Ernie Banks used to say, "Let's play two."

So that's what we have today in the Maryland goobernatorial campaign -- two debates in one day. One taped. One live.

I just came from  WJZ-TV, where they taped the first Ehrlich-O'Malley debate. The parking lot at the station was so full I had to park way down TV Hill and walk up. I almost died. It was such a lovely day, WJZ should have set up a portable Jumbo-Tron outdoors so we could have enjoyed the sunshine and mild weather from picnic tables while the goobernatorial candidates debated inside. Anyway, they served a lovely buffet of roll-ups, fruit, cookies and green tea in a conference room. As the chummy governor would have said: "Thank you, Jay!"

How was the debate?

Read tomorrow's column. I'm working on that now. Let me just say this -- O'Malley came across like he was running for president of the United State and Ehrlich came across like he was running for president of Chi Phi. Make sure you read the Sun tomorrow. Our fact-checkers are working on what the candidates said in this debate to sort out fact from fiction, and to highlight exaggeration.

Ehrlich's people have already put out a press release claiming victory. Surprise!

See for yourselves: These two guys are on TV live at 7 p.m. tonight, WBAL and MPT. Then, Monday, you get to see the taped debate that we saw this afternoon. Weird, huh? It's like a double-header where the first game is taped and shown two days later, while the second game is telecast live.

Confused? Welcome to my world.