Good morning Baltimore and it's good to be with you again after a week of reporting on former NBA referee Tim Donaghy. And it's also nice, after a week of poking through the unsavory details of sports' latest embarrassment -- this one involving alleged gambling --  to be able to pass along to anyone who missed it yesterday a reminder about the most anticipated sports event of the summer in these part, Cal Ripken Jr.'s induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

I heard the Cal speech on the radio in the car. It was a good way to experience it, I thought. I'm of a generation where baseball was so often an aural experence -- on a transistor radio late at night. And while you certainly miss some things when you can't see them, your heightented attentiveness allows to to pick up nuances you might othwise miss.

There was a lot to notice in Ripken's address. His tribute to his family, especially his father, Cal. Sr. The firm assertion that "Whether we like it or not, as big leaguers, we are role models" (pronouncing it big liggers, in an old-timey sort of way). And a reflection that the passing of one phase of a person's life should not be mourned as an ending but rather welcomed as an opportunity for a new beginning.

In Ripken's case, many of us know that the new beginning for him was the creation of a company whose ambition and design is to bring baseball to young people. For the rest of us, we have to find the answer to that "new beginning" question -- whenever it presents itself -- for ourselves. But it's further tribute to Ripken that he could frame the challenge in such an optimistic fashion.

If you missed it yesterday, here's a link to the Ripken stories as well as a video of his induction addess.

* The current Orioles were slowed a little yesterday losing to the Yankees, 10-6, but this was still a different type of loss than we had been seeing in the first half of the season. After starter Daniel Cabrera put the O's in a 4-0 hole, Baltimore made life uncomfotable for New York coming back to within a run twice before a bullpen collpase in the eighth inning. Still, that's two of three for the Orioles in the home stand against the Yankees -- and even in the resumed suspended game, the O's made the Yankees sweat. At this point, I'll settle for playing with pride.

* And Tony Stewart, everyone favorite NASCAR antagonist had a hometown moment winning the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard.  Stewart, a Hoosier native, won the Indianapolis race by chasing down friend Kevin Harvick with 10 laps to go.  The two rubbed paint along the way.  It was Stewart's second win in Indy in three years.