roster in order to compete for championships.

How you get those guys is the fun part.

But the White Sox didn't have any great players last season and the Dodgers had 4 or 5 of them and, well, you know how both of those teams fared.

The big question at the end of it all is, of course, what constitutes "winning" in your mind?

As a fan, what satisfies you?

Is it World Series or bust?

Playoffs or bust?

We all look at it differently.

If the Ravens don't make the Super Bowl this year, I assume everyone will consider the 2024 campaign a "failure".

Were you satisfied with the last two baseball seasons? Winning 90-plus games and making the playoffs twice in succession?

Or did those campaigns only drive you to want more for the Orioles?

Watching Texas sweep us and then watching the Royals grind us into the ground in 36 hours wasn't really all that much fun.

It was fun over the summer getting to that point, sure.

But flatlining like they did in October? It ruined what were otherwise memorable seasons.

At least to me.

Some people might not care that 90-win seasons ended in playoff futility. I get that. There were times when I was in the soccer business where we won division titles and then got bounced early in the post-season and I'd cling to that theory of "We had a great year overall, we just didn't come through in the playoffs."

In the end, particularly when you haven't seen a World Series in Baltimore since 1983, you want to feel like the organization is experiencing the same level of frustration as the fan base.

And when you don't see the club forking over big money -- money that they have, available to spend -- you start to slowly lose faith.

I don't want to be right about the Orioles.

I just want them to win the World Series again in my lifetime.

And I know they can't do it without great players.

How they get those great players in Baltimore is their responsibility.

If they get them, we can applaud them for that.

And if they don't get them, we can thumb our nose at them.

After all, if they're not trying to get better...how are they actually going to get better?

I hate to be the one to say this in advance of Sunday's blowout win in New York, but if the Ravens somehow lose to the Giants it would mark the worst loss in the John Harbaugh era.

This is not a game the Ravens should lose or can lose.

Yes, I've heard of "on any given Sunday". That applies -- this season -- to the Ravens playing a division rival like the Browns or a better-than-advertised Eagles team.

"On any given Sunday" does not apply to this season's version of the New York Giants. They're a JV team playing against the varsity.

I know Harbaugh isn't going to prepare his team by enforcing upon them the idea that a loss on Sunday would be the absolute worst of his coaching stint in Baltimore.

But I do hope he stresses to his team that this Sunday is not a day to look past the Giants.

I can look past the Giants. I'm not playing in the game.

The Ravens? They can't look past the Giants. They have to win, by any score, really. A blowout would be nice, but so, too, would 20-19.

If they go up there to the Meadowlands and stub their toe......

Well, you already know what I'm going to say about it.

Glenn Clark is at it again this holiday season. I tag along like a caddie on a golf course, occasionally throwing grass in the air and saying, "Add 5 yards for the wind in our face, boss."

As most of you know, since way back in 2010, Clark and I have been involved in a holiday "event" to benefit our friends at Helping Up Mission in downtown Baltimore.

For years we collected coats and winter apparel and gave that away during the Christmas season.

In recent years, at the request of Helping Up, we've shifted to a more streamlined effort where he we just turn over as much as we can in the form of men's "toiletries", we'll call it.

That includes soaps, shampoos, deodorant, underwear, shaving accessories and, basically, anything a man would use to get up and get going in the morning.

The guys at Helping Up Mission are there to re-start their journey. Waking up every morning with fresh underwear and basic toiletry items goes a long way in helping them on their road to recovery.

You and I take a new toothbrush, shampoo and deodorant for granted. The guys at Helping Up Mission need that stuff. They don't take it for granted in the least.

In order to purchase those items, we need money, of course. That's where you hopefully come in.

Once again this year, Clark is hosting a college bowl game "pick 'em contest" where you select the winners of the various college bowl games. If you don't know anything about college football, you can still enter. And maybe even win. Don't let your lack of knowledge of college football get in the way of your heart!

Details? You want details on how to enter and donate to help us help the men at Helping Up Mission? I'm glad you asked.

You can go right here and get all the details!

Please take a minute today and enter the contest. We need you. And so does Helping Up Mission.

faith in sports

When someone asks me if I have a definining "Faith in Sports" story, it's always the one you're going to see below.

And I try to run it here around this time every year because it happened, originally, in early December when Florida was playing a late season game.

It's the Tim Tebow 3:16 story.

If you've never seen this, please take 9 mintues today and check it out.

And if you have seen it, it's always worth a re-watch. I watched it again last night as I was preparing this edition of #DMD.

Some of you might call it coincidence.

I call it's "God's providence".

Tim Tebow was already a believer. But what happened to him with the John 3:16 story gave him even more faith.

The message is incredible. So, too, is the story.

Please take 9 minutes today to watch this. It's amazing. God is great indeed!

Thursday December 12, 2024

#DMD

Issue #3763

reading time: 3 minutes

OK, so this chase for starting pitching isn't going so well for the Orioles.

Yesterday, it was Garrett Crochet who got away. The White Sox shipped him off to Boston for four prospects. Only time will tell if one or both teams made the right move.

Chicago was terrible last year and Crochet was arguably their most effective player. So they're not really risking anything by getting rid of him. You can't finish worse than last place, after all.

Boston really needs starting pitching. Whether Crochet, a lefty, is a world beater at Fenway Park remains to be seen. If nothing else, give the Red Sox credit for attacking one of their more glaring off-season needs.

So the Birds have now sorta-kinda lost out on four prospective pitching additions; Crochet, Nathan Eovaldi, Blake Snell and Max Fried.

I'm still clinging to the slim-but-possible re-signing of Corbin Burnes. The fact that his value is well in excess of the $218 million secured by Max Fried is likely problematic with the O's organization.

But Burnes is starting to see his list of potential suitors dwindle with each passing day. I'm still hopeful he somehow winds up back in Charm City.

I also assume it's likely not happening. But allow me to dream until he's standing there holding up a Giants jersey and saying, "I've always wanted to be in San Francisco."

If Burnes does go elsewhere, then there's not much left to do, pitching wise, except perhaps snag someone like Sean Manaea or Michael Lorenzen, both of whom are potential candidates to someday be in the Hall of Had A Good Year Once.

It's starting to get frustrating, I know.

There's been this much-discussed window in Baltimore. Some water-carriers for the organization contend '23 and '24 were just "tune up years" for the upcoming halcyon days, where the crop of young players all come together in perfect unison at the same time to lead the O's to the promised land.

At some point, though, it can't just be about young players. As exciting as guys like Gunnar, Holliday, Westburg and Cowser are, there's a need for something more than those four.

Thus far, the O's haven't really added anyone of real substance in the last 24 months other than Burnes, who came over from Milwaukee last winter for D.L. Hall and Joey Ortiz.

Patience levels vary around town. On a 1-to-10, with 10 being "I'm at my wit's end", I'm probably only a "6" at this point. There are some who are at 9 and even 10. Others are in the 3-4 range.

The proof, of course, is ultimately in the pudding, as the saying goes.

If you don't try to get better, how can you get better?

I have no idea if Bill Belichick is going to be any good as a college football coach, but if you made me put $5 of your money on it, I'd guess he's either two-and-done or three-and-done.

Belichick agreed to a 5-year deal with UNC yesterday. It still has to be approved by the school's Board of Trustees, which is akin to saying your Home Owners Association has to approve U2 playing at the annual community fair next August.

My guess? He'll never be able to deal with these hired guns coming around for a year, giving 80% to the program, then bolting for another school when one of the coaches yells at them too much in practice.

I know Belichick knows football. And maybe he'll actually do more "coaching" in the college ranks than he could do in the NFL, where most of the star players, A) make more money than the coach and, B) think they know more than the coach.

But this seems like an ill-fitting move for the future NFL Hall of Fame coach. The joke on Twitter yesterday included a picture of his 20-something girlfriend with the caption: "Bill has already showed us he can recruit college talent." That was funny and all. But is Belichick really going to roam around the country and try to convince 18-year old kids they should move to Chapel Hill and play football for him?

I'd like to see Belichick succeed. I'm a "story guy". Belichick turning UNC football into some sort of national power would be an awesome turn of events. But I'll take the "under" 3.5 years on his length-of-stay with the Tar Heels.

A few people have reached out to me this week with regard to their Oriole ticket plans, as members of the team's sales staff have hit the phones recently in an effort to get full and mini-plan holders to renew for the 2025 campaign.

The three who contacted me all have the same basic dispute with the club: The price of their seats increased and their benefits actually decreased.

I wrote this back in August when word first seeped out of the changes to the 2025 ticket plans. And it still stands true today: I'm not sure why David Rubenstein wouldn't have allowed at least year of ownership to come and go before aggravating the most supportive group of people in his team's fan base.

Why on earth you'd stick it to your ticket plan holders is beyond me.

I'm certainly not a fan of "gouging" anyone, but if you're going to produce a new ticketing program, the people who should be the most inconvenienced are the ones who wait until the very last minute to buy.

The airline industry has long been lauded for the conventional way they sell their product. Buy early and pay the best price. Wait until the last minute and you get hammered.

Season tickets and mini-plans should be the same way. The people who sign up on day one get the very best deal. And for the most part, they do. The Orioles have a robust "multi-tiered" approach to their ticketing efforts. But raising prices and removing benefits isn't the way to go for an ownership group that is effectively still in the first year of their existence.

If you want to make the "walk up" customer pay the most and get the least amount of benefits, that makes complete sense. If someone sees 82 and sunny on Friday night and decides at 4:30 pm to stroll up to the ticket window and ask for "two good ones down low", they should pay more than anyone else paid for that ticket.

And they shouldn't get a discount on food, parking, beer, tee shirts, etc. Your early-bird ticket plan holders should reap those benefits. Every time.

I understand it's a business. "Rubenstein is in it to make money", his defenders will say. I get that. Alas, he started "making money" the day he bought the team, what with the league and local TV revenues rolling in contrasted against the club's paltry player payroll he both assumed and continues to oversee and manage.

Raising prices to pay players? Understandable. But sticking it to your most loyal customers, the folks who pay up front and pledge to be there 13, 29 or 81 times next year? That's a swing-and-a-miss.

Glenn Clark is at it again this holiday season. I tag along like a caddie on a golf course, occasionally throwing grass in the air and saying, "Add 5 yards for the wind in our face, boss."

As most of you know, since way back in 2010, Clark and I have been involved in a holiday "event" to benefit our friends at Helping Up Mission in downtown Baltimore.

For years we collected coats and winter apparel and gave that away during the Christmas season.

In recent years, at the request of Helping Up, we've shifted to a more streamlined effort where he we just turn over as much as we can in the form of men's "toiletries", we'll call it.

That includes soaps, shampoos, deodorant, underwear, shaving accessories and, basically, anything a man would use to get up and get going in the morning.

The guys at Helping Up Mission are there to re-start their journey. Waking up every morning with fresh underwear and basic toiletry items goes a long way in helping them on their road to recovery.

You and I take a new toothbrush, shampoo and deodorant for granted. The guys at Helping Up Mission need that stuff. They don't take it for granted in the least.

In order to purchase those items, we need money, of course. That's where you hopefully come in.

Once again this year, Clark is hosting a college bowl game "pick 'em contest" where you select the winners of the various college bowl games. If you don't know anything about college football, you can still enter. And maybe even win. Don't let your lack of knowledge of college football get in the way of your heart!

Details? You want details on how to enter and donate to help us help the men at Helping Up Mission? I'm glad you asked.

You can go right here and get all the details!

Please take a minute today and enter the contest. We need you. And so does Helping Up Mission.

The Caitlin Clark "white privilege" story that has surfaced this week will no doubt create more waves when the Time Magazine publication hits newstands with Clark being selected as their "Athlete of the Year".

The two stories are not one and the same. Clark's assertion she's been the benefactor of white privilege in her college and pro career has nothing, really, to do with the fact that she should be a viable candidate for 2024 Athlete of the Year.

I have no idea how Time chose her. Why not Shohei Ohtani? Why not Scottie Scheffler? Ohtani had, arguably, one of the best offensive years in the history of baseball. Scheffler won 9 golf tournaments in 10 months.

You could even make an argument for Patrick Mahomes, I suppose. He won the Super Bowl last February and has essentially lost one football game thus far in the entire year of 2024.

I don't know how Clark was picked over those three, but I also know how the media works and Time Magazine is primarily in business to do one thing; sell magazines.

Clark might not have been a "better" or more successful athlete than any of those three I listed above, but I'd say for certain her "story" will generate more media push and social media activity than the other three.

And to that end, I say Time isn't really looking for the best athlete. They're looking for the best story.

Clark's claim in the Time interview that she's been the benefactor of white privilege would probably carry more weight if, in fact, she wasn't all that great at basketball.

She's a remarkable player. Where she ranks among the WNBA best-of-the-best right now, I have no clue. I couldn't name 5 players in the league, frankly.

But her message about the "privilege" issue within the WNBA seems to be more about the attention all players get, not just her. Clark gets attention because she's a great player. Not because she's white. If she were an average white basketball player scoring 5 points per-game and bouncing around from team to team, no one would care.

The counter-point to that asks this question: If Caitlin Clark were an African American WNBA rookie averaging 20 points per-game and taking the league by storm, would Time or anyone else care?

I don't know the answer to that, but I'm guessing it would be "no". But that brings us back to the other question.

"If Caitlin Clark happened to be a middle-of-the-road white WNBA player averaging 5 points per game, would Time or anyone else care?

But she was far from "middle of the road". She was the league's Rookie of the Year and appears on the fast track to someday vying for the WNBA's MVP award if the stars line up for her.

The whole story is an interesting topic for sure, which, I'll say again, is probably one of the biggest reasons why Time selected her for the award.

"I want to say I’ve earned every single thing, but as a white person, there is privilege," Clark said in the interview. "A lot of those players in the league that have been really good have been black players. This league has kind of been built on them. The more we can appreciate that, highlight that, talk about that, and then continue to have brands and companies invest in those players that have made this league incredible, I think it’s very important. I have to continue to try to change that. The more we can elevate black women, that’s going to be a beautiful thing."

Clark and her Indiana team drew sell out crowds all over the league because she is a generational talent. Have there been other players of color in the league over the years with similar talents? For sure. If they didn't generate the same level of scrutiny and support as her, is that more about the league itself or more about the way basketball-loving America follows the WNBA?

I don't know the answer to that question because I'm not really a basketball-loving-American who follows the WNBA. Or the NBA for that matter.

The real issue in the WNBA is about marketing and promotion. They have found a key piece to the puzzle with Clark.

Maybe Time Magazine inadvertenly proved the point Clark was trying to make.

I don't know the history of Time's "Athlete of the Year", but I'm almost certain they've never before featured a WNBA player as their annual award winner.

If not, why haven't they?

And if not, why Clark? Why now? Because she's white? Or because she wasn't afraid to help Time sell magazines?

Either way, Time might be making Clark's point for her.

Wednesday December 11, 2024

#DMD

Issue #3762

fried about fried?

So, a few weeks ago on Saturday Night Live, in the aftermath of the Presidential election, Bill Burr quipped during a hilarious 8-minute monologue: "OK ladies, you're 0 and 2 against this guy."

I laughed at that one.

On Twitter yesterday, someone said the same thing about the Orioles and their off-season chase for starting pitching help: "Well, now we're 0-2 this off-season."

I didn't laugh so much yesterday.

The Twitter contributor was referring to Blake Snell, whom many believed might sign with the Orioles, and Max Fried, who joined the Yankees yesterday on a 8-year, $218 million deal.

For those keeping track at home, Snell signed a 5-year, $182 million contract with the Giants last month.

And then late last night, the news came out of Texas that Nathan Eovaldi was re-signing with the Rangers for 3 years and $75 million.

So, sure, the O's might be 0-for-3 now instead of 0-2. I have no idea if they wanted Snell or Fried, but I would hope they'd see value in either or both of those guys.

Eovaldi is OK. He's on the 15th hole of his career. $25 million for him seems a tad high, but paying $6.00 for a coffee product that has roughly 55 cents of actual "stuff" in it is also kind of crazy.

I know what you might be thinking: Don't we have Trevor Rogers?

Well, yes we do. And your point is?

And I know what else you're probably thinking: What happened to "lift-off" and "we're going to be very active in the market" and "this ownership group will spend the money necessary to compete" and all that other stuff?

I get it.

$182 million for Snell. $218 million for Fried. Sure, that's a lot of money to you and I. But neither of those figures are outlandish, out-of-this-world salaries in Major League Baseball.

So, yes, it's a little frustrating to see two quality pitchers not choose Baltimore. And that's presupposing the O's were interested in them, of course.

But here's the truth as it relates to Snell and Fried. They were both probably always going where they wound up going.

The Dodgers are the Dodgers and the Yankees are the Yankees.

And the Orioles are.......yes......still the Orioles.

There's not much else to say there. You're talking about two of the most prestigious teams in the sport, with gazillions of dollars to spend, with arguably the #1 (Ohtani) and #2 (Judge) most impactful players in the game today.

And no matter what we see, here in Baltimore, from 5,000 feet, the reality is the Orioles franchise is probably still giggled at by most Major League free agents.

A guy just trying to keep making good money might look at the Orioles and say, "Sure, why not?"

Someone like Max Fried might look at the O's and say, "Ummm, why?"

It's also fair to remember that a guy like Blake Snell once toiled with the Rays and saw, firsthand, what it's like to play for a team that doesn't spend money on baseball players.

His agent might have said, "You have the Dodgers interested and the Orioles interested. Both will sign you tomorrow for the money we're seeking."

And Snell, to that, would have remarked: "Which airport am I flying into for the press conference? LAX or John Wayne?"

Veteran pitcher Sean Manaea -- he's available, in case you didn't know -- might see the Birds as a team on the rise who could catch lightning in a bottle like Counting Crows did with August and Everything After and say, "That might be a fun place to hang out for a couple of years."

Snell sees the Dodgers for what they are: perennial World Series contenders

Fried sees the Yankees in the same way: a franchise that will always be in the hunt because their fans and the market demands it.

I said since last summer Fried was the one arm I wanted the O's to pursue. And maybe they did, for all I know.

But in the end, Fried did what nearly every smart baseball-businssman would do. He went where the money is and the winning is most likely going to be as well.

There's still the possibility of Corbin Burnes staying in Baltimore. I look at him like I look at the idea that Oasis is going to make it through their entire 2025 tour intact without one of the brothers quitting and not finishing the schedule.

Burnes is probably signing elsewhere just like one of the Gallaghers is probably quitting. But until it happens, you hold out hope that it might not.

And here's where I'll continue to cling to a sliver of hope that the O's might still somehow wind up with Burnes. He's not going to the Dodgers, Yankees or Rangers, all of whom have the money to throw $300 million at the former Cy Young winner. You have to also imagine the Mets are out of the running after giving $765 million to Juan Soto.

So, who then, is left? Boston? The Cubs? Maybe the Giants still? Toronto, perhaps? How about Atlanta now that they've officially lost Max Fried?

If Burnes does sign elsewere, the Birds are in a pinch.

The Garrett Crochet trade stories are still floating around, but based on what industry experts say the O's would have to give up to get him, you have to assume he's not coming to Baltimore.

At some point along the way, whether it's this off-season, during the summer of '25, or, perhaps, even next off-season, Mike Elias and David Rubenstein are going to have to do something that's borderline spectacular in order to convince the Baltimore baseball community they're not charlatans.

"Spectacular" wouldn't be Manaea. Spectacular would be Burnes. Or would have been Fried, perhaps.

"Spectacular" might be a deal for Crochet or Framber Valdez of the Astros, who is reportedly available this winter.

But the over-promise, under-deliver theme we've seen so far will only last so long until people start to get really agitated.

I'm an Elias guy. I've said that here a lot. But money talks and that other thing walks.

And so...here we are. Sean Manaea, you're the next man up.

Don't make it 0-for-4, please.

Tiger Woods made it official on Tuesday and for golf enthusiasts all over the country, Christmas came a little early.

Tiger will be teeing it up with his son, Charlie, in the annual PGA Tour "silly season" event -- now officially called the PNC Championship -- that permits parents to play in the 36-hole tournament with their child, step child or grand child.

The tournament is the weekend of December 21-22 in Orlando, Florida.

This will be the 5th time the dad and prodigy-son will play in the event, but as Charlie has grown and improved, Tiger has seen both his health and game decline.

After not playing last weekend in the Bahamas in the Hero World Challenge -- the event Tiger runs and "owns", for all intents and purposes -- Tiger was hesitant about obligating himself to the parent-child tournament.

"I'm just not sure I'll be able to do it," Tiger said last week. "If I'm physically capable of playing, that's one thing. But is my game sharp enough to play and help (Charlie) him out? That's what I have to figure out."

A week later, Tiger figured it out. He's playing.

No, it wouldn't count as an official win. And, yes, it's pretty much hit-and-giggle stuff for two days, where Tiger will be afforded the luxury of riding in a golf cart, as will all of the other parents/participants.

I still don't see Tiger playing any kind of "real" schedule on the PGA Tour in 2025. A tournament in California in February? Maybe one in Florida in March? Almost assuredly he'll play the Masters in April. And from there, who knows?

But just to have Tiger back out there in two weeks in the Parent-Child is awesome. That we get to see him compete with his son is even better.

What a nice early Christmas gift this is, huh?

I did want to address two comments on Tuesday that were a violation of our very-soft-posting-policies here and subsequently were removed from the site.

In no way at all was the content I posted about the situation involving Luigi Mangione and the Mangione family intended to "glorify" the alleged killer of the United HealthCare CEO.

I have no problem at all promoting the great work of the Mangione family for the 40-plus years that I've known members of that Baltimore family.

I think what Luigi Mangione (allegedly) did was heinous. I'm quite certain his immediate and extended family echo that sentiment. No one -- at least not me, for sure -- is in support of the murder of the insurance executive, no matter how disjointed or nefarious the health insurance world might be.

But I can and will separate what Luigi might be guilty of from the great work and civic endeavors that the Mangione family has been part of for the last four-plus decades.

Anyone posting commentary here about the incident in New York and or Luigi or the Mangione family needs to abide by our relatively-simple posting rules: No foul language and no racial, gender or ethnic slurs will be tolerated.

We are a website that proudly allows for open and varied opinions as long as they fit within our standards.

The two comments I removed yesterday were out of line. One of the commenters angrily posted a rebuttal and asked, "Who are you to censor us?"

I own the website. I procure the marketing partners you see here. It's my business. And when I see something I'm not proud of or willing to personally endorse here, I have the authority to remove it.

Not much gets removed here. So, when it does, you know you've crossed the line.

And, always, I make it a special point to thank those of you who come here and post within our modest boundaries. You are appreciated.

Tuesday December 10, 2024

#DMD

Issue #3761

heartbreaking

Like a lot of you, I suppose, I know several members of the Mangione family.

If you're in Baltimore and you've been involved in sports -- particularly soccer -- over the last 40 years, you almost assuredly ran into one of the family members along the way.

You might have played sports with one of them.

Might have gone to school with one of them.

Might have done work with them through one of their various Baltimore-based businesses.

I know several of the Mangione sons very well. Most of them were contemporaries of mine, age wise.

Yesterday's news that the alleged gunman of the United HealthCare CEO is Luigi Mangione is simply shocking. And heartbreaking.

Baltimore has a significant number of "royal families", if you will. Their names are all over town, on schools, hospitals, homeless shelters and other locations where philanthropy is needed to keep them afloat.

The Mangione family has been "royalty" in town for well over four decades.

They've been generous "givers" of their time, talent and treasure to a variety of civic endeavors and have employed hundreds of Baltimoreans through their golf courses, radio station, hotel and construction companies.

I've always known the Mangione family to be proud of their family heritage and equally proud to be contributors to the improvement of Baltimore and the state of Maryland.

They are, as we here in Baltimore are apt to say, "good people".

That they're now having to deal with this tragedy is so heartbreaking. One family, that of the health care CEO who was killed, have already had their lives turned upside down. And now the Mangione family has to deal with their own form of living hell.

There are, of course, a subset of stories associated with this incident. It's apparently about the health care industry. And the way corporations use time and the upper hand to wear down people who otherwise deserve to be treated with more dignity.

Luigi Mangione was reportedly frustrated with the insurance industry.

But murder and taking matters into your own hands is never the answer.

Anyone who is a parent of a child can only imagine the horror in the Mangione family today.

There's so much pain.

I'm praying for God to help ease the agony and mourning of everyone involved, both in the Thompson family and the Mangione family.

There continues to be a lot of internet angst about the Orioles and their lack of doing much so far in the Hot Stove campaign.

I don't get it.

They were never, ever getting Juan Soto. I mean, beyond zero called and said, "There's really no chance."

Would Blake Snell have been a nice addition to the staff? Sure. Maybe. But let's be honest. If the Dodgers call and the Orioles call, there's not much to think about.

The other big high profile signing thus far, Willy Adames, plays shortstop. Not sure if you know this, but.......the O's already have a pretty good shortstop.

Tyler O'Neill is a decent pick-up for the O's. He has what the team needs; power from the right hand side of the plate.

The ultimate verdict on his acquisition is a full season away, at least. It will almost assuredly center on his health and how many games he plays in 2025. If he makes two or three trips to the injured list, which admittedly has been his M.O., and only plays in 105 games or so, it's not a great move.

I like that Elias got out in front of Santander bolting for greener pastures. In the past, the Birds would have made some sort of token, slap-in-the-face offer to a guy like Santander. He would have laughed at it, then signed elsewhere a few days later for $25 million more than the O's waved in his direction.

About five weeks after that, the O's would have signed some half-a-washed-up veteran that they hope, privately, "can bounce back to the kind of player he was a couple of years ago."

Now, Elias knows Santander's not sticking around. So he goes out and gets O'Neill right away, perhaps even saving a few bucks by avoiding the leverage issue that comes with waiting around.

And if O'Neill stays healthy in '25 and winds up playing in 150 games, his 35 HR's will be more than enough for all of us to say, "That was a nice move by Elias last winter."

Gary Sanchez is a nothing-burger, really. He'll be around until Samuel Basallo is ready to be a Major Leaguer. And on the off chance the O's deal Basallo to the White Sox as part of a trade for Garrett Crochet, then Sanchez will get a season in Baltimore and not much more than that.

Do the O's need to do more this off-season? Well, sure, that would be nice. But as we've been saying here since the playoff loss to the Royals, there aren't really a whole lot of openings in Baltimore's roster.

It's Mountcastle and O'Hearn at first base unless Mounty gets packaged in a deal this winter.

Holliday is at second. Gunnar's at short. Westburg's at third.

It's Cowser (left), Mullins (center) and O'Neill (right) in the outfield, with either Kjerstad or Mayo serving as the fourth outfielder.

There's just not much to fill.

If Corbin Burnes signs on with another team, like we all assume he will, then, yes, the O's need another (quality) starting pitcher.

Nathan Eovaldi seems like the logical choice. If Elias doesn't want to give up 3 or 4 high prospects to shake Crochet loose from the White Sox, then a free agent veteran like Eovaldi makes sense.

The bullpen needs patched up. That's for sure. I'm still not 100% sure opening day will come and go without either Coulombe or Webb on the staff. At least one of them will be back with the O's by April.

But even then, there's still a need for more quality in the bullpen. Yes, Felix Bautista is back in 2025. And that's good. But at least two more reliable bullpen arms are needed.

So, you might be jacked up right now about what the O's have done (not a whole lot) or haven't done (not to be overly concerned with).

I think they knew they were going to lose the two guys they're presumably going to lose, Santander and Burnes, and now they're trying to figure out how to replace them. Santander has effectively been swapped for O'Neill.

O'Neill, when healthy, is Santander in disguise.

Sanchez for McCann isn't a great swap, in my opinion, but Sanchez is on a short leash. If he's a 60-game flop, he'll never see June 1st in Baltimore.

Let's see what happens with the pitching. Max Fried, as I've been saying for the better part of 7 months now, is the most natural fit of the free agents. Whether the O's want to play at the $500 per-hand poker table is the obvious issue. Let's see if they're going to play with the big boys for once.

But until the dust settles and the free agent list gets down to zero, I say we give Mike Elias the benefit of the doubt.

I think he's earned that over the last six years.

In some ways, I wish the Ravens were playing someone other than the Giants this weekend. Sure, they're gonna win and 9-5 is better than 8-5.

But if you're going to play someone coming off of your bye, wouldn't you want it to be a team that matters? Like the Steelers. Or the Texans.

Alas, the schedule is out and the game in New York is set for this Sunday. We can't change that.

So the Ravens will have to blow those guys out 36-13 and then get ready for that visit by the Steelers on Saturday the 21st. The AFC North will likely come down to that game.

The Steelers go to Philadelphia this Sunday. I'm chalking up an Eagles win in that one, but I also feel like one of those two teams is due for an unexpected toe stub. It could be the Eagles who falter. Who knows?

But if Pittsburgh loses to fall to 10-4, then the Ravens will go into the December 21st game at 9-5 and just one game behind.

If Baltimore wins that one to pull even, there's a 2-game sprint to the finish line that follows.

Pittsburgh will finish the season hosting Kansas City and Cincinnati.

The Ravens travel to Houston before finishing the campaign with a visit from Cleveland.

Pittsburgh has a huge game in Philadelphia this Sunday.

And then the marbles get rolled out and the Ravens might have the division on their racket on December 21st.

If nothing else, it's gonna be fun.

Monday December 9, 2024

#DMD

Issue #3760

monday q and a

Man, Maryland had 'em right where they wanted 'em yesterday in West Lafayette, Indiana.

Alas, Purdue was just a little better in the game's final ten minutes and the Terps dropped their first conference game of the season to the #8 team in the country.

The final was 83-78 in favor of the Boilermakers. It was a 4 point game with a half minute left in regulation. In other words, it went right down to the wire.

Derik Queen was once again a beast for Kevin Willard's team with 26 points, but it's fair to point out, as a number of keen basketball observers did on the internet, that the freshman's work on the defensive end of the court needs a little work. One national pundit said Queen looked "timid" in the second half.

He certainly isn't timid offensively, though. Queen is a complete terror when he wants to score. I saw someone on Twitter quip: "Derik Queen is what Diamond Stone thought he was going to be."

Spot on.

When's the last time Maryland had a guy like Queen? Yes, yes, I know he's probably only going to be around this season and that's it. But at least he's "our" guy and not someone we had to coax to come to town via the transfer portal.

Maryland will be the only college team Queen ever plays for, I think. Maybe I'm looking for an ultra-silver-lining, but there's something to be said for that.

So, yes, Maryland had a chance yesterday to make a major early-season statement. Instead, it turned into one of those "there's lots of good to take from this" losses where you don't quite do enough to pull off the upset, but you can see the promise in it all.

A lot of the pieces are still untested, including the head coach, but it certainly looks like there's quality up and down the Terps' roster.

We'll see what the future holds for Maryland. This, though, is looking like a team that should definitely be playing on the second weekend of March Madness if all the things we're seeing now continue to develop over the next three-plus months.

---

On to the mailbag we go. As always, if you have a question you'd like to see answered here at #DMD, send it along via e-mail (18inarow@gmail.com) or in the Comments section below.

Bruce asks -- "Given what you seen this season including up to today's games (yesterday's action, on 12/8), give me a reasonable but totally unexpected Super Bowl match-up."

DF says -- "Pittsburgh vs. Green Bay. I don't see any way possible Pittsburgh can string together three straight outstanding performances in January. One side of their ball will flatline in a playoff game. They'll either lose a game 33-30 or 16-13. But if Pickens is healthy in the playoffs and Wilson continues to play like he has...

Again, in no way am I saying I think Pittsburgh's going to the Super Bowl. But you asked for "reasonable but unexpected" and they would fit that profile for sure.

I think Green Bay has the makings of a team that wins two games and then goes into Detroit and nips them in the NFC title game. It's really hard to beat a good team three times, which the Lions would be called to do if they have to play Green Bay again in the playoffs."

Kyle Prosser -- "For your next Q & A, rank these 5 things in order of the most likely to happen first. Ravens go to the Super Bowl. Chiefs get best record but lose in AFC Divisional Round, Lions go to the Super Bowl, Josh Allen wins MVP, Harbaugh fired in Baltimore."

DF says -- "Of those you listed, Lions going to the Super Bowl is the most likely to happen. They're almost assured of playing at home throughout the post-season unless the Eagles catch them.

Josh Allen wins MVP is second. Especially if the Bills somehow finish as the #2 seed in the AFC.

Ravens make the Super Bowl is third. It certainly wouldn't be a shock to see Baltimore get there. They have all the tools and talents.

Chiefs get best record but lose in AFC Divisional round is 4th. The one team I bet K.C. doesn't want to play are the Chargers. But I still don't see them losing that first weekend (assuming they finish #1 and get the bye, of course).

And John Harbaugh getting fired is, by far, the least likely of those things to happen. The only plausible scenario I see is Baltimore hosting Pittsburgh in the Wild Card round and losing at home to the Steelers. That one might get Bisciotti's attention."

Mark Pallet asks -- "Are you in favor of the O's giving Burnes $300 million or more or trading a group of young players that might include Mayo or Kjerstad to the White Sox for Crochet, the lefty pitcher?"

DF says -- "If that's the circumstance and those are the only options I have, I'd rather give Burnes the money because I know, for sure, what I'm getting out of him for the next 3-5 years. Crochet is obviously far less costly, but also far more inexperienced and unproven.

I'm not really in favor of giving a pitcher $300 or $350 million. That said, I get it. That's the going rate for one of the top 10 pitchers in all of baseball. You either give him the $40 million or so a year the market demands or you let someone else give it to him.

Crochet has only been a big league starter for one season. And it was a good year, of course. And he pitched for the White Sox, remember. So, yes, he's cheap and still under control and all that stuff. But you're talking about one season of success vs. a perennial Cy Young contender in Burnes.

Here's my question: Why can't we have both of them?"

Brad asks -- "As we approach the end of 2024, what's your biggest sports surprise of the year?"

DF says -- "Hmmmm. This is a really good question. I have to think about that one a bit and go through all the sports.

You'd have to put the Ravens losing the AFC title game at home and only scoring 10 points in doing so as one of the top surprises for sure. I know that when nicks close to the bone, but it's true.

I think it was a pretty big shock that Rory McIlroy didn't win a major in golf in 2024. He obviously had a great chance at Pinehurst but his putter failed him on the back nine.

In a "good" way, it was nice surprise to see the O's get that kind of sophomore season from Gunnar Henderson. He was in the MVP discussion until the All Star break.

I can't believe I'm saying it, but I guess the biggest surprise of 2024 is that the Ravens were the best team in the AFC all season (granted, in 2023) and had the Super Bowl on their serve and couldn't get it done."

B.C. asks -- "What's your biggest hot take of the Capitals season so far?"

DF says -- "It's a two-part-hot-take: How well Chychrun and Thompson have played. They're not directly responsible for the team's great start, but those two have really helped keep things together. McMichael is obviously off to an awesome start as well. And they're getting some really nice, complimentary play from guys like Mangianpane, Protas and Dubois.

I was comfortable with Lindgren as one of the two goaltenders, but wasn't sure how Logan Thompson would fare. So far, he's been awesome. There's a lot of hockey left, but this team looks like a decent threat to make some noise next spring."

Tim Pines asks -- "You're put in charge of the NFL for one day and you can make any one rule change you want. What would you do?"

DF says -- "Gee, where do I start? I like the one foot in bounds rule, instead of two feet. Maybe that one?

I think throwing a 40 yard pass down the field and getting a pass interference call and the ball then gets put at the spot at the foul...is kind of dumb, too.

This new rule where you have to "announce" an onside kick and it can only happen in the 4th quarter? That's idiotic, too. We could change that one.

But for sure the dumbest rule in the NFL is when you fumble the ball and it goes out of bounds in the end zone (either sideline or endline), the defensive team gets the ball on their own 30 yard line. You can fumble the ball out of bounds on the sideline between the goal-lines and you don't lose the ball. Why should you lose the ball just because you fumbled it in the end zone and it went out of bounds?

So, there you go, that's the rule I'd change. If you fumble the ball in the end zone and it goes out of bounds, the defensive team doesn't get the ball. Want me to competely rewrite the rule? The team that fumbled the ball gets it on the 5 yard line.

Wait, can I change one more? If you're a wide receiver and you're involved in a pass play and you do the "throw the flag" gesture to beg for a call, you get penalized 10 yards, even if a flag was actually thrown on the play. That's the worst thing I see week after week. Receiver does the "throw the flag" gesture and gets the call. I can't stand it."

John L. asks -- "Look into your crystal ball for the 2025 PGA Tour season. Who is this year's Xander from 2024 who wins two majors out of nowhere?"

DF says -- "Well, Xander wasn't really "out of nowhere", but I know what you mean. He'd never won a major before, so for him to win two out of three was pretty shocking.

So, who could that be in 2025? I'll give you two guys. Patrick Cantlay and Sam Burns. I think one of those guys is winning their first major in 2025 and it wouldn't completely stun me to see one of them win twice like "X" did last year.

Then again, I don't know how either of them are going to win a major when Scheffler might win all four."

Marty asks -- "Hey Drew, here's one for your reader Q&A column. Of all the NFL players who were labeled can't miss, what's the saddest story of the current players in the league? My friend and I were discussing this over the weekend and I told him I would reach out and ask you."

DF says -- "Really good question. Two names pop into my mind right away. I don't know that either of these were can't miss, but Trevor Lawrence certainly came into the NFL with super-high expectations.

Lawrence and Kirk Cousins are the first two names. Some of the other young quarterbacks (Fields, Young, Williams) need a chance to prove themselves still.

I thought Lawrence would really lift the Jaguars to new heights. It's not like he's been terrible. He's been good. But he reminds me of Carson Palmer. Great QB in college who simply might have landed with the wrong franchise in his first stop in the pros.

Cousins has made a lot of money, so it's not like he's going to be working at a convenience store in 20 years telling people "that used to be me" when they walk in on a Sunday afternoon and there's an NFL game on the TV in the store.

But at each of his stops, the same theme has played out. Cousins has been equal part great and shockingly mediocre. He came close in Minnesota to making a Super Bowl but it didn't happen. We'll see what happens in Atlanta but it doesn't look good at this point."

Carmen asks -- "OK, DF, I throw this at you every year. What's your official prediction for Tiger in 2025? How many tournaments will he play and how many does he win?"

DF says -- "I'm sorry to report I think it will be more of what we've seen. He'll play in the Genesis in L.A. in February. That will be his first start of the year. He'll go 73-75 and miss the cut. He'll then tee it up at the Masters. He shoots 75-73 there to miss the cut by two shots.

He won't play the PGA.

He'll play the U.S. Open and shoot 78 in the first round, then rebound with 73 in the secound round, but miss the cut.

The final major of the year will see him shoot 70-71 to make the cut on the number. He'll shoot 72-75 on the weekend to finish T57th.

Four majors entered, one cut made.

No other tournaments played. No wins. Still stuck on 82."

Sunday December 8, 2024

#DMD

Issue #3759

the hot stove is......warm?

Somewhere in Paris today, the great James Douglas Morrison turns 81 years old.

That is, if you believe the rumors. Not the ones from the 1980's and 1990's that said Morrison was still alive, but the one from last spring that said Morrison was discovered working in a small art shop in Paris.

Me? I don't buy it. I think he passed away on July 3, 1971 and is buried in Paris, where he died.

But if anyone could somehow fake their own death and manage to pull off a life of desolate secrecy, it's the G.O.A.T.

Morrison was the lead singer of the 1960's/1970's California-based rock bad, The Doors. He drew both acclaim and criticism for his eclectic style and sometimes raucous behavior. Somewhere in there, though, was also one of his era's great songwriters and one of the best "front men" in rock-n-roll history.

Happy Birthday, Jim, wherever you might be.

I'll celebrate today by listening to my favorite Doors album, front to back: Morrison Hotel.

The Orioles got their off-season improvement (?) quest off to a rousing start on Saturday with two signings; oft-injured outfielder Tyler O'Neill and veteran catcher Gary Sanchez.

Unless the tea leaves are being read completely wrong, those signings mean Anthony Santander and James McCann, both extremely valuable members of the '23 and '24 playoff teams, are now ex-Orioles.

O'Neill comes to the O's most recently from Boston, where he put together a very solid season in '24 with 31 home runs 113 games played.

I know what you're thinking: Didn't O'Neill hit 21 of those 31 homers against the O's?

No, he didn't. But it sure felt like he hit just about every game, at least, when the O's met up with the Red Sox last season.

O'Neill spent his first six seasons in St. Louis, where he had one really nice cammpaign ('21) when he collected 34 HR's and 80 RBI for the Cardinals. But he lost favor with the St. Louis front office because of his inability to stay off the injured list (just one full season out of six with the Cardinals) and he joined the Red Sox last year hoping to prove he could stay healthy.

He wasn't able to prove that.

But what he did prove, which is why Mike Elias took a chance on him, is that he's a valuable right handed bat if, in fact, he can stay healthy.

Most of his career has been spent in left field, but he did see 50 games of action in right field for Boston, where presumably he'll be stationed for the Orioles in '25.

O'Neill's signing also means there's probably only room for one more guy in the outfield. Is it going to be Heston Kjerstad or Coby Mayo?

The Birds got O'Neill for just over $16 million per-season. It will be interesting to see what Anthony Santander eventually gets when he signs with a new team. Once that news is public, we'll see what the baseball analysts say about swapping O'Neill for Santander.

Gary Sanchez used to be good a decade or so ago. Well, eight years ago, exactly, which is when he was 2nd in 2016 Rookie of the Year voting after 20 HR/42 RBI campaign with the Yankees.

He comes to Baltimore to take the spot previously occupied by James McCann. This will sound weird, I know, because a back-up catcher is a back-up catcher, but Sanchez will have some big shoes to fill in Baltimore. McCann was a player's player, both with the bat and the glove.

Sanchez's 2024 campaign in Milwaukee was mostly forgettable.

He played in a total of 89 games, about 70% of those as a designated hitter, and wasn't very good at the plate; .220/.307/.392.

His power numbers were OK; 11 home runs in what was almost a half-season of action.

None of his advanced offensive metrics were good. He did have a nice 2-game run in the '24 playoffs, with 2 hits in 7 at-bats. So he has that going for him.......which is nice.

McCann was a competent back-up catcher, nothing more, but he was pressed into additional duty last season because of whatever it was that was going on with the team's regular guy behind the plate, Adley Rutschman.

Whether Sanchez can handle 80 games of defensive duty is unknown. He last caught in more than 80 games all the way back in 2021.

At times like these when I see two guys leaving who were good and also useful clubhouse fits, Santander and McCann, and see two new question marks show up, O'Neill and Sanchez, I always think the same thing: Just trust Mike Elias.

I mean, if Elias didn't think O'Neill can play and stay healthy, he wouldn't have given him $49.5M for three years. Right?

Elias knows he can't have Rutschman catching 140 games. 100 is the more likely number, I'm guessing. So he figures Sanchez can do that job for 60'ish games. And with Samuel Basallo creeping up through the minor league system, maybe Sanchez gets 40-50 games to prove his worth and if he can't do it, Basallo joins the team around Memorial Day.

I don't know. I'd rather have Santander and McCann, personally. But those two are going to cost a lot more money than will O'Neill and McCann.

And money doesn't grow on trees, you know?

It's not like we have a billionaire owner.

	NOTES & COMMENT George McDowell
George McDowell is #DMD's foreign correspondent. His international reports are filed from a hardened outpost just across the U.S. / North Carolina border. He writes on sports topics that interest him that he feels might also interest some segment of the wildly esoteric #DMD readership. George has been a big fan of DF and his various enterprises since the last century, and for several seasons appeared as a weekly guest on his Monday evening radio show, Maryland Golf Live, delivering commentary as The Eccentric Starter. George also donates his time and talents to the less fortunate, and currently volunteers as secretary of the Rickie Fowler Fan Club.

the making of mt. pleasant park, part ii

Gus Hook read books on grasses and soils. He joined the Middle Atlantic Greenkeepers Association and attended its meetings. He consulted golf-course superintendents all over the area, and relied heavily on the particular expertise of Bob Scott of the Baltimore Country Club. Ned Hanlon assigned engineer Charles B. Wolf to assist Hook with technical work.

Construction resumed under Hook’s supervision in the fall of 1932. The stock market crash of 1929 had plunged the country and most of the Western world into the Great Depression and social chaos. The ability to pay for manufactured goods, and thus the demand, dropped 85% in a period of weeks, leading to a series of layoffs that put more than half of the world’s workforce out of jobs.

In the United States, President Hoover was voted out of office, and Roosevelt assumed executive control of a country near anarchy. World War I veterans, feeling ignored and unappreciated after risking their lives a decade earlier, organized and marched in a show of menace on the nation’s capitol. The Communist Party of America enjoyed a huge increase in membership. Fortunately for the collective soul of mankind, Roosevelt was a better man than his soon-to-be adversary in Europe, Adolf Hitler. Both men well understood the significance of idle hands. Hitler put them to work in his own vile service. Roosevelt created work that, although menial, required neither suppression of conscience nor abandonment of reason.

Germany

America

Congress created the Federal Emergency Relief Administration in early 1933. Pursuant to the authority granted by this statute, Roosevelt created through executive orders a series of programs designed to provide jobs for millions of unemployed workers. These programs included the Works Progress Administration, Civil Works Administration, Civilian Conservation Corps, Work Project Administration, and other similar initiatives. The act appropriated $500 million from the federal treasury for distribution to the states, to be used for reforestation, road construction, soil erosion and flood control, and development of national, state and local parks.

Hook and Hanlon negotiated a grant under a combination of these programs by which the manual labor costs of finishing the course would be borne by the federal government. The contract specified that tools no larger than picks, shovels, and wheelbarrows could be used on the job, to ensure that the maximum number of men would be needed to do the work. During construction, as many as seven hundred men per day were employed.

On a crowded public golf course, it is necessary to get the golfers away fast; a short hole has a tendency to clog things up on the tee. [The necessity of having golfers play away with alacrity off the first tees at public courses requires that only the most intelligent, forceful, efficient and diplomatic persons be employed as Starters.] The first hole had been laid out by Winton to measure 460 yards, and played as a par-five. Hook built it this way. [In 1936 the Park Board voted to make it a more difficult hole by increasing its length by moving the tee back. A 1937 newspaper article lists the hole at 530 yards. In 1975, a course map gives its yardage at 604. The 2003 scorecard makes it 565 yards.]

The second, likewise, should be a good, long hole that continues to give the golfers a chance to spread themselves thin. Hook again followed Winton’s design. The second hole’s tee box was originally placed to the west of the first green. The construction of Northern Parkway [This road was built sometime after the 1958 Eastern Open was contested. A plate attached to the bridge over it reads "1961."] forced the tee to be relocated to the present [2004] position north of the road. The hole designed by Winton and built by Hook played as a 442-yard, straightaway par-four, and is now a 347-yard dogleg right. A 1939 map of the course shows a bridle path meandering through the course. The path runs from behind the second tee in a more-or-less straight line past [and north of] the first green, passing south of the eighth green, then down the hill to pass south then east of the sixth green, and off into the woods by Herring Run.

Winton’s design for the third hole called for a par-three on what is now the seventh hole. Hook scrapped that plan, and cut the third hole through the woods along the northern boundary of the property, taking out 250 trees and piping a stream under the fairway to achieve the layout he wanted.

#3 fairway and bunkers protecting green.

The fourth and fifth holes fell into place naturally for Hook, but No. 6 required some thought. He felt it was time for a par-three hole, but the stream that flowed through the area was not wide enough to constitute a good hazard. Hook modeled this hole after the seventeenth hole at [the 1932] Hillendale Country Club. He built a series of stone dams, creating three ponds that would catch tee shots short of the four bunkers guarding the green.

The sixth green also presented a problem. The land allowed a maximum length for the hole of 130 yards, with golfers hitting down over the ponds from the highly elevated tee. A shot hitting the green will rip out a chunk of turf. If the green is made too large, so as to spread out the damage, it would be too easy to hit with a tee shot. If the green is made too small, the shots that hit it will quickly tear it up. Hook conceived the idea of a heart-shaped green, with two distinct sides. This configuration would allow the alternation of hole locations, with one side being used for a while, then allowed to recover while the other was used. When both sides became worn, the hole could be cut in the center portion of the green. Hook made the green area huge, 14,000 square feet, so that either half of it would provide a reasonable target from a tee no more than 130 yards away.

Facing north across the sixth hole and #7 tees.

The northernmost pond on No. 6 also served as a hazard for (very) poor tee shots from No. 7. The dogleg eighth presented no problems for Hook. Thomas Winton’s design for No. 9 was retained. It appears that Mr. Hook chose to respect the safety of those who used the bridle path that traversed the course. [On the other hand, the riders may have acquired a Prescriptive Easement to the bridle path under the Doctrine of Adverse Possession, defined as the legal right to use the land without interfence by the record titleholder if gained by exclusive, hostile, open, notorious, continuous and uninterrupted use for twenty years.] No part of the course fell within an area bounded by lines connecting edges of these successive points; second tee, eighth green, sixth green, eleventh tee, tenth green, first green, and back to the second tee, and it is within this area that the path crossed the golf course. Shots [in play] were never required over the path. Maps show that this is by far the largest contiguous area that was not used in the layout of the course on the property.

Hook wanted the tenth to be a long par-five, in the event a crossover start was used, and for this hole he used the eleventh hole at Sherwood Forest Country Club as a model. In building this hole, he found it again necessary to pipe a stream under the fairway.

There was only a narrow strip of land usable for the eleventh and twelfth holes, bounded on the east by Herring Run. Hook made No. 11 a par-three and the twelfth a par-four. He overcame the narrowness of the strip by having the golfers hit out toward the green on No. 11, and into a severely sloping fairway on No. 12. The fifth hole at Rolling Road Golf Club was Hook’s model for No. 12.

A natural dogleg, the thirteenth hole was laid out along the lay of the land, and required minimal moving of earth.

In 1932, the fifteenth green was located near the current [2004/2024] tees of the fourteenth hole. Prior to the beginning of construction, Herring Run and Chinquapin Run came together at that spot. Hook built bulkheads and moved massive amounts of earth for fill (as per the contract that allowed tools no bigger than picks, shovels and wheelbarrows), forcing Chinquapin Run’s flow from an easterly direction to a southeasterly direction and Herring Run’s direction a distance to the east, and causing the two streams to meet at a point about 75 yards south and 50 yards east of the natural confluence. After holing out, golfers then walked between the thirteenth green and the fourteenth tee to the tee box of No. 16.

Hook found the fourteenth almost impossible under the original conditions. A two-and-a-half acre parcel [reported in one place as one-and-a-half acres] of land jutting into the course boundaries forced a par-four there with much too long a walk from the thirteenth green to the fourteenth tee. A Baltimore Sun article of June 10, 1934, gives that distance as 150 yards, and reports that golfers named the walk after the owner. This property was eventually purchased from Dr. Henry B. Jacobs. A 1934 scorecard indicates No. 14 was then a 483-yard par-five. A map on the reverse of the 1957 Eastern Invitation Open pairing sheets depicts the course layout. That year, the hole played as a 525-yard, dogleg-left, par-five, indicating that the purchase of Dr. Jacobs’s land, and the subsequent lengthening of the hole, took place between those years.

The 1932 fifteenth hole was a dogleg-right par-four measuring 447 yards, modeled after the design of the tenth hole at Five Farms. The fifteenth tee appears to have been approximately 30 yards east of where the fourteenth green was then located. Stuart B. McIver, in a Baltimore Sun article of September 15, 1952, describes the hole:

"The fifteenth, which starts just north of Woodbourne avenue, in Hamilton, is a scenic hole, some consolation for the golfer who goes for that sort of thing. Chinquapin Run splashes across the fairway in front of the green, while Herring Run flows down the east side, paralleling the fairway, ever ready to dampen a slice that strays its way. Trees grow in abundance near the confluence of the two streams, further complicating the picture for the golfer. A well-placed tee shot down the left side of the fairway is necessary, while a wood or long iron, straight and strong, is needed for the second shot. If the golfer tops or falls short, Chinquapin Run will claim him. If he hooks, the trees will get him. If he slices, he can expect either trees or Herring Run. The fifteenth is a lulu."

When Perring Parkway was built, a big chunk of course property was taken, forcing a redesign of the 14th and 15th holes. The fourteenth hole, originally laid out west of No. 15, was made to play as a par-four, east of No. 15. The fourteenth hole originally played north-to-south, and now plays south-to-north, and the fifteenth hole plays south-to-north. Gus Hook designed the remake of the holes.

1953

"Mount Pleasant is the finest public course I've ever seen or played on," said Lloyd Mangrum after winning the inaugural Eastern Open in 1950, "and 14 and 15 are the finest back-to-back holes on any course."
The 13th green can be seen at the top of the photo. From there, golfers walked to the 14th tee, barely discernible left of (the 1953) #15 green, and approximately where #15 green is in 2013. Note how far east (right) the 14th green lies from the row houses to the left, and also how far south of the last house in the straight row it is. The intersection in the bottom left of this photo is that of Woodbourne Avenue and Belvedere Avenue. Woodbourne Avenue is parallel to the bottom of the photo. Woodbourne Avenue was torn up when Perring Parkway was built, and in the photo to the right, is shown split into an exit from and entrance to Perring Parkway, and forming a triangle with Perring Parkway. It appears to me that the 14th green lay in 1953, at least partly, within where the roads form a triangle in 2013.

2012

The road east (right) of Perring Parkway and paralleling it is Pioneer Drive. It appears that the 1950 #15 tee was just west of Pioneer Drive (and the trees on either bank of Herring Run) and just north of the old Woodbourne Avenue. If you look carefully at this photo, you'll see a house just on the other side of Perring Parkway and north of the triangle. I believe that this house was moved to its present place, and that it is the house pictured just above the intersection in the lower left corner of the photo to the left. The (1950) 15th green can be seen in the left photo where the 14th tee is located in 2013. The sadly ironic twist to these events is that Baltimore City was experiencing a rapid and ruinous population decline in the early 1960s, and in response to it, chose to deface its landmark golf course in order to build a road that allowed suburbanites to get downtown to work quickly in the morning and still get out of the city after work before the sun went down.

Hook described the sixteenth hole as “the most natural hole on the course. We didn’t even have to plow up the fairway.”

17th hole. Note how even young trees enhance the beauty of the course.

In building No. 17, Hook had to dismantle a water main and supporting trestle he himself had built when he worked for the Bureau of Water Supply. The pipe was re-laid deep underground. The approach and green were carved from the steep hill that sloped down from the mansion. A 1932 photograph of the hole shows a gentler slope left of the green, and no bunkers. It appears that the bunkers were added sometime after the original construction. A 1939 course map shows the bunkers had not yet been added.

This photo's hard to date. There's no cart path on #18, no stairway up to #17 green, and the cart path straight down the hill from #17 tee appears intact. The trees between the cart barn and roadway are young. The Starter Shack also appears in a different place.

The last hole was designed, in the confines of the remaining land, as an uphill dogleg left measuring 346 yards. The hole offers the option to cut the dogleg and fire directly at the green by carrying the last 40 yards over an out-of-bounds area having several tall [and growing] trees. Hook’s design required a carry of 243 yards. In 1998, Rick Hudak cut a new tee box out of the hill behind the original tee, and that tee increased the required carry by 30 yards.

When completed in 1934, the course featured 57 bunkers, 32 on the front and 29 on the back nine, almost all of them protecting the greens. Par was 72. Total distance was 6,753 yards from the back tees.

Hook’s greens, except the sixth, averaged 9,000 square feet in area. For a public course in 1934, these were quite large. The greens at Clifton Park Golf Course, for example, averaged 4,500 square feet. For purposes of comparison, if the greens were assumed to be perfect circles, the distance from the center to any point on the edge of a 4,500 square-foot green would be 39 feet, and 54 feet on a 9,000 square-foot green, and the green depths would be 26 yards and 36 yards, respectively.

All the greens were piped for water, but not the fairways or tees. Hook also spaced six water fountains around the course for the refreshment of golfers, caddies, and spectators.

Saturday December 7, 2024

#DMD

Issue #3758

going for a ride

When do you get your best ideas?

And how do you get them?

Is it spring that sparks your eternal hope? That first feel of real warmth, sometime maybe in mid-to-late-April, where your brain also comes to life?

Are you in need of a warm summer day and a lounge chair, with your favorite beverage close at hand for, you know, "thinking" assistance?

Does a crisp, cool, fall day inspire you? Jacket tucked under your arm as you walk through a park or other desolate area, looking for a place to sit and ponder?

Or are you one of those who appreciates the stillness of winter? In these parts, or anyplace where it gets cold for a few months, the winter is an opportune time to reflect and consider what you might do when energy is more readily available.

I don't know if I fit any of those descriptions above in particular. One of the greatest things about Maryland, I've always thought, is the dramatic and obvious change of seasons we go through here in The Land of Pleasant Living.

I like them all. And for me, at least, they all do something different to me.

When it's 36 degrees and windy on a less-than-seasonable Thursday in early December, even the heartiest of golfers have left the clubs in their garage.

Mount Pleasant Golf Course was almost entirely empty two days ago when I rolled into the parking lot just after 1 pm.

There were enough cars there it seemed logical that at least a handful of brave souls were out on the course. What would motivate them to do that is beyond me, but then again, there was a December day circa 1998 when my buddy Greg Ruark and I walked 27 holes in 17 degree temperatures on a Saturday afternoon.

So, yes, people play golf in frigid conditions just because they feel like playing golf that day.

I was there on Thursday for a reason, but I wasn't sure what that was, exactly. The Q & A with Greg Trehane I published this week stirred up a lot of memories for me, as did a midweek phone call with George, as we spent 40 minutes laughing and recalling good days gone by.

The fresh smack of winter here in Baltimore this week also stirred something in me as well. I had a few hours to kill on Thursday afternoon and it was almost as if my car pulled me in the direction of Mount Pleasant. I didn't wake up on Thursday planning a drive over to Northern Parkway and Hillen Road. But that's where I ended up.

A lone golf cart sat by the cart barn as I slipped out of my car and pulled a winter hat down over my ears.

"This isn't the first time I'll snag a cart without reporting in to the pro shop", I thought to myself as I eyed the key in the ignition and prepared to get in and jet off for a quick whirl around the course.

And off I went.

I wasn't sure where I was going, or why, even, but I wanted to take a look at the old lady in her December glory. No golfers to wait for, no concerns about an errant ball pinging me in the back of the head. I was pretty much able to go where I wanted and do whatever it was I going to do.

I rode on the cart part that borders the 9th and 10th holes, heading in the direction of #9 tee.

In the old days -- I'm talking the mid 1990's, now -- the 9th hole was a bear. It played 445 yards and the tee ball required both length and precision to get it to the top of the hill, where you would be very fortunate to be at the sprinkler head in the middle of the fairway that read "207".

How do I know it says "207" on that particular sprinkler head? Because Greg (Ruark) and I painted those yardages on them way back in the day.

Here's a fun fact. I've eagled every par 4 at Mount Pleasant (all with second shots going in the hole, none were drives-and-putts) except for #9. That I've made a "2" on 12 of the 13 par 4 holes isn't a testatment to my ability, but more so it reflects how many rounds of golf I've played there in my lifetime. If you play the 2nd hole and 3rd hole upwards of a thousand times, you're bound to hole out a wedge at some point.

I stopped at the 9th tee and walked on to the box, staring out at the 9th fairway. Thirty years ago, if you had 210 yards in, you had a good chance to make a par. These days, if you hit a drive in the middle of the club, you'll have somewhere between 175 and 150 yards to the green. The times -- and the equipment -- have changed, indeed.

Greg and I adopted a funny saying about that 9th hole. We called it a "Number 9 par", which was a good drive that unfortunately required a smart lay-up short of the green because you didn't have the length to reach the putting surface in two shots. You'd leave yourself 20-40 yards to the green, knock your third shot tight, and roll in the par putt for a "Number 9 par".

"You'd of been proud of me, Bunk," Greg would say to me at the scorer's table after a round in the Publinx or Maryland Amateur Stroke Play. "I made a nice Number 9 par out there to shoot 1 over on the front."

The wind was at my back on Thursday. For a second, it was 88 and balmy on a Tuesday evening and Greg and I were sneaking in a few holes while we were "working". We'd quickly play the hole and then ride in and hope Jim Deck, the great longtime pro at the Mount, wasn't out near the cart barn sniffing around for our whereabouts.

I rode over the bridge, across Northern Parkway, and just cruised the front nine. There was a solitary walker, bag on his back, who waved as I moved past him. There were 3 balls in the fairway, all nestled 10 or 15 yards from each other.

There are worse ways to spend a cold December day, I guess, then being able to hit several tee balls off and play them all into the hole. I was jealous for just a second, even if the weather wasn't my cup of tea.

I made my way to the 6th tee and encountered two more players.

"You wanna join us?" one of them asked.

"No, no," I said. "I'm just riding around. How are you guys doing?"

"Doing well, moving along," said the older of the two. "Nobody out here but us."

There are a lot of great phrases in golf.

"Nobody out here but us" might be the most underrated of them all.

I walked up to the 6th tee as they drove off.

June 4, 1995 was the date of my first ever hole in one. It happened at #6 at Mount Pleasant. The flag was back left. My tee shot landed about 20 feet from the hole, above the cup to the right, and slid directly left, on a string, and nestled firmly into the cup.

You don't forget those things.

I watched the two guys play out the 6th hole. One of them made a nice putt of maybe 10 or 15 feet for par. The other one missed a short'ish putt from 3 feet or so and raked the ball back and putted it again. That one, too, missed. He putted it again and it was still visible. His buddy knocked the ball back to him and they walked off the green.

I could hear them laugh. Good natured needling, I assumed.

A lot of great players -- professional and amateur -- have three putted that 6th green at Mount Pleasant. Had I been with them instead of standing on the tee 135 yards away, I probably would have said that. Alas, I just stood there and looked around.

"What a great place this is," I said, out loud, to no one but myself.

In a weird way, I was hoping, maybe, the course itself could hear me sing her praises.

I love winter golf. I always have.

No, the course isn't pristine. The fairways are firm. The greens are sometimes either incredibly slow or wildly fast, depending on how much attention they've been given over the last few months. The bunkers aren't in terrific condition, either.

But the trees still stand there, not as full of themselves as they are in June, July and August, but they don't go away just because the days get shorter and the winds pick up and the temperature goes down.

The course effectively says to you during the winter, "I'm not going anywhere. Don't you worry. I'll still be here for you next April, better than ever before."

As is always the case, things change. 30 years ago, Mount Pleasant was a golfing mecca of sorts for people who wanted to play a championship level course for the robust fee of $11.50 on the weekend. 20 years ago, it was still packed to the gills, even when the price for 18 holes soared all the way to $17.50.

Maybe 10 years ago, the tee sheet started showing holes where it once never did.

These days, people still play Mount Pleasant, but the course doesn't draw nearly the action of, say, 1999.

A lot of things change in 25 years. We all do, of course.

I stood there on #6 tee and said "What a great place this is" just hoping, maybe, my words meant something to the course itself.

I hopped in the cart and buzzed up the hill behind #8 green and headed back over the bridge to take a quick spin through the back nine. I was thinking hard about the last I had played Mount Pleasant from start to finish and couldn't really come up with an answer.

Eagle's Nest played Mount Pleasant in an "A Team" match maybe 6 or 7 years ago and I was selected to play at the Mount for obvious reasons.

Has it really been that long since I played 18 holes there?

I made quick work of the back nine, running into two more players as they putted out on #13, but buzzed my way around the whole incoming nine holes in about 12 minutes.

I sat in the cart in the middle of the fairway at the 18th hole. I tried to think to myself, "How many times have I played this hole?" and I simply couldn't come up with a number. At least a thousand, I figured.

I won a lot of matches on that 18th green and lost a lot there, too. That was the only moment, right then, where I regretted not bringing a club and ball with me on my quick 40 minute trip around the course.

It would have been fun to throw a ball down at the 130 yard mark and nip a wedge into that green.

You know, for old times sake.

I pulled the cart back in quietly and left it right where I found it.

As I sat in my car, I made a pledge.

"I'm going to do something with Mount Pleasant."

I don't know what that is, frankly.

I think I'll call George and talk to him about it. I'll catch up with Greg Ruark soon and talk to him about it as well.

I don't know what I mean when I say, "I'm going to do something", but I'm going to do something.

Whether that means trying to get a significant state event to be played there. Or creating and running my own event there. Or trying to figure out how to help get the old girl the royal treatment she deserves after decades of service to the golf community.

I might even try to organize some sort of high school event there featuring a number of local schools, including Calvert Hall, of course.

I think every young junior golfer in the Baltimore area should know about Mount Pleasant and her history and how much great golf was played there over the last century.

Maybe I'll win the lottery and hand over $5 million to some architectural company to polish up Mount Plesant so the 2050 U.S. Open can be played there.

I don't know what I'm going to do.

But I'm going to do something with Mount Pleasant.

I don't know when. Maybe next year. Maybe in two years. Or three.

I need time to think about it. But I'm doing something.

I do my best thinking in the winter.

George, you can expect a call soon.

	NOTES & COMMENT George McDowell
George McDowell is #DMD's foreign correspondent. His international reports are filed from a hardened outpost just across the U.S. / North Carolina border. He writes on sports topics that interest him that he feels might also interest some segment of the wildly esoteric #DMD readership. George has been a big fan of DF and his various enterprises since the last century, and for several seasons appeared as a weekly guest on his Monday evening radio show, Maryland Golf Live, delivering commentary as The Eccentric Starter. George also donates his time and talents to the less fortunate, and currently volunteers as secretary of the Rickie Fowler Fan Club.

the making of mt. pleasant park

Writer's Note: Around 2003 and 2004, Bill Johnson and I started research for a book about Mt. Pleasant. We later decided the information we found would be more accessible on a website, which we made. Drew recently expressed an interest in re-printing some of that information, and I'll set that out here in the next few days.

the scotsman's design

The city of Montrose, in County Angus, Scotland, is often mentioned in the long history of the game of golf. A Montrose resident named James Melville, in one of the earliest recorded golf writings in 1562, was said to have been taught from the age of six “to use the glubb for goff.” The city holds the distinction of having the first golf widow: In 1629, Magdalene Carnegie suffered the absence of her husband, James Graham, first Marquis of Montrose, as he played golf first before and then immediately after their wedding ceremony, and every day following on the two weeks of their honeymoon. The 1562 Course in Montrose has been in continuous use for more than 450 years, and has hosted many Scottish professional, amateur, and open championships.

The 1562 Course at Montrose

James Winton (1835-1907) was a golf professional and clubmaker of note in Montrose. Clubs made by him are prized by collectors. Winton made several clubs for Willie Park, winner of the first major championship in golf history, the Open Championship of 1860. Park won the Open three more times, the last in 1875. He also played often at Montrose courses, as did his son, Willie Park Jr. (1864-1925), who would win the Open Championship in 1887 and 1889.

James Winton’s son Thomas (1871-1944) was also a golf professional and clubmaker. His playing skills were less than championship caliber, and his clubmaking activity was confined to performing routine tasks in his father’s shop. In order to pursue his dream of designing golf courses, Thomas Winton moved to London around the turn of the century. There he was employed in golf-course construction, working for several architects in building such courses as Coombe Hill and South Herts.

The younger Willie Park’s primary occupational interest was the making of clubs. His designs were revolutionary, and he is credited with the introduction of clubheads with higher loft that launched shots higher and which would stop quicker when hitting greens. Park’s focus shifted over time, and he too developed an interest in golf-course design. When Park decided to take his design skills to the United States, he asked his old friend from Montrose, Thomas Winton, to join him.

Their partnership of Willie Park Jr. and Thomas Winton failed to flourish, however, and Winton soon found it necessary to secure a paying job as superintendent for the Westchester (New York) County Parks Commission, where he remained for many years. He was in charge of maintaining the county's golf courses and parks and with constructing new facilities. In this capacity he designed several public courses in the New York suburbs.

Winton soon found additional design jobs, and in the 1920s was active along the Eastern Seaboard, laying out courses and supervising their construction. When design business fell off in the Depression, he continued in his Parks Commission position and also served as a maintenance consultant for several New York golf clubs. Thomas Winton designed these courses between 1923 and 1929 in the United States:

Mill River Country Club (CT) Woods Hole Golf Club (MA) Cranmoor Country Club (NJ) (now in part Toms River Country Club) Hopewell Valley Golf Club (NJ) (reported closed) Amityville Country Club (NY) (reported closed) Colgate University Golf Club (NY; defunct) Corning Country Club (NY) Kingsridge Country Club (NY) (defunct) Maple Moor Country Club (NY; w/ Archie Capper) Mohansic Park Golf Club (NY) Mount Kisco Country Club (NY) Saxon Woods Golf Club (NY) Sprain Brook [or Sprain Lake] Golf Club (NY) Westport Country Club (NY) Lynn Haven Country Club (NY) (no information)

Winton remodeled or expanded these courses: Big Spring Country Club (KY) Fall River Country Club (MA) Apawamis Club (NY) Hollow Brook Golf and Country Club (NY; defunct) Maple Moor Country Club (NY) Siwanoy Country Club (NY) Sleepy Hollow Country Club (NY) Westchester Country Club (South Course) (NY) Congressional Country Club (Blue Course) (MD)

Thomas Winton was retained to design the Mount Pleasant Park course. Although not certain, it is likely that Winton came to the attention of the Baltimore Park Board as a result of his work on the nearby Congressional Country Club championship course. That course, designed by Devereaux Emmet, opened in 1924. Thomas Winton was brought in to renovate the course so that it would provide a major test for the best golfers, and thus have a greater chance of achieving the membership’s goal of attracting the best national and international competitions.

The Blue Course at Congressional

Thomas Winton’s survey of the Mount Pleasant Park property concluded that the land would support no more than a nine-hole course. It appears, from the limited information available, that Winton concentrated his contemplated nine-hole course on land north of the mansion. It may be that he felt the streams to the south, Herring Run and Chinquapin Run, presented obstacles that would not allow golf holes to be built on the property near where they ran. Additionally, a 2½-acre parcel of land owned by Dr. Henry Barton Jacobs cut into the Taylor property boundary in such a way that it narrowed the land available on which to build. The Park Board negotiated with the doctor for the purchase of the land, and eventually the sale was completed, but it is likely that at the time Winton was designing the course, he had to assume that land would be unavailable.

Winton built a model of his nine-hole design, and construction began in late 1929. It is not now known if Winton was the superintendent of construction.

By June of 1931, only four fairways were ready for seeding, and only one green was near completion. The cost of the work to that point was $42,000. [Several 18-hole courses that Thomas Winton designed and built were completed at costs between $40,000 and $45,000.] The superintendent of parks at that point called the whole thing off, saying that “independent golfers and members of golf associations looked over the work and raised a howl.” Whether the collective howl was caused by Thomas Winton’s design, the quality of the work, or the slow progress of it, is not known.

a remarkable partnership: hanlon & hook

Edward Hugh (Ned) Hanlon (1857–1937) weighed 170 pounds. He batted left-handed and threw with his right. He played 13 seasons as an outfielder in the major leagues, most with the Detroit Wolverines, and hit .260 over those years. He finished his playing career with the Baltimore Orioles in 1892, and the next year became the team’s manager.

Ned Hanlon is buried in the New Cathedral Cemetery on Frederick Road in West Baltimore. Brennan Jensen, in his article "Diamonds in the Sky" (Baltimore Citypaper, April 30, 2003), reports an interesting fact. The cemetery is the resting place of at least four members of the Baseball Hall of Fame. No other cemetery holds that many baseball greats. Joining Hanlon there are Joe Kelley, John McGraw, and Wilbert Robinson.

The owner of the Baltimore Orioles was Harry von der Horst, who was also a minority shareholder in the Eagle Brewery, one of 60-some breweries located in Baltimore at the time. The majority stockholder in the Eagle Brewery was its founder, and Harry's father, John von der Horst. The brewery was located on Belair Avenue (now the 900 block of Gay Street). Harry had purchased a baseball franchise in the American Association in 1881 for $50 and named the new team the Orioles.

The younger von der Horst had a good idea. His main business was selling beer. If he owned a baseballl team, he could sell beer to fans attending the games. By 1892 he had learned that the better his baseball team, the more fans that attended the games, and the more beer he sold. His teams in previous years had not performed well, and he was a little short on capital. He struck a deal with Ned Hanlon: Hanlon would invest some of his savings in the club in return for minority ownership and the right to run it as he saw fit.

Hanlon’s accomplishments as a manager far exceeded his exploits as a player. He had a fiery and raucous temperament, and this attitude rubbed off on his players. His ball clubs were aggressive, and made up in spirit what they lacked in talent. Hanlon used what tools he had to win games. He is credited with being the first to have his teams practice the skills used in playing the game, at the time an unheard-of exercise.

The Orioles were a weak-hitting club. To aid his offense in scoring runs, Hanlon devised or perfected the techniques of the suicide-squeeze bunt, the hit-and-run play, and the Baltimore Chop. He instructed his groundskeeper to insure that the infield foul-lines sloped towards fair territory, so that bunts wouldn’t roll foul. The groundskeeper was also forbidden to water the ground and grass around home plate, resulting in the area becoming packed hard, the better to bounce bunts and Baltimore Chops higher in the air, giving Hanlon’s runners advantages over opposing fielders. Hanlon even went so far as to slope the basepath from home to first downhill so that his runners had a split-second advantage over infielders fielding grounders and throwing to first. Under Hanlon, the Baltimore Orioles won pennants in three successive years, 1894 through 1896.

The 1893 ballyard was called Oriole Park, located at what is today the intersection of Greenmount Avenue and 25th Street. The history of the original Baltimore Orioles is told in a fascinating book by Burt Solomon: Where They Ain't (Doubleday: New York; 1999)

Hanlon had an autocratic nature. He felt that, if given a job to do to, he should be free to do it without interference, and without having to explain what he was doing. His majority partner in the Orioles, Henry von der Horst soon learned this facet of Hanlon’s disposition. When he faced the press to answer questions about his ball club, von der Horst took to wearing a lapel button that read, “Ask Hanlon.” Hanlon’s knowledge of baseball and how the game should be played were acknowledged and respected by the team owners. After he retired as a manager, he was hired to head major league baseball’s Rules Committee.

Ned Hanlon was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1996. Six men who played for Hanlon are also enshrined in the Hall. They are Miller Huggins, John McGraw, Joe Kelley, Dan Brouthers, Hughie Jennings, and Wilbert Robinson. A seventh who played for Hanlon, William J. “Kid” Gleason, might have joined them in the Hall of Fame. Gleason won a pennant in his first year as a major-league manager, but unfortunately, the team he managed was the 1919 Chicago White Sox.

In 1916, Hanlon was appointed to the Baltimore Park Board by Mayor James H. Preston. In June, 1931, at age 73, he became its president . When it became apparent that the ongoing Mount Pleasant Park project was to be a failure, Hanlon began his search for a superintendent capable of finishing the job.

Charles Augustin (Gus) Hook was born in 1898. In 1913, he went to work with the Forestry Division of Baltimore City. Part of the time he was a high-tree climber, clambering up tall trees in the parks in order to cut off dead limbs. In World War I, Hook enlisted in the Army. He was shot in battle in the Argonne Forest in France, and was awarded the Purple Heart. The bullet that wounded him could not be surgically removed, and remained in Hook’s arm for the rest of his life. After his discharge, Hook returned to Baltimore and took a job with the city's Bureau of Water Supply, where he worked for 10 years. About 1930, he earned the highest mark on the City Service Commission exam, and was therefore promoted to superintendent of the Patterson Park District. He would move up to become superintendent of the Clifton District in 1932, and then chief superintendent of all the city parks.

Lieutenant Joseph Hanlon, one of two sons (and five daughters) of Ned Hanlon, served in the U. S. Army in W. W. I. He was killed in battle in France. Hanlon Park, near Lake Ashburton in Baltimore, was named in his memory.

Gus Hook was an accomplished amateur golfer. Three times between 1922 and 1933 he played on teams representing Baltimore City in the (discontinued by the USGA) U.S. Amateur Public Links Team Championship. He eventually joined Hillendale Country Club.

Gus Hook and Ned Hanlon met on the grounds of Mount Pleasant Park soon after work was halted in June, 1931. Ned Hanlon was the 73-year-old, newly-installed president of the Park Board, the father of a soldier who had been shot and killed in France in WWI. Gus Hook, age 33, still carrying a bullet in his body from the same war (maybe even the same campaign—the Battle of the Argonne Forest was the deadliest in American history), almost certainly had been installed in the position of superintendent of the Patterson Park District. Hanlon outlined his requirements: an 18-hole, state-of-the-art, championship golf course that would provide a stern test for the best golfers.

“Can it be done?” he asked.

Hook asked for a few days before giving his answer. During those days he walked the property many times; sometimes hitting real golf shots and other times visualizing shots in his mind. He studied the model Thomas Winton had constructed. He measured distances, angles, and elevations, and calculated the number of trees that would have to be cut down. He noted the location of the several streams that traversed the lot, and realized that they would have to be rerouted. The parcel of land that had been acquired by the city consisted of 260 acres. However, Hillen Road cut through the property, effectively slicing off 80 acres from use, leaving only 180 acres on which to put 18 holes and the required buildings. Gus Hook determined that a course could be built to the required standard. He informed Hanlon that it could be done, and that he could do it.

Ned Hanlon shook his hand and said, “You’re my boy!”

Friday December 6, 2024

#DMD

Issue #3757

"i don't know any of them, but they're good!"

Sometimes you pick up the best lines in the strangest of places.

On Wednesday afternoon, #DMD college basketball analyst Dale Williams shot me a text with an invite to see the Terps tangle with Ohio State down in College Park.

"Big ten game. A chance to see Derik Queen. Why not?" I said to myself as I sent back a confirmation text.

45 minutes into what became a 1-hour and 15-minute drive to our meet-up spot off of Route 32, I was having second thoughts about the decision, but I digress.

We made our way to the Xfinity Center for what I think we both suspected, and hoped, would be a nice early season test for the Terps.

So far in '24-25, at least before Wednesday, that is, they were 1-1 in those kind of games. They won a nailbiter against Villanova and lost a tough one at home to Marquette. Ohio State's not going to make the Final Four or anything like that, but Wednesday would be a nice way to break the Big Ten ice for Maryland and see what they have under the hood.

We all know what happened in the game. It was a snoozefest from about the 3rd minute on. Ohio State made the Keystone Cops look competent.

The Terps led 50-17 at half.

The whole night was such a disaster for the the Buckeyes that the refs did something I've never seen before in basketball. About six minutes after they called Maryland for goaltending, the officials said they reviewed the play and decided it wasn't goaltending after all and took two points away from the visitors.

"Imagine giving a 19 year year old kid a hundred and fifty grand and he shows up tonight and plays like this," I said to Dale when Ohio State missed two more routine shots and trailed by 28 points with six minutes to go in the first half.

I'm quite certain what happened on Wednesday was an outlier. If those two teams played five more nights in succession, Maryland wouldn't win like they did on Wednesday once in those five games.

But I'm not sure the environment in the building was an outlier. And that's where this is going.

Dale loves college basketball. On a 1-to-10, he's a 9.85.

On a 1-to-10, I'm a 6.25, I'd say. I enjoy it. I follow it. I don't know that I really "love it" any longer, but that's a story for another day.

I bring that up to say this: You had two guys who are college basketball enthusiasts there on Wednesday night and it was so boring we were very close to leaving at halftime. Not in disgust or anything like that. We're old and the game was boring and we just didn't see the benefit of sticking around to watch Maryland beat them by 35.

But while I was there, I took notice of my surroundings.

Maryland announced a crowd of 13,000. There weren't 10,000 people actually in the building. The student section was jacked. They were on "go" from the opening tip. The rest of us might as well have been reading poetry to one another.

The game itself clearly didn't ignite "Terp Nation" into making their way to College Park for the conference opener. I didn't know what kind of crowd I expected, but I didn't think it would rival a Hershey Bears home game on a Saturday night against Providence.

A Wednesday night in early December is probably not going to generate a raucous crowd of 17,000 no matter the opponent. And make no mistake about it, when Maryland is 12-4 in the conference and they have a huge home game in late February, there won't be many empty seats in the place. When the team is great, which this one might very well be, people will come out.

On Wednesday, though, it was a toss up who was less interested in what was going on: the 10,000 who were there or the Ohio State team on the court.

I didn't have time to ask everyone around me why they were looking at the phones -- like I was -- instead of watching the game, but I suspect it had something to do with the Terps playing roster. And that gets me to the line of the night.

As Dale and I exited the arena with Maryland ahead by 30 and 10 minutes left in the game, I ducked into the men's room for a quick stop before the ride home.

"I don't know any of them, but they're good!" I heard a man say with great delight in his voice.

I looked over to see him talking with another guy at the sink.

"I don't know any of them, but they're good."

I couldn't stop thinking about that line as we walked down the steps to the parking lot adjacent to the arena.

He was right.

On both accounts.

The team is good. Very good, perhaps. It feels like Willard might have a great mix of varying talents. Whether he's the guy to the coach them to the promised land is a fair question since he's never done that in his career. But this Maryland team, as the guy in the bathroom noted, is seemingly good.

And he's also right that we don't know any of those guys, including the one from Baltimore. Derik Queen played one season of high school basketball at St. Frances, then headed off to plot his eventual path to the NBA by attending and playing at the Montverde Academy in Florida.

Baltimore will claim him, of course, but he's not really Baltimore. If you're from Baltimore, you play for a Baltimore school and you grow up in Baltimore, you don't scoot off to Florida.

And I'm not ragging on Queen for leaving Baltimore. He wants to play in the NBA and Florida was a better way for him to reach that goal. I'm just saying...he'd be from Baltimore if he he played four years at St. Joe, St. Frances, Calvert Hall, Dunbar and so on.

The rest of the guys in College Park are from parts all over. The only one we actually do know, really, is JuJu Reese, a true Baltimore kid who has definitey gone from scrawny to beefy in his four years at Maryland.

Gapare comes from Georgia Tech. Gillespie was at Belmont. They are both really nice players. They're also hired guns, like the rest of the team.

What we're seeing in College Park, of course, is the new world order of college basketball. It's the way of college sports, actually, not just basketball.

It's not Kevin Willard's fault he has to play this way. "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em" as the saying goes.

You either build your team through the transfer portal these days or you go 11-22 and get fired in three years.

It's terrible.

And by "terrible", I mean it's a terrible way to provide a product to your paying customer, particularly at the college level, where the whole idea behind college athletics is to have student-athletes actually attend the school and take pride in being part of the fabric of the university that they represent on the field, court, etc.

I say this with no disrespect all to those young men I saw on Wednesday night. But they couldn't care less about the University of Maryland.

Those kids are like bartenders. If a bigger bar in town gives them more hours on a Friday and Saturday night and they make $400 a night in tips instead of $300, they're moving on to the new bar. It's the way of the world, even in college basketball. They don't care what school they play for, as long as they can play.

They care about their NIL check. They care about their "brand". And they certainly care about where their next stop might be, which, sadly, is the final part of this story.

When the game ended, Kevin Willard did something I don't remember a college coach ever doing. He told everyone Derik Queen wouldn't be back at Maryland next year.

"I mean, Maryland fans better enjoy watching him, in my opinion, because I don't think he's going to be here next year" Willard said.

I sensed a certain sadness in Willard's voice when he said that in the press conference. He knew it going in, of course. And if Queen's one year in College Park includes a Final Four trip or some other magical accomlishment, Willard will gladly take the one-and-done performance from his future NBA money-maker.

But it still must be tough to coach like that.

Tony Bennett at Virginia didn't want to coach like that any longer, so he quit two months ago.

It's a tough way to run a program, I assume, knowing most of these guys are looking to peddle themselves to the next highest bidder no matter what you do for them in the 40 weeks they're on campus with you.

"I don't know any of them, but they're good!" the guy said in the bathroom.

Kevin Willard didn't say it. But on his ride home Wednesday night, he was probably thinking the exact same thing.

---

We were originally going to run a story from George McDowell about the incredible history of Mount Pleasant today, but with the Ravens off this weekend, I thought I'd give George's incredible account of how Mount Pleasant came to be all the space it needs on Saturday.

You'll be amazed at what George discovers about the birth of Mount Pleasant and how it was eventually built.

I'll also have an announcement of sorts about Mount Pleasant myself on Saturday. Tune in, please.

faith in sports

Former sportscaster Rudy Kalis has a great story. I won't tell you about it. He'll tell you in the video below, where he chronicles how his faith helped him deal with an ever changing career.

Kalis has an incredible personal story, too, as he wasn't born in the U.S. and came here with Russian parents to start a better life.

I love when I find an example of how someone in the real walk of life can share how their life changed through God. This is one of those examples.

Thanks, as always, to our friends at Freestate Electrical for their continued support of #DMD and our "Faith in Sports" segment here every Friday.

Thursday December 5, 2024

#DMD

Issue #3756

make it make sense, please

A football player is apparently not happy with his playing time.

He's not getting enough snaps, he thinks.

As a receiver, he wants the ball thrown to him. And when he isn't in the game, the ball can't be thrown his way.

Suddenly, a coach says to him, "Hey! Great news! You're in the game! Let's go make some noise!"

And it's then you decide, "Nah, I'm good, bro. I think I'll just stay right here."

Make it make sense, please.

You went from a last place bottom feeder to a first place team with a legitimate chance to win the Super Bowl.

In Charlotte, you might have been getting the ball thrown to you a half dozen or more times a game, but you were on the bad end of a lot of 28-13 losses.

What's better?

Going to a new team that's really good, where you might have a chance to be a winner for the first time in your career?

Or hanging around a losing team that's going nowhere fast?

Forget about catching footballs for a minute.

Let's just talk about your "quality of football life".

Do you want to toil for the Panthers? Or bask in the limelight of the Ravens?

There are disputes, still, about the original author of this quote: Some say it was Churchill, some say it came from Truman.

"We can achieve anything as long as we don't care who gets the credit."

Diontae Johnson clearly never heard it or believes in it. The Ravens found that out last Sunday when they told Johnson he was going into the game after Rashod Bateman got injured and Johnson politely (or not?) declined to enter the game.

He was peeved other guys were playing ahead of him, even though he had joined a winning team with receivers who had -- checks notes, real quick -- been here longer and were more integrated into the system than he was.

Receivers always want credit. It's all about them. They think they block the defensive line and throw the ball to themselves.

As soon as something doesn't go their way, they pitch a fit like a 6-year old who just had their Slinky taken away from them.

So Johnson decided last Sunday he didn't want to be part of winning. Or losing. He simply decided not to participate.

Never mind that his teammates were all out there fighting. Johnson didn't like the way things were playing out in Baltimore so he decided on his accord he wasn't going to fight with them.

And for that, he was suspended yesterday for next Sunday's game against the Giants.

You're asked to work by your employer. They're paying you. They want you to work. You tell them, "No, I'm not working."

Make it make sense, please.

When Ravens GM Eric DeCosta released the news on Wednesday, he said, "We've made the difficult decision to suspend Diontae Johnson..."

I almost fell over in my seats down in College Park as I read DeCosta's statement while I watched the last few minutes of the warm-up before the Terps drubbing of obviously unprepared and shockingly inept Ohio State squad.

"You did what?" I said to myself as I read the statement again. "You made the -- let me get this straight -- DIFFICULT DECISION to suspend an employee who refused to work?"

Man, this country really has lost its mind.

In virtually any place that we all know as "the real world", this person would have been terminated. Like, immediately. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200. Adios, "brah", as the kids say these days.

The decision to suspend someone who told his entire team -- his "brothers" as the athletes are prone to say when the times get tough -- "I'm not willing to help you today" was a difficult one?

Make it make sense, please.

Cutting Diontae Johnson seems like the natural, no-reason-to-even-question-it move by the Ravens.

"We're playing for our lives. It's a critical home game in December. Every win or loss could be the difference between playing at home in the playoffs or playing on the road in the playoffs. One catch. One touchdown. One reception -- assuming you can stand up long enough to collect the ball, which HAS been a problem for you -- on 3rd and 11 to keep a 4th quarter drive alive could be all we need from you. And you're not going to go into the game to help us accomplish that?"

You have to go. Like, today. Now.

But maybe the Ravens are seeing something from 35,000 feet that we're not seeing.

Perhaps they'd rather just let Johnson be a healthy scratch for the rest of the season to teach him a lesson and to keep some other team from scooping him up when you kick him to the curb.

That is one of the things being tossed around on the internet. "Don't cut him. Just let him rot on the sidelines or in the stands for the rest of the season."

I get that.

But I also don't get that. Because I don't want that dude around. I don't want him around the players, the trainers, the janitors or the guard who opens and closes the gate at the entrance to the facility.

In fact, frankly, he doesn't "deserve" to be a Raven.

I thought, quite honestly, the Ravens stood for more than this.

You're going to keep a guy around who quit on your entire organization in a huge game in December that could have massive implications during the post-season?

Please, please, please. Make this make sense.

And, no, I don't think a fair trade off is a compensatory pick if Johnson signs elsewhere in the off-season. If I'm Eric DeCosta or John Harbaugh, I don't give a rat's rear end about a compensatory pick for a middle-of-the-road wide receiver whose had as many clubs as Fred Couples over the last three years.

Shoot this dude all the way to the sun. Like, today.

I feel like I'm living on some other planet.

The team's offensive coordinator summoned Diontae Johnson to go in the game and he refused.

And you want that guy hanging around your locker room for the next six weeks?

I thought the Ravens were waaaaayyyyyy better than this.

I'd rather lose 35-10 to the Chargers in the first playoff game than to let some journeyman player whose never won a thing in his life decide when he's going to go in and not go in.

Congratulations, Ravens. With only 26 voting days remaining, you're now the clubhouse leader for #Clownshoes Moment of the Year.

And the second place moment is so far behind, they need binoculars to see you.

baltimore golf and its history

#DMD writer Greg Trehane checks in with a long-form Q&A with Drew Forrester. The subject: The history of Baltimore golf and the names and courses that have made it one of the mid-Atlantic's best golfing areas over the last century.

Part 3, Clifton Park and legendary stories

Trehane: "You spoke very fondly of Clifon Park. Why?"

DF: "I think, like most American sports fans, we're fond of the underdog. Clifton was always the underdog to places like the Mount and even Pine Ridge."

Trehane: "How so? Can you explain?"

DF: "In almost every way. It's location (Harford Rd. and Erdman Ave. area of the city) wasn't very desirable, for starters. I mean, they plunked a golf course right down in the middle of Baltimore City. You had cars literally driving through the course. The layout was short. People always assumed it was easy pickings because it was only 6,200 yards or whatever it was. And not a lot of folks from out in the county ever ventured down there to play it, so it was definitely an underdog sort of place. It was really blue collar golf, if that's even a term. There were some real characters down there playing golf."

Trehane: "And yet it appealed to even competitive players like you and some of the other better golfers in the area?"

DF: "I'll say this and say it with no shame. I think the best golf I ever played in my life from a scoring standpoint came as a result of playing regularly at Clifton on the weekends for about six years. From 1998 through 2004 or so. I played in the Slam Bang down there every Saturday and Sunday, hot or cold, and it was there that I learned how to score and how to make birdies when you had to and how to get to five or six under par and not get the heebie-jeebies because you were playing so well."

"In those days of the Slam Bang, they would routinely get 28 guys on the sign-up sheet and we'd go out at 9 am. I'd play with my buddies like George McDowell, Mark Joyner, Greg Ruark, Jason Keller, Billy Wingerd, Phil Novak, Walt Kraft, Mike Raborg, Denny Hresko. And that's where I met Chuck Ebner and Jackie Rites. Billy and I or Mark and I would go out on a Saturday and play against Chuck and Jackie and if you didn't make at least 4 birdies on each 9 holes, you were losing to those guys."

"You'd play them for $5 a side and a $5 total. It was only $15. But it was still real money. And you almost always had 3 or 4 other sides games going on with other guys. Again, you're not talking tons of money, but you might have $60 or $80 on the line and you knew you had to play really well or you were going to lose."

"You knew before you started there were 5 or 6 holes you probably had to birdie because they were short and every player you were playing against had a pitching wedge or sand wedge into the green; number 2, number 3, number 6 was a short par 5 along the road where Phil (Novak) lived, number 11, number 12. You stood on the tee of those holes and said, 'If I don't make birdie here, I'm losing ground. That place taught you how to score."

Trehane: "Earlier you mentioned Clifton Park featured a lot of characters there. How so?"

DF: "Well, I say that respectfully, because we were all characters in our own way. These guys were my friends. But you would go down there on a Saturday morning and see all walks of life playing the course. Guys would show up in jeans and a sweatshirt with a Pabst Blue Ribbon logo on the front and you'd get paired up with them and, at the turn, they'd be 2 under par and you're just shaking your head. Guys would be shot-gunning beers on the first tee. Everyone had their own little cooler with, well, whatever their personal concotion was. But they could also play golf. They weren't hacks. And they knew how to play Clifton Park. If they went to the Mount or Pine Ridge, they'd be hard pressed to break 85. But at Clifton, they could shoot 72 with no problem."

Trehane: "Any funny or memorable stories stick out from your days at Clifton?"

DF: "Oh, man, way, way too many. There was a time when one of the guys' I was with told us before the round that his wife was mad he was playing so much so he told her he was working overtime on Saturday and wouldn't you know it, she showed up at the snack bar by the 8th green and called him every name in the book and threw a cup of coffee at him. I'll never forget it, he said, to her, "Honey, I need a par for 18 points. Please let me play the 9th hole in peace. I'll be home in 2 hours." She MF'd him all the way to the tee box. The next week I saw him and asked how eveything went when he got home and he said, "She went out clothes shopping after she ripped me in front of you guys and spent $300 and when I got home, she was fine."

"After they re-did the layout and added that new goofy 16th hole over by the tennis courts, Phil Novak had the original course record on that rotation of holes with 65. I was playing with him on a Sunday in the Slam Bang and I birdied 15 (downhill par 3) to get to 4 under, then made birdie at 16 and 17. I needed a birdie at 18 to shoot 7 under and 64 which beat his 65. Most guys in that situation wouldn't have wanted to see their course record broken. But Phil was great. We got to 18 tee and he said, 'You birdie this hole every time I play with you (which wasn't really true). Let me see you do it today.' And he meant it. And I made birdie there and Phil was genuinely happy for me. He turned the card in to the shop and told them to put it up behind the counter and take his down and all that stuff. It was cool. And then, oddly enough, I was in the foursome with a guy named Chris Davidson in the Publinx a year or two later who shot 62 for the new course record."

"But probably my favorite story involved two great guys, Al Medlin and Bobby Lumsden. My buddy Mark Joyner and I played them in a friendly $5 nassau one day. I remember it was in the spring and the greens had been punched. They were still very bumpy and unpredictable. Mark and I thought those two would be easy-peasy for us. They were both good players. I mean, Lumpy beat Johnny Miller in the U.S. Amateur and eventually lost to Ben Crenshaw that year, I believe. He once held the Maryland, Pennsylvania and West Virginia amateur stroke play titles in the same summer. But he was 20 back then. The day of this match, he was probably 55 or 60. Anyway, it's back and forth all day and we're all riding each other hard and Medlin is making these crazy putts and out of nowhere, Lumpy birdies number 17 to put them one ahead. He's chirping on the tee, nursing whatever adult beverage he has in his Thermos, and Mark and I are apopletic that we might lose to these two guys."

"I almost never hit the 18th green in two shots back then (or now). But on that day, I hit this great 3-wood between the two trees in front of the green to 30 feet. Lumpy is out of the hole. Medlin hits a wedge for his 3rd shot to about 20 feet. So, we're going to win that hole and wind up tying the match and saving face. There's no way Joyner and I want to walk into the clubhouse and have to hear that we lost to Medlin and Lumpy. I roll my eagle attempt down to the hole. It plinkos around on the aerated green and stops a foot away."

"In those days at the Slam Bang, there were no gimmee putts. Everything had to be putted in. Medlin snickers and says, in his southern accent, 'Hey Lump, what do you say I just make this one and put these two out of their misery?' Lumpy says, 'I think that's a great plan.' And freakin' Medlin rolls this ball down to the hole, it bounces four different ways, and falls right into the middle of the hole for a birdie. Now, I have to make this one footer for my birdie or we lose all three ways. It was the hardest one foot putt I ever had to make because those two were over there giggling and knee slapping and cackling about how they just 'whooped up on us'. I made it. But that was a hard ten dollars to hand over. And the abuse we took from them for the rest of the summer never ended. Mark and I kep saying, 'You boys want a rematch today?' and Lumpy would laugh and say, 'You had your chance to beat us. You lost. We have other fish to fry today.'"

Trehane: "Any other closing thoughts? This has been great for me to hear, personally. I caddied for Blair Laubach several times back in those days and all of these names you've mentioned have stirred up some great memories of my time with Blair (who passed away in 2018). So thank you for this."

DF: "Well, first off, Blair was an excellent player. I competed against him a lot. He was a top guy in the area for a decade or so. I guess the one last thing, which is sort of when my days as a regular at the Mount came to an end, was the fact that we built a Tuesday "tour" as we liked to call it largely off of the Slam Bang. The Slam Bang was a great influence to me and a lot of the guys because it was competitive golf the way it was meant to be played. Every putt was holed. The rules were followed. You didn't touch the ball. There was a dollar or two on the line on almost every shot."

"So, in the summer of 2000, we started getting tee times at 3 pm every Tuesday at the Mount and it became an "open game". Buy your greens fee and put $10 to get in the big game and we paid out skins at the end of the round. No strokes. No handicaps. We had 6 handicap players show up who wanted to play with and against better players, knowing they were probably going to wind up on the losing end of things, but they wanted that experience."

"It started with 12 players. Then we got to 16. And by the time we go to the fall, we had 20 guys there every Tuesday afternoon. I distinctly remember playing on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. Like it was yesterday. And we all went back to Schooners (now Skipjacks) after golf for a burger and to do the scoring and we all sat there together, in the bar, watching President Bush address the nation after the attacks on the World Trade Center earlier that day."

"There's actually still a small group of guys, Greg Ruark, Jeff Amhrein and some others, I think, who will play every Tuesday, although I think they've shifted to Pine Ridge for some reason. That Tuesday Tour -- we called ourselves "The Knuckleheads" -- was really a lot of fun and, like I said, I think it was golf being played the way it's supposed to be played."

Wednesday December 4, 2024

#DMD

Issue #3755

"it's time to clean house"

I won't beat this one into the ground today. Not too much, at least.

I promise.

But there was a caller on local sports radio on Tuesday who chimed in with one of the all-time dumbest, most outlandish "takes" in the history of dumb, outlandish takes.

"If this Ravens team doesn't win the Super Bowl, Biscotti needs to just clean house. From DeCosta to Harbaugh to everybody on the coaching staff. All of 'em gotta go."

And, no, I didn't misspell Steve Bisciotti's name. Well, I wrote it as the guy said it -- Biss-cotti.

He's really up on his Ravens, huh?

Anyway, his assertion was a serious attempt at sports talk. "Fire everybody" if the Ravens don't win the Super Bowl.

And then what?

Because sports radio hosts no longer engage in back-and-forth dialogue, there wasn't the obvious follow-up question. Or questions, plural.

Like...

"You mean if the team goes 12-5, wins the division, beats three teams in the playoffs, beats Kansas City on the road to get to the Super Bowl, then loses to, say, Detroit, 24-23, in the Super Bowl...you're going to fire EVERYONE?"

"Don't you think firing everyone is a bit extreme?"

"Who are you bringing in to replace the 20 people you're eliminating, particularly the GM, head coach and two coordinators?"

And, the most obvious question of them all.

"What happens if the people you bring in don't have the same level of success as the group you summarily dismissed?"

The caller was just ushered on with a "Thanks for the call" and that was that. He had his 30 seconds on the air, made his point, and was gone.

As I thought about it, maybe that was the best way to handle him. Get him on the air, let him spew his crazy idea, and move onto someone more rational.

But it always leaves me shaking my head when I hear people call in with stuff like that because it's very apparent that they're dead serious. When he gathers at the water cooler, he tells all of his football-loving buddies that the best response from "Biscotti" would be to fire everybody if the Ravens don't win it all in 2024.

That way, when they don't win it all in 2025, he can always say, "I told you guys last year DeCosta, Harbaugh and the rest of them had to go. Nobody wanted to listen to me."

I blame most of this craziness on the internet. I don't think sports fans were nearly this nuts before the mid 1990's.

That's enough on that subject. Just, please, as you navigate the potentially-rough-waters of this final 8 weeks of the NFL season in Baltimore, promise you'll be better than that guy.

Promise?

---

Baseball with a "golden at bat" moving forward? Rob Manfred says the idea is "gaining steam" with the 30 owners, which, of course, could either be a flat-out-lie or a gross exaggeration of the truth.

Manfred could have brought up the concept of the "golden at bat" at a meeting this week and then asked, "Do any of you think this is absolutely the dumbest idea you've ever heard?" And when no one raised their hand to say "yes", he took that as a sign that "the idea is gaining steam".

For those who don't know, baseball is toying with the idea of allowing each team to bring anyone they want to the plate once a game, no matter the circumstance.

In general, most people I checked out on social media on Tuesday were dead-red against the idea. Most were even, I'd say, vehemently opposed to it.

Me?

I actually don't think it's the dumbest idea I've ever heard.

I mean, baseball starts an inning with a runner on 2nd base and no outs in the regular season. There aren't many ideas that can be more dumb than that one.

But here's the thing: Dumb or not, it definitely works. It gets a lot more games to end in the 10th or 11th inning, which is what it's supposed to do.

It's dumb. But it works.

The supporters of the golden at bat proposal will cling to the obvious: "You're paying your top guy $40 million, why shouldn't you be allowed to use him in the most pressure packed moment? When you need him the most?"

And it's true. Baseball's the only sport where you're not allowed to play someone whenever you want. Football might be Exhibit B to that, since Lamar, for example, can't play defense. Well, he could, but you know what I mean.

But there's never a moment on offense when Lamar isn't "allowed" to play.

Imagine a basketball game where, say, LeBron isn't permitted to play in the final 3 minutes.

Or a hockey game where Ovechkin wasn't allowed to be on the ice for more than 15 minutes per-game.

You get the point.

If the Dodgers trail 4-3 in the bottom of the 9th but Ohtani is due up 6th in the inning, they're getting nothing out of the player they've invested $50 million in.

It's kind of dumb to not have that option, at least.

And, yes, I know it's always "been that way" in baseball. You come up to the plate when the batting order allows for it. I get it. But that doesn't mean baseball shouldn't look at things to make the games more exciting.

Having that option once per game isn't as terrible of an idea as people think.

I mean, you can basically bring in any pitcher you want at any time, right? Why shouldn't you be allowed to have someone come to the plate -- once in a game -- whenever you want?

I'm not saying I'm 100% in favor of it.

But I am saying it's not the dumbest idea I've ever heard.

Nothing will ever beat leaving Zack (or was it Zach, then?) Britton in the bullpen in Toronto in 2016. Now that was the dumbest baseball idea...ever.

baltimore golf and its history

#DMD writer Greg Trehane checks in with a long-form Q&A with Drew Forrester. The subject: The history of Baltimore golf and the names and courses that have made it one of the mid-Atlantic's best golfing areas over the last century.

Part 2, The players who made Baltimore golf special

Trehane: Going back to Mount Pleasant for a minute, what were the unique elements of the course that made it difficult for tournament golfers?"

DF: "You have to remember I only really saw the course in its prime tournament condition for about 15 years. From roughly 1993 through 2008 or so. I don't know much about 'the old days' when the Eastern Open was played, but obviously holes number 2, number 14 and number 15 were totally different back in the 1950's."

"When I played there regularly and competitively, three things always stood out to me. First was the fact that the greens were incredibly tricky from green to green. The right green on the first hole was very treacherous but the left green on the first hole was about as flat you would find out there. The 4th green was always tough to read. Number 6 was impossible if you were above the hole. The 11th and 15th greens were similar. Very big and very slow going uphill but very fast going downhill. The greens out there were the great equalizer. I remember one year, it might have been 1998, where I hit 44 greens in 54 holes of the Stroke Play Championship and shot 8 or 9 over par for three days. I just couldn't make any putts."

"I thought the par 3 holes were almost always going to dictate your scoring for the round. If you played those three holes in even par you were definitely ahead of the field. If you played them in one over par, you were probably ahead of 60% of the field. But you could easily play them in three or four over if you weren't careful. And then you had to play the other 15 holes in even par to have a good score. And that was tough to do."

"The toughest stretch of the course was 11 through 14. You had to hit a straight 190 yard shot at number 11. You had to hit a half-a-draw tee-shot up the right side at number 12 and hope it didn't careen too far left down into the hazard. You had to hit a fade 225-240 yard shot off the at number 13 and then hit an approach to an uphill green. And then you had to bust a nice drive of 250 or so, at least, to get the ball into play safetly off the tee at number 14. Those four holes were all unique. I always thought the 12th hole out there was one of the few holes where you stood on the tee and said, 'I should make birdie here.'"

"To me, a really good tournament score at Mount Pleasant was anything under 75. If you shot 71 or better, you played great golf. But 72, 73, or even 74...those were VERY good scores in competition out there. If you go back and look at the winning scores of the Maryland Amateur Stroke Play, it wasn't like guys were routinely shooting 6 or 8 under to win. It was more like 1 or 2 under for 3 days would win it. There were some years where guys like Billy (Wingerd) would have a great round of 65 or 66, but he would also have a 70 or a 72 in there. You just couldn't shoot 66-66-66 at Mount Pleasant. It wasn't happening. For anyone. And these were some of the best amateurs in the state, remember.'"

Trehane: "When you look through the list of winners, you mentioned Billy Wingerd, but there are others who won multiple amateur tournaments at Mount Pleasant; Joe Walter, Serge Hogg, Bob Lentz. What do you remember about those guys?"

DF: "I never got to play with Joe Walter. I certainly heard of him. Anyone in Baltimore golf knew about him. He was a legend. But I do have a cool story about Joe."

"Sometime in the 1990's, I took a couple of the older guys who hung around Mount Pleasant down to the Kemper Open because they wanted to see Fred Couples in person. I had seen Wayne DeFrancesco for a lesson or two and he was playing in the event so I thought it would be neat to go down there and follow him around. We got down to the practice range and there was Wayne, hitting balls next to Mark O'Meara and Chip Beck. I got Wayne's attention and he came over to say "hi" and Mark O'Meara walked over and the guys I brought with me started talking to O'Meara and the next thing I know, they're chatting about Baltimore golf. O'Meara says, "Wasn't Joey Walter a Baltimore guy?" and their eyes lit up and they started talk about Joe and Mark yells over to Chip Beck and says, 'These guys know Joey Walter.' It turned out, Beck was Joe's roommate at the University of Georgia. 'Joe Walter," Chip said, with his southern accent. 'Is the best striker of the golf ball I have ever known. To this day. And that's the god's honest truth!'"

"I never did see Joe play. But all of the old guys at Mount Pleasant revered him. They thought he was the cat's meow."

"Serge was always the most natural player of the Baltimore guys I competed with and against. If there was ever a "born golfer", it was him. He just had a knack for hitting the great shot at the biggest moment. His golf swing never changed, yet he was always supposedly working on something. He was a remarkable player. Gritty. A blue collar golfer in a complimentary way. If you gave him an inch in a tournament, he would beat you."

"We were all a little bit envious of Serge. We worked on our golf game all the time. He'd show up with a styrofoam cup filled with an adult beverage, wearing jeans and a pullover and ask, "We playing for anything, boys?" and then hit it 275 yards right in the middle of the 1st fairway and go on to shoot 69. He made a lot of guys better when he did that, but it drove us all crazy."

"Bob Lentz was actually a Calvert Hall golfer back in his high school days. He was a very solid player. Drove it straight, hit his irons well. Very underrated putter. We went head-to-head a lot. He was fun guy to compete against. Didn't say much. Just played the game the right way. I always knew he'd be in the hunt in every tournament he played."

"Billy was incredibly talented. He still is, even now. I saw Billy grow up from high school to college to being one of the top amateurs in the state. There was no weakness in his game. When he first started playing competitively he had a bit of a wild hook going off the tee, but once he got that figured out, he became a great driver of the ball. He had great hands. He was a very good putter. He was one of the few guys in the area -- along with Chris Baloga -- who could putt those Mount Pleasant greens. I always thought Billy could have made a run at making a living playing golf if he would have really pursued it. He's one of the best players I've seen and played with and against, along with Chris and Serge, for sure. When those three were on top of their game, I'd put them up against any amateurs anywhere."

Trehane: "And Serge caddied for you at the U.S. Senior Open a few years ago, right?"

DF: "He did, yes. It was an incredible week, for sure. And he was a huge help, all week. He's a great caddie, for starters, and he knew exactly what to say at the right time, whether it was something funny to lighten the moment or something serious to get me to dig in a little bit. The fact that we have a longtime friendship made it really special. He was as excited to be there as I was, I think. Two Baltimore guys hanging out a U.S. Senior Open. We laughed about that all week. 'We're a long way from Mount Pleasant, aren't we?' he said about 3 times a day, I think."

Trehane: "Any other Baltimore names come to mind that are worth remembering?"

DF: "Oh, we could do this for hours. Doug Ballenger played in the Masters! From Baltimore. I think he won the Maryland Amateur two or three times. I played with him one year in the Maryland Amateur Stroke Play and it was like watching a Tour player work his way around the course. I think he shot 71-70 those first two days and might have missed two shots in two rounds."

"Chuck Ebner and I played a lot of golf together at Clifton Park in the early 2000's. We haven't even talked about Clifton Park. That's another place with great history. Jim Thorpe and his brother Chuck played there in the 1970's. A lot of big money matches were played at Clifton in the old days. Anyway, Chuck Ebner was a terrific player. He played in a U.S. Senior Open somewhere, I believe. Jackie Rites and Charlie Harris were contemporaries of his at the Country Club of Maryland. I played a lot with Jackie at Clifton. He and Chuck were great partners in two man events."

"Bob Kaestner has been a great amateur in this area for four decades now. He's won just about everything you could win. I know I'm leaving out people, which I hate to do."

"Speaking of Chuck (Ebner), he would often tell me about a guy named Billy Collins who was from Baltimore. I never saw him play, but Chuck said he was "pro tour material". And if anyone knew, it was Chuck."

"It's really amazing how many great players have come through Baltimore over the last 40 years. We had a guy from Baltimore play in the Masters (Ballenger) and a guy from Baltimore (Moose Brown) play in the U.S. Open. We've also had a couple of local PGA professionals play in the PGA Championship; Mark Evenson and Dave Hutsell. Mark's from Indiana originally. Dave's a Baltimore guy who used to wash carts at Mount Pleasant."

"I don't know how I'd rank the top 10 Baltimore golfers and who they would be, but I know this: I'd put them up against any other city's top 10 players. Any day."

In part 3 tomorrow, Greg and Drew go through some other memories of Baltimore golf, including the development of a Tuesday group and the weekend "Slam Bang" at Clifton Park.

Tuesday December 3, 2024

#DMD

Issue #3754

"it's always something you don't suspect"

I'm not going to solve the dilemma the Ravens face with Justin Tucker.

Only Tucker can do that.

But I'll give you the reasoning behind keeping him around, if that's what you're looking for.

Ignoring that Tucker is going through a rough patch would be silly. He is struggling, there's no doubt about that.

The question facing the Ravens is: What do they do about Tucker?

Here's what they can't do: They can't outright just cut the guy.

They'd get dinged with over $7.5 million of dead money on next year's salary cap if they walked in today and gave him the pink slip. They're not doing that.

Nor should they.

There are people around town clamoring for the Ravens to bring in a veteran kicker who is floating around looking for work. I don't see that as a solution, either. There are only 32 place kickers in the entire NFL. If a dude is good enough to be one of them, he'd be one of them.

So bringing someone in seems futile. I mean, let's be serious, who are you more confident in? Justin Tucker at 80% of what he was or some guy who would be on his 5th team in 8 years?

And, again, you then have to sign the new kicker and figure out what to do with Tucker. You can't cut him. So you'd be paying him to essentially do nothing except collect a paycheck. You could do what the Orioles do and make up an injury for him to help save face, but that wouldn't work, either.

In the end, the Ravens are most likely stuck with Tucker. For better or worse.

And here's where I will tell you there could still be some "better" for him between now and the end of the season.

I'm not a field goal kicker by trade, but there are a lot of similarities to kicking and playing golf. You often hear kickers refer to the golf swing motion, in fact, when discussing their routine and the way they generate speed through the kick.

So while I'm not a kicker, I do know this: Justin Tucker didn't forget how to kick. In fact, he knows more about kicking right now, today, than he has ever known in his life. He might not be as good at 37 as he was at 27, but very few high level athletes are.

Tucker is going through something in his kicking mechanics that only he knows. In this way it is similar to a golfer. A lot of times it can be a very, very minor tweak in your set-up, for instance, or in the way you're making contact with the ball that is off by a fraction of an inch.

Just last week, I had a competent junior golfer in the area seek me out for some swing guidance. His regular coach wasn't available, the young man said, and he wanted a "new set of eyes" to look at his swing.

We met at Pine Ridge at 6:00 pm. After three minutes of small talk, I asked him to hit some balls.

"What's bugging you?" I asked him.

"I hate my ball flight," he replied. "I was hitting this big, high fade all summer and now I'm hitting this low, draw-hook. I hate it."

After about the 10th ball, I stopped him.

"What are you aiming for?" I asked him.

"The yellow 150 marker," he said.

"OK. And you think you're aimed at that 150 marker correctly?" I asked.

"I think I am," he said.

I took two alignment sticks out of his bag and put one where his feet were aimed and another where his feet should have been aimed.

His body was lined up 20 yards right of the 150 marker.

That created a closed stance, which also promoted a ball position that was an inch or two too far back in his stance along with a flat backswing. The result was a closed club face at impact that led to a pull-hook that he'd been experiencing.

All I did was got him to line up square (straight) to the target, which got the ball more up, forward, in his stance. He started striping every single shot.

The look of joy and relief on his face as he rifled ball after ball out into the driving range was priceless.

And I didn't do anything with his golf swing. All I did was move his feet and body into the proper position and his natural athleticism and golf IQ did the rest of the work.

I have no idea if "fixing" Justin Tucker is that easy, but my guess is there's something very minor that's "off" with him. And I'd bet he's been trying to find what that is for the better part of a month or two and he can't figure it out.

If I had a dollar for every golf tournament I started in my life where I went into it knowing I didn't have the golf swing with me that I wanted to have, I'd be a semi-rich guy.

I tell people this all the time about golf: It's a 3-week sport. You "have it" for 3 weeks and you think you'll never hit a bad shot ever again. You "lose it" for 3 weeks and can't figure out what's going on. You "chase it" for 3 weeks and spend that time going through new swing thoughts, videos, lessons, etc. until something finally clicks and you're back to that 3 weeks where you "have it".

If you play good-to-great golf 3 weeks out of 9, you're doing something only a few people can do.

Kicking, I think, is the same.

You're only as good as your last game. Tucker's last game was a disaster. He's in that 3-week period where he's "chasing it", trying to figure out what on earth is going on with his technique.

I don't think -- as the kids say these days -- that Justin Tucker is "washed".

It's not like he's missing every field goal. He made one from 50 on Sunday, for example. And he has made some big kicks throughout the season. Yes, he's missed some. No one's denying that. But he's not a bum, either. He's just not the Justin Tucker of old and it's shocking to a lot of people, including him.

He'll figure this out, Tucker will. It's always something you don't suspect. Whether he's ever "Justin Tucker" again remains to be seen, but there's a better chance this turns out well than it doesn't turn out well.

The last piece of this, though, is the most important one of all.

The Ravens have to stick with him. Cutting Tucker isn't an option.

But they might have to scoot in his "projected kick line" to, say, anything 30 yards and in, meaning if the kick is 47 yards or shorter, they'll give him the kick. But if it's 48 or beyond, they're going to have to go for it on 4th down, assuming it's short yardage and not, like, 4th and 14.

In the past, anything 55 yards and in was pretty much a "Tucker time" decision. Those days are definitely gone.

This will put more heat on Lamar, Henry and Monken to make sure they have plenty of 4th and 2, 4th and 4 and 4th and 6 options at their disposal moving forward. If you're going to go for it more times than usual, you can't just have three or four plays in your back pocket.

And I don't know much, but I know this: At some point, this season, or in the playoffs, the ball will be on the 30-something yard line and Justin Tucker will have to make a meaningful kick for the Ravens.

It always works that way.

If your bunker game is suspect, you know you're hitting it into a greenside bunker on 18 needing a par to win your club tournament.

If foul shots are you nemesis, you know you're getting sent to the line for a one-and-one with your team trailing 59-58 with 2 seconds remaining.

And if you're the field goal kicker and you're struggling, you know it's coming your way in the waning seconds of a huge game. It just is.

But, as Lamar said after Sunday's fiasco, where he got the offense into the end zone only once when the game was in the balance, "We have to do a better job of not putting (Tuck) in that position."

Apparently, that might have to be the game plan moving forward, as weird as it seems to say.

baltimore golf and its history

#DMD writer Greg Trehane checks in with a long-form Q&A with Drew Forrester. The subject: The history of Baltimore golf and the names and courses that have made it one of the mid-Atlantic's best golfing areas over the last century.

Part 1, Arnie and Mount Pleasant

Trehane: "Let's start with your personal history at Mount Pleasant. When you did play there and how long did it take for you to realize it was such a historical golf course?"

DF: "I think I played my first round there in the late 1980's, maybe. But I didn't really start playing the Mount regularly until 1991. I worked for the Blast soccer team at the time and a player on the team who was also an avid golfer, Rusty Troy, lived right down the street from me in Perry Hall. In those days, weekend tee times were a premium, so you had to show up at the course at like 5 am to get on the waiting list, which we did quite a bit back then. If you were lucky, you got out sometime before 9 am."

"You got a sense of the history of the course right away if you spent enough time in the pro shop and restaurant, because there were pictures of Arnold Palmer everywhere, trophies everywhere, and even some old news clippings tacked up on the board about Arnie's win in the 1956 Eastern Open."

"Later, when I was playing there a lot in the mid to late 1990's, I met guys like Bunny Mannion who caddied in those Eastern Opens and he would tell us some great stories about the players and their rounds at the Mount. I remember once he showed me a place where Palmer got up and down for par on the 12th hole. He walked over to it like it was yesterday instead of 40 years ago. He tossed a ball down, over near the 13th tee, and said, 'Arnie got this up and in during the 2nd round in '56 when he won. See if you can do it.'"

"So, yeah, if you were ever a regular at the Mount, you learned a lot about the tradition of the course and the history. Sam Snead won the Eastern Open there, Tommy Bolt won there, Lloyd Mangrum won there. It was a great tournament course, as evidenced by the fact that anything between 8 under and 12 under usually won."

Trehane: "Your name is on quite a few tournament trophies on display there now. That must feel very special to walk in the pro shop and see that, right?"

"It does. Probably once a year I'll take my two kids over there for breakfast just to see if there's anyone hanging around from the old days and I'll always walk in the back and look at the trophies and plaques from the Public Links tournaments that were run in the 80's, 90's and 00's. I won the club championship there four times, too. And back then, winning that was a big deal because, A) there were a half dozen or more very good players you had to beat over two days to win it and, B) winning the club championship got you a 2-year exemption into the Baltimore City Amateur, which was a big summer event back then."

"It's also fun to look at those trophies and see the names of guys who were really good amateur players that I competed against for so many years. Serge Hogg, Bob Lentz, Walt Grabowski, Greg Ruark, Blair Laubach, Brendan McKinney, Tim Elliott, Dale Williams, Billy Wingerd, Chris Baloga, Rusty McCready, Tim Osgood - they all won at least one if not multiple city golf championships. You know you had to beat those guys just to have a chance to win and that was always tough to do."

Trehane: "What happened to Mount Pleasant? In terms of tournament golf?"

DF: "Well, I can't answer that one completely because I don't know all of the reasons. But for the most part, I think it just became an economic decision by the people at Baltimore Municipal Golf who used to run the event. They had a Board of Directors to answer to, and when they showed their balance sheet at the end of the year, any weekend when they held an amateur tournament always took a loss, financially, because they weren't generating the same amount of revenue during the day they normally would."

"So, you could either make the tournament fee something outrageous like $200, just to break even, or you could just keep selling foursomes of tee times to the general public and make your revenue that way. You have to remember, running an event also puts stress on the grounds and maintenance crew. If you're doing it right, you have to get the course in "tournament condition", which, especially in the summer, puts the property at risk in terms of cutting the greens down to tournament speed, etc. There's more to it than most people realize."

"They do have an annual 2-man event at Mount Pleasant every May that I'd like to play in but over the last two years it has conflicted with the high school championship match. They also have a Baltimore Amateur Championship that is played at Mount Pleasant and Pine Ridge in August. I'm going to try and get that one on my schedule next summer."

Trehane: "What's your fondest Mount Pleasant memory?"

DF says: "This one's easy. As a competitive golfer, you might have one or two out-of-body-experiences in your life, where you're playing the game here (Forrester points to the ground), but you're seeing the course up here (points to the sky). I know that's weird and you think I'm nuts. But anyway, you might get one or two of those momemts in your lifetime."

"So in 2004 I started having some putting problems. I was playing a lot at Mountain Branch back then while still playing pretty regularly at the Mount as well. On a Friday, the day before the Spring Publinx championship, a guy named Stefan Buitron gave me a long putter on the practice green at Mountain Branch and suggested I take it out and try it. So I did. I had a little bit of success with it, but nothing crazy. I made a few birdies. Missed a few I shouldn't. But it felt comfortable, for some reason. I asked him if I could keep it over the weekend and thought to myself,'If I putt poorly on Saturday at Mount Pleasant, I'll use it on Sunday at Forest Park in the second round.'"

"I got to Mount Pleasant early on Saturday morning and putted with the long putter on the practice green for a while and said, 'You know what? I'm going to use this today. It can't be any worse than flinching at putts with the short putter. What's the worst thing that can happen?' I still remember I was paired with Brendan McKinney and Doug McIlvain and they both looked at me like I had three heads when they saw me practicing with the long putter before the round."

"So...I make about a 6-foot birdie putt at #1. I make a 10-footer for birdie at #2. And I hit my second shot at #3 to a foot and make that. I'm now 3-under par to start. I hit it to 15 feet at #4 and make that one. At #5, the flag is in the back left part of the green and I hit my 2nd shot about 20 feet right of it and just a hair into the fringe. And I roll that one in. I'm 5-under. Doug and Brendan are both laughing. I'm laughing. We're standing on the 6th tee and they're practicing with my long putter. 'How long have you been using this?' Doug asked me. 'About 45 minutes,' I said."

"I par #6 and then I hit my second shot into the bunker at #7 and don't get it up and down. I think that putt was in the 10-foot range coming back. I just missed it. So now I'm 4-under on #8 tee. I hit my second shot to 10 feet there and make it. Back to 5-under. And then at #9, I hit a 5-iron to about 20 feet and make that one for my 7th birdie in 9 holes."

"I made birdie at #10 to get to 7 under. And at that point, I was officially out of my comfort zone. I didn't know how to play from there. I went from playing golf to thinking about it too much. I bogeyed #12, #14 and #17 to finish 4-under. But, man, those first 10 holes were something else. I've only experienced something like that one other time. It was surreal. And to do it at the Mount was really cool."

In part 2 tomorrow, Greg and Drew discuss the prominent names and players that have made up Baltimore amateur golf for the last century.

Monday December 2, 2024

#DMD

Issue #3753

no longer automatic

Look at the brightside.

Instead of planting a flag at midfield on the Ravens logo yesterday, 7 Eagles players and 5 Ravens players gathered in a circle to pray.

No fighting. No shenanigans. No pepper spray.

The brightside, as they say.

The bad side, though, was a (very) uncharacteristic home loss by the Ravens to an Eagles team that did the proverbial "just enough to win" in a 24-19 victory in Baltimore that marked the first time ever that Lamar Jackson lost a home game to a NFC opponent.

All good things come to an end.

No, that's not a reference to Justin Tucker. But it does appear as if Tucker is on the 16th tee of his Hall of Fame career.

We'll get back to him in a minute.

The game itself was a weird one.

No one on the Ravens was "great", per se, but other than Tucker, no one stunk it up, either.

Well, actually, Jordan Stout wasn't very good either, but punting is way down the list of reasons why the Ravens lost on Sunday.

Lamar was "off". Other than the garbage time TD the Eagles surrendered, he only got his team into the end zone one time yesterday.

Derrick Henry had moments of success but was from his dominating self.

And the Baltimore defensive line got punctured by Philly's running game time and time again.

Zach Orr never could figure out a way to stop Philly's outstanding receiver, A.J. Brown.

I could go on but you get the picture.

No one had a remarkable day on either side of the ball, really.

And let's give credit where it's due: The Eagles manned up and came into Baltimore and out-Raven'd the Ravens. That's not easy to do.

If you're a true silver-linings kind of person, here's the good news: John Harbaugh wasn't to blame yesterday, so you won't need to endure a week of "fire the coach" on talk radio.

Like I said...silver linings.

Two things happened we didn't necessarily expect on Sunday and three things took place that we expected. That is, as it relates to the AFC playoff picture.

The Bengals -- as we assumed they would -- lit up an overrated Pittsburgh defense for 38 points at home.

But the Steelers somehow scored 44 themselves and picked up a victory most NFL analysts assumed they'd drop on the road.

That win moves the Steelers to 9-3.

The Ravens lost a home game to a NFC team that no one saw coming. Baltimore now falls back to 8-5.

In snowy Buffalo last night, the Bills clobbered the heartless 49'ers, 35-10. Buffalo remains hot on Kansas City's heels for the #1 seed in the AFC with a 10-2 record.

The Chargers went into Atlanta and -- with the help of Falcons' QB Kirk Cousins -- picked up a key road win, 17-13. L.A. improves to 8-4 and now has an 96% chance of making the playoffs according to the stats geeks.

Denver, currently 7-5, hosts Cleveland tonight.

Pittsburgh has Cleveland (h), Philadelphia (a), Baltimore (a), Kansas City (h) and Cincinnati (h) remaining. That still feels like an 11-6 season for Mike Tomlin's team to me, but one win against a real team like Philly, Baltimore or KC could change all of that. Obviously if the Steelers win in Baltimore on December 21 the division is sewed up for them.

The Ravens get the bye week and then an automatic 37-13 win in New York against the Giants the following Sunday to move to 9-5.

Then they host the Steelers, travel to Houston, and host the Browns to finish out the campaign.

The home game vs. Pittsburgh decides almost everything, but that pesky trip to Houston on Christmas Day would also loom large.

If the Ravens beat Pittsburgh on December 21 but somehow finish tied with them at the end of the season (presumably at 11-6), it would then come down to record within the division. Pittsburgh is currently 2-1. Baltimore is 2-2. Assuming all plays out equal there, the teams would finish 4-2 in the division.

The next step after division record is "common games". The teams have currently played these common opponents thus far: Broncos, Chargers, Raiders, Cowboys, Commanders. Both teams are 4-1 in that department; Baltimore lost to the Raiders, the Steelers lost to the Cowboys.

The Steelers have already defeated the Giants and the Ravens will obviously beat them on December 15. That's 5-1.

Pittsburgh still has to play Philadelphia and Kansas City, but the Ravens lost to both of those teams as well. If things play out where the Steelers lose to Philly and KC, the two teams would finish with identical 5-3 records in common games.

The next tiebreaker is "conference games" and this one, too, is crazy. But it's also where the Ravens would lose out assuming they beat the NY Giants, Pittsburgh and Cleveland, but lose to Houston, to finish at 11-6 with Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh is 6-2 right now but if all things play out as expected they'd lose to Baltimore and KC and beat Cleveland and Cincy to finish 8-4 in conference games.

Baltimore is 5-4 in conference play but with a loss to the Texans, they'd lose the tiebreaker at 7-5 in conference games.

The Steelers at Pittsburgh game is huge. So, too, is the Ravens at Houston game. But as you can see above with the "common games" tiebreaker, the loss to the Eagles was very damaging as well.

Yes, it's true. John Harbaugh is off the hot seat this week. But talk radio will still be filled with "fire that guy!" phone calls except they'll be calling for the head of.......Justin Tucker.

Tucker even got booed yesterday at home when he missed a 53 yard field goal. Booed. Justin Tucker. The dude made every putt he looked at for 10 years and now you're booing him?

It's a tough, tough league.

Harbaugh addressed Tucker's situation after the game saying, "He's our guy", which, of course, Harbaugh was always going to say.

Whether the Ravens bring in a veteran kicker over the bye week to take a look-see is a different story. That might be best for all involved, although I can't imagine Justin Tucker needs "competition" to get his kicking game back on track.

Tucker is the ultimate professional. He knows most of the kicks he's missing are ones he'd make in his sleep just two years ago. Bringing someone else in to put the heat on him isn't going to help Tucker...but it might help the team if a newcomer can come in and make the kicks Tucker is missing.

There are salary cap ramifications that go along with every player's dismissal, so you can't just say "cut the kicker this week". It doesn't work like that.

But the Ravens are clearly going to be in the market for a new kicker this off-season unless Tucker discovers what's ailing him and gets it fixed in the season's final month and into the playoffs.

Is it the "yips", as a lot of people are suggesting?

I'm not sure that's the definition of what he's doing through. But it's something of that kind, for sure.

Even the extra points he's making don't look all that sharp. The one at the end of the game last night barely snuck through the uprights.

And then, of course, there was the earlier missed extra point that set the tone for a very unsetting day for the future Hall of Fame kicker.

There's no sugarcoating it now. The Ravens have a kicker problem.

It might simply mean they're going to have to go for it on 4th down a lot more when they're somewhere around the opponent's 35 yard line. Who knows? That could actually benefit them in a nature-of-unintended-consequences kind of way.

But with the game on the line late in the season (and you just know Tucker will have a chance to make a kick that beats either Pittsburgh or Houston), can he make the kicks that matter?

And in the playoffs...

We've never really considered "life after Tucker" around here. But it's time to put that on the off-season "to do" list.

Sunday December 1, 2024

#DMD

Issue #3752

what exactly did you expect?

Before we tackle yesterday's embarrasing display of behavior throughout college football, let's zero in on the big game today in Baltimore between the Eagles and Ravens.

Two high-flying birds meet up, albeit in different conferences, with both teams needing a win to continue cementing their position in the upcoming playoffs.

I won't drag this one out.

I think we all know what's going to happen.

There have been lots of NFC teams throughout the Lamar Jackson era who have made their way to Charm City with a chip on the shoulder and something to prove.

Earlier this season, in fact, the Commanders-with-the-Redskins-logo (I know, I don't get it either, just go back to calling them the Redskins), bounced into town riding high and left with their tail between their legs.

Last year it was Detroit who came to Baltimore looking to go one-on-one with Lamar and the Ravens and they, too, left bruised and bloodied.

And it's not just in Baltimore where Lamar owns the NFL, either. He's 23-1 against the NFC as a starter. But this one today just happens to be a home game.

Philadelphia's football team isn't chopped liver. Their hockey team is a ragged bunch, which delights us all. But their football team is pretty daggone good.

That won't matter today.

It's 7-3 Ravens after one quarter and 14-10 Ravens at the half.

Two Justin Tucker field goals in the 3rd quarter coupled with one from Philadelphia makes it 20-13 heading into the 4th quarter.

The Ravens get a huge 3rd and 9 run from Lamar with 6 minutes left that sets up another Tucker field goal and it's 23-13.

Philadelphia marches down field and scores a touchdown with 56 seconds remaining. The extra point makes it 23-20.

They have all three timeouts remaining and elect to kick off rather than try an onside kick.

After a quick gain of 2 yards and 3 yards on first and second down, the Eagles call their second time out to set up for the biggest play of the game with 48 seconds remaining.

Derrick Henry breaks through the line and scampers 71 yards for a game-sealing touchdown in a 30-20 win as Baltimore does that they always do against an NFC opponent.

As Dan Hicks said when Tiger rolled in that 12-foot birdie putt on the last hole of regulation in the 2008 U.S. to take Rocco Mediate to a playoff: "Expect anything different?"

---

I don't know where to start with this next slice of opinion.

All over the country yesterday, people were outraged at a variety of teams and coaches, ranging from Michigan and Ohio State to North Carolina State and North Carolina to Penn State and, our friends down in College Park, the Maryland Terrapins.

There was also late night episode between Florida and Florida State as well that centered on the same theme. Showing up the opponent after a win.

I have no idea what happened yesterday, but everyone in college football had their chakras out of line.

Let's start with the lowest-hanging fruit of them all: Penn State's 44-7 win over Maryland up in State College.

This one was the biggest nothing-burger of them all and -- I can't believe I'm actually writing -- James Franklin hit the nail on the head after the game.

Penn State was up 38-7 with their 3rd and 4th string guys in there while the Terps had a mixture of their top guys and some second teamers still on the field trying to keep the Nittany Lions from scoring.

The home team scored on a touchdown throw on the game's final play to finalize the scoring at 44-7. No, they didn't attempt the extra point, if that's what you were wondering.

As the two coaches met at midfield, Mike Locksley had some words for Franklin, who pretty much said, "If that's how you feel, that's fine."

Locksley, of course, thought it was overboard to score on the game's final play with the outcome already sealed.

I've never understood how these coaches calculate the difference between getting your rear-end handed to you and the other team showing you up.

The Terps were either going to lose 38-7 or 44-7. What's the difference? Either way, you got hammered.

And Franklin was spot on afterwards when he said this: "I get it. At the end of the game, we throw a touchdown. My job is to put the threes and fours in the game. But when the threes and fours get to go in the game, they get to play football. Those guys deserve to play football. Your ones are in the game. You're trying to score. We're trying to score. On top of that, you're playing cover zero, if you don't want play cover two. So I'm good with it. And on top of that, there's also a change in college football, we are trying to play as long as we can make the playoffs and be seeded as high as possible and scoring as many points and a point differential matters."

I'm no card-carrying member of the James Franklin fan club, but he's right. He lathers and prepares those back-up players every week in practice telling them, "If you ever get in a game, you better play your ass off young man." And, so, when they're in, like he said, they deserve to play real football.

And he also knows the touchdown at the end of the game wasn't a great look for him. But he's not responsible for Maryland's feelings. Mike Locksley is responsible for the Maryland team.

I also understand Locksley's spot there. If he doesn't act agitated and irate, everyone says his heart's not in it.

Oh, and I seem to remember Maryland posting a 50-7 win over UConn earlier this year in College Park, including a touchdown with one minute left in a game they were leading 43-7.

The football players want to play football. Let them do it.

Now, the rest of the shenanigans on Saturday were truly something to behold. You had at least four "attempted" flag plantings at midfield after the road team pulled off a big win on foreign turf.

And you had one episode in College Station where the Texas coach did the right thing and told his players, "We don't do that here" as they circled the Texas A&M logo after their 17-7 win over the Aggies.

Here's the reality no one seems to grasp about college football. Or, frankly, football in general. Those who are regulars here know what I'm going to write before you read it:

Football is built around taunting,

On almost every play in football, someone taunts or otherwise says, "I made that play, look at me and look how foolish I made the other guy look."

It's in high school football, too. A Loyola player was flagged for taunting in the Turkey Bowl, of all places. I didn't see what happened so I can't comment on it. And I'm not here to beat up Loyola, per se. I'm just saying, taunting starts at the high school level and goes up from there.

Actually, I don't watch Pop Warner or "junior football" so I don't know this for a fact, but I suspect there's taunting among 10 or 12 year olds that then extends up a level to high school.

Anyway, you can't possibly be surprised at the stuff that went on all Saturday, whether it was in Columbus, Chapel Hill or Tallahassee.

And you can't be shocked at all at the reaction from players at Ohio State, North Carolina or Florida State, who took exception to the fact that they were being showed up in their own stadium.

One lunatic from Michigan actually went on television after their 13-10 win over Ohio State and said, "They have to learn how to lose."

You mean by letting the winning team prance around at midfield and jeer at them and post stuff on the internet? You really thought Ohio State was just going to take the flag-plant-attempt without any reaction?

As Mr. Hand said in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, "What are you people? On dope?"

Here's something to chew on: Maybe you need to learn how to......win.

But anyway.

The same thing happened in Chapel Hill, too, after the Wolfpack upset the Tar Heels. They tried to plant the red flag at midfield and North Carolina players busted it up.

The one place where sanity apparently played out was in Tallahassee, where Florida coach Billy Napier was livid with his players for ignoring his post-game edict to not "create any problems".

"Obviously, what happened there at the end of the game is not who we want to be as a program," Napier said. "It's embarrassing to me, and it's a distraction from a really well-played football game. I want to apologize on behalf of the entire organization just in terms of how we represented the university there. We shouldn't have done that. We won't do that moving forward. And there will be consequences for all involved."

Fair enough. Thanks, coach.

That's all that need be said.

It's amazing how many people around the country yesterday thought the kids from Ohio State, North Carolina and Florida State were "out of line".

What did you expect them to do when you were taunting them?

Then again, they'd do the same thing to you if they won in your stadium and you'd react exactly the same way if you were the losing team.

Bush league called and said, "I think you guys are going a little overboard now."

When it's 36 degrees and windy on a less-than-seasonable Thursday in early December, even the heartiest of golfers have left the clubs in their garage.

Mount Pleasant was almost entirely empty yesterday when I rolled into the parking lot just after 1 pm.

There were enough cars there that it seemed logical at least a handful of brave souls were out on the course. What would motivate them to do that is beyond me, but then again, there was a December day circa 1998 when my buddy Greg Ruark and I walked 27 holes in 17 degree temperatures on a Saturday afternoon.

So, yes, people play golf in frigid conditions just because they feel like playing golf that day.

I was there yesterday for a reason, but I wasn't sure what that was, exactly. The Q & A with Greg Trehane I've published this week stirred up a lot of memories for me, as did a midweek phone call with George, as we spent 40 minutes laughing and recalling good days gone by.

A lone golf cart sat by the cart barn as I slipped out of my car and pulled a winter hat down over my ears.

"This isn't the first time I've snagged a cart without reporting in to the pro shop", I thought to myself as I eyed the key in the ignition and prepared to get in and jet off for a quick whirl around the course.

And off I went.

I wasn't sure where I was going, or why, even, but I wanted to take a look at the old lady in her December glory. No golfers to wait for, no concerns about an errant ball pinging me in the back of the head. I was pretty much able to go where I wanted and do whatever it was I going to do.

I rode on the cart part that borders the 9th and 10th holes, heading in the direction of #9 tee.

In the old days -- I'm talking the mid 1990's, now -- the 9th hole was a bear. It played 445 yards and the tee ball required both length and precision to get it to the top of the hill, where you would be very fortunate to be at the sprinkler head in the middle of the fairway that read "207". How do I know it says "207"? Because Greg (Ruark) and I painted those yardages on them way back in the day.

Here's a fun fact. I've eagled every par 4 at Mount Pleasant (all with second shots going in the hole, none were drives-and-putts) except for #9. That I've made a "2" on 12 of the 13 par 4 holes isn't a testatment to my ability, but more so it reflects how many rounds of golf I've played there in my lifetime. If you play the 2nd hole and 3rd hole upwards of a thousand times, you're bound to hole out a wedge at some point.

I stopped at the 9th tee yesterday and walked on to the box, staring out at the 9th fairway. Thirty years ago, if you had 210 yards in, you had a good chance to make a par. These days, if you hit a drive in the middle of the club, you'll have somewhere between 175 and 150 yards to the green. The times -- and the equipment -- have changed, indeed.

Greg and I adopted a funny saying about that 9th hole. We called it a "Number 9 par", which was a good drive that unfortunately required a smart lay-up short of the green because we didn't have the length to reach the putting surface in two shots. You'd leave yourself 20-40 yards, knock your third shot tight, and roll in the par putt for a "Number 9 par".

"You'd of been proud of me, Bunk," Greg would say to me at the scorer's table after a round in the Publinx or Maryland Amateur Stroke Play. "I made a nice Number 9 par out there to shoot 1 over on the front."

The wind was at my back yesterday. For a second, it was 88 and balmy on a Tuesday evening and Greg and I were sneaking in a few holes while we were "working". We'd quickly play the hole and then ride in and hope Jim Deck, the great longtime pro at the Mount, wasn't out near the cart barn sniffing around for our whereabouts.

I rode over the bridge, across Northern Parkway, and just cruised the front nine. There was a solitary walker, bag on his back, who waved as I moved past him. There were 3 balls in the fairway, all nestled 10 or 15 yards from each other. There are worse ways to spend a cold December day, I guess, then being able to hit several tee balls off and play them all into the hole. I was jealous for just a second, even if the weather wasn't my cup of tea.

I made my way to the 6th tee and encountered two more players.

"You wanna join us?" one of them asked.

"No, no," I said. "I'm just riding around. How are you guys doing?"

"Doing well, moving along," said the older of the two. "Nobody out here but us."

I walked up to the 6th tee as they drove off.

June 4, 1995 was the date of my first ever hole in one. It happened on the tee box at #6 at Mount Pleasant. The flag was back left. My tee shot landed about 20 feet from the hole, above the cup to the right, and slid directly left, on a string, and nestled firmly into the cup.

You don't forget those things.

I watched the two guys play out the 6th hole. One of them made a nice putt of maybe 10 or 15 feet for par. The other one missed a short'ish putt from 3 feet or so and raked the ball back and putted it again. That one, too, missed. He putted it again and it was still visible. His buddy knocked the ball back to him and they walked off the green.

A lot of great players -- professional and amateur -- have three putted that 6th green at Mount Pleasant. Had I been with them instead of standing on the tee 135 yards away, I probably would have said that. Alas, I just stood there and looked around. "What a great place this is," I said, out loud, to no one but myself.

I was hoping, maybe, the course itself could hear me sing her praises.

As is always the case, things change. 30 years ago, Mount Pleasant was a golfing mecca of sorts for people who wanted to play a championship level course for the robust fee of $9.50 on the weekend. 20 years ago, it was still packed to the gills, even when the price for 18 holes soared all the way to $13.50.

Maybe 10 years ago, the tee sheet had holes where it once never did.

These days, people still play Mount Pleasant, but the course doesn't draw nearly the action it once did.

I stood there on #6 tee and said "What a great place this is" just hoping, maybe, my words meant something to the course itself.

I hopped in the cart and buzzed up the hill behind #8 green and headed back over the bridge to take a quick spin through the back nine. I was thinking hard about the last I had played Mount Pleasant from start to finish and couldn't really come up with an answer.

Eagle's Nest played Mount Pleasant in an "A Team" match maybe 6 or 7 years ago and I was selected to play at the Mount for obvious reasons.

Has it really been that long since I played 18 holes there?

I made quick work of the back nine, running into two more players as they putted out on #13, but buzzing my way around the whole incoming nine holes in about 12 minutes.

I sat in the cart in the middle of the fairway at the 18th hole. I tried to think to myself, "How many times have I played this hole?" and I simply couldn't come up with a number. At least a thousand, I figured.

I pulled the cart back in quietly and left it right where I found it.

As I sat in my car, I made a pledge.

"I'm going to do something with Mount Pleasant."

I don't know what that is, frankly.

I think I'll call George and talk to him about it. I'll catch up with Greg Ruark soon and talk to him about it as well.

I don't know what I mean when I say, "I'm going to do something", but I'm going to do something.

Whether that means trying to get a significant state event to be played there. Or creating and running my own event there. Or trying to figure out how to help get the old girl the royal treatment she deserves after decades of service to the golf community.

I might even try to organize some sort of high school event there featuring a number of local schools, including Calvert Hall, of course.

I think every young junior golfer in the Baltimore area should know about Mount Pleasant and her history and how much great golf was played there over the last century.

I don't know what I'm going to do.

But I'm going to do something with Mount Pleasant.

I don't know when. Maybe next year. Maybe in two years. Or three.

I need time to think about it. But I'm doing something.

George, you can expect a call soon.

Saturday November 30, 2024

#DMD

Issue #3751

now that was an instant classic

Look, I realize some of you curmudgeons who can't stand the thought of being one-upped will bristle at what happened last night in the Georgia-Georgia Tech football game, but that, right there, was a colossal "instant classic" if ever there was one.

It took Georgia eight overtimes to win the game. Hanging in the balance was seeding for the College Football Playoff, among other things, and the potential embarrassment of losing to a very mediocre in-state-rival.

Because college football likes to take something that isn't broken and tries to fix it, they go to 2 point conversions only after two overtimes.

Both teams scored touchdowns in the first OT and kicked the extra point. In the second OT, both teams scored touchdowns and both failed to convert a 2-point conversion.

The game shifted to 2-point attempts only in the third overtime, and neither team found the end zone in the third and fourth OT periods.

Both teams were successful on 2-point conversions in the fifth OT period to make the score 42-42, then both failed to convert in the sixth and seventh OTs.

Georgia Tech then threw a pass for their 2-point attempt in the 8th OT frame and it sailed out of bounds. Finally, Georgia capped off the instant classic when they ran it in for the win on their 8th OT attempt.

Georgia (10-2) rallied from 17 points down to send the game to OT, where their eventual victory probably gave them a spot in the playoff tournament no matter what happens next Saturday in the SEC Championship Game against today's winner of the Texas A&M/Texas contest.

A Georgia win next week gives them an 11-2 mark and likely top 4 seed in the playoff. A defeat might put them in the 10-11-12 seeding area.

So, here we are, one year into the expanded college playoff, and it's very possible a 3-loss team might sneak their way into the tournament.

Nice job, guys. So glad you fixed that college football playoff.

There was -- pun intended here -- an "instant firing" in the NFL on Friday, as the Bears dismissed their head coach Matt Eberflus, one day after a massive faux pas in Chicago's 23-20 loss to the Lions in Detroit.

The only reason the Bears didn't fire Eberflus on the flight back to Chicago was, I assume, because it was Thanksgiving. No one gets fired on Thanksgiving, not even the coach who doesn't call a time out with 20 seconds left in a (meaningless for the Bears) game that didn't really matter.

Alas, Eberflus didn't make it through Black Friday.

There's a lot to unpack from the firing and how Thursday's fiasco played into it.

First, it's very likely Eberflus isn't the guy to get the Bears to the next level, and that really doesn't have anything to do with the botched game management situation on Thursday. Chicago had lost 5 straight before the defeat to the Lions and, in a division that has quickly become the best in football, Chicago's setting themselves up to be basement dwellers if they don't do something quick.

Now, as for Thursday, specifically, Eberflus certainly deserves blame. Whether that, in and of itself, was worthy of canning him is a Bears management decision. Just spitballing here, but if, somehow, that's Mike Tomlin or Matt LaFleur or Dan Campbell who does that same thing, I doubt they get fired over it.

That said, the moment on Thursday probably also showed the Bears they don't have the right guy at quarterback. And that has to be a tough pill to swallow after they used the #1 pick on USC's Caleb Williams last April.

Unless he was specifically instructed to not call a time-out there -- which he wasn't -- then Williams has to get a huge amount of blame on Thursday. I would say he deserved a "lion's share" of the blame, but you know, that's the kind of low hanging fruit we try to avoid around here.

Anyway, your quarterback is the engineer. He's the straw that stirs the drink, supposedly. As he goes, the team goes. And so on and so on.

That Williams let the game expire in the fashion that it did is incredibly telling about him, in my opinion.

Coach to blame? 100%

He's the one directing the ship, after all. If he wants a time-out there, he calls one.

Quarterback to blame as well? 100%

The Bears only needed a field goal, after all. Williams' explanation afterwards that he was trying to hit a short pass over the middle to then use a time out and set up the game-winning field goal sounded like someone who A) didn't realize he actually had a time-out to use, or B) lost track of the time on the clock, you know, the one staring him right in the face in the end zone.

Back to Eberflus for a second.

Thursday's crushing loss in Detroit wasn't the first time this season the Bears participated in their own undoing. There was that game in Washington DC back in October where Chicago gave up a game-losing hail mary pass on the day's final play.

You might also remember that as the occasion when one of the Bears defensive backs was jawing back and forth with the Commanders' fans before racing back into the play as Jayden Daniels ran around in the offensive backfield trying to make a 50-yard throw.

Me? I'd almost fire the coach for that before I'd fire him for not using a time out in a game he might not have tied or won, anyway.

Then again, players play and coaches coach, as the saying goes.

If one of his players just makes a normal, routine, junior varsity play on the long heave by Daniels, Chicago wins.

If his star quarterback, the one they picked #1 and gave $40 million to, just uses his brain and calls a time-out himself with 20 seconds remaining, who knows where Matt Eberflus is today?

In the end, do you know who is really responsible for Matt Eberflus not being successful in Chicago?

The people in the Bears front office who hired him, that's who.

He was likely never the right guy from jump street, but somehow he got the nod, either because he was cheap and the Bears figured they weren't going to win anyway for a few years or there was just no one else out there that tickled their fancy at the time.

No matter the reason, the Bears are back to square one.

They definitely don't have a head coach right now.

And they might not have a quarterback, either.

It's hard to win in the NFL if you don't have those two pieces.

Just ask.......the Chicago Bears.

Friday November 29, 2024

#DMD

Issue #3750

reading time: 3 minutes

It's officially "holiday season" in our country, what with today's arrival of Black Friday and all.

I could be wrong on this and I'm sure I'll see a video or two on the internet proving me wrong, but it doesn't feel like people are planning to spend all day at stores just to save $100 on a flat-screen TV or $50 on a new viedo game console.

I'm not sure why that is, mind you. Maybe stuff is just on sale earlier and/or longer these days? Or, perhaps because of so many online shopping sources, items are just more readily available than ever before?

I don't know the answer. But it just feels to me like Black Friday is losing its strength in our country and that, to me, would be more than OK.

Let's move on to another edition of Reading Time: 3 minutes.

As always, a tip of the cap to our old friend Phil Jackman.

There are some rumors floating around that the Alex Ovechkin leg injury is more serious than the Caps are letting on and he could miss as much as 10-12 weeks of the season. If that's true, the Capitals will have their hands full on the ice. They're hanging in there now without Ovi, but they probably wouldn't be able to withstand his absence for two months or more. The goal scoring record also hangs in the balance. If he returns in the 4-6 week time frame that was originally announced, he can still break the record this season. But if he's out until late January or so, the record will have to fall next season.

Tiger Woods will miss the upcoming Hero World Challenge as he recovers from yet another back surgery back in September, but at this point we all know the only tournament Tiger really wants to play in is the annual Parent-Child tournament the weekend of December 21-22. Sure, Tiger would love to return to the PGA Tour and win again to set the new career wins record (83), but at this stage in his career, the Parent-Child event in Orlando is the one he wants to win the most with his son, Charlie. Can he do it? He's Tiger Woods, of course he can.

Blake Snell going to the Dodgers would seemingly help the Orioles in their pursuit of re-signing free agent pitcher Corbin Burnes. Or, at the very least, it would probably mean the Dodgers are off the list of teams chasing after Burnes, who recently finished 5th in A.L. Cy Young voting. But there are still whispers that the Yankees, Mets and Red Sox will hotly pursue Burnes. My sleeper team for Burnes? I think he's headed to San Francisco to pitch for the Giants. Anywhere but L.A. and the Dodgers, right?

Miami's loss to the Packers last night drops the Dolphins to 5-7 and puts Denver (7-5) firmly in control of the own fate in the race for the 7th seed in the AFC playoffs. Quick, when's the last time the Broncos made the playoffs? Think about it. Don't Google it, either. We'll give you the answer a little later.

Dan Hurley, the UConn men's basketball coach, was in the news earlier this week for losing his cool a couple of times at the Maui Invitational, where his Huskies lost three straight games. Hurley, you might have seen, didn't just have a blow up or two. He lost his mind at the game officials on several occasions, swearing at them within easy capture of courtside TV micophones. Hurley is an excellent basketball coach. There's no two ways about that. He's also a complete embarrassment to the profession when he blows his stack on the court and takes out his frustrations on the referees. Shape up, Coach. You're not setting a good example.

The end of the Bears-Lions game yesterday featured a crazy scene in the final 30 seconds, where the Bears failed to call a time out and took a half-minute to get off their final, failed play while trailing in Detroit by just three points. I'm sure you were thinking the same thing I was thinking as the scene unfolded, much to the horror of game broadcasters Jim Nantz and Tony Romo: Imagine if John Harbaugh and Lamar Jackson conspired to pull off a similar brain-flub in Baltimore. The entire town would have a Hall of Fame-worthy conipition. Chicago probably doesn't care all that much. But in Baltimore, Harbaugh would be absolutely roasted beyond belief. And rightfully so, I might add.

Anyone know what the Wizards record is one month into the NBA season? Yeah, I don't know, either.

OK, so the Broncos haven't been to the playoffs since the 2015 season, which is also the year they won the Super Bowl over the Carolina Panthers. Yes, it's been that long since Denver has been in the post-season. Unless something really weird happens over the final month of the regular season, they're headed back there this January, where they will almost certainly face the #2 seed in the first round.

Has anyone else's personal schedule been thrown off by this year's late Thanksgiving? I don't know about you, but I definitely feel a week behind given that yesterday, November 28, was Thanksgiving. Don't look now, but December's here. Pretty soon, you'll be seeing ads on CBS for the Masters in April. Spring, of course, begins when the Masters is played. "Hello friends, the flowers are in full bloom here in Augusta, Georgia, and so, too, is the golf game of Scottie Scheffler, who just minutes ago rolled in this 10-foot birdie putt at the 2nd hole to increase his lead to four shots in the 3rd round of the 2025 Masters."

I had to look it up, of course, but the Wizards are a NBA worst 2-15, including a current 13-game losing streak. The Wizards are very fortunate there's no relegation in the NBA or they'd be in the second division next year. And the year after that, too.

I know the Lions are 11-1 and have the best record in the NFC, but something tells me it will eventually be the Packers who make it to the Super Bowl from "the other conference". Trust me, nothing would be better than the Lions finally making it to the Super Bowl, but until they do it, I'll assume they won't. Green Bay is solid on both sides of the ball. And the Lions are just getting too many injuries on the defensive side of the ball. I hope I'm wrong, but I'll take the Packers going to the Super Bowl.

The College Football Playoff is expanding to 12 teams for the first time this year and they are, predictably, still going to have controversy attached to who gets in and who doesn't get in. When they had 4 teams in the playoff, some "deserving" schools got left out and everyone said, "Make it 12 teams and everyone who should get in, will get in." Well, now there's talk that a 3-loss team might actually make it, like South Carolina, depending on how other things shake out along the way. It would really be fun if a one-loss team like Indiana eventually got squeezed out of the 12-team picture and a 2-loss (or 3-loss) team made it over them.

Right on cue, I just saw something on the news about today being Black Friday and how the "holiday season" actually started back on November 1st (?) in the United States. The news anchor claims $77 million has already been spent in the last month. So there you have it. Black Friday is underway, but you've probably already spent a bunch of money anyway.

faith in sports

The recent World Series just happened to have two teams with several players on each roster who are leaders within their clubhouse's faith community.

One of those players was Dodgers' veteran pitcher Clayton Kershaw, who is one of his team's more prominent faith voices in the Los Angeles locker room.

Today's entry in "Faith in Sports" spotlights Kershaw at the team's annual "Faith Night" at Chavez Ravine.

Thanks, as always, to our friends at Freestate Electrical for their support of #DMD and our Friday "Faith in Sports" segment.

Thursday November 28, 2024

#DMD

Issue #3749

popcorn for thanksgiving?

"Grateful" is the word of the day.

I hope you find time today to give thanks to God for all of the blessings He has bestowed upon you and your family over the years.

Once a year, this is what we do. We stop, give pause, and say "Thank you".

Father Rapisarda said something at Mass last Sunday that has really resonated with me this week.

"We think of Christmas as our biggest religious holiday," he said. "But really, Thanksgiving is right there with Christmas, because it's the one day we all gather to give thanks to God."

So, during your visits with family and friends today, just give thanks for all that you have. If you're alone today, please know God is right there with you. You're never alone.

There's a certain high school football game I'll be attending today with my family and friends. It starts at 10 am.

I helped lead a FCA morning school "huddle" yesterday at Calvert Hall in support of today's annual contest against the other team. It was particularly heartwarming to hear the team gather for our "popcorn prayer" at the end, where everyone just adds one "kernal" to the player as we go around the group.

"What are you thankful for?" was the question asked. Everyone chimed in with something.

"Family."

"Friends."

"Parents."

"Calvert Hall."

"Safety."

"Health."

"Forgiveness."

"Love."

"Coaches."

"God."

"Talent."

There were 75 or so kids in the room so I won't go through them all, but you get the picture.

Try the popcorn prayer at your Thanksgiving gathering today. One by one, let someone share what they're grateful for today.

Last but not least, I want to share this quick story from two summers ago at our FCA summer camp in Kutztown, PA.

The camp ran Sunday through Thursday. On day one, that night, a huge thunderstorm rolled through the Kutztown area and most of our Sunday evening outdoor activities were moved indoors.

What was odd about that was that Kutztown hadn't had significant rain in quite a long time. "Why now?" everyone wonderered.

That night at the opening prayer during the 7-9 pm chapel ran by an amazing pastor out of Las Vegas, Heiden Ratner, he led a prayer that reflected on the day's dangerous weather and asked God to provide safety for the campers as well as "abundant sunshine" for the rest of the week.

On Monday afternoon around 3 pm, another group of storms passed through the area and most of the 3 pm to 6 pm activites were also moved inside. Kutztown had lots of indoor space for us, but it was no secret that shifting things from outside to inside created operational stress and, honestly, took "something" away from the camp for the moment.

The same thing happened on Tuesday, except the storms came in just after 12 noon and stuck around for the better part of four hours.

At Tuesday night's chapel service, Ratner again asked for safety and sunshine during the prayer.

Wednesday the skies cleared and a full day was enjoyed by all. At that night's chapel, Ratner started off by saying, "Prayer works. And I can prove that works."

Everyone in the auditorium leaned in to listen.

"Earlier this week, on several occasions here, we all prayed for sunshine this week because that's what we wanted for the camp. It runs much more smoothly when the weather is perfect," he said.

"We prayed hard for that," he continued. "But on Monday and Tuesday, we didn't get it. You're probably thinking to yourself, 'God wasn't listening',"

"But God was listening to prayer," Ratner stated.

"Because on Sunday at all of the churches throughout this area, people who owns farms and make their living through that farm prayed for rain."

"Please God, we need rain here badly, so we can continue to grow our crops and feed our families."

"So," Ratner concluded. "God was listening to those prayers. He heard our prayers too, but He needed to take care of the farmers first. And He did. We got our abundant sunshine today and we'll get more tomorrow as well. But the farmers got the rain they prayed for."

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you.

Prayer does work, in case you were wondering.

I hope you get the chance to share the "popcorn prayer" at your Thanksgiving dinner this afternoon.

Be thankful today, have an enjoyable celebration with those you're spending the day with and, of course ---- Go Hall!

Wednesday November 27, 2024

#DMD

Issue #3748

it's starting to take shape

If you had your choice of facing Greg Roman and Justin Herbert in Baltimore in the playoffs or Mike Tomlin and Russell Wilson in Baltimore in the playoffs, which one are you choosing?

Just wondering.

You can file today's entry under "Too Early To Tell" if you want, but by now I think it's pretty easy to put the pieces together and figure out what's going to happen with the Ravens in the post-season.

Barring some sort of multi-game injury situation with Lamar Jackson and/or a strange turn of events in Kansas City and Buffalo, the Ravens are going to finish as the #3 seed in the AFC come playoff time.

And before you say, "Slow down there, cowboy, there's a lot of football left", you should know NextGen stats (they're more nerdy than just your normal, run-of-the-mill stat nerds) has the Ravens at 99.2% to make the playoffs. I have them at 100%. NextGen has them at 99.2%. We're both pretty sure of it, in other words.

How it falls out there from there, though, is where the fun begins.

Let's look at the schedules and do the "pick 'em" game and you're going to be a little surprised -- and perhaps afraid, even -- at what is likely going to transpire for the Ravens in terms of their post-season road.

And so...here we go. You'll see an (h) indicating home games and an (a) indicating away games.

Kansas City (10-1) -- Las Vegas (h), LA Chargers (h), Cleveland (a), Houston (h), Pittsburgh (a), Denver (a)

Most likely scenario: They finish 14-3. Worst case: They get tripped up unexpectedly by Vegas or Cleveland and end up 13-4.

Buffalo (9-2) -- San Fran (h), LA Rams (a), Detroit (a), New England (h), NY Jets (h), Patriots (a)

Most likely scenario: They finish 13-4. Worst case: They somehow lose one they shouldn't and finish 12-5.

Pittsburgh (8-3) -- Cincinnati (a), Cleveland (h), Philadelphia (a), Baltimore (a), Kansas City (h), Cincinnati (h)

Most likely scenario: They finish 10-7. Best case: They somehow beat Philly, Baltimore or K.C. and maybe finish 11-6.

BALTIMORE (8-4) -- Philadelphia (h), NY Giants (a), Pittsburgh (h), Houston (a), Cleveland (h)

Most likely scenario: They finish 12-5. Worst case: They lose one they shouldn't and finish 11-6.

Houston (7-5) -- Jacksonville (a), Miami (h), Kansas City (a), Baltimore (h), Tennessee (a)

Most likely scenario: They finish 9-8. Best case: They beat either KC or Baltimore to finish 10-7.

Los Angeles Chargers (7-4) -- Atlanta (a), Kansas City (a), Tampa Bay (h), Denver (h), New England (a), Las Vegas (a)

Most likely scenario: They finish 10-7. Best case: They beat either Atlanta or KC and can finish 11-6.

Denver (7-5) -- Cleveland (h), Indianapolis (h), LA Chargers (a), at Cincinnati (a), Kansas City (h)

Most likely scenario: They finish 9-8. Best case: They beat KC on that final Sunday to finish 10-7.

Miami (5-6) -- Green Bay (a), NY Jets (h), Houston (a), San Fran (h), Cleveland (a), NY Jets (a)

Most likely scenario: They finish 8-9. Best case: They beat either Green Bay or Houston away to finish 9-8.

Cincinnati (4-7) -- Pittsburgh (h), Dallas (a), Tennessee (a), Cleveland (h), Denver (h), Pittsburgh (a)

Most likely scenario: They finish 8-9. Best case: They go on a 5-1 run to finish 9-8.

We'll go ahead and concede that Kansas City is going to hold serve and claim the #1 seed, either at 14-3 or 13-4. Barring something bizarre or unfortunate happening to Mahomes, they're going to have home ice throughout the playoffs.

It's likely that Buffalo loses two more and finishes 13-4. They could still snag that #1 seed from Kansas City at 12-4, but for now we're going to assume KC ends up at 14-3 and Buffalo finishes 13-4 to earn the #2 seed.

The Ravens are probably about an 85% bet to finish no worse than 12-5 and win the AFC North. But even if they somehow stub their toe twice, it's still almost a definite that they'll win the North at 11-6 as long as Pittsburgh doesn't beat the Ravens on 12/21 and also goes on to finish 11-6.

Houston is already pretty much locked in at the #4 seed if they finish 9-8 or even 8-9.

Now......it gets fun.

Pittsburgh and Los Angeles (Chargers) are both on a crash course to finish 10-7.

If that happens and if Denver finishes 9-8, Pittsburgh -- by virtue of a 20-10 win over the Chargers early in the season -- would be the #5 seed. They would face Houston in the first round of the playoffs.

The Los Angeles Chargers would finish as the #6 seed and travel to Baltimore in the first round.

And Denver would be the #7 seed and head to Buffalo.

So.......

Greg Roman, J.K. Dobbins, Gus Edwards ---- back in Baltimore.

Justin Herbert vs. Lamar Jackson.

All the pressure on the Ravens, at home, to beat a team they ran out of the gym in late November. On the road, no less.

Either way, Pittsburgh or Los Angeles, the Ravens would have their hands full.

Me?

I'd rather see Herbert and the Chargers.

There's a lot of football left, obviously. But Greg Roman coming back to Baltimore to face the fan base that enthusiastically helped run him out of town would be an interesting storyline indeed.

---

John Harbaugh has made somewhere around $100 million coaching football, so he most certainly doesn't need me -- or anyone else, really -- defending him.

His record speaks for itself. He's a football coach who has won a Super Bowl, been to 4 AFC Championship Games and will someday be enshrined in the NFL Hall of Fame.

For all I know, he might win one, two or three more Super Bowls with the plethora of talent the Ravens have at their disposal over the next few years.

I don't know what the future holds for John Harbaugh. But I know he doesn't need me to defend him.

Alas, I find myself doing it quite a bit.

Most of the time when I defend him, it involves silly stuff like "Harbaugh can't coach a lick" or "The game has passed him by". There are reasonable assessments to make about players and coaches and then there are outlandish, neanderthal observations like "Harbaugh can't coach a lick."

Yesterday, though, I encountered two Harbaugh haters (online) who took the game to an entirely new level.

I won't disclose either of them here because that's really not the point. Who they are isn't nearly as important as what they wrote.

Now, understand both of these dudes are Harbaugh haters. So you expect them to be anti-John. But you don't expect them to be completely off their rocker(s).

Here's the first installment:

Harbaugh could win a Super Bowl this year I still want him gone. Until he does better, and improves his same mistakes, Imma want him fired.

For those that don't know, "Imma" is online slang for "I'm going to want".

Read it again: Harbaugh could win a Super Bowl this year I still want him gone. Until he does better, and improves his same mistakes, Imma want him fired.

Amazing, right?

The goal of every team is to win the Super Bowl. Some, like, say, the Browns, Lions, Bills, Jaguars, Cardinals and Titans, have never won one of them. The Ravens have won two of them. John Harbaugh himself was the coach in one of those big game triumphs.

And this "fan" of the team says even if Harbaugh wins the Super Bowl this year, he believes he needs to be fired.

"Until he does better, and improves his same mistakes..."

Here's what's scary. People agreed with him.

Another internet maniac heard from: John Harbaugh has to go. He has no feel for the game. Going for it on 4th down from your own 16 yd line should not be celebrated. That gets you beat in playoffs. See 2019 titans choke job at home.

John Harbaugh called for a 4th and 1 gamble on his own 16 yard line. The play worked. A minute later, the Ravens scored a touchdown that pretty much changed the entire complexion of the game. The Ravens would go on to win a fairly significant road conference game that all but cemented another return to the playoffs.

If that moment, that decision and that outcome can't be celebrated, what CAN be celebrated?

And then how about this one? "That gets you beat in playoffs."

What if you tried it in the playoffs and it worked? What then? Or is it just 100%, without question, not going to work in the playoffs because you think it won't?

Plus -- you/we have NO idea at all if the Ravens would even go for it on 4th and 1 from their own 16 yard line in a playoff game. My guess is they wouldn't do that until it was inside of 2 minutes left in the game and they were losing 17-13 and had a "do or die" moment that forced them to go for it.

But using that premise -- "That gets you beat in playoffs" -- as a reason to be critical of doing it in week #12? Complete lunacy.

Oh, but wait. The author of that genius-quote had more where that came from.

I don't judge things by whether it works or not. Can't go for it every single 4th down. Sometimes you can. Sometimes you can't. I've watched Harbaugh's career. He plays Madden. Hasn't worked out in playoffs.

Wait, it worked on Monday night and you ARE judging it. But you're saying if it wouldn't have worked you wouldn't have said, "This guy is a joke. Who goes for it on 4th and 1 from their own 16 yard line?"

And then it gets followed up with "Sometimes you can. Sometimes you can't." So John decided 4th and 1 from the 16 on Monday night was one of those "sometimes you can" moments. And it worked. But your only judgement on that is "It won't work in the playoffs so we shouldn't have tried it against the Chargers." Right?

These people in Baltimore are IN-FREAKIN'-SANE.

What's in the water here in The Land of Pleasant Living?

I have said here on several occasions this year I think John's seat is getting warmer. I've also opined that if somehow, in January, the Broncos, Chargers or Steelers come into Baltimore and win that playoff opener that John might very well be asked to move upstairs to some sort of executive role.

But one thing I would NEVER say, is something as moronic as: "Even if they win the Super Bowl I think the guy has to go."

This is one crazy planet we live on, man.

Like I said, Harbaugh doesn't need me or anyone else to defend him.

I guess I'm just defending madness in general, maybe.

Tuesday November 26, 2024

#DMD

Issue #3747

you can't beat big brother

I can't imagine there will be many "fire John Harbaugh" calls into Charm City sports radio today. Not after that gem he produced last night in Los Angeles, anyway.

The older brother produced a masterclass and the younger brother took a whoopin', as Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry returned to the Jackson and Henry we know in a big 30-23 win over the Chargers last night.

Even those of us in Baltimore -- I mean, those people in Baltimore -- who had a Gus Edwards anytime TD were happy.

And if you took the "over" point total of 51.5 you were particularly thrilled with Edwards' late Chargers touchdown in the Monday Night showdown at the big ballpark in Inglewood, California.

The win was particularly huge for Baltimore, who all but sealed a playoff spot in the AFC, with just a few routine appointments left before teeing it up for real in mid-January.

The Ravens not only won to improve to 8-4, but they now own the tiebreaker over two potential AFC playoff opponents in Denver and the Chargers. Those two teams would have to finish with outright better records than the Ravens in order to jump over them for playoff seeding.

As David Letterman said to Joaquin Phoenix when Phoenix asked if he could someday return and sing rap music on the show: "That seems unlikely."

But far more important to the Ravens is their pursuit of the AFC North title.

Last night's victory shaves Pittsburgh's division lead to just a half-game. And the two teams meet in Baltimore on December 21, remember.

The Steelers (8-3) still have to play at Baltimore, at Philadelphia and at Cincinnati (all three are likely losses) and have Cincinnat, Cleveland and Kansas City at home. That looks and smells like 11-6 at a minimum and, given the pedestrian nature of Pittsburgh's offense, potentially even 10-7.

I won't use the word "cakewalk" to describe the Ravens journey to the top of the division, but it's something in between cakewalk and "just keep your hands on the steering wheel".

We all know what the Ravens do to NFC teams, so their next two games (home vs. Philly and at NYG after a December 8 bye) are about as in the bag as, say, Penn State playing Maryland in football. That gets the Ravens to 10-4.

They then finish up with Pittsburgh (home), Houston (away) and Cleveland (home).

Even one stumble in their last 5 games should be plenty good enough for the division title and, honestly, even a final record of 11-6 will probably do it, as long as one of their final three wins of the season comes against Pittsburgh next month.

Last night, as you can now see, was huge for the Ravens.

It was also a huge night for John Harbaugh, who continued his mastery over his little brother in NFL games that matter (now 3-0).

Harbaugh, John that is, did some crazy stuff last night, like going for it on 4th and 1 from his own 16 yard line late in the second quarter.

He went for it on 4th down later in the game in well, albeit in more conventional situations on the field, but the sequence at the end of the first half turned what might have been a 10-7 deficit into a 14-13 lead at intermission after Lamar Jackson rolled through the Chargers defense like a hot knife through butter.

If Mark Andrews gets stopped on that 4th and 1 play and the Chargers take a 17-7 lead into the locker room and go on to somehow win the game from there, Harbs would have been roasted without end on radio and the internet today.

I mean, what maniac goes for it on 4th and 1 on their own 16 yard line in a 10-7 game? On the road, no less?

John Harbaugh, that's who.

For the record, in case that matters, I was dead-red against going for it there. When Lamar let the clock reach the 2 minute warning and the offense convened on the sideline, I assumed ESPN would return from commercial and the punter would be standing back near end zone preparing to kick to L.A.

I was beyond shocked when the Ravens went for it.

But it all turned to gold from there as Baltimore picked up the first down and then waltzed down the field for the go-ahead touchdown.

Predictably, of course, the Chargers also buzzed right through the Baltimore defense after Lamar found Rashod Bateman on that long TD throw to make it 14-10, but the damage was done at the message was sent at that point.

John Harbaugh was playing to win and he wasn't going to let his little brother get in the way of that.

And Lamar Jackson wasn't going to lose to Justin Herbert, either.

Oh, and for one half, at least, Zach Orr put together a defensive scheme that, at the very least, held serve.

I know "holding serve" probably won't work in the post-season against guys like Pat Mahomes and Josh Allen, but, baby steps, ya know?

But any road win in the NFL is good and beating the Chargers in LA when a playoff spot could be part of the outcome is even more important. Orr's defense didn't look all that sharp on the game's first series, but things settled down well thereafter.

Oh, and the Ravens won the game last night without Roquan Smith.

Maybe there's something to that as well. But we'll dive in on that one later this week, I suppose.

On a side note, I thought ESPN did a nice job of not pounding the Harbaugh vs. Harbaugh theme down our throats.

Sure, they made mention of it.

Yes, they asked each coach about it during the pre-game interview.

They had to do that. They're brothers coaching against one another in a NFL game.

But overall, I thought ESPN's coverage of the family battle was tempered. And I, for one, appreciated that.

Color analyst Troy Aikman spent a lot of the night whining about calls that didn't go the Chargers' way, but I'm assuming he did some of that because he's hoping the game evens out to keep people locked in and interested in seeing the outcome.

Oddly enough, Joe Buck even casually referenced penalties very early in the game, saying something like, "One thing about these Monday night games that you know you're going to see. And that's a lot of flags on the field."

The very next play...there was a penalty.

Aikman then followed up with a quick jab at the flag-happy officials as well. "Yeah, the laundry tends to come out on Monday night."

I was surprised to hear that from both of them. I assume the NFL office was, as well.

When the two broadcasters on a national TV game are picking on the refs in the first quarter, you know you have a penalty problem.

And, yes, there might have been a call or two that went against L.A. last night. Of course that happened. It happens to every team in every game.

But no call in the entire 60 minutes was worse than the phantom "leg whip" flag against Patrick Ricard on the first offensive series of the night for Baltimore.

These refs, man. It's always something.

---

I did want to do a little "clean up in aisle 5" from yesterday's commentary that I offered here about the Big Ten conference and Maryland's move a decade ago.

A number of people chimed in here and I got an e-mail or two from folks laying into me for "piling on" about the lack of enthusiasm for the Big Ten.

As I told Larry who e-mailed me, "Piling on is an American specialty. It's one of our traits. Just look at the recent election."

Alas, I didn't think I "piled on" at all. I just brought out some facts about the Big Ten and also offered an opinion on what I see from the conference as a whole in its two most meaningful sports; football and basketball.

And I can't repeat this enough even though we have some Flyers fans here who can't read it and absorb it: The financial deal was too tough for Maryland to pass up when they jumped ship to the Big Ten. I understand why they joined the conference.

Best of all, there were absolutely no "performance mandates" as part of the deal. It's not like the Big Ten said, "We'll give you $52 million annually but you have to promise us your men's football team will be great."

Maryland gets that money every year as part of their conference affiliation and neither football or basketball have been any good -- really -- since the move to the Big Ten.

Sure, men's lacrosse has won a national title (maybe two? I'm not sure) and men's soccer is always good and there might even be a women's sport that is upper echelon in the Big Ten, but the concern level for those sports is a "4" and the concern level for football and basketball is more like an 8.5.

Maryland gets more than $50 million a year for having a lousy football program and halfway decent men's basketball program. It's good work if you can get it.

Anyway -- my commentary yesterday was far more intended to be about the Big Ten than the ACC.

The Big Ten is just not exciting.

It might be exciting to people in Columbus and East Lansing and Ann Arbor. If so, that's great.

But I find it incredibly boring and stale.

And based on the the crowds at sporting events I follow, no one else in College Park is all lathered up about the Big Ten, either.

Your mileage may vary on this opinion of mine that the Big Ten is a snoozefest.

You might love it.

I don't know what Maryland's athletic department thinks about the Big Ten, but I know the school's finance department loves it.

And in the end, the money is all that matters.

We, as consumers, either pay the price to support it or we don't.

Monday November 25, 2024

#DMD

Issue #3746

revenge games are scary

All things being equal, I don't think Lamar Jackson and the Ravens would lose this game tonight against the Chargers.

Lamar almost always wins these kind of national-TV-showdowns against teams he and the Ravens don't see all that often.

Earlier this year, for example, they throttled the Buccaneers down in Tampa Bay.

They handled the Rams in LA a few years ago on a Monday night by something like 90-10.

As I recall, they even beat the Chargers in L.A. last season, 20-10.

Lamar just doesn't lose -- generally -- to inferior teams, even on the road.

Yes, I'm aware he lost to the Raiders and Browns this season. But actually, those were games Harbaugh lost, not Lamar, remember?

So, yes, I'm fairly confident about tonight's tilt in L.A.

Except for, you know, the whole "revenge factor" that's in play.

I get nervous when a game has a distinct aroma of revenge in the air.

You saw it last weekend in Pittsburgh. Patrick Queen and DeShon Elliott both got the last laugh.

Tonight it's three guys licking their chops.

Greg Roman.

Gus Edwards.

J.K. Dobbins.

All three kicked to the curb by the Ravens at some point.

And, as fate would have it, they get their chance tonight to prove John Harbaugh was wrong.

Roman, without question, is the one who has the biggest revenge appetite. Not only did Harbaugh give him the boot after the 2022 season, but G-Ro took most of the heat for the team's inability to get over the hump in the post-season.

It must have been extra-enjoyable for Roman to watch Todd Monken, Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore offense fizzle and flatline in last January's AFC Championship Game. As if that wasn't revenge enough, tonight he gets to have his own hand in the Ravens losing an important game.

And while it's true Roman was pretty much "fired", Edwards and Dobbins were both just quietly asked to turn in their keys and not make a big fuss about things as they exited the building.

That they both landed with Roman in L.A. isn't a great surprise. He knows what he can get out of both of them and, so far at least, his plan is working out well for the two estwhile members of John Harbaugh's team.

But they'll enter tonight's game with the same mindset as Greg Roman. They know, when push came to shove, the Ravens didn't want their services any longer.

There's a lot at stake tonight. Baltimore comes in at 7-4. The Chargers are 7-3.

I don't think L.A. is all that good, honestly. But if they win tonight and move to 8-3, they're in the driver's seat to secure the top wild card spot and the 5th seed in the AFC playoffs.

You play the teams they put in front of you, of course, but a quick inspection of the Chargers' schedule shows they haven't exactly been clobbering the elite of the NFL in 2024.

Their 7 wins are against a half dozen of the league's doormats; Tennessee, Las Vegas, Cleveland, New Orleans, Cincinnati and Carolina.

They have one "decent" win, really, and that came at Denver.

Their losses were to Arizona, Pittsburgh and Kansas City.

A win over the Ravens would be their best victory of the season to date, without question.

Oh, there's also a little something about the other coach, also named Harbaugh. As in, Jim, John's younger brother.

This one tonight is very interesting for those two. Jim's completely nuts and out of control and John is hyper-competitive and doesn't like losing to anyone he considers inferior or "under" him.

Jim doesn't want to lose to John.

John can't stand the thought of going all the way out there to California and getting roasted on the field and then again during the handshake afterwards.

There's a great story that John tells about a summer touch football game at the vacation property the Harbaugh family owns in South Carolina.

The entire family (brothers, sister, parents) all convene at the house every July for two weeks of R&R. Along the way, the afternoons and early evenings always transform into some kind of athletic competition, whether it's basketball, cornhole, touch football and so on.

In the summer of 2013 while at the vacation property, John picked "his team" and Jim picked "his team" for a game of football.

As John pieces together the story, it all starts off innocently with laughs and giggles, but quickly turns into something more competitive as each brother realizes the other brother really wants to win.

It gets a little testy at times.

In the end, Jim throws a game-winning touchdown pass and everyone shakes hands and heads off to gather their favorite adult beverage.

John stops at the cooler to grab a drink when Jim approaches from behind and smacks him on the rear end.

"When's the last time you beat me at anything, big bro?" Jim says with a snicker as he marches away with his right index finger in the air.

(Yes, Jim either forgot, on purpose, or accidentally forgot about an important football game between the two that took place back in mid-February, 2013.)

When those two compete at anything, Jim always has a zinger waiting.

So John, for sure, doesn't want to have to deal with losing and hearing his brother's snark at midfield afterwards.

For the Ravens, a win tonight keeps them firmly on the heels of the Steelers in the AFC North. Baltimore moves to 8-4 with a victory while Pittsburgh now sits at 8-3.

But a defeat in Los Angeles not only drops the Ravens to 8-5, it also means they can likely only lose one more game in the regular season if they have any hope of capturing the division title.

A loss also means the Chargers own the head-to-head in case of a tie between the two teams at the end of the regular season.

And it's also a conference loss for the Ravens, which could matter with other tiebreakers in January.

This isn't a "must win", "crucial" game for John Harbaugh's team, but it's certainly an important one if they want to win the division title.

The Ravens schedule plays out favorably from here on in: They get Philadelphia in Baltimore next Sunday and based on Lamar's career record vs. NFC teams, that one is as close to a guaranteed win as you can get without having the "W" in the standings.

Two weeks later they're in New York to beat the Giants 33-10.

Then it's the Steelers (home), Texans (away) and Browns (home) to close out the regular season.

A win tonight and Baltimore still has a very realistic shot at finishing 12-5, with 13-4 still very much a possibility.

And John Harbaugh gets the last laugh instead of Greg Roman.

If there's anyone that Baltimore football fans don't want getting the last laugh tonight, it's definitely Greg Roman.

So...what happens?

I think this one's a barnburner.

L.A.'s defense is pretty good, actually. I don't think the Ravens are going to run amok on them this evening. I see something in the 20's for both teams, probably.

The key to the game will come in two areas: What the Ravens do on 3rd down on offense and how many 15 yards-plus offensive plays Lamar can generate.

If Lamar can put together 6 or more plays of 15-plus yards, the Ravens should have enough to win.

If they're below 35% in 3rd down efficiency, that's not good.

The Ravens are currently 3rd in the league on 3rd down conversions at 46.15%.

If they're in the 40% or better range tonight, that's huge.

If they dip below 35%, though, that could spell trouble.

Big plays on offense and 3rd down success. That's how the Ravens win.

I'm going with 7 plays of 15 yards or more and 38.50% on 3rd down.

It's 17-14 Ravens at the half.

Chargers take a 23-20 lead with 8 minutes left in the game.

The Ravens tie it at 23-23 with 3:50 remaining, then force the Chargers to punt after one quick first down and then a three and out.

Lamar and the offense get the ball back on their own 17 yard line with 1:54 remaining in the game.

Jackson hits Zay Flowers on a huge 3rd and 8 play and then finds Mark Andrews near midfield for a big gain.

Lamar scrambles for 11 yards on first down, then hits Justice Hill with a quick dump off that nets another 8 yards.

After two running plays go nowhere, Lamar picks up 6 yards on 3rd down and gets the ball down to the L.A. 30 yard line with 6 seconds remaining.

Justin Tucker's last second 47 yard field goal splits the uprights and the Ravens head home with a huge 26-23 win.

---

I noticed some banter back and forth in the Comments section about Maryland being in the ACC vs. Maryland being in the Big Ten.

And I agree, any lengthy lament about Maryland being in the ACC is just eye wash at this point. They're not in the ACC and they're not going to be in the ACC and that's pretty much it.

But I do think it's definitely worth asking, "Is Maryland athletics better off in the Big Ten than they were in the ACC?"

That's a very fair water cooler topic to discuss.

There are two undeniable elements to any discussion about Maryland and the Big Ten.

Here they are:

Money matters and Maryland made a lot of it by leaving the ACC and joining the Big Ten.

The Big Ten is a nothing-burger in these parts. Other than the athletic program making a lot of money, no one in the DMV has seen a tangible benefit from the Terps now playing in the Big Ten. It doesn't stink, but the Big Ten does need some cologne.

From a financial standpoint, it most certainly was a reasonable, sensible move. Whether you believe the underground stories about the ACC stepping forward to match the (then) $52 million annual payment that the Big Ten gave Maryland is your call.

But Maryland gets $52 million (plus) from the Big Ten in exchange for being OK at basketball and lousy at football. I know there are other sports that (sort of) matter, like men's soccer and lacrosse and women's basketball. But all in all, the only things that really matter in College Park are men's basketball and football.

So, yes, it's undeniable that the financial end of the move to the Big Ten was prudent for Maryland.

It's also undeniable that the Big Ten is boring.

And whether ACC football is worth your time is certainly worthy of a discussion, but comparing ACC basketball to Big Ten basketball is like comparing Elton John with Vanessa Carlton.

One is an all-world, all-time rock star and the other had one good song.

Big Ten basketball is about as exciting as tying your shoes.

I don't even know that comparing ACC football to Big Ten football matters, because Maryland can't compete in the Big Ten. In the ACC, they'd get drummed every year by the likes of Clemson and Miami, I suppose, but other than that, they'd compete with most of the other ne'er do wells in the conference.

Football does matter, yes. But it also doesn't matter. Maryland isn't EVER going to be a Big Ten stalwart. Like, never, never.

And Big Ten basketball is pretty much akin to watching an MMA fight. Someone's leaving the court bloody and it's almost a certainty one of the two competitors is going to spend most of the night clutching, grabbing and throwing elbows.

If you like 62-57 and 58-54 games, the Big Ten is for you. As I see it, it's a borefest.

I'm not even sure the student body likes the Big Ten. Last year, in particular, there were a number of conference games where the crowds were shockingly sparse. When the students are away on a break of some kind, the place feels bare. But there were occasions a season ago where school was in session and the kids said, "Nah, I'm not walking 400 yards to watch the game."

That might say more about kids these days than Big Ten basketball, mind you. But any idea that the students themselves are overjoyed about Maryland playing the likes of Northwestern, Iowa, Purdue and Rutgers in basketball is laughable.

So, yes, Maryland did themselves plenty well financially making the move. And, frankly, that might be all that matters to them. And, if so, that's fine.

But no one in this area cares at all about the Big Ten.

That is, unless you went to Penn State, which a lot of folks in the DMV did.

Other than that, the Big Ten is the Big Snooze in these parts.

Sunday November 24, 2024

#DMD

Issue #3745

a crazy day

Most of you who visit here know I'm not really a huge college football fan.

I'm certainly not "anti-college football" or anything like that. Not in the least. If, for example, the Army-Navy game took place in Baltimore every December, I'd probably be a regular attendee at that event.

But college football, well, really college sports, in general, has soured on me over the last decade. But I'm not here today to talk about why it's dumb to pay the quarterback or shooting guard $200,000 to play for your university.

I'm just here to point out two crazy things that happened yesterday, in case you didn't see them yourself.

And, no, one of those "things" wasn't Maryland falling out of bowl contention with a dismal 29-13 home loss to Iowa.

I don't think there was anything particularly crazy about that one, except perhaps for the fact that Iowa scored 29 points and somehow only threw for 76 yards on the day. 76 yards.

Oh, right, I forgot to mention: Iowa gained 268 yards on the ground in College Park yesterday.

I assume Mike Locksley knows this, but the Terps need a little help defending the run.

They announced a crowd of just over 30,000 for the game, which, from what I was told by someone who was there, was probably only off by about 18,000 people. I mean, colleges announce insanely inflated crowds all the time. It's just what they do. No one holds their feet to the fire about it so they just publish whatever number they want.

My friend sent me a picture of the crowd in the first quarter and there were far more empty seats than seats filled.

"How many people are there?" I asked.

"10K," he replied. Maybe 12K or 13K at the most. It's empty."

He also complained about the wind and said, "It's not great tailgating weather so it's also not great football watching weather".

Football fans, huh?

Anyway, the Terps are headed for a 4-8 season after they get dismantled 48-10 next Saturday afternoon at Penn State.

I assume they can't fire Locksley for financial reasons, which begs the obvious question.

Why would you sign a (basically) middle-of-the-road coach to such a crazy contract that you can't extricate yourself from it if things don't go well?

Locksley reportedly makes $6 million a year to coach at Maryland.

You're probably thinking there's no way Maryland pays their football coach $6 million annually when their men's basketball coach "only" makes $4 million per-season.

I'm thinking the same thing. I mean, paying the basketball coach who hasn't won anything of note $4 million sounds nuts to me, but it is what it is. But the football guy getting $6 million and the basketball guy getting $4 million? Weird.

Anyway, Locksley's deal runs through the 2027 season. So you have three years (and $18 million) left if you decide to cut ties with him.

I don't follow Maryland football anywhere near closely enough to tell you what's wrong with them. I assume they don't have enough good-to-great football players down there to compete with the big boys or, apparently, even the medium boys like Iowa, Minnesota and Rutgers.

But when you're packing 12,000 or so into the stadium for a Big Ten football game, something needs to be done.

Either start paying more for players or start paying less. Either go for it and try to beat everyone's brains in and pack the stadium or pack it in and become a conference doormat and spend your football money on other men's and women's sports.

Being right in the middle of the pack is boring, as displayed by yesterday's "crowd".

But anyway...

I didn't really intend to write about Maryland today. Sorry for getting off on a tangent there.

In New Jersey yesterday, Rutgers hosted Illinois in a Big Ten clash.

It was 31-30, Rutgers, when Illinois was faced with a 4th and 13 situation with 14 seconds remaining. They could either try to make the first down and keep the game alive or attempt a 58 yard field goal into the wind.

There was almost zero chance their kicker was making the field goal. But it's either make a 4th and 13 play or make a 58 yard field goal. Both are improbable.

Predictably, because leaving a time out "on the field" would have meant getting beat up on the internet, Rutgers coach Greg Schiano called a time out to "freeze" the kicker.

The ball, however, got snapped, and the kid tried the kick anyway, missing badly to the left with nowhere near enough distance to make it.

During the time out, Illinois revisited the situation. The kicker probably said, "Coach, I'm a warrior and all and I'll try any kick from anywhere, but I can't make that kick in these conditions."

The coach agreed.

So Illinois decided to go for it on 4th and 13.

And, well, you probably know what happened next.

Illinois threw a game-winning touchdown pass with 4 seconds left.

All Schiano had to do was let the kid try the 58 yarder into the wind.

But coaches gotta coach. Or, try to, at least.

I sure hope you didn't have Rutgers on the moneyline.

There was, believe it or not, an even wackier (not sure "wackier" is a word, by the way) scenario that took place in Tempe, Arizona on Saturday.

Arizona State led Brigham Young, 28-23, and on 4th and short from midfield with six seconds left, they decided to simply throw the ball as high into the air as they could, hoping all six seconds would tick off.

ASU's quarterback did as he was told and it looked like all of the time expired when the ball finally hit the ground.

The clock read 00:00 and the ASU bench emptied onto the field, led by their maniac-head-coach, Kenny Dillingham, who was out there jumping around like Kevin Bacon in Footloose after the (apparent) victory.

The fans stormed the field, joining in with the ASU team. It was bedlam. For reasons no one knows, they decided to try to tear down the goalpost.

It's not like they beat Oregon. Sure, BYU was #14 in the country, but....whatever.

Anyway, the officials gathered to look at the replay while the TV crew tried to interview Billingham at midfield. As the interview commenced, he realized they were talking about extending the game by one more play.

Right there, on live TV, he launched into an expletive-laden tirade like a 7th grader who just found out recess was being cut short because everyone in that class failed their pre-Algebra test.

"This is effing b*** s***!" he yelled at the refs.

"There's no way! There's no way! B*** s***!!" he continued.

Alas, there was a way. One second was left on the clock.

Now they had to get the kids off the field and the two teams had to return for one more play.

No, nothing crazy happened there. BYU didn't throw a touchdown, which would have been complete poetic justice given how the ASU coach behaved at the (apparent) end of regulation.

The football gods can be cruel, but they weren't that cruel. BYU didn't score and ASU still won.

But that idiot coach...

What a buffoon. The coach is supposed to be the person who doesn't lose emotional control. He or she is the one who proceeds with an even temper and cool demeanor.

The coach should be the example for the kids to follow.

It's a shame the football gods didn't intervene on that final Brigham Young throw.

They must have been too busy taking care of Greg Schiano and Rutgers.

	WILL JACKSON and his weekly NFL picks
Will Jackson will be here every Sunday during the NFL season with his thoughts on games and prop bets that will hopefully yield positive results for you.

Hello everyone, I am back after a family vacation last week.

I am very much on the Ravens side tomorrow night in L.A. I think they bounce back with a pretty easy win and the over hitting in the total of 50.5.

Lamar doesn't lose two in a row very often and his record on national TV is very good. I'm going with Ravens 30 - Chargers 23.

As for today, I have six game picks and ten prop bets for you.

Game Picks

Take the Vikings (-3.5) at Chicago

Take the Colts (+7.5) at home vs. Detroit

Take the Patriots (+7.5) at Miami

Take Tampa Bay (-6) at NY Giants.

Parlay the Tampa Bay/NY under 40.5 with the Raiders/Broncos under 41.5.

Parlay the Packers (-5) vs. San Fran with the Cardinals (-1) at Seattle.

Prop Bets

Jared Goff over 203.5 yards passing

Jared Goff over 1.5 passing touchdowns

Tyreek Hill over 89.5 yards of receiving yards

Tyreek Hill over 0.5 touchdown receptions

Jordan Love over 203.5 yards passing

Jordan Love over 0.5 passing touchdowns

A defensive score in the Raiders/Broncos game

Patrick Mahomes with at least one touchdown throw in each half vs. Carolina

Jayden Daniels at least one interception in DC/Dallas game

Saquon Barkley over 114.5 yards rushing in Phil/LA Rams game

Saturday November 23, 2024

#DMD

Issue #3744

so...what's the solution?

I got into a friendly back-and-back forth with "Dustin" on Twitter yesterday.

It didn't last long, actually, which I appreciated very much.

Occasionally on that forum, someone will come along with a question or challenge your way of thinking and it just becomes a conversation that never ends.

"Yeah? But what about..."

Then you answer that and another one comes your way.

"OK. But what about..."

Eventually, the only way to end that kind of debate is to say, "Look, I said (wrote) what I said. I'm not changing my opinion no matter how hard you work at getting me to and I'm not at all interested in changing your opinion, either."

Things usually simmer down after that.

Much to my appreciation, Dustin asked a question, I gave my answer, and that was that.

Your answer to his question might be different than mine was, which is why I'm presenting it to you today. Have at it, as Brian Billick was fond of saying.

In the aftermath of Thursday night's debacle in Cleveland where Mike Tomlin (and Kevin Stefanski) was guilty of several coaching blunders in the game's final two minutes, I, along with a gazillion people in Pittsburgh, raked him over the coals.

I didn't say Tomlin "lost them the game", but his decision to accept a 5-yard penalty on 3rd and 2 in a driving snowstorm certainly helped gift the Browns a memorable win.

Dustin is a noted and open Harbaugh hater. In short, he wants him fired. He's not the only one in town who thinks that way, of course. Check the internet after any Ravens loss and Harbaugh is almost always in the crosshairs and at the center of the blame.

And, so, Dustin came around to me with a question about Harbaugh and the Ravens in general.

"What's your solution to beating teams like Pittsburgh and Kansas City? People want Harbaugh fired in part because they feel he gets outcoached in those games."

That's certainly a fair question. What's the solution to beating the Steelers and Chiefs?

I didn't point this out to Dustin because it really wasn't germane to that question, but the Ravens have been better than Pittsburgh -- way better, actually -- throughout the Lamar era.

Yes, yes, I realize Pittsburgh is 8-1 vs. Baltimore over the last five seasons. I get that. There have been several scheduling "quirks", let's call them, that have contributed to that lopsided record. Twice, at least, Pittsburgh has come into Baltimore on the final Sunday of the regular season with the Ravens needing nothing but to stay healthy and the Steelers playing for their lives.

There have been other games in recent history where Lamar didn't play and the quarterbacking duties fell to someone far less capable.

I'm not trying to gloss over the fact that Pittsburgh is 8-1 vs. the Ravens since 2020. I'm merely saying only a handful of those games were played with all things being equal, that's all.

And over the last five seasons, the Ravens have been better than Pittsburgh. At least that's what the season records say, even if 8-1 doesn't say that.

The Ravens and Chiefs don't meet nearly as often, obviously, but the last two meetings have gone Kansas City's way, including last January's AFC title game in Baltimore. We're all trying to forget that one, of course.

Alas, the question still looms. "What's the solution?"

Here's what I told Dustin.

My opinion is, in the games they lose (to anyone, but particularly to K.C. and Pittsburgh), they should stop doing these things:

* fumbling the ball

* missing field goals

* hitting the QB late

* getting other dumb penalties

* dropping easy interceptions

But that's just me.

I didn't add "avoid suspect officiating" because I think both teams tend to get jobbed at some point in almost every game (see: end of recent Bengals-Ravens in Baltimore) so that's sorta-kinda a wash, in my opinion. But the Ravens certainly do tend to get more "odd flags" thrown their way, it seems.

But let's not bring up the refs. That's sour grapes, most of the time.

The other things, though, are precisely how the Ravens lose to anyone, including Pittsburgh and K.C. this year.

Oh, and let's not forget that Baltimore might have defeated the Chiefs on opening Thursday in September if Isaiah Likely's toe doesn't scrape the end line on the last second TD throw/attempt and then the Ravens connect on the 2 point conversion.

I didn't even list "have smaller feet" in my explanation above. If Likely's toe stays in bounds, the Ravens might very well win there instead of losing.<

But in that loss, missed field goals and other mistakes contributed to the game even being decided by a toe.

One important distinction here is this: Harbaugh is not perfect. No coach is, in fact. He definitely makes mistakes and (mis)calculated blunders the same way Tomlin did on Thursday night.

But there's no way a coach ever deserves the blame for a loss in the same way he never deserves full credit for a win.

What's killed the Ravens in their four losses this year are those things I listed above.

Those games are filled with "if moments", of course.

"If" Tucker makes those two field goals against the Steelers.

"If Kyle Hamilton secures that easy interception in the final minute in Cleveland."

"If so and so doesn't hit the quarterback in the head and turn a 3-and-7 incompletion into a 1st and 10 situation."

"If Zay Flowers doesn't fumble the ball on the goalline in the 4th quarter of the AFC Championship Game."

That's my solution to beating the Chiefs and Steelers when it matters.

Stop doing those dumb things.

You could also say that Harbaugh going for two points in the season opener would have been "dumb". I was OK with it, but it's a huge risk because you're tying yourself to one play instead of kicking the extra point and moving into overtime.

In all, the solution for the Ravens to beat the Chiefs and Steelers is to score one more point than they do.

And to do that, I'm not sure what John Harbaugh does in a game -- or Todd Monken does, for that matter -- will ever be more important than Lamar or a running back holding onto the ball, Van Noy not getting a stupid penalty, Hamilton not dropping an interception or the kicker missing a field goal or two in a close game.

That's my solution.

And you say??

Friday November 22, 2024

#DMD

Issue #3743

steelers gonna steelers (?)

Now that, last night, was a football game.

I realize you can't dial up that kind of weather every Thursday night and the Steelers and Browns can't lock horns every game, either, but that might have been one of the most compelling Thursday night games I've ever seen.

"Most compelling" and "Thursday night games" don't often collide in the same sentence. They're usually stinkers. Last night's was....wait for it....a snowy instant classic.

And despite trying to lose, the Browns actually won, which is great news for the Ravens and shifts things into their favor a bit as long as they go to L.A. on Monday night and beat the Chargers.

We'll get back to that in a minute.

The game itself was filled with drama and big moments, along with a blinding snow that all of us enjoyed playing in back in our childhood.

Cleveland won, 24-19, but not before Mike Tomlin chipped in with one of the all-time great coaching flubs in the Steelers-Browns rivalry.

With 2 minutes left in the game and the Steelers up 19-18, the Browns failed to pick up a first down on 3rd and 2 from the Steelers 25 yard line and, to make it worse, were flagged for a 5-yard penalty.

There was almost no chance the Browns would have attempted a 42 yard field goal in the snow, so Mike Tomlin had a choice: Take the 5 yards and give Cleveland 3rd and 7 or decline the penalty and force the Browns into a 4th and 2 scenario where the game pretty much would come down to one play.

At first, Tomlin declined the penalty, which was the right thing to do.

You decline the flag, force Cleveland into a 4th and 2, and anything can happen there. Oh, and they almost certainly wouldn't have done anything risky or of "big play variety".

For reasons only he knows, Tomlin then changed his mind and accepted the 5 yards.

On the 3rd and 7 play, Jameis Winston hit Jerry Jeudy on a 15-yard completion and that started a late Browns rally and led to their go-ahead touchdown with 57 seconds remaining.

People in Pittsburgh were howling afterwards about the decision to accept the penalty.

#Tomlingonnatomlin

Russell Wilson then had a brain fart of his own on the very first play from scrimmage when the Steelers started their final drive, completing a 9 yard pass that took 21 seconds off the clock. Rather than immediately call time out upon the completion and leaving himself roughly 44 seconds, Wilson let the clock roll down to 29 seconds before throwing an incomplete pass on 2nd and 1.

#Wilsongonnawilson

And so, that's how it ended, with Pittsburgh losing a huge division game and letting Jameis Winston beat them.

Yes, the same Jameis Winston that beat the Ravens and then got run out of the gym the following week at home by the Chargers, who never beat anyone on the road.

Speaking of Winston, he was treated like a cult figure by the Amazon Prime crew before, during and after last night's game.

I like Winston, and it's not just because of his effusive praise for God anytime a microphone is placed in front of him.

I do love it when an athlete who could be talking about themselves instead gives the spotlight to God. That's a true person of faith right there.

I've grown fond of Winston because he displays an incredible sense of being thankful that he's part of the sport he obviously loves. When he talks about football, his eyes light up and a smile comes across his face that is both genuine and warm.

"I'm just happy to be here," is pretty much what Winston is saying. And he really means it.

And, yes, I'm also fond of Winston helping the Ravens by taking care of the Steelers on the field.

Pittsburgh falls to 8-3 on the season with last night's loss and with a little help later on this season, the Ravens can snag that AFC North from the Steelers.

Mike Tomlin's team is now 1-1 in the division. Their remaining games are (in no particular order), at Philadelphia, vs. Cincinnati and at Cincinnati, vs. Cleveland, vs. Kansas City and at Baltimore.

The Ravens need the Steelers to lose at least 3 of those and it would be a huge help if one of those three came against the Bengals/Browns and one of those three was against the Ravens in Baltimore on December 21.

If the Ravens beat Pittsburgh in Baltimore and the Steelers also lose one more division game, then all the Ravens would need to do to sew up the North (assuming the Ravens and Steelers finish tied at 11-6) would be to beat Cleveland on the final day of the regular season in Baltimore.

Beating the Steelers and Cleveland would give the Ravens a 4-2 division record, which means Pittsburgh gets relegated to the wild card spot and the Ravens win the division.

Yes, I know there's a lot of football left to be played. I'm well aware. And this Monday's game in L.A. is huge for the Ravens in terms of their ability to finish no worse than 11-6, as they still have the Eagles, Giants (automatic win) and Texans in addition to Pittsburgh and Cleveland.

If January rolls around and the Steelers wind up coughing up the division title to the Ravens via that division tiebreaker, last night's gift-on-a-silver-platter in Cleveland will come back to haunt them in a big way.

It's one thing to watch an instant classic like we saw last night.

It's another thing for the whole thing to unfold in a driving, big-flakes-snowstorm that entirely covers the field.

It's something else, entirely, for the Ravens' arch-rival to spew up the game like a 2 year old who doesn't like their sweet potatoes.

The NFL is one crazy reality show, man.

It puts the MTV's "Real World" to shame.

You never have any idea what's going to happen next.

Someone I know had an incredible turn of (bad) luck last night with NHL wagers. It ranks as an all-time bad beat.

He played the following players to score at least one goal: Reinhart (Fla), Bratt (NJ), Point (TB), Kyrou (StL), Draisaitl (ED) and Pastrnak (BOS). The investment was $5. The return would have been $663 had all six scored a goal.

Alas, five of the six scored.

Well, actually, all six scored.

The first five I listed connected early in their games. Pastrnak and the Bruins were locked in a low-scoring 1-0 tussle with visiting Utah when Pastrnak scored into the empty net to make it 2-0.

Ballgame.

$663 -- just in time for Christmas.

Everyone celebrated on the ice in Boston and "some people" in Baltimore celebrated, too.

The officials then watched the replay.

Was Pastrnak's stick above his shoulder when he knocked the puck in the net?

One minute later...

The scoreboard changed from 2-0 to 1-0 and the goal was disallowed.

Utah left their net empty but Pastrnak didn't score a second time.

$663 went to $0 in the blink of an eye.

I feel bad for my friend.

Sports, huh?

faith in sports

OK, so we're doing something different today. It's just for today.

I almost never post a video that's 18 minutes in length. I want "Faith in Sports" to be almost like a church sermon. 10 minutes and on we go.

This one, though, is worth all 18 minutes. And it features Texans QB C.J. Stroud, whom the Ravens will face on Christmas Day in Houston.

Stroud is an incredible young man, in addition to becoming a star in the NFL.

If you don't know who Stroud is, watch the video, please. But be warned: You're going to wind up liking Stroud in a new way if you watch it.

Thanks, as always, to our friends at Freestate Electrical for their continued support of #DMD and our "Faith in Sports" segment here every Friday.

Thursday November 21, 2024

#DMD

Issue #3742

ok, how about the two best things you've seen?

The NFL Hall of Fame discourse has officially commenced with the publication of the semifinalists list on Wednesday.

Twenty five names are on the list that was released yesterday. 10 have to be removed (via voting of the Hall of Fame selection committee) by mid-December.

Two longtime Ravens are included this year: Terrell Suggs and Marshal Yanda.

Here's the full-list.

Eric Allen, Jared Allen, Willie Anderson, Anquan Boldin, Jahri Evans, Antonio Gates, James Harrison, Rodney Harrison, Torry Holt, Luke Kuechly, Eli Manning, Robert Mathis, Steve Smith Sr., Terrell Suggs, Fred Taylor, Earl Thomas, Adam Vinatieri, Hines Ward, Ricky Watters, Reggie Wayne, Richmond Webb, Vince Wilfork, Steve Wisniewski, Darren Woodson, Marshal Yanda

So, let's list our "definites" first. That's an easy way to start the process. Whether these guys get in this year or not, they're going to make the Hall of Fame someday, so let's add them to our list of 15 for 2025.

Jared Allen, Willie Anderson, Antonio Gates, Luke Kuechly, Terrell Suggs, Reggie Wayne, Vince Wilfork, Marshal Yanda.

There's 8 definites.

Next are the "they're PROBABLY getting in" guys who should make the cut this time around: Eli Manning, Robert Mathis, Torry Holt, Adam Vinatieri.

Now we're at 12.

Here's where I'll change my process and tell you who ISN'T making it and, therefore, won't be on the list. Or, my list, at least.

Jahri Evans, James Harrison, Steve Smith Sr., Richmond Webb, Steve Wiesniewski.

So now I'm trying to pick three names from this short list: Eric Allen, Anquan Boldin, Rodney Harrison, Fred Taylor, Earl Thomas, Hines Ward, Ricky Watters and Darren Woodson.

From that list of guys, I'll take Eric Allen, Fred Taylor and Earl Thomas to finish out my "final 15".

Now, let me tell you from that list of 15 finalists who my five guys are for 2025:

Terrell Suggs, Willie Anderson, Antonio Gates, Luke Kuechly and Jared Allen

I split hairs between Allen and Robert Mathis before going with Allen.

Yanda, Wilfork, Wayne, Manning, Mathis -- they will all definitely get in someday, just not this time around.

Feel free to give us your five that you think should make it in the Comments section below.

---

I wrote here yesterday about a question that was asked of me at a sports media panel earlier this week:

"What's the best thing you've ever seen in sports?"

It took me a few minutes to let some of the greatest sports moments of my life run through my brain.

Oddly enough, for whatever reason, none of them involved the Orioles, Colts or Ravens.

I guess when I hear that question, "What's the best thing you've ever seen in sports?", I tend to think about things that impacted people or communities in a way that wasn't necessarily self-serving to me, personally.

Like, the Capitals winning the Stanley Cup in 2018 was most certainly a highlight of my life. And, without question, it was one of the best things I've ever seen.

But it's not one of my two finalists.

Tiger winning the 2019 Masters is in my top four.

It didn't come completely out of nowhere, but it was pretty daggone close to coming out of nowhwere.

And the Cubs winning the World Series in 2016 is on my list.

I know, weird, right?

There was something about the Cubs and the curse and all that stuff, and the fact that they almost gave that Game 7 away before rallying to win in Cleveland.

I remember just sitting in my living room, locked into the TV for that final game in 2016. And feeling so good for all of those long suffering Cubs fans.

I thought seeing the Cubs finally win the World Series was among the greatest things I've ever seen in sports.

My number two is a little bit of a selfish one. It involves golf and it involves one of the sport's really good guys, Gary Woodland.

You may or may not remember this scene from the Phoenix Open back in 2019. It involves a young woman with a learning challenge, Amy Bockerstette.

Forget the fact that she made reasonable contact on the tee shot.

She then went into the bunker and splashed out a 40-foot bunker shot to within 15 feet of the flag.

And then she rolled in the 15 footer like she was Ben Crenshaw.

Woodland seemed genuinely thankful to be part of the moment. His support and enthusiasm for her helped make the whole thing incredibly memorable.

And, don't forget, Woodland would win the U.S. Open later that summer at Pebble Beach. God is great, indeed.

"I got this", Bockerstette said over and over.

I've showed this video to my Calvert Hall golf team every year since 2019, reminding them of the whole "I got this" mentality that Amy carried with her throughout that hole.

I love Gary Woodland's enthusiasm. I love how genuine he was. This is one of the best things I've ever seen in sports.

Alas, it's #2 on my list.

To me, there can only be one #1.

Some of you have referenced it already, which is fine.

Sadly, if you were born in, say, 1990 or later, what happened at Lake Placid in the 1980 Winter Olympics probably doesn't resonate with you.

But if you were alive then, it's a sporting event you'll never be able to wipe from your memory.

Two weeks before that historic semifinal game vs. the Soviet Union on February 22, 1980, the U.S. Olympic team lost to the Russian squad in Madison Square Garden, 10-3, in their final pre-Olympics tune-up game.

And we all know what happened at Lake Placid.

It was, quite simply, a "Miracle on Ice".

Nothing in sports will ever top what I saw that night. At least I don't think it will. We're here, 44 years later, and it's still the best thing I've ever seen in sports.

Wednesday November 20, 2024

#DMD

Issue #3741

what's the best thing you've ever seen in sports?

That question in the headline above is very broad, I'll give you that.

But it was asked of me on Tuesday during a daytime media panel I was part of at a local school.

"What's the best thing you've ever seen in sports?"

The four of us on the panel looked at each other and smiled.

It was a great question.

There's no right or wrong answer, obviously. It's all about what makes your sporting heart flutter, I suppose. That UMBC March Madness basketball win over Virginia was something to behold. It's not my top moment, by any means, but I could see where it might be on the top of someone's list.

"I don't have an answer just yet," I replied to the young man who asked the question yesterday. "But give me a few minutes to think about it."

"Tiger Woods winning the Masters in 2018," one of the panelists said.

I quickly interjected. "It was 2019."

"Sorry, 2019. Tiger winning the Masters in 2019," he confirmed.

"I didn't even know you were a golfer or liked golf," I shot back. "That definitely was a memorable moment, though. I'd have to consider that one for sure."

We bantered back and forth for a minute or two amongst ourselves.

The consensus was no one really had their exact, "final" answer, although Tiger's Masters win in 2019 and Tom Brady winning the Super Bowl with Tampa Bay were two moments that were discussed by the panelists.

On the drive home, I finally figured out what mine is.

I came up with a list of four moments and bounced them around in my head as I watched maniac drivers on the beltway buzz in and out of standstill traffic in an effort to get somewhere 45 seconds earler than they otherwise would if they were just patient and, you know, "human".

Tiger winning in 2019 was actually on my "final four" list. Alas, it didn't win. His 2019 Masters triumph is certainly my favorite Tiger moment, but it's not my #1 "best thing I've ever seen in sports" moment.

So, what's the best thing you have ever seen in sports?

Feel free to provide your #1 moment in the Comments section below.

As for mine...

You'll have to come back tomorrow to find out what it is.

I had another question posed to me on Tuesday, although this one was just a casual conversation with a friend, not in a panel setting like the one I referenced above.

"What do you think the temperature is with Harbaugh?" my friend Mark asked.

Most times, I'd just shrug that question away and give a very simple, standard answer. "He's not getting fired, if that's what you're asking."

This time, though, I answered it differently.

"Luke warm, maybe," I told him. "And probably more than luke warm if they don't at least get back to the AFC Championship Game."

This whole thing could put Harbaugh in a tricky spot if the Ravens somehow don't win the division and have to play on the road throughout the playoffs.

As it stands now, this scenario is a very real possibility given the Pittsburgh win last Sunday: KC and Buffalo finish 1-2 in some order and the Steelers wind up the #3 seed, meaning they face the #6 seed in the AFC Wild Card round.

One of the 7 or 8 loss teams will be the #7 seed.

The Ravens and Chargers will be the #5 and #6 seed in some order.

If the Ravens get that 6th seed, they'd go to Pittsburgh for their playoff opener if, as noted, the Steelers finish with the 3rd seed.

A loss to the Steelers in the playoffs could take John's seat from luke warm to hot-to-the-touch.

Harbaugh's contract runs through 2025. He probably has an automatic extension built in; an extra year for making the playoffs.

So, in theory, he'd have a 2-year deal intact if Steve Bisciotti wanted to part company with him. And Steve isn't too keen on giving away $20 million-plus of free money, I'm guessing.

Then again, I'm also not sure Steve would ever outright "fire" John Harbaugh. They'd give him a fancy title and move him into some sort of football administrative role, where he'd still collect his salary and remain actively involved with the organization, albeit no longer serving as the team's head coach.

That's probably the way it will go down.

I just can't see Bisciotti walking into John's office in late January and saying, "Sorry, Harbs, I'm letting you go."

But I could see Steve going to John and saying, "I love what you've done for us and I want you here at 1 Winning Drive for the rest of your natural, working life, but I think we need a new head football coach."

Sure, it's a "firing".

But it won't be presented as such.

And that's if it comes to pass that John Harbaugh is under the gun at the end of the season. I don't have that crystal ball or I'd bet on what I see.

What I do know is Bisciotti, like the rest of Baltimore, has to be thinking, "How many of these MVP years by Lamar are we going to squander?"

And while no one asked me this, specifically, I'm seeing a lot of chatter on the internet about the Orioles and their off-season spending abilities.

Corbin Burnes? Maybe.

Juan Soto? No chance.

Clay Holmes? It looks like that one's going to happen, but I'm definitely hoping there's more to the off-season than him.

I'd still say I'll be in the "surprised" camp if Burnes winds up in Baltimore, but I'm guessing some of his future depends on where Soto winds up landing.

If the Dodgers get Soto, they probably can't splurge on Burnes, too.

But if Soto winds up with the Mets, as many are now saying he will, then the Dodgers might counter that move by forking over the big money for Burnes.

In the meantime, the O's could swoop in and overpay Burnes to keep him from getting pinched in the middle of that Soto-Mets-Dodgers triangle.

I'm not against Corbin Burnes, mind you. Or, as it is, "re-adding" him.

He's a heckuva pitcher. If healthy in 2025, pencil him in for 17-8 and a 2.95 ERA. He's a top 10 pitcher in all of baseball, maybe even top 5.

But what about the vacant right field spot if Anthony Santander bolts?

Why not give Santander his $125 million for 4 or 5 years and sign a 2nd tier starting pitcher for something far more affordable than the $300 million or so that Burnes is going to rake in?

And what's this fascination Mike Elias has with erstwhile Yankees reliever Clay Holmes?

Are the Orioles really on the verge of signing him, as many in New York say they are?

Eh, I don't know, man. He seems pretty much "just OK" to me.

The Yankees are essentially dumping him. If they wanted him back in the Bronx, they'd sign him for the paltry $12 million per-year the O's are going to have to give him.

Holmes had 13 blown saves in pinstripes last season and the Yankees moved him out of the closer's spot in September. Granted, he would shift to a set-up role for Felix Bautista in Baltimore, but the 2024 numbers don't support putting a whole lot of stock in Holmes as a top flight bullpen arm in the '25 campaign.

Maybe removing him from the "heat" of closing will refresh Holmes. But that one is a bit of a head scratcher to me.

Then again, Eloy Jimenez was a head scratcher to me last July and we see how that turne --- well, never mind, that's not a great example.

The O's could do worse than Clay Holmes. I'll give them that much.

But they could also do better. And I thought that was the idea in the off-season. Get better.

Tuesday November 19, 2024

#DMD

Issue #3740

themorningafterthemorningafter

So, let me say from the start here that I'm not trying to offend anyone, hurt anyone's feelings or otherwise "call anyone out" with today's entry.

I hope you know that.

I'm merely responding to what many of you wrote here yesterday and via e-mail with regard to yesterday's piece about the Ravens loss in Pittsburgh on Sunday.

Connor e-mailed me with this quickie: "What, exactly, were you trying to do (today)? We all saw the same game that you did. Why did you present your game review like that?"

Bob the Idiot Caller submitted a comment below that read: "If you come here looking for any sort of coherent analysis of the game yesterday, evidently, you're out of luck. Instead we get 42 lines of being talked down to about keeping the loss in perspective."

Please note, I'm not calling Bob an idiot. He calls himself that. In this case, it might fit. I don't know Bob, so I have no idea if he's really an idiot or just a guy who likes poking fun at himself. Either way, I appreciate his support here over the years.

I have no idea at all how Bob felt like he was being talked down to, but if he did feel that way, I'm sorry. That wasn't my intention. I know what it feels to be talked down to. Recently, in fact. I felt that way every night in October when I turned on CNN and heard Abby Phillip or Anderson Cooper tell me if I didn't vote for Kamala Harris that must mean I'm a racist and a mysogynist.

I'm neither of those. Alas, that's how they talked to me in advance of the election and it offended me. So, yes, if Bob felt talked down to, I get it.

But I wasn't trying to "talk down" to anyone yesterday.

Some of you -- a lot of you, actually -- "got it", meaning, you understood what I was trying to do and complimented my work. That's nice. It's not necessary, per se, but nice nonetheless. I totally understand how journalism and creativity works. Some people get it, some people don't.

I read Ayn Rand's great work, The Fountainhead a long time ago and was so enthralled with it I gave it to a friend for his enjoyment. He gave it back to me a week later and said, "That's the dumbest thing I've ever read. I got through 50 pages before I sat it down on the floor hoping my cat would pee on it."

I assumed everyone loved Ayn Rand's work, but my friend Joel didn't.

Anyway...

Back when the Ravens were busy throwing away games earlier this season to Kansas City, Las Vegas and Cleveland, I circled back here the morning after and basically wrote the same thing time and time again.

"Turned the ball over at the worst time possible."

"Missed a field goal."

"Got flagged for a penalty or two they didn't deserve."

"Got flagged for a penalty or two they did deserve that came at a crucial moment in the game."

"Blundered a time-out situation, 4th down situation or some other game-management decision that came back to haunt them."

"Dropped a key pass or flubbed an interception that would have changed the outcome."

"Couldn't get a stop on defense when they needed it."

"Ran a puzzling series or two on offense that made no sense at all given their strengths on that side of the ball."

That's how they lost to the Chiefs, Raiders and Browns.

It's also how they lost to Kansas City in the AFC Championship Game last January, but that wound is almost healed now so I won't bring it up here this morning.

But all of the stuff I listed above is how the Ravens always lose.

I wrote that here after the Raiders game.

"The Ravens lose the same way every time."

I wrote that here after the Browns loss.

"Don't look now, but the Ravens lost the same way they always lose."

I even wrote, specifically, that I might rather see them just get blown out 38-6 and just have one of those days where nothing goes right instead of coughing up a game they shoulda, coulda, woulda won.

A loss is a loss, as Bob the Idiot mentioned yesterday. It can be 38-6 or 18-16 and it's a loss and it's only one of them.

There were certain things I referenced in yesterday's piece that were intended to come across as "coherent analysis" without coming across like I was stating the obvious. I was clearly trying to point out what you already knew: The Ravens lost the same way, again.

Some of you got it. For some of you, it went over your head. I've never been accused of being sophisticated, so please don't tell me I was being "too sophisticated" yesterday. If you didn't get it, so be it. I never got "The Simpsons", for what it's worth. It happens.

The Ravens lost on Sunday because these things happened:

They only scored 16 points. The other team scored 18.

Baltimore's field goal kicker missed 2 field goals. If you're a Flyers fan and you're rushing for your calculator, please don't. The math is quick and easy. If Tucker makes those two kicks, the Ravens win 22-18.

Alas, he didn't make them. Those points were critical when the clock hit 00:00 at the end of the fourth quarter.

The Ravens turned the ball over 3 different times, including once deep in their own end and once while driving and moving into Pittsburgh territory.

Baltimore was ahead 7-6 when they fumbled the ball away late in the first half and the Steelers connected for a late field goal to go up 9-7 at the end of the first half.

If they don't fumble there and all things stay equal, the Ravens win 16-15 instead of losing 18-16.

By the way, it's my opinion that was not a fumble on the play involving Isaiah Likely. He was clearly down before the ball was pulled away from him. But that's what happens. These refs, man. You never know what they're going to see that the rest of us don't see. Or do see. Anyway, that call was huge.

Speaking of the refs, they flagged the Ravens 12 total times on Sunday. A couple of them were ticky-tack. But a bunch of them were legit and the right call.

And this is one of those things I've never figured out about people who claim to "know sports" and (probably) played sports at some level in their earlier life.

People somehow think it's the head coach's fault when the defensive back holds someone or an offensive lineman moves too early or a linebacker hits the quarterback after he's thrown the ball.

"Why doesn't Harbaugh tell these guys to stop getting penalized all the time?" There are actually people on the internet who throw that one out there like it's a high-level-hot-take.

The Ravens have to cut down on the penalties. That's the truth. But you know who needs to stop getting penalties? The players. The guys on the field.

At what point do the football players have to take criticism for things they do on the football field?

A few years ago we at Calvert Hall Golf had a big late season match at Hunt Valley. The 11th hole there is a par 5 of 520 yards or that most high school players can reach in two shots.

In our pre-match discussion about the golf course, I told my players that the only way you can go for that green in two shots AND keep the ball on the green is if you're hitting that second shot from the fairway. With the rough up in late spring and the second shot playing 10 yards downhill, you weren't going to be able to get enough spin on the ball to hold the green if you tried to hit the green in two shots from the rough from 175 or 200 yards out.

Our day-of-match scouting told us the flag on that hole, #11, was in the back left portion of the green.

"You can not go for that pin in two shots if you're in the rough," I told my players before they teed off. "If you don't keep the ball on the green, you'll be long, behind the green, and you won't be able to get the ball up and down for birdie unless you make a crazy 30 or 40 foot putt."

"If you're in the rough off the tee," I told them, "lay up to whatever your preferred yardage is -- in the fairway -- and try to make birdie the old fashioned way or, at worst, get your par and get out of there."

As fate would have it, the match was close and our #5 player was faced with a 180 yard shot out of the right rough to that back left flag. Instead of playing smart and bumping his ball back into the fairway and giving himself 75 yards to the hole and a good chance for a birdie, he went for the flag out of the rough, hit the shot about 20 feet from the hole, and it careened over the green some 20 yards.

He then chipped the ball long, some 50 feet from the hole, and then 3-putted for bogey to give the hole to his opponent on a silver platter.

I told him not to hit the shot from the rough. I warned him and the others. It was a shot the best amateurs couldn't have pulled off.

He hit it anyway and pretty much exactly what I told him would likely happen wound up happening.

Who gets the blame?

I'm sure John Harbaugh tells Patrick Mekari to be careful with how far off the line of scrimmage he wanders on play-action in case Lamar decides to throw the ball late. Is Harbaugh to blame because Mekari gets flagged for that infraction almost every game?

Or is Mekari, you know, a professional football player, the guy who should know right from wrong?

And now we get to more of that "coherent analysis" you're here for: The failed Ravens 2-point conversion.

I'm not sure what happened there.

Whatever it was, it was a flop.

As I said on social media immediately after the play blew up, I think having Lamar Jackson or any quarterback -- who throws right handed -- run to their left is silly. It's a right sided world we live in, especially if you're a right handed thrower of the football.

Mike Tomlin pretty much made fun of the Ravens for the play call in his post-game press conference, but I'll leave that up to John Harbaugh to take care of the next time the two teams meet up in Baltimore.

Something definitely happened on the play. As in, something "wrong" happened.

It was destined to fail from jump street.

I am not a football expert.

I'm certainly not an offensive genius.

In fact, I like/liked the idea of having Lamar Jackson involved in the 2-point conversion.

That said, not having Derrick Henry, Patrick Ricard, Rashod Bateman or Zay Flowers on the field for that conversion attempt pretty much flashed this to the Steelers: LAMAR IS GOING TO RUN WITH THE BALL ON THIS PLAY

I have no idea what Todd Monken was thinking on that play. I know the result. It failed. I think, based on the "analysis" I just gave, it was going to fail far more times than it was going to succeed.

The play was so wonky and so disjointed even the Ravens didn't know how to pull it off.

Players came to the line of scrimmage and tried to move others into different positions in order to make the play a success. It didn't quite look like a scene from The Three Stooges, but it might have been a dress rehearsal for at least one scene.

Remember that famous line from Bull Durham? "Don't think, Meat, just pitch."

That's basically what Harbaugh should have said to Monken. "Just run the simple, effective play with our best players."

Todd Monken's a smart man. I believe that. But if you need two yards and four of your most prolific offensive players aren't on the field for the play in question, I'll go ahead and call that one a brain fart.

Fortunately for Monken, my opinion doesn't matter. Harbaugh's opinion matters. I assume he wasn't pleased with the result. I have no idea if he thought the play call was prudent.

The Ravens lost on Sunday the same way they always lose.

They lost the game. Sure, Pittsburgh gets a "W", so if you want more coherent analysis, there it is. The Steelers did win, yes. But the Ravens lost the game far more than the Steelers won it.

As Aerosmith once said: "It's the same old story, same old song and dance...my friend."

I tried to present my Monday summary in a way that wasn't "the same old song and dance." Anyone can go on line and write the same stuff over and over.

I assume most of you are smart enough to know for yourselves how the Ravens lost.

They lost the way I described it above.

And they lost the way I described it on Monday as well.

You saw the game. You know what happened.

You wanted a blow-by-blow recap of how it all occurred, and why, but you knew before you logged in on Monday morning why the Ravens didn't beat the Steelers.

You don't have to be a genius to figure it out. I figured it out and I'm far from a genius.

Don't get mad at me because you didn't like the outcome. I didn't like it either.

---

Major League Baseball will get a new crop of Hall of Fame inductees next summer and there is only one no-brainer on the list that was released yesterday.

Ichiro Suzuki is a new name, eligible for the first time in 2025. He's in. If he's not on every ballot that's turned in, anyone leaving him off should be stripped of their voting privileges. Like, forever.

Other newcomers include familiar stars of the last two decades: C.C. Sabathia, Felix Hernandez, Carlos Gonzalez, Dustin Pedroia, Hanley Ramirez, Fernando Rodney, Ian Kinsler, Ben Zobrist, Troy Tulowitzki, Russell Martin, Brian McCann, Curtis Granderson and longtime Oriole (and perhaps my favorite of all-time) Adam Jones.

Because the Hall of Fame has slowly morphed into the Hall of Very Good over the last 10 years, guys like Sabathia, Hernandez and Pedroia will get strong consideration. You can poke holes in all 3 of them if you so choose.

Here's how I see those three.

I think I would vote for Sabathia.

I'm a strong "maybe" but might need my arm twisted to vote for Hernandez.

I doubt I would vote for Pedroia.

In the Hall of Very Good, all three get in.

To me, in the Hall of Fame, perhaps only Sabathia qualifies.

And you can make a case against him, too, I think.

There are returning names on the ballot, as well.

Relief pitcher Billy Wagner, who barely missed out last year, returns for his 10th and final year on the ballot and needs to retain his 73.8% total of a year ago and find a few more votes to reach the 75% level required for induction into Cooperstown.

It's a shame the voting for the baseball Hall of Fame doesn't take place strictly in Pennsylvania or California. I hear they're good at finding a few more votes these days.

Other holdovers include steroids-tainted stars Alex Rodriguez (134 votes, 34.8%) and Manny Ramirez (125, 32.5%) along with Andruw Jones (237, 61.6%), Carlos Beltran (220, 57.1%), Chase Utley (111, 28.8%), Omar Vizquel (68, 17.7%), Jimmy Rollins (57, 14.8%), Bobby Abreu (57, 14.8%), Andy Pettitte (52, 13.5%), Mark Buehrle (32, 8.3%), Francisco Rodríguez (30, 7.8%), Torii Hunter (28, 7.3%) and David Wright (24, 6.2%).

From that list, you can scratch A-Rod and Manny Ramirez because of their steroid issues. So, they're out.

I personally think Andruw Jones was a Hall of Fame baseball player.

So, too, was Omar Vizquel.

And my underrated, take-a-deep-dive-into-his-stats candidate is lefthander Mark Buehrle. You want a hot take? I'll give you one.

Buehrle was on the same level, quality wise, as Sabathia and Hernandez.

Here's who would be on my ballot.

Ichiro

Billy Wagner

Andruw Jones

Omar Vizquel

Mark Buehrle

If you made me pick two more just for the sake of picking two more, I'd go with Sabathia and, against my better judgement, Carlos Beltran, who almost certainly used PED's in his career but was a remarkable hitter at the zenith of his playing days.

SCOREBOARD
Sunday, December 22
KINGS 1	AT CAPITALS 3
CAPS GOALS: Protas 2 (13, 14), Vrana (6) GOALTENDER: Thompson RECORD: 23-8-2 NEXT GAME: 12/23 at Boston

#DMD Corporate Partners

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