Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, Baltimorons and everyone in the Villes -- Cockeysville, Dickeyville, Poolesville, Clarksville, Scaggsville and Baynesville -- you have a new football team. If you have not been following closely, or listening to the radio, you might have missed the news. But the Baltimore Blackbirds have their first home game in the First Mariner Arena (The Marina!!) tomorrow night. They play the Carolina Speed. The Birds are 0-3 on the season so far, and they lost one game by something approaching 80 points. Talk about a spread!

Les Oiseaux Noir play indoor football, which is something like poor man's arena football, but we'll take it.

Are you following me? We actually have an indoor football team in Baltimore. They play in the American Indoor Football Association.

I find this very exciting -- a new team in Baltimore, and something besides soccer in The Marina -- and I would go if not for a previous engagement with a hamburger. Had I known, I might have changed my plans for this inaugural home game.

See you at the second home game next month, April 14, and again April 29. There's a Monday night game in May. Good stuff. Indoor football at The Marina -- bring it! Now we just need a franchise in the East Coast Hockey League.