First of all, many thanks to Sun colleague Kevin Van Valkenburg for an extraordinary job of pinch-hitting here yesterday and an excellent piece on trash talking. If you've read any of Kevin's well reported and splendidly written pieces, such as a series on Edmondson High football he co-authored with Lem Satterfield, you already know that Kevin is the same tapping at a keyboard as he is swinging a bat for The Sun's softball team. He's an impact player.

* Maryland got a much-needed win last night against Wake Forest, 71-64. It got the Terps (11-7, 1-2) off the schneid in the ACC, particularly important with a game against No. 1 North Carolina this weekend. Maryland did the things it needs to do. The Terps shot 46 percent and out-rebounded Wake. Still, they have to cut down on turnovers if they want to keep it close against the Tar Heels.

* Talk about addition by subtraction. The Orioles apparently got rid of a potentially enormous distraction when they dealt Miguel Tejada. Apart from the testimony of baseball commissioner Bus Selig and players union head Donald Fehr in front of Congress, the bombshell was that the House committee, led by Rep. Henry Waxman and Rep. Tom Davis, want the Justice Department to look into whether the ex-Orioles shortstop and league MVP lied about his involvement and/or knowledge of performance-enhancing drugs. Did Baltimore know this might happen when it shipped Tejada to Houston? There's nothing to indicate as much, but regardless of how the players the O's received in the trade perform, the home team already got the better of the deal.