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Athletic Rules Are Made To Be ... Followed

In Uniform: Baltimore County Cross Country Championships

(Photo: Baltimore Sun)

This is a story getting some legs – about the Baltimore area high school cross country team that lost a championship because of a uniform rules violation involving Spandex undergarments.

In local and national newspaper sports and editorial pages, blogs and readers forums, debaters are asking when is a seemingly insignificant rule infraction worth distorting the outcome of the competition. A larger view is whether some rules should be overlooked to maintain the purity of competition.

On Oct. 26, a runner for Hereford High School's boys cross country team competing in the Baltimore County championships wore Spandex beneath his uniform shorts sporting a white pinstripe on the side instead of a solid color as a Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association uniform rule requires.

The rule says the undershorts have to be the same color as the uniform shorts. Six other runners at competing schools were disqualified as well. The rule was changed in Maryland over the past year to conform with a national governing body.

Hereford, a Mecca for cross country located along rolling hills and lush pastures in the hamlet of Parkton in far northern Baltimore County, won the championship. But not long afterward, the celebrating stopped. Meet officials bumped the superior Bulls team down to fourth place after the runner was disqualified for the wayward undergarment stripe.

Losing the county championship was a tough one for Hereford. They grow premier cross country runners at Hereford like daisies that sprout up in spring on the countryside. Since the agriscience school opened in 1954, the Bulls have won 12 boys state championships and five girls titles. The school’s annual "Bull Run" Cross Country Invitational attracts more than 100 schools along the East Coast, and the challenging Hereford course hosts the state cross country championships November 14.

So why punish a cross country powerhouse over an obscure stripe on compression shorts when it had the best team as born out by the competition? Simply, the Hereford runner broke the rule.

Indeed, rules are made to be broken, as the saying goes, but you get caught and you pay the piper. Rules keep the competition honest and keep the playing field level. They must always be applied evenly.

Hardly cross country, but consider some rules established by the Southern Maryland Invitational Livestock Expo and Horse Show held annually at fairgrounds in St. Mary’s County in southern Maryland. One says steers and heifers must be dehorned and healed. Another says dairy goats must have a collar. And still another requires that market lambs must be slick shorn.

So should you win the blue ribbon if your dairy goat comes in collar-less? While not knowing anything about livestock, the answer has to be a resounding "no." Where's the collar? Whether it makes sense or not, there is a reason for a collared dairy goat – whatever it is. Same with the Hereford runner. There is a reason for solid-color Spandex -- versus ones with a thin stripe or even tie-dye, Fergie screenshots or American flags.

Wearing Spandex under uniforms is a fairly recent phenomenon among athletes. Maryland officials noticed their proliferation and sought to standardize them with the actual uniforms.

In Amateur Athletic Union basketball, there is a rule that asserts uniforms cannot be adorned with logos or advertising of sponsors. Seems silly considering that a logo could support a cash-strapped amateur team with the cost of its uniforms. But it is the rule.

"Barely noticeable" beneath the Hereford runner's uniform is how one report described the infraction. On a reader's forum on the Baltimore Sun Website, one writer decried the lack of "common sense" in such rules. And there were suggestions that the team being elevated to champion after the disqualification should refuse the trophy. Nonsense, if they followed the rules.

Often times, officials running athletic events will overlook the rules, especially on uniforms. (You should see some of the rules violations that occur in AAU over uniforms, but teams and players still get to participate.) Rule violators will hit you with the "what difference does it make" consideration or that the "player will be hurt" if not allowed to participate.

The notion of following the rules, whatever they are, does not rise to the level of a teachable moment.

As a coach, parent or player, you just read the rule, inform your team and follow it. As an athletic official, you just enforce it.

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More: A look at Hereford cross country

Yankee Haters Raise Your Hands

Enough Already: The Yankees win the pennant again

Photo: Associated Press

It was the bottom of the eighth in Sunday night’s closeout game of the ALCS and the Yankees were tacking on some extra runs on the way to another World Series appearance.

With Mariano Rivera coming back out to shut down the Angels in the ninth and preserve the victory, I was coming to the realization that my dream would not come true – that the Angels would actually take Game 6 and I would be able to say, "The Yankees lose … The Yankees lose … Theeeeeeeeeeeeeeee Yankees lose." No such luck.

The great American pastime, the World Series, begins Wednesday night, and I’ll be watching every pitch like every year. And you guessed it, I’ll be rooting for the Phillies. Sorry.

See, I hate the Yankees. But I don’t want to be predictable about it (OK, yes, I am an Orioles fan whose hometown club hasn’t had a winning season in 12 years). I also don’t want to be trite and petty. I love the great game of baseball too much for that -- a dyed-in-the-wool fan who really does believe that everybody has a chance to win the pennant at the start of spring training.

Only the Yankees have won 7 of the last 14 American League pennants and make their way to their 40th World Series against the Phils.

My ill will toward the Yankees began long ago. It probably started first watching the 1958 classic film "Damn Yankees" as a teenager -- when Joe Hardy had to sell his soul to Mr. Applegate just so the Washington Senators could beat the Yankees for the pennant. Gosh, just to beat the Yankees you have to make a pact with the devil.

Then growing up in Baltimore, I realized that Babe Ruth was a native of my city who went on to become baseball’s most legendary figure, of course, with the Yankees, no less.

There was having Reggie Jackson play a wonderful season in Baltimore in '76 before unceremoniously bolting to the Yankees for money and fame. There was the Jeffrey Maier game in the 1996 ALCS between the Orioles and the Yankees, in which the Yankees prevailed in the series after 12-year-old Maier’s "dastardly" deed. Then there was losing our best pitcher since Jim Palmer, Mike Mussina, to Yankees’ free agency in 2001. (For Orioles fans, what if Mussina makes the Hall of Fame and goes in as a Yankee?)

All in all, I am OK with Yankee fans. There are plenty of them here in Baltimore and Washington. True baseball fans do respect Baltimore's winning tradition with Frank and Brooks, Eddie and Cal and Palmer, McNally and Cuellar. I lived once in New York City, and I do love New York. It has to be the greatest city in the world in my view.

And I do admit to love Yankee history and lore. Who can argue with the Babe, Lou Gehrig, DiMaggio and the magical season that was Mantle and Maris in 1961. And my favorites like Whitey Ford, Elston Howard, Thurman Munson, Billy Martin and Guidry, Mattingly and Bernie Williams.

So no problem with Yankee fans or the city. It is a big place up there with lots to satisfy. I understand Wall Street, big money, celebrity, endorsements and market size. I know what it means to be in New York.

Still I just hate the Yankees – but also all the other "payroll" teams of current day baseball.

In the run up to the 2009 World Series, I am reminded that I feel a similar way about the Dodgers, Red Sox or Angels, too. The Dodgers and their money still lost with Thome, Pierre and Hudson as bench players. Bench players, mind you. Boston for all its payroll was swept by the Angels after spending the season beating up on rookie teams like the Orioles. The Angels plucked Torii Hunter from free agency a couple of years ago, sending (former Oriole) Gary Matthews Jr. and his millions to the bench. That's baseball today.

When the Yankees signed C.C. Sabathia, Mark Teixeira, A.J. Burnett and Nick Swisher to start the 2009 season, I figured you could just spot them the pennant -- not much unlike in a courtroom when you stipulate to a set of facts and move on with the testimony. You could have played the World Series in April between the Yankees and Phillies/Dodgers and let the rest of us (Orioles, Pirates, Indians, Nationals, etc.) just play out the season against one another.

In a post game interview to conclude the ALCS, Yankee captain Derek Jeter said, "It's not easy to get to this point of the season." Well, with the big payroll, Derek, it really is. Put your roster up against the Orioles or Pirates (who have won World Series before). It really is easy in 2009 to get to this point as Yankees when you buy everybody’s players.

This is not to say the Yankees don't do a good job of developing players. There is Jeter, Rivera, Posada, Cano, etc. They all came through the system, but the big money gets them over the hump. And you might say the Phillies would not be where they are had it not been for adding Cliff Lee and Pedro Martinez at mid-season. But adding a piece or two to get over the hump is a time-honored baseball tradition.

I also cringe when I hear Joe Girardi interviews about his 2009 Yankees team. And, as beloved as he is for baseball, Joe Torre was the same way. They talk as if winning with the teams they have (compared with everybody else) is hard -- almost as if what they are doing is professorial, thoughtful and born of greatness. Dudes, your franchises bought the best players. You didn’t grow them like the great teams of the past.

I like to think I am a modern man who understands the era we are in today. But I loved baseball when, for the most part, you won pennants by developing and retaining players.

The Yankees are in another World Series. But for me, Alex Rodriquez will always be a Mariner, Sabathia an Indian, Teixeira a Ranger, Swisher an A, Burnett a Marlin and Johnny Damon a Royal.

Editor's Note: For readers of this blog, sorry for the ranting. I usually don't write in first person. But when you "hate" the Yankees, what is a Baltimore Orioles fan supposed to do.

Clocking Ochocinco All in the Show

Ray Lewis hit Chad Ochocinco in the mouth a couple of Sundays ago in Baltimore’s game versus Cincinnati.

Predictably, the NFL took exception. The league fined Lewis $25,000 for breaking its "defenseless receiver" rule among other charges of unnecessary roughness on a play where Ochocinco was clocked coming across the middle late in the fourth quarter of Cincinnati’s compelling 17-14 win over Baltimore.

You would think Ochocinco would be fuming mad and pointing to Nov. 8 for retaliation when the Ravens and Bengals hook up again in Cincinnati. But with Lewis and Ochocinco, two of the league’s premier players, everything is not always what it seems.

Ochocinco’s pummeling reverberated around the league that Sunday and ignited a mini-firestorm over the state of rough play in the NFL. Old-school NFL types may besmirch Lewis for the hit and say he deserved the fine. Granted, the league did have to fine Lewis in its attempt to reduce unnecessary injuries.

Only this was different.

No case of bad blood between rivals, just part of the intricate relationship among of some NFL players. This was just show. Thirty years from now Lewis and Ochocinco will reminisce on the hit from their rocking chairs.

Each time the Ravens and Bengals play, the good-natured Ochocinco puts on his serious face, takes to the airwaves and tells the local media about how he is going to hit the Ravens in the mouth. This tete-a-tete is, well, hilarious.

In the days leading up to the Oct. 11 game, Ochocinco "challenged" Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs to a boxing match. He then complained Lewis had bounced him around in games over the years and this time he would hit Lewis in the mouth. It was Ochocinco at his funniest. Then Ochocinco went on a tweeting binge, describing how he would torch Ravens cornerbacks Fabian Washington and Domonique Foxworth during the game.

Before a Ravens-Bengals game in 2008, the "target" then was former Ravens linebacker Bart Scott: "The last time we played, he (Bart Scott) cussed me out and told me to stay out of his huddle, and I took offense to that, so this Sunday I am going to hit him in the mouth. He's really rude," Ochocinco said in that conference call.

Ochocinco is legendary for his antics, but fact is, Lewis is like a "big brother" to Ochocinco and a number of players around the league who hold the middlebacker in high regard. And despite their personas, both Lewis and Ochocinco are solid citizens in their communities. They are ultimate showmen.

Players respect Lewis for the adversity he overcame early in his career (remember the Atlanta trial in 2000?), achieving big-money contracts, pushing himself to a Hall-of-Fame stature, taking advantage of business opportunities and engaging Baltimore youth in charitable projects. No matter how you see things, there is no arguing that Lewis rates with Cal Ripken, Brooks Robinson, Wes Unseld, Jim Palmer, Johnny Unitas and Michael Phelps as among beloved Baltimore sports figures for their influences on and off the field.

Ochocinco just last week received some major pub when he joined with technology company Motorola to buy remaining tickets for Cincinnati’s home game Sunday versus Houston to avoid a blackout so fans could watch the game on TV. He was a hero in Cincy for the gesture.

Ochocinco credits Lewis for settling him down two years ago when Ochocinco was hemming and hawing about getting out of Cincinnati.

"Ray is really the reason I’m happy, smiling and ready to go again ... He had me thinking about how I got to where I'm at, the things I went through, understanding the blessing it is to be where I am. There are millions of people that wished they were in my shoes doing what I do ... He told me to get back out here and smile all the time ... It's worked for me," he said in an interview with a Cincinnati newspaper.

Despite getting hit in the mouth, there is little doubt that Lewis is Ochocinco’s guy.

"Beautify game, Ray knock my head off, all part of the game, I love my big brother Ray Lewis, hope you all enjoyed thee event!!!!!" Ochocinco said afterward in a tweet.

Lewis defended the big hit, saying, "I've never played this game to hurt anybody. But the bottom line is, when I turn to go, I'm like a missile. When I’m locked in, I'm locked in. Whatever’s there is there."

For Lewis, could it be simply what you do when your "little brother" gets a little full of himself? You hit him in the mouth.

Showman: Chad Ochocinco

Photo: Getty Images

Coaching Suits Hoya Great Williams

You think of Georgetown Hoya basketball and you think of the coach, John Thompson, and Ewing, Mourning, Iverson and Mutombo. And you think more, and there is Sleepy Floyd, Craig Shelton, Freddie Brown and Mike Sweetney.

Then stop and think even more and your thoughts settle on Reggie Williams. Call Reggie Williams the "forgettable" Hoya great.

As personalities, Patrick Ewing offered that ever-embracing smile, Alonzo Mourning the beat-down toughness, Allen Iverson the homeboy defiance and Dikembe Mutombo the earnest dignity. Williams was just a back-of-the-room quiet and unassuming kid from Baltimore who spoke loudest in big games on the court. Lest we forget, it was none other than Reggie Williams who sparked the Hoyas to their only NCAA basketball national title 25 years ago.

Williams memories abound on the recent news of his selection as men’s head basketball coach at Chesapeake College in Wye Mills on Maryland’s picturesque Eastern Shore.

Williams took a circuitous route to the Skipjacks job, but Chesapeake Athletic Director Frank Szymanski says the school lucked out big time. "Not only has he played at the highest possible level, he has also shown the ability to build winning programs everywhere he has coached," Szymanski said.

As coaching jobs go, Chesapeake is hardly the Big East, but Williams clearly will take it. He seems to be itching to coach. "I viewed this as a great opportunity for me," Williams said in a Chesapeake news release to announce his hiring. "I just want players who love the game, want to work hard and do well in school."

Chesapeake is a community college founded in 1965 as Maryland’s first regional community college to meet the educational and training needs of residents on the upper and middle Eastern Shore.

Before taking the job, Williams had signed on during the summer to coach at Baltimore’s illustrious Towson Catholic High, the school that recently sent Carmelo Anthony and Donte Greene to Syracuse and then the NBA and counts Gene Shue, an all-time great NBA player and coach, as another alumni. But before Williams could get settled in, Towson Catholic closed because of declining enrollment.

Williams got the TC job after leaving Jericho Christian Academy in Landover, MD after three seasons when it closed, too.

Chesapeake was the last man standing, and Szymanski made his pitch, knowing he was getting a true baller who has won at every level.

Growing up and playing ball on the hard streets of East Baltimore in the early 1980s, there was one word for the 6-7 Williams – his nickname "Silk" for his smooth, all-around game. Certainly, John Thompson took notice.

Williams led his Dunbar Poets high school team to a 60-0 record in his junior and senior seasons in a group that included Muggsy Bogues, the late Reggie Lewis and soon-to-be Hoya teammate David Wingate. In 1982-83, USA Today awarded Dunbar the nation’s "mythical" national championship and Williams was named a coveted McDonald’s High School All-American.

Old school Baltimore basketball still debates today whether it is Williams or Allen "Skip" Wise, the first freshman to be named All-ACC while at Clemson in the mid-1970s, who was the city’s greatest basketball prodigy.

At Georgetown, the 1984 championship team belonged rightfully to Ewing. But the championship game belonged to Williams – an 84-75 victory over the University of Houston and Hakeem Olajuwon. Williams, a freshman, led all scorers with 19 points and grabbed seven rebounds. (Wingate, also of Baltimore, scored 16.).

By the time Williams reached his senior season at Georgetown in 1986-87 season, he had the Hoyas contending again as the leader of a young team – leading the club in scoring, rebounding and blocked shots as a consensus All-Big East and All-America selection. So smitten was Thompson at Williams' numbers and leadership that he dubbed that Hoya team "Reggie and the Miracles."

That big senior season propelled Williams to the No. 4 pick in the 1987 NBA draft by the Los Angeles Clippers. He went on to enjoy 10-year NBA career with the Clippers, Cleveland Cavaliers, San Antonio Spurs, Denver Nuggets, Indiana Pacers and New Jersey Nets, logging a career total of 7,508 points and 2,393 rebounds while averaging 12.5 points per game.

But when you think of all the Hoya greats, the unassuming Williams doesn’t immediately come to mind. Yet, the Georgetown Basketball History Project, which chronicles Hoya basketball history, saluted Williams, now 45, as No. 3 behind Ewing and Floyd on its list of the 100 leading names of Hoya basketball. Among others, Mourning was No. 4, Iverson No. 5, and Wingate No. 11.

In February, Williams and the Hoyas celebrated the 25th anniversary of the 1984 championship team.

Williams’ ultimate legacy might be the "bridge" he was between Baltimore and Washington sports.

Despite the mere 40 miles of separation, sports in two towns could not be farther apart. DC is the nation’s sophisticated capital city; Baltimore remains a blue-blooded port town. Baltimore will call Redskins football soft; Washington scoffs at the antics of the haywire Ravens.

The great Reggie Williams eclipsed both worlds.

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More: Reggie Williams bio, stats, Georgetown History Project Top 100, Chesapeake College men's basketall

Reggie Williams Photos: hoyabasketball.com

Broken Record: Running Up the Score

Star QB: Maryland Arundel High's Billy Cosh

Photo: Arundelfootball.com

In high school football when is enough enough?

Same question for high school basketball and amateur sports. Same even for girls travel soccer.

It is a question for coaches, team managers, parents, sports administrators and others. Needless to say, it probably is a question being asked at sports fields and in gymnasiums everyday across the country.

On Friday night at a high school football game in Anne Arundel County, MD, the host Arundel Wildcats beat the Glen Burnie Gophers, 75-19. What is notable about the game is that Arundel’s star senior quarterback Billy Cosh threw seven touchdown passes. What is more, Cosh’s first TD pass 54 seconds into the game allowed him to tie the Maryland public school record of 80 career touchdown passes. Then at the 4:01 mark of the first quarter, Cosh broke the record.

Cosh, listed at 6-foot-2, 195-pounds and reportedly headed to Kansas State to play big-time college football, finished the night with his seven TDs completing 16 of 19 passes for 267 yards. He left the game shortly into the second quarter. Certainly, Cosh, the son of a college football coach, is a special talent coming out of a public high school.

Undefeated Arundel is the No. 1 rated team this week in the Baltimore Sun’s varsity football poll and No. 5 in the Washington Post. Glen Burnie is mired in scrubville.

Arundel is a large public school in Anne Arundel County -- about equidistant between Baltimore and Washington in the bedroom community of Gambrills adjacent to the Fort Meade military reservation. Unlike Glen Burnie in most years, Arundel is a sports powerhouse public school in the county and state, competitive nearly every year in several sports, including football, baseball and girls basketball.

But back to the question. When is enough enough?

What is the point of a 75-19 score in a high school football game? Why would a coach allow a top incoming college QB recruit to throw seven TD passes in a game against sorry Glen Burnie? Such questions deserve straight talk within the realm of high school, amateur and recreational sports.

One person posting to the Sun’s high school forum had this reaction: "I just have one question, why was he still throwing the ball honestly after 4 TD’s? He had already gotten the record! GB is really really bad, what was the coach trying to prove? Cosh should not have played after the 1st quarter!"

Sure, some teams are really good in sports and some are really bad. But on the high school, amateur and recreational level, aren’t we rooting for all the kids to compete well, succeed and have a positive experience? Can that occur in a 75-19 game? Doesn't it matter?

No one is saying Arundel should have rolled over in the face of a lightweight opponent. But don’t you just run the ball more after the first few easy touchdowns (Arundel led 40-7 at the end of the first quarter)?

Coaches will say you have to game-plan and execute no matter the opponent. They will say you do not want to develop bad habits and you just can’t let the other team score. They will say you are preparing for tougher opponents down the line. All true. It would send as bad a signal to players to play down to your opponent as seemingly running up the score.

Yet 75-19 scores happen much too often. Maybe Arundel’s coach had a bone to pick with Glen Burnie’s coach. Maybe the Glen Burnie coach did the same thing at one time or another. Or maybe he is just a prick who deserved such an outcome. Who knows what the history is.

Aimlessly running up scores happens on the amateur level as well, and it just doesn't feel right. In Amateur Athletic Union girls basketball, coaches will press 10- and 11-year-old girls relentlessly until they achieve a 50-point win. You know that "wonderful" 62-8 victory or similar in a game where everyone should be focused on teaching the fundamentals of the game.

And what about you, Arundel parents? Did you enjoy and encourage the shellacking, too? Parents do have responsibility as well to use their influences to keep things on an even keel, but it is doubtful they will.

In an under-11 girls’ travel soccer tournament Sunday in Dundalk, MD, a soccer dad could be heard admonishing his daughter's team to "don't let up now" – despite a 5-0 lead deep into the second half when the other team couldn’t get the ball across midfield all game and wouldn't possibly come back to win. (The final score was 8-0.)

Shouldn't it matter that the losing team of girls were competing just as hard. Should they have to hear rip-roaring applause from parents on the winning team at every easy goal scored as if their daughters were the next coming of Mia Hamm?

Let's root for all the kids. Let the kids compete. Let them enjoy the experience. Unlike record-breaking Billy Cosh, it ends with high school or sooner for the vast majority of them.

More: Arundel High School's football records page.

A Prescription for Paper Cuts

Real Sports: Frank Deford, left, and correspondents

Photo: HBO

Frank Deford’s "Paper Cuts" piece that aired Sept. 15 on HBO on Bryant Gumbel’s "Real Sports" program should give vendors of sports journalism plenty to chew over.

It did that for me, a former sports-section reporter and editor, confirming some conclusions I had come to years ago.

Here was the description of Deford’s piece from the Real Sports Web site:

As newspapers across the country struggle to maintain circulation and clout in the volatile world of digital media, sports editors at virtually every daily newspaper have made difficult decisions to reduce staff and pages. The result has been a mass exodus of top writers from some of America's most prestigious sports sections, which has reshaped the reporting and consumption of sports news and opinion. In this REAL SPORTS/Sports Illustrated report, correspondent Frank Deford probes the decline of this great tradition and considers the prospects for newspaper sports sections in the new media environment.

Let’s start with a word about Deford of Sports Illustrated. He is an old school, curmudgeon-like sports guy who probably knows as much about sports sections as anybody. Deford is legendary, still writing strong and brings credibility to the issue. Any contemporary sportswriter worth his/her salt today should know Deford’s legacy in newspaper, magazine and broadcast sports – just like the way newbie LeBron James appreciates what it meant to be Earl "The Pearl" Monroe in the 1960s and 70s.

I wrote about my background and orientation to sports in my introductory post for WorldSportsBlogs on August 25. I am no 25-year veteran of the sports department. Haven’t spent a career writing columns or covering Super Bowls. Just spent a half-dozen years in my first job out of college in the sports department of my hometown newspaper in Baltimore (some of the best times of my life amid a career in news and communications).

But there is one thing I do know and that is I love sports and sports coverage in the newspaper. Like Tony Soprano, I shuffle out to my driveway expectantly each morning to get the paper. And yes, I read the sports section first -- always. Simply, I am sucker for a sports section.

Deford’s Real Sports piece sought to bring some relevancy to what is fairly obvious – that newspaper sports sections like the print newspaper itself is being hit hard by the digital age. Some recent reports, such as from the Newspaper Association of America, say subscriber churn is waning and that consumers still view newspapers as a highly valued product.

Whatever the situation, newspapers remain a beleaguered commodity that in many cases is threatening to go the way of the dinosaur. My question for newspaper sports sections is what can you do better to keep diehards like me buying you?

Without oversimplifying, what editors have to understand in the digital age is that the average 20-25 year old isn’t buying – much less subscribing – to the paper for sports coverage or anything else. Yet I am. But there is a twist. I am going online, too, for my sports information fix (Yahoo! Sports is the home page on my browser). I go online heavy like the 20-25 year olds. But unlike them, I still like a newspaper coming to the house and pay for it.

My question is whether the newspaper sports section delivery model is being directed to the appropriate demographic – me. I suspect not because the paper typically isn’t giving me what I want from sports.

Here is what I want: More news and information, less opinion, "readable" agate type. There is probably more, but those three really give me pause. The challenge for print is to really break the mold from the past and deliver these for my $40.00 or so a month.

Everyone knows that when compared to digital, newspaper news is quickly outdated. Nonetheless, I want more. I want specifics. I want to know who tweaked a hammy before the big game, who is about to break a personal record or who had to leave the dugout because his wife was about to have the baby. Just factual, news and information spread throughout the section. I want the minutia.

What I want less of is to read the opinions of columnists. It takes up too much space – like the antiquated newspaper takeout. Perspective is fine, but, in my view, opinion is not perspective. Besides, in the digital age, I can find opinion in droves on the Internet at any number of Web sites, including at WorldSportsBlogs.

Here is a case in point: I read a recent newspaper sports column about the entertainment value of flamboyant Bengals’ wide receiver Chad Ochocinco. Somehow, this led to Ochocinco being labeled a "knucklehead." Really? That’s not how I feel about the guy. In fact, why would anyone call Ochocinco that? He’s a brilliant football player, superb marketer and seemingly pleasant young man. I’ve never read about drug arrests, gang ties, club-hopping or even womanizing with Ochocinco. When I watch his TV interviews, he is polite and respectful. Frankly, all I care about with Ochocinco is how the Ravens are going to stop him on Sunday. I don’t care that a columnist has a problem with his perceived bad-boy image.

Labeling an athlete making millions of dollars on and off the field a knucklehead is old-time, outdated sports journalism. To get to his level, the guy must be doing something right. Sports venues are littered with the ghosts of superbly talented athletes never to make big, but seems to me Ochocinco has persevered. So, I don’t care what makes Ochocinco tick or what anybody thinks about him. It is just not important to my life. I just want to see the game.

This model of sports journalism – of the "respected," all-knowing columnist gloating over a personality, occurrence, issue, game – simply is gone. Newspapers need to understand this and redistribute that coveted news hole. In today’s multichannel and digital environment, everybody has an outlet for an opinion if they have time to express it. You don’t need a newspaper columnist to tell you what you should be thinking. I can find opinion in blogs -- if I choose to read them. But for my daily paper, just give me the straight news and information and let me make my own decisions.

The last thing is the agate type, such as standings, boxscores, transactions, scoreboards, etc. As a pure sports guy, this is my favorite part of the sports section. I read agate because if a guy went two-for-four with a homerun and three RBIs, that’s what he did that day. But I will never see 25 years old again with 20-20 vision. In other words, in today’s sports pages, most agate type is too small. Why should I have to find a magnifying glass to read a boxscore? Hey, I am figuring that if you drop more opinion columns you could make agate type readable.

Finally, here is another thought, on coverage of sports in the sports section. From Baltimore and Washington, I follow the Ravens and Orioles religiously in the Baltimore Sun and the Redskins and Nationals just as hard in the Washington Post. But I also want specific, ongoing news and information about "everything else" in my sphere: Wizards, Michael Phelps and swimming, track and field, horse racing, auto racing, preps, amateurs, WNBA. Even ice hockey and lacrosse.

Sometimes newspaper guys give you want they think you want. For instance, how can you run the result of Game 4 in the WNBA championship series without running the boxscore? Granted, there’s more interest in the boxscores for the baseball playoffs.

But ask yourself, why do I as a reader care about women’s professional basketball. Sure, I prefer the NBA, too, but for the WNBA it is because I have kids, girls. I have a daughter who plays in college. So, I have an interest. In fact, I would venture to guess that most of a newspaper’s subscribers are like me – dads with kids.

Running that WNBA boxscore might be enough to keep me from dropping the paper.

Bottom line for me as a sports-section consumer is that newspapers can’t continue to present sports news the same way they did years and years ago. It is a different time today. Everyone has more choices.

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More: Frank Deford's bio, Another take on "Paper Cuts."

Baltimore's Bad Dream ... Brady in a Skirt

Baltimore Ravens' Coach John Harbaugh

Sunday's Don’t-Hit-Brady Game

Photo: Associated Press

Baltimore is having a bad dream over the notion of Tom Brady in a skirt.

It is so bad that you just want to run down the hall and tell your mother about it. Even after two days, the image just won’t go away.

See, Brady is an NFL golden boy, Super Bowl champion, etc., etc. His New England Patriots beat the Ravens 27-21 Sunday in Foxborough in a key AFC matchup.

But for a lot of Ravens fans, along with pro football commentators and observers nationally, some of that Brady mystique is taking a beating after perceived favoritism the QB received on officials’ calls Sunday.

Two particular drive-extending roughing-the-passer penalties against Ravens’ tackle Haloti Ngata and linebacker Terrell Suggs that led to two second quarter New England touchdowns are drawing major scrutiny around the league.

It was not so much that the refs threw the flags. Ngata was whistled for a clear blow to the side of Brady’s helmet. More questionable, Suggs was flagged for brushing Brady’s knees while falling to the ground -- the "Brady Rule." Clearly, the NFL must have rules to protect its quarterbacks, but Ravens coach John Harbaugh says Brady got calls his QB Joe Flacco didn’t. Harbaugh wouldn’t claim favoritism outright, but his words at his Monday press conference were clear.

Flacco "got hit (six) different times hard, and there was one call," Harbaugh said. "Tom didn’t get hit five times. We want him to be hit more than he was hit, but when he did sort of get hit, it was called. That goes to the credibility of the whole thing."

Others were even more strident on the charge of Brady favoritism. His former teammate Rodney Harrison on the NFL Sunday night pre-game show on NBC looked into the camera and told Brady to "take off the skirt." On the Suggs brush by, Brady excitedly pointed toward his knees and the penalty was called.

Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis simply termed the penalties "embarrassing." Brady, who is coming back from a knee injury that wiped out his 2008 season, mockingly countered after the game that the refs were right to throw the flags. Brady, Lewis said in the tit-for-tat, "is good enough to make his own plays. Let him make his own play. When you have two great teams that are going at it, let them go at it. …The embarrassing part is when he understands that, and he walks up to one of us and says, 'Oh, that was a cheap one.' "

Lewis’ comments served to shine a spotlight on the seemingly obsession in the NFL with the pristine Tom Brady brand.

Harbaugh said he was submitting film to the NFL showing what he believed to be questionable calls. Ron Winter’s officiating crew called 14 penalties for the game for 126 yards – 9 for 85 yards against the Ravens, including a puzzling 15-yard unsportsmanlike penalty against Harbaugh in the third quarter.

If anything, the Don’t-Hit-Brady Game came down, as usual, to none other than Patriots coach Bill Belichick. He may have outsmarted everyone again.

Belichick conceded he game-planned for penalties – noting that Winter and his crew have been the league’s most aggressive officiating crew at calling penalties the past two years. "It tells me the game's going to be tight. So yeah I did mention that to the team. And they did call it tight."

Those damn Pats.

'Sonny and Sam Show' Runs Course

Call it the "Sonny and Sam Show" -- maybe the most entertaining aspect in a season of moribund Washington Redskins football.

The Redskins' loss to the always-bad Detroit Lions on Sunday, allowing the Lions to snap a 19-game winless streak, along with an uninspiring 9-7 home win over the lowly St. Louis Rams the week before, has Washington fans in a lather. So bad is the 2009 version of the Redskins so far that the rampant speculation among fans and in the media is that head coach Jim Zorn might not last the season.

But about Sonny and Sam. Sonny is the colorful quarterback Sonny Jurgensen, and Sam is the legendary linebacker Sam Huff. Sonny and Sam are Redskins color analysts on WTEM/ESPN 980 in Washington, thus the "Sonny and Sam Show." They are a hoot.

Simply, Sonny and Sam are beloved Redskins heroes -- not to be taken lightly. But is anybody in Washington wondering why these two are still announcing Redskins games? Maybe Sonny and Sam are characteristic of what is wrong with the Redskins franchise in today's current era of professional football.

Sonny is 75 and Sam turns 75 on Oct. 4. The two Hall of Famers are nearing great-grandfather status with the new crop of NFL players. You listen to their radio game commentary and wonder if they are relating to Clinton Portis or a Haynesworth, Campbell or Moss. Sounds like they are announcing the games from recliner chairs -- seemingly no real sense of urgency about the game, but plenty of thoughts about outmoded 1950s, 60s and 70s football.

Nothing against the wisdom of age, but pro football -- unlike Major League Baseball where skill is defined by experience -- is a young man's game. Except for a few select players, football players compete for a few years and then drop out the game. Sorry, Sam. Sorry, Sonny. Behind the times.

It is entertaining if it means anything today that Sonny was backup to the great Norm Van Brocklin for the first four years of his career starting in 1957 or that he played for the great Vince Lombardi when the coach took over the Redskins for the 1969 season after leaving the Green Bay Packers.

Sam started out with the New York Giants in 1956 (when Lombardi and Tom Landry of Dallas Cowboys fame were assistant coaches). In fact, Landry, then the Giants defensive coordinator, put in the revolutionary 4-3 defense in to capture Huff's middle linebacker skills. Huff also played in what has been known as the "The Greatest Game Ever Played" -- that 1958 sudden death title contest won by the old, Johnny Unitas-led Baltimore Colts, 23-17.

Surely, you can't diminish what Sonny and Sam have meant to pro football. But to hear them over the air carrying on like Matthau and Lemmon in "Grumpy Old Men" gives a reason to tune out. On one play during the Rams game, one of them was heard saying, "He leaped and caught the ball." Boy, that's insightful.

In many respects, the nation's capital is an old town with 70- and 80-year-old politicos in their twilight years running the country. And as historic championship-winning franchises go, you can't argue with the tradition of the Redskins, dating back to 1937 and irascible owner George Preston Marshall. But should that be the draw in 2009?

Sonny and Sam calling Redskins games for over 30 years really should be enough.

Football is a game growing in popularity each year. In fact, judging by television ratings and polls, the NFL has never been as popular. Young people, women and minorities today all are embracing a sport that no longer has an offseason. Sure, grandpa is still there rooting, but times are changing.

We all know that ex-players become announcers. Take a listen someday to the Baltimore Ravens' broadcasts with the impressive Rob Burnett, the defensive end who retired in 2003, and then do a comparison with acknowledged greats Sonny and Sam. Just no comparison.

Time to change Redskins.

• More: Wikipedia's current list of NFL announcers.

Photos: Sonny Jurgensen (top): http://www.hailredskins.com; Sam Huff:
http://www.art.com

Golic, Say Again about Ravens Defense

Television and print sports commentators are paid the big bucks to have big mouths. Understandable. You draw in readership and ratings and then the advertisers and you get paid.

But commentators, prognostication falls flat when it is rooted in misinformation.

Mike Golic of the wildly popular ESPN Radio program "Mike and Mike in the Morning" is one of the big bucks-big mouth commentators.

In handicapping Sunday's Ravens-Chargers game on ESPN at mid-week, Golic figured he was speaking with authority and conviction. But instead, Golic left some Baltimore fans in a tizzy -- stating that the vaunted Ravens defense was in decline based on the Kansas City Chiefs scoring 24 points in the season opener.

At least Golic got the score right, Ravens 38, Chiefs 24.

It was obvious that, even by mid-week, Golic had not taken the time to review the boxscore or game details before commenting so decisively. Golic figured that because the Ravens had given up 24 points to the lowly Chiefs, they would not be able to contain a potent San Diego offense. They may not be able to contain the Chargers anyway, but it certainly would not based on the Chiefs game.

Here are the some of the game facts:

• Chiefs' Larry Johnson, the last player to rush for 100 yards against the Ravens defense in December 2006, finished the game with 20 yards on 11 carries (the average Chiefs' yardage for the game: 1.7 per carry). Golic, that's the defense.
• The Ravens held a 215-56 advantage in total yards at halftime. Golic, seems like good defense to me.
• Kansas City’s first touchdown came on a blocked punt recovered in the end zone. Golic, that's a special teams breakdown.
• The Chiefs offense had the ball for 20:11 in time of possession (in a 60-minute game), were held to 11 first downs for the game, and were 3 of 15 on third down conversions. Golic, pretty good defense.
• Chiefs' linebacker Derrick Johnson returned an interception 70 yards to inside the Ravens' 10 yard line that set up a touchdown. Golic, that was on a pick on Joe Flacco.

The fact of the matter is that, if you were watching, even when the Ravens went down 14-10 in the third quarter after Johnson's interception, the game never was in doubt. Why? Defense.

Kansas City's one big play of the game on offense was a 50-yard completion to wideout Mark Bradley in the fourth quarter, leading only to a 53-yard field goal. Simply, that play was the Ravens' only significant defensive breakdown in the game. But with QB Flacco and company racking up a team record 501 total net yards for the game, any lucky score the Chiefs had was easily matched by the Ravens' offense.

Who knows if the Ravens' defense can stop Ben Roethlisberger and the Steelers this year, but Ray Lewis and Ed Reed and the guys showed they still are pretty damn good.

As a commentator, Golic is one of the good guys. He's sincere, affable, tolerable. He's the "Big Guy," the former player in the "Mike and Mike" phenomenon with squealy co-host Mike Greenberg.

But Golic, watch it. Do your homework. Otherwise, commentators lose credibility.

• More: Mike and Mike in the Morning site.

LifeLock the Top Team in WNBA

When Diana Taurasi and Cappie Pondexter go against San Antonio in an opening round WNBA playoff game Thursday, you won't see "Phoenix" or "Mercury" on their uniform jersey tops, except for the small team logo. Instead, you'll see "LifeLock."

Going into the playoffs, the Mercury and stars Taurasi and Pondexter are entering as the team to beat. The pair are the league's top two scorers, leading the club to the WNBA's best regular season record at 23-11. As the games tip off on ESPN2 -- the Washington Mystics made it and will host Indiana Thursday night at 7 -- the playoffs again will give the WNBA a much needed boost of television exposure after playing its regular during idle summer months.

Since June, Mercury uniforms have been adorned with the LifeLock name, a Tempe, AZ identity theft prevention company. The Mercury are even selling the jerseys that way at the WNBA online store, part of a multi-year marketing partnership with LifeLock. To boot, when existing jerseys with the Mercury name on the front are sold out, only those LifeLock ones will be available.

No other American sports team has gone so far as to actually place the name of a sponsor on its uniform instead of the team name.

Agreed, in an age where sponsorships provide key operating revenue to sports franchises, no league needs the money more than the WNBA. And today they name stadiums after companies, such as M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore and the Washington Redskins' FedEx Field. The Wizards in the NBA and the Mystics, of course, play at DC's Verizon Center. Look at the sponsors plastered on the racing attire of NASCAR drivers.

But on the jersey of an American professional sports team? Call it old-fashioned, but such is hard to fathom for some sports fans. The Mercury-LifeLock deal gives all WNBA season ticket holders a one-year complimentary membership valued at $110, among other benefits. Is that a win-win?

NBA Commissioner David Stern praised the deal as "groundbreaking" for the cash-strapped WNBA, signaling we can see others. But would Stern allow LeBron James and Shaquille O'Neal to wear "Campbell's Soup Cavaliers" jerseys?

Why not go ahead and put the "Comfort Inn Cowboys" on the front of Tony Romo's America's Team jersey. Shucks, before Oprah Winfrey became a billionaire, she worked in television in the Baltimore media market. She has as much cash as some major corporations. How about the "Oprah Orioles." Why not the "Radio Shack Redskins"?

In justifying the deal, Mercury officials noted that European sports clubs regularly put the names of sponsors on uniforms. (Weak argument. This is America.) It is one thing to put a sponsor's name, logo or likeness on banners, courtside chairs, warm ups or gym bags, but it seems a stretch for the jersey top worn during competition. The uniform should be sacrosanct.

Sports still is supposed to be about the purity of the competition. Professional sports, too. Isn't that why Pete Rose is banned from the Hall of Fame and Shoeless Joe Jackson is one of sports' most infamous figures?

How about some what ifs? If a sponsor has a bad financial quarter, would the sponsor try to influence the competition on the court for "corporate reasons"? And what lengths would a money-hungry franchise go to to keep the sponsor's name on the jersey?

Go LifeLock!

• More: Mercury-LifeLock announcement, Mercury WNBA Web site.
  

Photo: Diana Taurasi Life-Lock jersey, http://store.nba.com

C. Vivian Stringer Well Deserving of Hall

It was a steamy June day outside. Inside, the temperature in the field house in Piscataway, NJ, was rising just as high on a half dozen basketball courts. The teen girl basketball players from Amateur Athletic Union teams along the East Coast were oblivious to the steely-eyed woman watching the box outs, crossover dribbles, off-hand lay-ups and defensive positioning. That woman watching intently was legendary coach C. Vivian Stringer.

Stringer, the head women’s basketball coach the past 14 seasons at Rutgers University, received basketball’s highest honor Friday night in Springfield, MA -- induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Stringer is part of an induction class with Michael Jordan and fellow NBA greats David Robinson and John Stockton and Utah Jazz coach Jerry Sloan that is being touted as the greatest in the hall’s 50-year history.

But on that late June day in 2008, Stringer was doing what she has done many, many times over a distinguished career, and that is watch – and nurture – young female ballers.

One of the teams competing at Stringer’s Rutgers weekend team shootout was the Maryland Hurricanes 15-under girls’ team out of Baltimore. AAU coaches bring their teams to tournaments like the Stringer shootout as part of a college exposure tour, intent on having girls experience different levels of competition from neighboring states while solidifying the credentials on their basketball resumes.

Stringer attracts some of the top Division I recruits in the country for her Scarlet Knights teams. The Hall of Famer is the only coach – men or women’s – to take three different programs to the NCAA Tournament Final Four in Cheyney State in 1982, Iowa in 1993 and Rutgers in 2000 and 2007. She has put up 825 career victories, third in Division I women's basketball history, and was the first African-American coach to reach 800 career wins in February 2008.

In women’s college basketball, mostly the tallest, hardest working and highly skilled players reach the free-ride status of a major Division I recruit. When a Candace Parker, formerly of Tennessee and now in the WNBA, or a Maya Moore with Connecticut, are 6-4 and 6-0, respectively -- and can handle the ball like a point guard -- you understand what makes an elite player. Despite what their wide-eyed parents might believe, most girl players on the AAU circuit simply are not at that level.

But that did not seem to matter to Coach Stringer. Throughout her tournament, you could see her watching, listening and praising the girls and teams that made the trek to Rutgers. While tournaments aren’t free, Stringer genuinely was interested to listen to the Hurricanes’ volunteer president’s 10-minute spiel about the organization, its players and its goals. Stringer understands full well the opportunities that can come to girls on the hardwood, if not D-1, then D-2 or D-3 or other women’s basketball associations.

In her induction speech, a humbled Stringer appropriately said: "As I walk into the Hall of Fame, we all walk into the Hall of Fame."

Stringer also knows there is giveback from her 39 years as a coach. One of her former great players, Lisa Long, is an AAU and high school coach in Baltimore, including coaching the Hurricanes team of girls born in 1998.

You hear about C. Vivian Stringer’s life and what she has overcome to endure as a coach: Born a coal miner's daughter in tiny Edenborn, PA … her only daughter being stricken with spinal meningitis in 1982 just before her team’s appearance in the first women’s Final Four … the sudden death of her husband, Bill, on Thanksgiving Day 1992 … fighting breast cancer … the media scrutiny of 2007 stemming from the disparaging remarks of radio-man Don Imus about her Rutgers team.

John Chaney, the former head coach at Temple University and a member of the Hall of Fame Class of 2001 who served as Stringer’s presenter, summed up her influence as transforming "hundreds of young women into confident leaders and role models, which will always remain an integral piece of her Hall of Fame legacy."

For the Maryland Hurricanes players and other girls lucky enough to compete at Stringer’s shootout, that is the point.

Editorial Note: Marvin Greene serves as volunteer president of the Maryland Hurricanes and attended the Stringer shootout in 2008. His daughter, now a 17-year-old freshman recruit at Trinity College in Hartford, CT, was the point guard for the Hurricanes team at the tournament.

• More: Maryland Hurricanes Girls AAU alumni list, C. Vivian Stringer camp Web site.

Photo: C. Vivian Stringer, http://scarletknights.com/basketball-women/coaches/stringer.html

Imperfect, Can Ravens Get Back to House?

Joe Cool: Ravens second-year QB Joe Flacco
Photo: http://www.baltimoreravens.com

Heading into the new season Sunday versus a struggling, red-meat Kansas City Chiefs, the Ravens are looking like a team out to show -- again -- that imperfection can win a Super Bowl.

The 2009 version of the Ravens is relying on a familiar formula -- a Ray Lewis-led, shut-down defense, a solid running game and stout line play on both sides of the ball. If they can beat AFC North nemesis Pittsburgh after three losses last season (23-20, 13-9, 23-14) to the Super Bowl champion, the stars could align their way.

After the surprise of last season, reaching the AFC title game with first-year head coach John Harbaugh and rookie quarterback Joe Flacco, the Ravens are being touted as one of the league’s elite teams along with the Steelers, Eagles, Patriots, Giants, Titans, Chargers and Vikings. There is every reason to believe that the unflappable and strong-armed Flacco will be even better going into his sophomore season.

A Sporting News list of the 100 greatest players in the NFL today listed five Ravens, safety Ed Reed at No. 7, middle backer Lewis (11), center Matt Birk (40), linebacker Terrell Suggs (45) and defensive tackle Haloti Ngata (92). Only the Steelers, Vikings, Chargers and Colts had more players on the list than the Ravens.

All spring and summer, most Ravens talk involved the wide receiver position and whether to mortgage draft picks and salary cap for an Anquan Boldin of Arizona or a Brandon Marshall of Denver. GM Ozzie Newsome opted for pulling the trigger on neither. Instead, the Ravens did what the good teams do – fortify the O-line and defense with fresh talent. First-round pick Michael Oher from Mississippi just might help keep Steeler blitzers off Flacco’s right flank.

In 1996, Newsome made the right move when he selected future Hall of Famer and character-guy Jonathan Ogden out of UCLA over the alluring but troubled all-world Nebraska back Lawrence Phillips.

After NFL cut-down day last Friday to the 53-man roster, the Ravens were content to enter the season with just four wide receivers. Derrick Mason along with Mark Clayton, Kelley Washington and Demetrius Williams may not stack up to Randy Moss, Larry Fitzgerald, Chad Ochocinco or Terrell Owens on the outside, but if the line holds up, Flacco is poised to get the ball up field. Ray Rice wrestled the starting tailback position from Willis McGahee during the offseason and figures to catch a lot of balls out of the backfield, and tight end Todd Heap is promising a return to his All-Pro form. A David Tyree or Bobby Wade, late of the Giants and Vikings, respectively, might be a last-minute addition to the roster to bolster the passing game.

Imperfect, yes, but Super Bowl serviceable.

Same on the corners and in the kicking game. In the secondary, Fabian Washington and Domonique Foxworth, may not be as good as Chris McAlister and Samari Rolle at their best, but they are fast and have the ultimate hedge – Reed at free safety. Another question mark? Whether Steve Hauschka can hit field goals consistently after the team jettisoned the aging great kicker Matt Stover.

Capturing the franchise’s only championship after the 2000 season, that Ravens Super Bowl team also had its share of holes – with no proven commodity in a Ben Roethlisberger, Tom Brady or Peyton Manning under center, just the dink-and-dunk leadership of Trent Dilfer. But they took it to the house anyway, imperfections and all.

• More: Ravens team site, Sporting News NFL Top 100 list.

Riggo: Voice of Reason on Portis?

The Redskins are marching toward their 2009 season opener Sept. 13 with the New York Giants in the Meadowlands, and the two most productive running backs in franchise history, John Riggins and Clinton Portis, are stoking the flames. Riggins, the Hall of Famer who led the Redskins to the 1983 Super Bowl title, called out Portis as "a headache" who "has the team over a barrel," referring to Portis' favorable contract status and its adverse impact on the team's salary cap.

Not one to shy from dishing back criticism, Portis offered that Riggins surely was a great Redskins running back, but it was "not hard to be a great running back when you've got that talent all around you," referring to the legendary "Hogs" offensive line anchored by Russ Grimm and Joe Jacoby during Riggins' era.

The feuding only figures to get worse if the new season falls below Redskins fans' expectations. Many NFL sages are labeling the Skins as an 8-8 contender at best and long shot to make the playoffs competing from the rugged NFC East against the Giants, Eagles and Cowboys.

The backdrop for the Riggins-Portis row: Portis is on the cusp of going past Riggins as the franchise's all-time leading rusher. Riggins racked up 7,472 yards during his Skins career. Portis needs 1,370 yards, a solid season for a top running back, to knock Riggins from his perch. Both downplay the role of the record in the feud.

Riggins took Portis to task last Dec. 28 -- a season ending loss to San Francisco -- because Portis reportedly went to coach Jim Zorn and asked Zorn to game-plan to help him to finish the mediocre 2008 season with 1,500 yards; Portis was 13 yards short of that mark. Apparently incensed Portis would seek an individual accolade, Riggins branded Portis as a loser on his sports talk radio program.

Make no mistake, Portis thinks of himself with the best of them. But you can understand Portis' incredulity that Riggins is taking him on -- arguing that Riggins of all people "should know better than anybody what I go through as a running back" with nagging injuries and inconsistent O-line play.

Portis has a point. Riggins had his own issues back in the day. A great back coming out of Kansas to the New York Jets in 1971, Riggins morphed into one of the all-time greats with the Redskins. He may be a solid citizen today, but in his day, Riggins widely was known as, well, a flake.

Any Riggins complaints about Portis' contract status would fall short. Everyone knows owner Daniel Snyder has a reputation for overpaying his athletes, and Riggins conveniently is forgetting his own history when he targets Portis. It was none other than Riggins who sat out the 1980 NFL season over a contract dispute with the Skins, bolting from his team in the middle of training camp. It took a Joe Gibbs trip to Kansas to find the Mohawk-wearing, camouflage-outfitted, Bambi-hunting, beer guzzling Riggo and lure him back into the fold. Gibbs, by the way, was quoted as describing Riggins a "fruitcake" among other superlatives.

There is no denying the size of Portis ego -- or his gab. Such is not surprising with Portis coming from the "U." But give him some credit, too. Portis has been a solid pro -- despite lacking the success of a Riggins in the postseason. Portis showed great leadership and support for his teammates during the dark days in the Redskin locker room that followed the tragic death of safety Sean Taylor during the 2007 season.

So, Riggo, voice of reason, let it go. Take one for the team.

• More: Official NFL site, Hogs fan site and unofficial John Riggins site.

Photos: Portis, NFL.com, Riggins, johnriggins44.com

Rookie Pitchers Giving Orioles Hope

Chugging frightfully toward a possible 100-loss season, the Baltimore Orioles somehow showed up on national television Saturday in those throw-back Negro League uniforms, topping the playoff-contending Texas Rangers 5-4 on Fox's Game of the Week.

Major League Baseball fans know diamond-ball in the Baltimore-Washington market is bad this year and has been that way for too many seasons to want to count. With 26 games to go in the 2009 season, the Orioles, and the region's other MLB franchise, are sitting on 81 and 90 losses, respectively.

But for the Orioles on Saturday on Fox, baby-face rookie lefty Brian Matusz gave fans a glimpse of what could be -- though not forgetting a wretched streak of 12 consecutive losing seasons. Competing in the brutal American League East against the always big-payroll Yankees and Red Sox, along with the steady play of the Tampa Bay Rays over the past couple of seasons, the 22-year-old Matusz outpitched Rangers' veteran Kevin Millwood for seven innings to offer a peek into what could be an improving prognosis for the Birds of Baltimore.

Despite the team bottoming out in the won-loss department again since the All-Star break (15-33 so far), fans here at least can be comforted that maybe, just maybe, the Orioles are moving in the right direction to back up that their last World Series won in 1983 with Hall of Famers Cal Ripken and Eddie Murray as the anchors.

Matusz, the fourth overall pick in the 2008 amateur draft, and fellow rookies, righties Chris Tillman, 21, Brad Bergesen, 23, David Hernandez, 23, and Jason Berken, 25, are taking some hard knocks in the Orioles rotation while upping expectations for the future.

Add to them the 2009 fifth overall pick in 19-year-old right-hander Matt Hobgood, switch hitting catcher Matt Wieters, 23, the fifth pick in the 2007 draft, outfielders Adam Jones, 24, and Nick Markakis, 25, along with more deep talent Orioles President Andy MacPhail is nurturing on the farm, and there is reason for Baltimore to believe again.

With yesterday's outing, Matusz ran his season's record to 4-2 with a 5.26 ERA, winning three of his last four starts. Matusz had gone 7-0 with a 1.55 ERA in eight starts for the Orioles' Bowie, MD Double-A affiliate before being called up. The kid simply can pitch and is unflappable as he adjusts to big-league hitters, is how they describe him so far.

Tillman, acquired in the February 2008 deal with Jones that sent lefty Erik Bedard to Seattle, is 1-3 ERA with a 4.66 ERA; Hernandez sits at 4-6 and a 4.54 ERA; Berken, who has pitched the second most innings on the club is 4-11, 6.07; and, before being injured, Bergesen was the team's top pitcher at 7-5 with a 3.43 ERA in 19 starts.

You look at the numbers and think it's another of baseball's many "hope springs eternal" stories. Maybe so. But Baltimore has some history on its side in developing top-flight big league pitchers. These names ring a bell? Palmer, McGregor, Musina, McNally.

When he came up to the big leagues in 1965 as a 20-year-old rookie, Hall of Famer Jim Palmer finished the year 5-4 with a 3.72 ERA. The very next year -- the season the Orioles stunned the Los Angeles Dodgers with Koufax and Drysdale in a four-game World Series sweep -- Palmer raised his win total to 15. Lefty Scotty McGregor won three games for the Orioles during the 1976 and 1977 seasons, then pushed that to 15 games at age 24 in 1978. Similar with Musina, who went 4-5 in his opening Oriole campaign at age 22 in 1991, then skyrocketed to 18-5 with a 2.54 ERA the next season.

More history: Going back to 1970, the Orioles put up three 20-game winners (Dave McNally, 24-9, Mike Cuellar, 24-8, and Palmer, 20-10) and then four (adding Pat Dobson) in 1971.

Surely, this is a day and age in baseball where fewer starting pitchers win 20 games because of the expanded roles of relief specialists. But the Orioles could be setting themselves up nicely for the future -- a still proud franchise with three world titles since 1966 (Cubs, Indians have none). A Murray-like bat in the cleanup spot will help, as will a veteran starter to lead the young pitchers on the field.

Spring training 2010 won't come soon enough.

Photo: Orioles rookie Brian Matusz
Courtesy: http://baltimore.orioles.mlb.com