Days as 'Johnson' were numbered

August 31, 2008

Recent columns

• What are O's waiting for? It's Trembley's time to sign

  August 27, 2008

  Dave Trembley says it's a nonissue.

• Phelps golden with the media, too

  August 24, 2008

• Ravens' footing surest with Smith

  August 23, 2008

  Ravens coach John Harbaugh made a lot of sense when he explained why he has designated Troy Smith as the starter for tonight's Game3 of the preseason against the St.Louis Rams. Kyle Boller already has a long paper trail, and the Ravens have limited time to evaluate Smith, who played only a couple of games last year compared with Boller's 42career starts.

• Suggs ends holdout at the perfect time

  August 17, 2008

  News item: Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs will end his contract holdout today and report to the team's Owings Mills training complex, where he'll sign his $8.5million franchise tender.

• Global thinking: Kobe and his ego

  August 10, 2008

  News item: Team USA star Kobe Bryant told a reporter the other day that he won't sign a contract extension with the Los Angeles Lakers until he tests the global market. He claims he's considering a $50 million offer from Europe.

• What's in a name?

  August 5, 2008

  Seldom does a Seattle series go by that I don't get several e-mails or personal entreaties to interview reliever J.J. Putz. And, of course, this is understandable because of the similar ridiculousness of our respective surnames.

• Surf's up for Olympics

  August 3, 2008

  News item: The Chinese government has backed away from a plan to restrict Internet access to foreign journalists covering the Beijing Games, but strict controls remain on Web access for Chinese nationals.

• Roberts was never seriously in play

  August 1, 2008

  Orioles president of baseball operations Andy MacPhail said during a conference call yesterday that the Orioles never got "terribly close" to making a deal before the 4 p.m. waiver deadline.

• Hatred not near fevered pitch

  July 31, 2008

  If a rivalry still exists between the Orioles and New York Yankees after all these years at opposite ends of the American League East standings, it is a very strange thing indeed.

• Hall plays make-up game

  July 27, 2008

  News item: The bronze statue commemorating the wonderful life of Negro leaguer Buck O'Neil was unveiled Friday at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y.

• O's should follow Angels' model

  July 26, 2008

  Call it baseball's version of the circle of life.

• Just like yesterday for '83 O's

  July 24, 2008

  They came back, almost all of them, and it was easy to see why they were so good for so long.

• Ravens rookie QB not shying away from attention

  July 22, 2008

  If you wandered into the Ravens' training camp headquarters yesterday afternoon and witnessed the news conference to make official the signing of rookie quarterback Joe Flacco, it would have been hard not to come to the same conclusion that I did:

• For LPGA, score this one shooting itself in the foot

  July 20, 2008

  News item: Golf phenom Michelle Wie was disqualified from the State Farm Classic yesterday for failing to sign her scorecard after the second round. She was one shot off the lead after her third round when LPGA Tour officials notified her of the ruling.

• Team wavers on the brink

  July 19, 2008

  The Orioles came back from the All-Star break looking much like the team that went into it, which had to be weighing on manager Dave Trembley's mind when he arrived at the ballpark yesterday for the second game of a four-game series against the Detroit Tigers.

• Market changes complicate MacPhail's job

  July 17, 2008

  The question looms over Camden Yards like the big, antiseptic convention hotel that has blocked out the best part of the Baltimore skyline:

• Home Run Derby out of juice

  July 15, 2008

  First, a confession: There was a time when I thought the All-Star Home Run Derby was a great idea.

• Dilfer more than passing thought

  July 13, 2008

  News item: Quarterback Trent Dilfer, who helped the Ravens win the Super Bowl in the 2000 season, recently said he was retiring after 13 seasons in the NFL.

• Sour gripes about O's frustrating losses

  July 12, 2008

  If Glass-Half- Phil Gramm really thinks America has turned into a "nation of whiners," he might want to steer clear of Birdland for the next few weeks.

• The Favre option

  July 10, 2008

  The Ravens announced the names of their two newest additions yesterday, and you're not going to be happy if you were hoping one of those names would be Brett.

• Rays light way for Orioles

  July 8, 2008

  No, that's not a misprint at the top of the American League East standings. The Tampa Bay Rays - apparently no relation to the quickly forgotten Devil Rays of seasons past - own the best record in the majors and have put some distance between themselves and the teams they have been looking way, way up at for almost all of the franchise's brief history.

• Is A-Rod just a lucky star?

  July 6, 2008

  News item: The New York Daily News reported recently that Alex Rodriguez and wife Cynthia are splitting just months after the birth of their second daughter.

• Will Ravens' plan fly?

  July 2, 2008

  The Ravens probably have enough on their plate right now, what with a new coach and a new quarterback and Derrick Martin's recent citation for alleged marijuana possession and impersonation of a Cincinnati Bengal, but they still found time to run afoul of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

• Sabathia on way? Not likely

  June 29, 2008

  News item: Trade rumors continue to swirl around Cleveland Indians pitcher C.C. Sabathia, though general manager Mark Shapiro insists that he wants to re-sign the club's veteran ace.

• Tough call on Orioles' next moves

  June 28, 2008

  Let's have a show of hands. How many Orioles fans imagined in February that club officials would be scratching their heads and wondering which way to turn as the team enters the midseason trading period?

• Dave Johnson's split identity

  June 26, 2008

  There's one big advantage to having a ridiculous name: It isn't often you get confused with somebody else.

• O's fans should consider Cubs' drought

  June 24, 2008

  It's time for your annual visit from Dr. Perspective, which - not coincidentally - comes as the Orioles prepare to play their first-ever game tonight at historic Wrigley Field.

• Naked truth is hard to bear

  June 22, 2008

  News item: The Washington Nationals created a media buzz when a female usher ordered two bare-chested men to put their shirts back on.

• Orioles often ready with a reply

  June 21, 2008

  It's only a matter of time before some smart advance scout starts poking around and comes up with the formula to neutralize this new-age Orioles Magic, so there's no reason to keep it a secret any longer.

• A lost season for Woods, fans

  June 19, 2008

  Two days after taking golf fans on the ride of their lives, Tiger Woods took a knee for the rest of the season, which has got to register as one of the great letdowns in the history of the sport.

• Rooting for Rocco

  June 17, 2008

  No matter what happened in yesterday's U.S. Open playoff, it was going to be a great story. Either Tiger Woods would limp to an amazing victory in his first competition since knee surgery, or 45-year-old Rocco Mediate would climb up from triple-digit oblivion in the world rankings to make a little history of his own.

• Steroid era lessens achievements of sluggers like Ramirez, Robinson

  May 31, 2008

  If you were not paying close attention, you probably missed much of the countdown to Manny Ramirez's imminent entry into the once-exclusive 500 Home Run Club.

• It's legal; just don't get caught

  May 18, 2008

  News item: Former Patriots video assistant Matt Walsh said in an interview last week that he knew at the time it was wrong to covertly videotape opposing teams' signals for New England coach Bill Belichick.

• New drug policy puts Mitchell Report in rearview

  April 12, 2008

  It would be great if we could say that Major League Baseball put a big punctuation mark on the sport's long-running steroid scandal, but I'll settle for the right decision at the right time for the right reasons.

• He knows the score

  March 25, 2008

  On the first day of spring football practice, new Navy football coach Ken Niumatalolo was still answering the same questions that greeted him the day he was hired to replace Paul Johnson.

• Mora role model for young O's

  March 20, 2008

  For established major league veterans, dodging the long exhibition road trips is one of the rites of spring.

• Hear lyin' roar

  February 14, 2008

  OK, it's all becoming clear now.

• Harbaugh's Day One energy good sign as Job One nears

  January 20, 2008

  New Ravens coach John Harbaugh said all the right things during his introductory news conference yesterday, but the most important thing came out sounding like a well-worn cliche rather than a call to arms.

• Bisciotti gets back in game

  January 19, 2008

  So much for the mistaken notion that the Ravens did not have a Plan B.

• Remember '08?

  December 31, 2007

  In my continuing effort to show how sophisticated I am, I'd like to quote the French poet Paul Valery: "The trouble with our times," he said, "is that the future is not what it used to be." Never mind that he uttered that cynical little gem several generations ago; no truer words have ever been spoken, particularly when 2007 is going to be such a tough act to follow.

• Clemens' denials get boost from Grimsley affidavit

  December 22, 2007

  If the original release of the infamous Jason Grimsley affidavit - with the names of the alleged steroid and amphetamine users blacked out for public nonconsumption - helped pull the cover off baseball's performance-enhancement scandal, the release of the unredacted version Thursday might have been an even bigger blow to the integrity of the sport.

• More O's woes

  December 17, 2007

  The great hope that blossomed around the Orioles organization with the arrival of new president Andy MacPhail was that - finally - it appeared there was a real sign owner Peter Angelos recognized that the revitalization of the franchise would require a totally new way of doing business.

• Elusive football lets baseball take steroid hit

  December 15, 2007

  During the news conference Thursday in which former Sen. George Mitchell unveiled his 409-page report on baseball's performance-enhancement scandal, I kept waiting for him to announce that he had been hired by the NFL to perform a similar investigation to root out the cheaters in America's most popular television sport.

• Baseball will long be haunted by steroid era

  December 14, 2007

  Not to get all biblical on you, but if the just-released Mitchell Report is any indication, the truth will not necessarily set you free.

• Modell's Hall snub has analogy in baseball's O'Malley

  December 10, 2007

  Though it didn't garner giant headlines in Baltimore, the news last week that the late Walter O'Malley will be inducted into baseball's Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., in July couldn't help but make me wonder anew when they'll get around to enshrining Art Modell in the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.

• Schmuck: O's run of the Hall about to hit a wall

  July 31, 2007

  There are several possible reasons Sunday's Hall of Fame induction ceremony drew an estimated crowd that was 50 percent larger than any other.

• Schmuck: With glow, hope for a brighter day

  July 30, 2007

  Soon after Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken Jr. overcame their fear of public speaking, somebody tried to usher them back into the sad reality of sports in today's society.

• Schmuck: With Ripken, Gwynn, town has true legends

  July 28, 2007

  It is the pleasant nature of this quaint little upstate village that makes it so easy to overlook the disconnect between truth and legend that allowed it to become the hometown of baseball history.

• Schmuck: Ripken joy is a respite amid list of scandals

  July 26, 2007

  Orioles president Andy MacPhail has always looked young for his age, but don't mistake that for being short on perspective.

• Schmuck: A life in the spotlight

  July 22, 2007

  It must have been terribly frustrating. Cal Ripken Jr. spent his entire Hall of Fame career trying to convey something that was so basic we all just assumed there had to be more to it.

• Baseball's hallowed ground no shelter from steroid talk

  May 11, 2007

  Cal Ripken Jr. seemed to enjoy his orientation trip to upstate New York this week, but even in the idyllic small-town setting of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, he could not escape the big-city questions about the troubling state of the game.

• Bonds' excuses positively pathetic

  January 12, 2007

  Of all the days of all the weeks of all the months that have been tainted by baseball's performance-enhancement scandal, Barry Bonds had to stumble back into the drug spotlight on the same day that new Hall of Famers Cal Ripken and Tony Gwynn were taking their post-election bows at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Manhattan.

• For fans in '95, Ripken's pen was mightier than his bat

  January 10, 2007

  Cal Ripken Jr.'s career speaks for itself.

• McGwire might not mind being skipped in Hall's order

  January 7, 2007

  Sometime in the early afternoon on Tuesday, Cal Ripken will pick up the phone in Baltimore and Tony Gwynn will pick up the phone in San Diego, and it won't be to make a bet on the AFC championship game.

• Throwing off players association, Grimsley hurls hGH into spotlight

  June 11, 2006

  Welcome to the worst nightmare of the Major League Baseball Players Association.

• Dry spell over as juicy story hits home

  June 9, 2006

  Don't know about you, but I was feeling a little bit left out while Barry Bonds bore down on Babe Ruth the past couple of months. How could you help but pine for those halcyon days when Baltimore was -- for a couple of months -- the center of the steroid universe.

• Hendricks' 'Oriole Way' gone, current O's are just wayward

  December 30, 2005

  It was an appropriate sendoff. Elrod Hendricks was remembered fondly by his family, friends and former teammates in a heartfelt and spiritual memorial service yesterday that drew 1,000 mourners to the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen. What else would you expect for a man so loved and respected in this close-knit community?

• By reaching out to others, Hendricks touched us all

  December 23, 2005

  Maybe Elrod Hendricks could only have happened in Baltimore, where our heroes don't have to be bigger than life. They just have to be like us ... or, in Elrod's case, they just have to like us as much as we like them.

• In a ballpark divided, reactions from fans provide potent mix

  August 15, 2005

  IT WAS the anabolic equivalent of "Tastes Great!" ... "Less Filling."

• Wasted words hang over return and leave little worth hearing

  August 12, 2005

  HE COULD have had us at "Hello" ... but that was 10 days ago.

• Silence speaks volumes in age of lost innocence

  August 11, 2005

  THE GREAT THING about being innocent is that you never have to make up a story to prove it.

• Palmeiro didn't provide hard truth, but Congress asked soft questions

  August 7, 2005

  WHILE WE WAIT for Congress to figure out what it is going to do with Rafael Palmeiro and Major League Baseball's flawed drug policy, it might be a good time to point out something very important.

• He may not fit the bill, but he will pay price

  August 2, 2005

  THE IMAGE still lingers. Rafael Palmeiro, called to testify before a congressional committee on March 17, pointed his finger at committee chairman Tom Davis and denied that he had ever used illegal performance-enhancing drugs.

• Robinson still knows how to bring heat when needed

  June 16, 2005

  SO MUCH FOR the myth of the mellow Frank Robinson. So much for the kinder, gentler Washington Nationals manager who used to have every kind of sharp edge as a player -- and a few in his early incarnations as a manager -- but was widely believed to have gotten in touch with his softer side.

• Orioles' Bancells earns huge save for waving Hendricks to hospital

  April 18, 2005

  IT WOULD have been so easy to make the wrong decision. The Orioles were getting ready to return home from St. Petersburg, Fla., on Thursday night, and longtime bullpen coach Elrod Hendricks just didn't feel right.

• Of course, Phelps should grab pot of gold; why settle for anything less?

  August 15, 2004

  NOW THAT Michael Phelps has won the first of a possible eight gold medals, isn't it time to dispense with the ridiculous notion that the expectations surrounding America's top Olympian are more inflated than the Goodyear Blimp? I read Kevin Cowherd's column on that subject the other day, and I have only one thing to say, baby: