Mark Teixeira is part of a group of 65 major league players who filed for free agency on the first day possible, which is nothing more than a formality, but still allows the conversation to continue about whether the Orioles should pay whatever it takes to put him in the middle of their lineup.

It's a fair question, since the team's true priority has to be filling a couple of the holes in the starting rotation. But there's really nothing stopping the Orioles from pursuing all their needs this winter.

There is some scuttlebutt that Peter Angelos has told Andy MacPhail to pay whatever he needs to pay for Teixeira (right), but I don't really believe that. It's consistent with the Peter Angelos of the late 1990s and the early 2000s, but not with the guy who has became a big-contract skeptic after the Albert Belle fiasco.

Strategically, I'm not sure Teixeira is the way to go this offseason, but from fan interest standpoint, the O's have to do something to stem the flow of fans out of Camden Yards, which registered its worst-ever attendance this year.

Radio Free Schmuck: If you live to hear me talk about things other than sports, tune in to WBAL (1090 AM) at noon for "The Week in Review." If you're out of broadcast range, go to WBAL.com and click on the "Listen Live" icon.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 10:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (125)
Categories: Just baseball
        

Nobody has to tell me that Demetrius Williams is a talented wide receiver who got a bad break when an Achilles tendon injury forced him onto the injured reserve list this week, but I called his father, Dwight, today and he called me on the carpet for saying in a post yesterday that the Ravens might not miss Demetrius that much.

"That's my kid and I would be the first to point out his shortcomings,'' Dwight said, "but I'll also be the first to come to his defense. I read some of the posts and people are saying he can't do this and he can't do that. ... He gets tagged with being injury-prone. The kid has played through several injuries. He wants to play."

Dwight is no ordinary sports dad. He is a former college player who made it to several NFL camps. He and Demetrius were featured in a Baltimore Sun article recently, which documented how Dwight has often been his son's biggest critic, because he knows how tough it is to succeed at this level.

He called me out on my contention that -- if you take away last week's 70-yard touchdown -- Demetrius averaged just two receptions and 18 yards receiving per game through the first six games of the season.

"I read where he isn't producing,'' Dwight said. "How do you produce when they throw to you only two times a game?"

The injury has played a role in that. Demetrius (shown burning Troy Polamalu for a TD in 2006) suffered a partial Achilles tear last year and has developed a bone spur near the point where it is healing. He'll undergo surgery to remove the spur next week. In a perfect world, he might have rested the injury during the offseason, but the Ravens had brought in a new coach and new offensive coordinator, so he felt he had to take every opportunity to learn the new offense.

"He wanted to get back in there because he's a little bit of a warrior,'' Dwight said. "They pushed him and OTA'd him and wouldn't let him rest it. We finally took him to a very famous doctor here in the Bay Area who said, 'You've got a partially torn Achilles. The only thing that's going to help is rest.' But they have a new coaching staff and he wanted to prove himself. Since then, it's been all bad."

What Dwight wants everyone to know about his son is that he's a quality vertical receiver who has a chance to be a very good NFL player when he gets back, which will happen when Joe Flacco has a full season of experience under his belt and likely be better equipped to throw the ball downfield.

"Demetrius is better than you give him credit," Dwight said. "The Ravens must recognize that to put him on the IR to get fixed for next year."

Roster update: Cornerback Derrick Martin has also been placed on injured reserve with a shoulder injury. The Ravens also signed free agent wide receiver Terrance Copper and signed kicker Steve Hauschka off their practice squad.

Baltimore Sun file photo

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 2:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (18)
Categories: Just football
        

Stopped by the Ravens training facility just in time for cornerback Samari Rolle's informal press conference in the lockerroom. He still isn't 100 percent sure his sore neck will allow him to start Sunday, but acknowledged how important it would be for him to be our there with Chris McAlister apparently headed for the injured reserve list.

"He's such an important part of what we do,'' Rolle said, "we really need to be at full strength.".

When somebody asked Rolle how he thought he would feel when he takes the field in Cleveland, he didn't sugarcoat the situation.

"I won't know until I hit someone,'' he said.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 11:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
        

Now that Orioles president Andy MacPhail has made it clear the club wants to sign Brian Roberts to a long-term extension, there's just one more question and it has been hanging out there for much of the past year: Does Roberts really want to come back?

Though I think he really does, the situation is complicated enough that the relationship between Roberts and the front office could unravel all by itself. Both sides appear to be in no great hurry to get something done, which might seem logical since his value probably won't change much between now and spring training, but it may get more difficult to get something done as the offseason progresses.

The Orioles have a number of needs to fill this winter, and how they go about filling those needs has to depend in some measure on whether Roberts is going to stay or go. If he's going to stay, MacPhail needs to move aggressively into the free agent market to fill gaping holes at shortstop and in the starting rotation. If Brian is going to leave, then the club can try to find a trade package that fills at least one of those holes while continuing to restock the player development system.

Roberts has been diplomatic about the situation, so it's hard to tell just what he's planning to do. He probably wants to see what the team is going to do this winter before fully committing himself to MacPhail's rebuilding effort. And it's fair to speculate that any interested free agent players will want to see what the Orioles do with Roberts before deciding whether they want to jump onboard.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 1:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (51)
Categories: Just baseball
        

No one should be surprised that Pat Gillick has built a world champion in Philadelphia. He has been known to do that kind of thing and, God knows, the baseball fans of Philly have waited a long time for this night. I hope the downtown area is still standing in the morning.

Of course, I knew it all along. That's why I picked the Tampa Bay Rays to win the World Series in six games and made a bet with one of my bosses that now will require me not only to buy him lunch, but also to sit and watch him eat it. I also assured my Sun deskmate Glenn Graham that his Phillies had "no chance" to beat the pesky Rays. Guess I better stick to picking NFL games, since I seem to have no trouble fleecing the football guys on a weekly basis.

Now that the Rays have been vanquished, the only thing left to do is rationalize the whole thing away, so here goes. I'm happy for both teams and both teams should go away happy. The Phillies are a fun team that deserved to win and the Rays cannot be disappointed after going from the worst record in baseball a year ago to the World Series. The question now: Can the Rays continue to compete with the big guys in the American League East?

I think they'll be a decent team for awhile, but I'd be surprised if they win the division again next year. This was a very special season and one that will not be easy to repeat.

Getty Images

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 10:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)
Categories: Just baseball
        

The Ravens placed receiver Demetrius Williams on injured reserve today, which means they go to Cleveland without their top deep threat. That's certainly bad news, but maybe not as bad as it might seem.

Williams caught a 70-yard touchdown pass against the Raiders (left), but that was more the result of a coverage breakdown than Williams' ability to lose a defender deep downfield. Fact is, until that touchdown play, Williams had averaged two catches and about 18 yards receiving per game. If Yamon Figurs is healthy enough to run at full speed, his return should be enough to make the Browns pay some attention to the vertical possibilities.

The bigger concern may be the likelihood that Chris McAlister is done for the season. The Ravens definitely need him in the defensive secondary this week with Browns QB Derek Anderson likely to be flinging the ball all over the place.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 6:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
        

Today's featured comment is from a statistical guru who calls himself Waspman. Now I don't know if he's a superhero who dresses up like a wasp, or a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant who was at a loss for a screenname, but I do know he takes his football analysis very seriously:

Waspman's take: I use four criteria for my rankings. Three are weighted based on the each team's last eight games with the high and low tossed out to reduce anomalies and the two least recent games given reduced impact. They are Point Percentage, Point Differential, and Time of Victory (or Defeat). Each is worth 20 percent.

The fourth criterion -- the remaining 40 percent -- is based on Strength of Victory (or Defeat). It takes the entire season into consideration and is not weighted.

Furthermore, the SoV/D is a dynamic measure. For example, the Ravens lost to the Colts and defeated the Dolphins. Every win Miami gets helps Baltimore's ranking; every loss Indianapolis gets hurts Baltimore's ranking.

Much to my surprise, the Ravens moved up to seventh place. They have been as low as 22nd place this season. Most of their current ranking is bolstered by their convincing wins with little negation from their close losses. The Indy game right now looks to be aberrant. Their ranking will surely suffer if they have another genuine clunker in the next couple od weeks.

Oh and yes, the Titans are Number One (third straight week), the Giants are Number Two (second straight week), and the Redskins are Number Four (their highest position although their entire division has represented the Top Ten most of the year).

Pete's take: And all this time I've just been going with the toughtest-looking team mascot.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 2:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Today's featured comment
        

If you've been reading the comments, Jim pointed out a while ago that there is a ranking system at footballoutsiders.com that places the Ravens No. 4 in the NFL.

The Football Outsiders take football statistics to the more esoteric level, much like all the new-era number crunching in baseball in the Bill James Era. Their DVOA rankings (Defense-adjusted Value Over Average) breaks down each team play by play and assigns values based on the league average adjusted for the strength of the opposition.

I'm still trying to get my arms around this, but it apparently attempts to determine how much better each team is than the theoretical average NFL team. The Ravens jumped from No. 7 to No. 4 after Sunday's victory over the Raiders and are listed as 23.3 percent better than average. The Washington Redskins held steady at No. 5 at 20.5 percent.

Here's where I'm confused. The Tennessee Titans spanked the Indianapolis Colts this week, who crushed the Ravens in Week 5, but held firm at No. 3 because (and I'm quoting the site) "the opponent adjustments don't see this as a victory over the kind of Colts juggernaut we've known in the past." And yet the Ravens move up three slots after beating a Raiders team that couldn't be much worse if they had Matt Millen as their general manager.

The top two teams are the Eagles and Giants, who switched places this week but remain clearly ahead of everyone else.

I'm not endorsing this method, because I'm still trying to understand it, but it gives the Ravens a lot more credit than anyone else does. That's either great news or proof that you can prove anything you want with an imagination, a laptop computer and a lot of time on your hands.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 10:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Just football
        

Since everybody seems to be obsessed with the polls right now, I thought I'd take a look across the spectrum of NFL Power Rankings compiled by the various national media entities that cover pro football to see how the Ravens stack up against the rest of the league. Here's a sampling.

ESPN.com: The Ravens have moved from 20th last week to 14th this week. The 43-yard hookup between Troy Smith and Joe Flacco apparently sold the Worldwide Leader on Flacco's all-around athleticism.

NBCSports.com: The Peacock is pretty bullish on the Ravens, ranking them 13th -- all the way up from 21st last week.

CBSSports.com: Smaller jump, from 19 to 17, based on two straight victories and the continued great performance of the defense.

FoxSports.com: Up one slot to 20th. The Fox poll lists the range of rankings for the Ravens this year. They've been as high as 15th and as low as 29th.

Yahoo.com: Ravens are 19th, with little explanation other than another reference to Smith and Flacco playing catch at the Raiders' expense.

Sporting News: John Harbaugh's solid performance in his first year as a head coach is cited next to a No. 17 ranking.

USA Today: The McPaper has moved the Ravens up from 20th to 18th, pointing out that they have moved back to within one game of the Steelers in the AFC North standings.

The undefeated Tennessee Titans were a unanimous choice as the No. 1 team with the New York Giants ranked second in all of the above polls. The Redskins generally ranked in the top five.

In honor of CNN's "Poll of Polls," I've averaged the Ravens' seven rankings and come up with an average of 16.8. And, of course, there is no statistical margin of error.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 5:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (10)
Categories: Just football
        

Left wing Alexander Semin scored a tie-breaking goal two minutes into the third period to give the Capitals a 3-2 lead. It was Semin's eighth goal of the season, which ties him for the NHL lead. The goal also gave him the overall points lead with 15, at least until the Pittsburgh Penguins play on the West Coast later tonight. Penguins center Evgeni Malkin entered the day tied with Semin in that department.

The goal did not stand up, however, and the Capitals had to win the game, 4-3, in a shootout (2-1) that featured a goal by Semin and the game-winner by Michael Nylander.

"He (Semin) has been really, really good all year,'' said head coach Bruce Boudreau. "It's great to see the emotion in him. I really believe he's coming of age now...coming out of his shell a little. He's a very quiet guy, but he's coming out of his shell and starting to lead this team."

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 8:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
        

Now that I'm over the psychological trauma from that nasty fall at the Washington Capitals Media Fantasy Camp last month, I made my way to the Verizon Center tonight to see the Caps and Nashville Predators. I would have come back sooner, but I wanted to make sure my neck had loosened up enough to safely change lanes on New York Avenue.

I had almost forgotten how much fun it is to watch professional hockey in person. The game is lightning fast and the surface is actually supposed to be slippery, unlike Citizens Bank Park last night.

The only downside -- and it's a big one -- is that Caps superstar Alexander Ovechkin was not in the building. He had to fly home to Russia to be with his grandfather, who is hospitalized with a serious illness. Hopefully, everything turns out well. Caps officials say Alex is very close to his grandfather and there was no doubt where he should be right now. Can't argue with that.

The Caps seem to be up to the challenge of playing without him. Viktor Kozlov (that's him warming up for tonight's game at right) scored the game's first goal off an assist from Mike Green, and David Steckel answered a Predators score with a short-handed goal on a breakaway with 15:38 expired in the first period.

I know. I know. Hockey doesn't seem to be particularly big in Baltimore, but you wouldn't have known it from the deafening "O!" that went up from the crowd during the National Anthem.

Hope I didn't deceive anyone with the headline and the Koslov photo, but I was pretty sure no one would think that was me. The easiest way to tell the difference is that he's upright. If you want to look back at the previous "Schmuck on Ice" segments -- which include two embarrassing videos of me trying to play hockey -- just go down to the search tool and type in "Capitals" and all of them will pop right up. If you just want to see the incriminating official Caps video, click here.

Getty Images

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 6:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Schmuck being Schmuck
        

Don't get your hopes up. It's a little late for the Orioles to rally now, but the team is planning a big fan rally on Wednesday, Nov. 12 at Harborplace and has sent out invitations to season ticket holders. There has been a lot of speculation on the various O's message boards that it will be to unveil the team's new uniforms, the road version of which will -- as reported in The Baltimore Sun this summer -- have BALTIMORE on the front.

We've done a little poking around and determined that some of the posters and bloggers around here are pretty smart. Indeed, the rally will be to launch the new uniforms, which will feature some other changes along with the return of the geographical designator on the out-of-town jerseys.

The Orioles are pretty mum on this because they don't want to let the cap out of the bag, so to speak, but there are rumors they've come up with a new, fiercer bird logo. That would be interesting. I've included the current ornithological bird logo on the right. I guess you could try to imagine it as a blood-thirsty, talon-baring, hawk-like creature, but we're getting way ahead of ourselves. The bird makeover is just a rumor.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 2:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (83)
Categories: Just baseball
        

The beauty of the razzle-dazzle play by Troy Smith and Joe Flacco on Sunday is that it's a gift that keeps on giving. Coach John Harbaugh said on Monday that the "Suggs Package" of plays involving both QBs would be an ongoing part of the Ravens' game plan going forward, but that's not what I'm talking about.

What I mean is that particular play may have more impact on future games than it had on the game against the Raiders, even if Ravens fans never actually see the team run it again.

The Cleveland Browns, for instance, have to factor the whole concept into their defensive game plan, which makes the whole thing more complicated and uncertain. It's just one more thing to take up practice time this week.

Frankly, I'm guessing if Harbaugh was talking it up at all yesterday, he and Cam Cameron have something completely different cooked up for Sunday's game in Cleveland. Hopefully, the "Suggs Package" won't actually include Terrell Suggs this time, but I don't think you can rule anything out at this point.

Baltimore Sun photo by Kenneth K. Lam

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 12:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: Just football
        

Baseball commissioner Bud Selig revealed after last night's suspended game that there already was an agreement in place to assure that the game would be played in its entirety regardless of the weather...or the rule book.

Selig said if the game had been interrupted at any point -- no matter the score -- by the heavy rain that turned Citizens Bank Ballpark into a quagmire, the game would have been resumed from that point even if it was "24 hours or 48 hours or who knows?"

Here's the Associated Press account of Bud's post-suspension comments, which require you to believe that there was no reason for the umpires to feel they needed to keep the game going for several innings in that miserable weather and it was just a coincidence that they rushed to cover the field moments after the Rays tied the score.

I'm skeptical, but the important thing is that this World Series will not be decided by a game that lasts fewer than nine innings, and I'm guessing Selig's new policy about postseason games will be codified in due time.

That can't happen too soon for a regular poster who calls himself Mapitall, who wrote me to suggest that about the same time Bud Selig made his appearance in the World Series interview room last night.

Here's Mapital's take: Ever since the Tommy John game in the '77 NLCS I've thought all postseason games should be treated as suspended games in case of lousy weather. It would take the pressure off of the umpires and MLB to try and force a championship game to be played under less than championship conditions.

Selig doesn't really need an official rule change. He has the power to act in the best interests of the game, which probably is enough to allow him to override the rules that currently govern weather delays.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 5:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (21)
Categories: Just baseball
        

My previous post notwithstanding, you could make the case that Major League Baseball bent over backwards to make sure tonight's game was not put into delay while the Rays were trailing by a run and the game was long enough to be official.

In fact, it had almost reached the point of being an embarrassing display of indecision on the part of MLB officials. The field was so sloppy that any regular season game would have long since been suspended, but it went on and on until Carlos Pena singled home B.J. Upton with the tying run in the sixth. It wasn't a coincidence that the game was called as soon as the top of the inning ended.

Now, instead of the umpires and MLB people sitting around fretting all night about declaring the game official, which would have been a disaster, they simply will call it a suspended game and pick it back up tomorrow if the weather permits. No harm. No foul.

Fox broadcaster Joe Buck did a good job of explaining that baseball rules were changed years ago to make this non-outcome possible. There was a time when the entire inning had to be complete with the score tied to declare a suspended game. In a case like tonight, the game would have reverted to the last complete inning and the Rays might have lost the World Series while they were sitting in their clubhouse.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 10:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Just baseball
        

Don't know if, in the greater scheme of things, it will make any difference, but the Tampa Bay Rays seem to be getting the preponderance of the bad umpiring calls in this World Series. Scott Kazmir is out of the game and charged with six walks, though there were a number of pitches that looked like strikes and registered as strikes on Fox's pitch tracking graphic.

I'll stipulate that I have no idea if the Fox thing is scientifically accurate . I assume it is, because it wouldn't be all that technologically difficult to create a system to determine if a baseball passes through the strike zone, but I'm going to use it to make my point anyway. I didn't need it to know that Kazmir had Pat Burrell struck out before the walk that led to his exit from the game. Home plate umpire Jeff Kellogg just wouldn't ring him up.

There was also that horrible call in Game 4, when Evan Longoria clearly tagged out Jimmy Rollins in a rundown near third base. The umpire was right in front of the call and somehow missed a tag that was so obvious on the television replay, you could see Longoria's glove bend against Rollins rear end.

I'm not suggesting that there's a conspiracy to keep the Rays from winning the Series. There have been a couple of egregious calls that have gone the other way, too. What's more likely is that the Rays pitchers have struggled to command the strike zone and have lost some credibility with the umpiring crew, which has been known to make umpires less likely to call borderline strikes.

This isn't just me talking. If you're watching the game and listening to Joe Buck and Tim McCarver, you heard them say pretty much the same thing after Akinori Iwamura was called out in the sixth inning on a ball that appeared to be outside. Kellogg appears to be giving Cole Hamels a wide strike zone after squeezing Kazmir on the edges throughout his difficult four-plus innings.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 10:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
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Everybody, including me, has been saying how Terrell Suggs needs to learn how to keep his mouth shut to avoid the kind of controversy that erupted last week over his poorly-thought-out comments on an Atlanta sports talkshow. Well, I've changed my mind.

Did you see the way Suggs played in yesterday's 29-10 victory over the Oakland Raiders? He sacked JaMarcus Russell on his first dropback of the game (right) and was right there with Jameel McClain when the Ravens dropped Russell in the end zone for a safety a few minutes later. He looked truly inspired, which can only be the result of being truly embarrassed by all the commotion that resulted from his back-to-back attempts to swallow his own foot.

OK, maybe that was a coincidence, and maybe it also was a coincidence that the Ravens played their best all-around game of the season after a week of off-the-field intrigue. But are you willing to take that chance? They won two games in a row while Chris McAlister and then Suggs made headlines for their poor judgment, so -- to paraphrase Elvis Costello -- what's so great about peace, love and understanding?

Why mess with success? I'll even put him on one of my radio shows if it'll help the team get in better position to compete for a playoff berth. If T-Sizzle is at a loss for subject matter, here are a few things he can say that are guaranteed to stir things up:

"I hope Ed Reed retires soon so I can have the radio in my helmet. I've already shown I'm better on the radio than him."

"They should expand the instant replay system to cover all officials' calls that prove the NFL is always going out of its way to screw Baltimore."

"We want to go to Cleveland and beat the Browns this week to prove once and for all that getting out of that one-horse town was the best thing that ever happened to this franchise."

"I've changed my mind. I don't want to see Troy Smith play anymore."

Just trying to help.

Getty Images

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 11:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (14)
Categories: Just football
        

The Tampa Bay Rays are in a fix -- no doubt about that -- but the Phillies still have to win one more game, and that last win can be the toughest one to nail down. That's why there will be more pressure on the Phillies tonight than on the Rays, who have evolved into such a longshot they no longer have anything to lose.

Though rebounding from a 3-1 series deficit in the Fall Classic is a tall, tall order, it is not unprecedented. Just ask any Orioles fan who can remember the 1979 World Series, when the O's thought they had the Pittsburgh Pirates all wrapped up and ended up having to watch Willie Stargell and Co. rocking to Sister Sledge's "We Are Family" after Game 7.

The Phillies have to feel good right now, but they really don't want to go back to Tropicana Field, where the Rays have done some amazing things this year. If Tampa Bay can sneak out of Philly with a win tonight, things could get interesting again in a hurry.

Of course, that would require a couple of things to happen. Rays starter Scott Kazmir has to deliver another strong postseason performance and the middle of the Rays lineup -- particularly Carlos Pena and Evan Longoria -- have to wake up. Simple as that.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 9:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
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The Ravens will wrap up the first half of their regular-season schedule on Sunday in Cleveland and, if they can sweep the season series against the Browns with a victory, they'll have a pretty good chance to move into a tie for first place in the AFC North.

This isn't me drinking more of the Purple Kool-Aid, though it's as delicious as it is difficult to get out of light-colored carpeting. This is me looking at what the Steelers face over the next few weeks and seeing that the Ravens have a tremendous opportunity to reposition themselves within their division if they can continue to play well on the road against the Browns and Houston Texans.

Pittsburgh lost to the Giants yesterday, so the Ravens are only one game back in the division standings, and the Steelers are in the midst of a string of games against very tough opponents. They play the Redskins, Colts, Chargers, Patriots and Cowboys in the six weeks leading up to their visit to Baltimore on Dec. 14, so its possible that the AFC North could be won by a team with eight or nine victories.

Maybe even a team near you.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 5:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)
Categories: Just football
        

This definitely is not the Tampa Bay Rays team that I shamelessly adopted as my own a couple of weeks ago. I mean, what have they done with Carlos Pena and Evan Longoria? I could have sworn they were around somewhere.

Here's what they used to look like (left), but both are completely out of sync, and facing Jamie Moyer in Game 3 clearly didn't help. Pena has seemed lost at the plate and Longoria obviously has been reduced to guessing, since he looked at a waist-high fastball for his eighth strikeout in 15 at-bats a couple of innings ago and just struck out again in the eighth inning.

If you're keeping track at home, Pena and Longoria have combined to go 0-for-30 with 15 strikeouts. I gotta tell you, that isn't easy to do.

The whole "Tampa Bay in six games" thing looks like it's pretty much out of the question, but I'm not giving up just yet. If I changed my mind now and the Rays stage a miracle comeback to win the whole enchilada, I'd look like an even bigger fool than I do now, which -- from a standpoint of actual size -- would be hard to do.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 10:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)
Categories: Just baseball
        

From Jonathan Ogden's Ring of Honor ceremony to the razzle-dazzle 43-yard pass from Troy Smith to Joe Flacco, it was very uplifting day for the Ravens, who had little trouble dispensing with the hapless Raiders.

Don't know what this says about the rest of the season, since the Ravens were supposed to win the game handily, but Smith's debut put to rest all the Terrell Suggs foolishness and the big pass play ended with Smith being held up in the air by Flacco in a show of team unity that couldn't have come at a better time.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 3:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (26)
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We're through one quarter here at M&T Bank Stadium, and I've got only one thing to say:

I think the Ravens should order Terrell Suggs to say something stupid every week.

Suggs has been all over the place today. He sacked JaMarcus Russell on his first attempted pass play of the afternoon and three solo tackles -- two of them for losses.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 1:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

but it's not what you think. JaMarcus Russell just dropped back into the end zone and linebacker Jameel McClain just dropped him for a safety, the Ravens defense making a big statement during the first two Raiders possessions.

Looks like it's going to be an interesting day. The Ravens just lined up with Troy Smith in the shotgun and Joe Flacco out wide to the left, but they didn't snap the ball. The play clock was too far down and Troy had to call a timeout. If nothing else, it gave the Oakland coaching staff something to think about.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 1:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
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Phillies starter Jamie Moyer bounced back from his early postseason frustration to pitch a solid 6 1/3 innings that should have been good enough to get him a victory in his World Series debut. He gave up just one run through six and made a great diving play on a bunt by Carl Crawford to open the seventh, only to have first base umpire Tom Hallion miss the call on a close play at first and Crawford eventually come around to score the first of two runs in the inning.

Fortunately for the Rays, baseball only allows video review for border calls, because the replay clearly showed Crawford's foot about six inches from the bag when Ryan Howard made a barehand catch on Moyer's flip to first base.

That narrowed a three-run Phillies lead and B.J. Upton single-handedly tied the game in the eighth with an infield hit, two stolen bases and a forced throwing error that allowed him to score and keep Phils closer Brad Lidge from having a save opportunity in the ninth.

I'd love to say I told you so about Moyer, since I wrote in a pregame post titled "The old man and the Rays" that I thought he might have big psychological advantage coming off the 90-minute rain delay, but there's no way of determining whether the Rays were too anxious after sitting around so long. They looked uncomfortable at the plate, but Moyer makes everybody look like that when he has his good command.

Different story with Carlos Pena. I predicted he would have a tough night in spite of his great previous numbers against Moyer. He went 0 for 3 with two strikeouts, though one of the K's came after Moyer left the game.

The late former Phillies and Angels manager Gene Mauch must have been smiling down from above in the bottom of the ninth, when former Angels coach Joe Maddon employed a five-man infield to try and cut off the winning run with the bases loaded and no one out. It didn't work, but not because the strategy was flawed. Carlos Ruiz hit an unfieldable 40-foot nubber down the third base line and Game 3 went to the Phillies.

Who knows what the ratings were like last night, but it was another terrific baseball game, even if the delayed start probably prevented a lot of people from seeing it through to the end.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Just baseball
        

The Fox cameras caught Matt Garza staring into his cap, closing his eyes and nodding his head before he threw his first pitch of the second inning, as if there was something inspirational written on the underside of the bill.

Well, there is. Joe Buck pointed out in the fourth that Garza worked this summer with sports psychologist Dr. Ken Rivizza after having an on-field confrontation with Rays catcher Dioner Navarro in June. Now, Garza writes notes and quotes from the book Rivizza co-authored, Heads Up Baseball, inside his cap.

That's cool, but I'm wondering if, just before he gave up those home runs to Chase Utley and Ryan Howard in the sixth, he looked inside his cap and and all that was written there was...

"Duck!"

Small world note: By the way, Rivizza also is a professor of kinesiology and health promotion at Cal State Fullerton, a university that also has produced five College World Series champions and one portly blogger who could probably use a little health promotion about now.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 10:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Just baseball
        

Fox commentator Kevin Kennedy pointed out a few minutes ago that the players most affected by tonight's World Series rain delay are the starting pitchers, which might seem like what Howard Cosell used to call "a piercing look into the obvious." Except that it isn't obvious at all.

Certainly, the starting pitchers are impacted more when the game is interrupted by rain, and often to do return after a delay. In a case like this, however, it could be an advantage for a starter such as Jamie Moyer, because the hitters in a game of this magnitude have been waiting anxiously for an extra 90 minutes for the game to start and the two starting pitchers begin their pregame routine based on the projected starting time after the delay.

Let's see what happens, but I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the Tampa hitters do a lot of lunging in the early innings. Moyer has struggled so far in this postseason, but if he can frustrate the Rays lineup tonight, it might be worth more than just victory No. 2 in this best-of-seven series.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 9:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Just baseball
        

Maybe I shouldn't throw gasoline on this fire, since I've spent the last day or so standing up -- to some degree -- for Adam Loewen, but it is interesting to note that the major league franchise that makes him feel all warm and fuzzy is 2,073 miles from his hometown of Surrey, BC., according to the Geobytes internet distance tool.

If not for the international border, his hometown team would be the Seattle Mariners, who play just 105 miles from Surrey. If you want to get technical about it, his home is more than 300 miles closer to Chicago than Toronto, about 650 miles closer to Minneapolis, 330 miles closer to Dallas, 100 miles closer to Detroit, 1,300 miles closer to San Francisco and Oakland, 1,000 miles closer to Los Angeles, 900 miles closer to San Diego, 800 miles closer than Phoenix.

I think I've made my point. Toronto is, however, about 300 miles closer -- as the crow flies -- to Surrey than Baltimore and is closer than any of the other AL East cities. In all, however, there are 19 major league teams that are geographically closer to Surrey than Toronto.

All that said, you really can't discount the nationalistic appeal of playing for the Blue Jays, especially now that they are the lone major league team in Canada.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 11:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (17)
Categories: Just baseball
        

There's been a lot of internet chatter about 45-year-old Jamie Moyer (right) being the weak link in the Phillies' World Series rotation, so I guess I'm a little more worried than most about the effect he might have on the young Tampa Bay Rays lineup.

When Jamie is on, he only needs seven innings to drive some guys crazy for a week. The Rays have a lot of inexperienced hitters and a few overly-aggressive hitters, which are just the kind of guys that Moyer drives to distraction. Look for Carlos Pena to end up with a sore neck from shaking his head so much tonight.

Every odd-numbered game in a postseason series is pivotal, but this one is more pivotal for the Phillies. If they lose, the Rays only need to split the remaining two at Citizens Bank Park to go home in great position to win their first world title. Rays pitcher Matt Garza is coming off an MVP performance in the ALCS, so the Phillies also will have some work to do to get back out in front of this series.

Schmuck Live: If you want to talk sports instead of blog them, tune in to The Peter Schmuck Show on WBAL and give me a call. If you're out of broadcast range, go to WBAL.com and click on the "Listen Live" icon. Can't wait to hear from you.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 10:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Just baseball
        

There's a reasonable possibility that two more Top 10 football teams get their first loss today. One of the undefeated will go down for sure when No. 6 Oklahoma State visits top-ranked Texas, and No. 3 Penn State has to go through Ohio State to get to 9-0.

No. 8 Texas Tech (7-0) also is vulnerable at Kansas, but I doubt No. 2 Alabama should have much trouble at Tennessee (1-3 in the SEC). Maybe I'm a little biased (maybe?), but I can't wait for USC to dismantle the Crimson Tide in the BCS Championship Game.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 9:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
        

I've got to say, I didn't expect the kind of vitriol that has been directed at Adam Loewen for choosing to sign a minor league contract with the Toronto Blue Jays yesterday. The guy's arm nearly fell off pitching for the Orioles, so he's taking his longshot comeback to another organization. This isn't exactly the crime of the century.

Obviously, the Orioles feel like he owed them a little more than one last walk, but we're not talking about somebody who's going to show up next year and haunt them for failing to offer a big enough minor league -- I repeat, minor league -- contract. There are some scouts out there who feel Loewen can make the transition from pitcher to position player, and the Blue Jays liked him as a hitter at the time of the 2002 draft, but six years is a long time to go without swinging a bat regularly.

The Orioles were willing to re-sign him because they've got a ton of money invested in him, but I don't believe anybody seriously thinks he's going to be the next Josh Hamilton. If he ends up having a 30-homer season someday, I'll happily eat some crow, but I just don't think his comeback is going to amount to all that much.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 7:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (35)
Categories: Just baseball
        

One year ago at this time, Adam Loewen was projected to be one of the future cornerstones of the Orioles' starting rotation. Now he's going to try and work his way into the Toronto Blue Jays' batting order.

The news that Loewen has signed with the Blue Jays is a little bit of a shock -- and it probably could be interpreted as a slap in the face by the O's front office -- but it's not exactly a setback for the Orioles organization. In fact, you can make the case that Loewen did the O's a favor by jumping ship, since the odds of him actually becoming a serviceable position player at the major league level remain quite long.

Chances are, he would have just been taking up space and getting a disproportionate amount of attention in the player development system, perhaps even getting institutional deference over some more legitimate prospects because of the amount of money the Orioles already have invested in him.

I hope I'm wrong, because I think he's a nice kid and he's been through a lot. He clearly wanted to play in his home country and this was an opportunity to live out that dream to whatever extent is possible. I wish him the best and you should, too. He conducted himself well here and was a credit to the Orioles organization.

The thing didn't go down without some intrigue, since the Orioles were confident they were close to signing him to a minor league deal, but when they released him from his major league deal, he had a right to sign with the team of his choosing and he chose the one that was closer to his heart and home. Can't really blame him for that.

Associated Press photo

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 4:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (55)
Categories: Just baseball
        

The NFL supposedly is "investigating" whether the Ravens actually put bounties on the heads of Hines Ward and Rashard Mendenhall before playing the Steelers on Monday Night Football in Week 4, but don't hold your breath waiting for any bombshell revelations.

Nobody's going to come forward with a cancelled check for the Mendenhall injury, but I'm guessing Terrell Suggs will have to reach into his pocket after running his mouth on a syndicated radio show and forcing league officials to cancel some pretty sweet tee times. He needs to read the motto of this blog (see above) before he gets in front of another microphone.

Today's open question: Now that Daunte Culpepper has announced he wants to come out of retirement, how long will it be before Suggs decides he should start ahead of Joe Flacco?

Radio dogma: If you live to hear my jaundiced take on politics and current events, join me and Clarence Mitchell IV for The Week in Review on WBAL from noon to 3. If you're out of broadcast range, go to WBAL.com and click on the "Listen Live" icon.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 9:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Just football
        

When the phone rang yesterday and it was the producer for "The Mike Murphy Show" on Chicago Sports Radio 670 The Score, I assumed that Murph (as he is known to the Wrigley Field bleacher crowd) was auditioning new partners and got wind of my fabulous weekend shows on WBAL. It turns out the rumor mill is churning again on the North Side about Brian Roberts (left) and he was looking for some Baltimore insight on the situation.

When I got done shamelessly plugging "The Schmuck Stops Here," I told him that it is the general opinion of Orioles fans that the Cubs used up their bullets in the Rich Harden trade and probably don't have the right pieces to convince Andy MacPhail to revive serious trade talk about Roberts. I suppose the O's would be interested in a package including top third base prospect Josh Vitters (who is at least a year away), but a deal with the Cubs would probably have to fill one of the vacant middle infield positions, and I just don't see it.

First things first. The Orioles need to ascertain in relatively short order whether Roberts is willing to sign a contract extension, and I've got to assume some conversation on that subject already has taken place. It's possible that MacPhail already knows the answer, but if it's the wrong answer, he may keep it under his hat to maintain maximum leverage in trade negotiations.

Roberts probably won't draw the same value in trade he would have last winter, because he's only one year away from free agency, but he's one of the top leadoff hitters in the game and should rate a young pitcher and position player with some very strong upside. I think most Orioles fans, however, are hoping the Orioles sign him to a long-term deal and end all this speculation before it takes on a life of its own like it did last year.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 6:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (44)
Categories: Just baseball
        

If you have never heard "Autumn Wind," the Raiders fight song/inspirational poem, you're in for quite a treat...or maybe just a burst of derisive, uncontrollable laughter. The lyrics were written by Steve Sabol of NFL Films and the music by Sam Spence. Of course, the voice is the late, great John Facenda. Here it is along with a little walk down memory lane -- if you can remember any of these players -- compliments of YouTube:

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Posted by Peter Schmuck at 5:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)
Categories: Just football
        

There's just something about the Oakland Raiders. They're 17-53 since 2004 and their motto is "Commitment to Excellence," which I'm pretty sure was on the short list when Baltimore came up with its "Get in on it!" tourism campaign a few years ago. But if it's any consolation, owner Al Davis was on the short list for that GEICO campaign until they found a cuter lizard.

Okay, maybe that's a little harsh, but I did hear Davis is planning to fire John Harbaugh when he gets to town this weekend. Claims John isn't who he thought he would be when the Ravens hired him.

My only regret going into this game is that Oakland and Baltimore are so far apart, so there's little chance that any of the true Raider fans will be able to make it to the game. Since it's the last game before Halloween I was thinking about giving out a prize for the funniest costume. Don't know about you, but I'm absolutely terrified of anyone in a plastic helmet with horns sticking out of it.

Some Raider sympathizer wrote in the other day and made the point that there also are people at M&T Bank Stadium who dress in funny get-ups for the game. I agree, they're called mascots, and Poe thanks you for your support. There might even be a few purple face-painters in the crowd, but there's still a difference. They don't think a plastic battleaxe actually makes you the second coming of Braveheart.

Last time I looked, getting nine friends together to terrorize some wimpy kid in the wrong jersey doesn't get you the Congressional Medal of Honor, at least not on this coast (except maybe in Philadelphia).

I apologize in advance for seeming like a hater on this, but there is so little to like about the Raiders organization other than the fact that their defensive coordinator is a dead ringer for Rex Ryan.

If you read my last post -- the one about Bob Irsay being only third on a FanNation list of the biggest traitors in the history of sports -- you should also remember that Davis (who inexplicably isn't on the list) was the one who opened the door for the Colts departure when he joined in the anti-trust lawsuit that allowed him to move the team to LA (albeit temporarily) in 1982.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 12:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (28)
Categories: Just football
        

Since you know how much I love those all-time sports rankings that appear on SI.com and ESPN.com on what seems to be a daily basis, you shouldn't be surprised that I'm going to draw your attention to one that showed up yesterday on SI's blog site, FanNation.

It's just a short list of the "Five biggest traitors in sports," and it was inspired by the controversy that erupted when Brett Favre was suspected of leaking inside information to the Detroit Lions before their Week 2 matchup against the Green Bay Packers.

The list includes a certain football owner who jumped town with his NFL franchise on a snowy night in 1984, and that would not garner any complaint from anyone in Baltimore except for the fact that Robert Irsay (in a familiar 1984 pose at left) only ranks third on the list, behind opportunistic football coaches Nick Saban and Bobby Petrino.

Frankly, I don't see how anyone could make such a mistake of scale. Nick Saban might have been a little sleazy when he left the Dolphins to coach Alabama, but for him to equal the audacity of Irsay, the Dolphins would have to be based in Tuscaloosa now. Same goes for Petrino, who left the Falcons for Arkansas, but was nice enough to leave the Falcons franchise in Atlanta where it belonged.

Associated Press file photo

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 6:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (10)
        

Just so there's no confusion, I was quoted at baseballanalysts.com predicting that the Tampa Bay Rays would win the World Series in six games. I haven't changed my mind after tonight's 3-2 loss in Game 1. Though I never made an official prediction in The Baltimore Sun, my column in today's editions is consistent with that outlook since I sort of predicted the Phillies would win two games.

Why am I telling everybody this when I could just lay low after what could turn out to be a pivotal loss? Because I'm not made that way and neither is anyone else who is a regular contributor to this blog. We put it out there and take the heat when we're wrong, though I don't think I'll have any explaining to do after the Series. The Rays will be okay. They lost the first game of the ALCS, too, and won the next three games in a row.

Fish out of water: It feels a little strange watching the Series on TV. I can't remember missing a World Series game since Game 6 of the 1993 Series, the game in which Joe Carter hit that momentous home run off Mitch Williams to give the Blue Jays their second consecutive world championship.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 12:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Schmuck being Schmuck
        

Mild-mannered Rays manager Joe Maddon was caught in a rare moment of outrage in the bottom of the sixth inning, when Phillies pitcher Cole Hamels appeared to balk on a pickoff move that resulted in Carlos Pena being caught stealing. It seemed like a fairly obvious balk, but the umpires missed it, causing Maddon to drop a BS bomb that came through loud and clear on the Fox broadcast.

Fortunately, the game started at about 8:30 p.m. and was pushing 11 when the no-call occurred, so there probably weren't a lot of young children watching. The guys in the Fox truck did manage to mute the expletive when they showed a replay of the reaction in the Rays dugout.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 10:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Just baseball
        

Terrell Suggs found himself on everybody's sports rundown today after saying on a syndicated radio show ("2 Live Stews") that the Ravens had put a bounty on the head of Steelers receiver Hines Ward.

Frankly, it wouldn't surprise me if this kind of thing happens all the time. I once had a major league player offer $250 to anyone who could hit me with a line drive when I pitched an inning against the California Angels in a charity exhibition game. That was a long, long time ago, as you might have guessed, but some things don't change. Professional athletes are very competitive and grudges die hard.

Everybody who plays against the Steelers hates Hines Ward. He's a mouthy, cheap-shot artist. The only thing surprising here is that Suggs (shown at right scoring a touchdown in Sunday's victory over the Dolphins) put the thing on the street, but nobody ever broke a bookie betting on the intelligence of pro football players.

While we're on the subject of Suggs and his loose lips, he also has said in a couple of interviews that he thinks Troy Smith should be the starting quarterback right now instead of Joe Flacco, which makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. You could make a case that Troy should have opened the season as the starter -- and he would have if he hadn't gotten very ill during the final weeks of training camp -- but he left the job unclaimed and Flacco claimed it.

Not sure what Suggs was thinking, or if he was thinking at all. The last thing the Ravens need, especially in the aftermath of the McAlister controversy, is a marquee player questioning the direction of the team at such a pivotal juncture in the season.

Associated Press photo

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 5:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)
Categories: Just football
        

Outfielder Nolan Reimold has homered in his last two games for the Surprise Rafters of the Arizona Fall League, but he's got a way to go to bounce back from a very slow start at the plate. He has hit safely in his last three games to raise his average to .156. His home run on Monday accounted for the only run in a 28-1 loss to the Mesa Solar Sox.

Matt Wieters has cooled off some, going 0 for 7 in his last two games to drop his average to .345. He was among the top five hitters in the league for the first couple weeks of the season, but ranks 18th. Brandon Snyder is batting .429, but does not have enough plate appearances to qualify for the batting rankings.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 2:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
        

Today's featured post is from Rich, who thinks the Chris McAlister controversy is much ado about nothing:

Rich's take: Surely you jest! C-Mac wearing shorts in a hotel lobby being "wrong?" In Florida? Call The Hague for Crimes Against Humanity!

If there was a rule against wearing shorts in a Florida hotel then the person making that rule needs to have his head examined (see the NFL conduct policy, it's in there). What exactly is wrong about wearing shorts? If a player is not playing but is on the sideline representing the team, then I can see some sort of dress code, as he is publicly representing the team. But walking through a hotel lobby he should be treated like any other person. Dress codes like this were stupid when I played college sports, where the new "disciplinarian coach" wanted us to wear jackets and ties for a multi-hour bus ride (in old dirty buses) and then walking from the bus into an old dirty locker room to change for the game. This dress code sounds even stupider.

Now, if Harbaugh is really interested in "discipline," how about having the defense tackle properly and wrapping up the ball carriers, rather than just hitting them and hoping they fall down? How about serious consequences for stupid 15-yard penalties?

Good blog, keep it going!

Pete's reply: I'm not a big dress code fan myself, as you can probably guess, but it wasn't just walking into the lobby. It was walking into the lobby and getting on the team bus when he knew the rule. Clearly, he violated it on purpose to make some kind of deviant statement. Harbaugh is trying to instill a better "team" ethic, so I think it's not about whether to have a dress code, but whether someone thinks he is a big enough star that he gets to make his own rules.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 12:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (16)
Categories: Today's featured comment
        

Ravens coach John Harbaugh shed a little more light on the Chris McAlister situation last night on his WBAL show, confirming the rumor that Chris willfully broke the team's dress code before Sunday's game in Miami. McAlister came into the lobby of the team hotel wearing shorts and accompanied by three women. His dress wasn't close to "business casual" and Harbaugh said that was "wrong" and that the situation has been addressed.

The first caller on Harbaugh's show brought up some of McAlister's past problems and asked how long the Ravens organization can continue to put up with him. Here's Harbaugh's answer pretty much in its entirety:

I can't speak to stuff in the past. I've had a chance to get to know Chris over these however-many months we've been here. Chris is a good person and we've got a really good relationship. I respect him a lot. As far as the dress for the bus, it was wrong, you know, it was a mistake and it's been talked to the team about. It's been addressed and we're moving forward from it but we've got a discipline policy in place and it applies to all our players for this year ... everything is addressed, whether it's late to a meeting, late to a bus, late to practice, missing something. And we've got a number of players who have issues. Guys, sometimes, they oversleep. Sometimes things happen and they are addressed and there's a fine system in place and they're hit with a fine until ultimately the CBA says a guy would go "conduct detrimental" and that's when suspensions happen and game checks get taken away and those kind of things. We don't have anybody in that spot yet, but that's the discipline policy. So that doesn't fall under any kind of suspension for the game or benching a guy or anything like that.

Indeed, the bus incident probably wasn't the main reason for his limited playing time in the Dolphins game, since the Ravens already were committed to their defensive packages. Obviously, there was some other issue that led to McAlister's reduced reps and defiant behavior -- either his poor performance against the Colts or his gimpy knee or perhaps something off the field.

By the way, Harbaugh also said there was little chance the three women were in McAlister's room overnight, since the Ravens have security on their floors of the team hotel to make sure players make curfew and don't bring anybody up there. He believes the three women were picking up tickets from McAlister that morning.

Hopefully, there will be a meeting of the minds soon, because Harbaugh needs McAlister and McAlister needs Harbaugh. The Ravens may be able to weather more of this intrigue leading up to the game against the Raiders, but they'll need all hands on deck in the secondary if they are to beat the Browns on the road the following week.

Getty Images

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 5:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (23)
Categories: Just football
        

I'm headed over to the Ravens training facility to join Steve Davis for Sportsline tonight at 7, right after The John Harbaugh Show at 6, which you probably don't want to miss if you're looking for answer to some of the burning questions of the week. Our guest tonight is Maryland lineman Jeremy Navarre. If you're out of radio range, you can go to WBAL.com and click on the "Listen Live" icon.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 6:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Today's featured comment comes from Maxmorf, who apparently had some things to get off his chest:

Maxmorf's take: Good to hear that the boys are doing well (at the Arizona Fall League), because gosh knows we O's fans need to hear some good news, ANY news because, quite frankly, I'm less than enthralled by a Phillies vs. Rays Series, though it is nice to see somebody other than those millionares clubs in NY and LA playing in the fall classic. Okay, now to business, i.e. getting the Orioles on the right path again.

No. 1: Trade Roberts. He's in his 30s, unless he is wearing a big red "S" under his O's jersey, he's soon to start making those first steps either towards the broadcast booth or selling insurance or AMWAY products, whatever happens to players when they don't play anymore. His value will never be higher and you never know if he'll have a recurrence of injury. Knowing MacPhail, he'll make a trade if he is given value. "Value" btw, looks like Alex Rodriguez and not Kiko Garcia. You'd think that would be obvious, but for proof, see Syd Thrift.

No. 2: Forget "Tex" and AJ Burnett. Tex ain't leavin' California, and AJ has injury issues and haven't we been burned enough with injuries? Take the money you would have wasted on these guys and their brethren and invest it in the farm system. We should be creating a network of baseball schools across the globe. Over a billion Chinese and Russians and not one can pitch or hit a ball? C'mon.

No. 3: Bring back the fans. Somebody get a decent medium so we can conjure the ghost of Bill Veeck to give the O's front office some halfway decent promotional ideas.

No. 4: Take the great three-headed project, Olson-Liz-Burres, and put them in the bullpen where they belong. They all pitched a heckuva lot better coming out of the bullpen, particularly Olson and Burres, than they did as starters. But watch Liz. He's the one I think may have the best potential to stick as a starter.

No. 5: Give Kevin Millar the Key to the City and promise of a job, any job, with the club after he retires and then show him the door. Kevin is a tremendous asset, but he's keeping younger guys who need a chance from having that chance. I hope that if Kevin does leave, he does return in some capacity with the Orioles ala Rick Dempsey.

That's all.

Pete's reply: That's all? Who's your publisher?

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 1:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (15)
Categories: Today's featured comment
        

Don't misunderstand. Chris McAlister is a great cornerback and a big part of what has made the Ravens the standard by which other defenses have measured themselves for much of the past decade. I don't think the Ravens -- or the fans -- should bail on him because he had a tough game against the Colts nine days ago.

It just appears that John Harbaugh is trying to get a handle on him and this is probably a convenient time to do that, with teams like the Dolphins and Raiders bunched on the schedule. Remember, one of the common complaints about Brian Billick -- true or not -- was that he let the inmates run the asylum. Harbaugh cannot let that perception take hold, and he obviously knows that.

McAlister, however, is a prideful guy, so who knows if Harbaugh reels him in or loses him completely. Kind of up to Chris.

Baltimore Sun photo

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 11:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)
Categories: Just football
        

It'll take more than one win over the formerly 1-15 Miami Dolphins to get me to start looking at playoff contingencies, but it's fair to note that the landscape in the NFL has changed considerably over the past few weeks.

Thanks to an inordinate number of key injuries (Tom Brady and Tony Romo are the best examples), it's hard to find one of the preseason playoff picks that still seems like a solid bet to reach the Super Bowl:

The Patriots look like a shell of their former selves without Brady, and it looks like they may be without top defender Rodney Harrison for awhile after he went down during last night's victory over the Broncos.

The Cowboys are a fragile mix, with Romo down after getting hurt in the Cardinals loss (left), Adam "Pacman" Jones suspended again and Terrell Owens convinced he should be the offensive coordinator.

The defending champion Giants got smoked by the Cleveland Browns on Monday Night Football last week and weren't terribly impressive this week against the 49ers.

The Colts dominated the Ravens last week, but got the same treatment from the Green Bay Packers on Sunday. The Chargers and Broncos aren't scaring anyone anymore either.

The point I'm trying to make is that nobody really knows how this season is going to shake out. The Ravens may not be positioned particularly well with the Steelers already two games up on them in the AFC North, but they've already proven they can compete with the two most legitimate teams in the conference -- the Steelers and Titans.

The conventional wisdom about the Ravens season holds that they will do okay against the remaining soft teams on their first-half schedule and then run into a buzz saw when all four NFC East teams show up on their schedule down the stretch. That's probably the way it's going to happen, but -- so far -- the only thing that has been predictable is the league's penchant for unpredictability.

It certainly won't surprise me if the Ravens end up winning seven games this year, but it also won't surprise me if they sneak into the playoffs. There is no super team in the AFC this season, so there's a pretty good chance that at least one team comes out from under the radar to force its way into the postseason picture.

Could it be the Ravens?

Why not?

Associated Press photo

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 6:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (17)
Categories: Just football
        

The Orioles just announced that they have released Adam Loewen, but that doesn't necessarily mean that his career with the club is over. The Orioles are getting out of his major league contract, but apparently will try to sign him to a minor league contract.

Loewen was one of the club's top pitching prospects until a fracture developed in his pitching arm. He underwent surgery to put a large screw near his left elbow, but the repair didn't hold up to the rigors of being a major league pitcher. He went to the Florida Instructional League to see if he could follow in the footsteps of St. Louis Cardinal Rick Ankiel, who switched to the outfield after his pitching career unraveled.

The Orioles also outrighted Randor Bierd, Brandon Fahey, Omir Santos, Rocky Cherry and Jeff Fiorentino as part of the reshuffling of the 40-man roster in anticipation of some offseason moves and the Rule V draft.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 5:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (16)
Categories: Just baseball
        

Chris McAlister was conspicuous in his absence for much of yesterday's victory over Miami, which was examined by Mike Preston in his Ravens Insider column in today's paper and on the Web site. So, what does it all mean?

Don't know that you're going to get a straight answer out of coach John Harbaugh this week, but I think just about anyone can read the writing on the locker room wall. McAlister sat for much of the afternoon because he got torched against the Indianapolis Colts last week. He got caught by Peyton Manning biting on pump fakes and first moves and was one of the major reasons the Colts were able to get such a jump on the Ravens in the first quarter.

Harbaugh has no way of knowing for sure whether that was because he's favoring a gimpy knee or trying too hard to make spectacular plays, but he was able to address either possibility by limiting McAlister's playing time yesterday. Chris obviously wasn't happy about it, but that's probably the idea.

It might be too early to tell whether this is a "who's-the-boss" scenario, but I'm impressed with the way Harbaugh has established his authority during his first year as a head coach. He has already shown he'll sit players who have trouble taking care of the ball. Maybe now he's working on the guys who want to be cowboys out there.

Baltimore Sun photo by Gene Sweeney Jr.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 1:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (25)
Categories: Just football
        

Matt Wieters and Brian Matusz have been invited to play in the Arizona Fall League Rising Stars Game this coming Friday. The teams are selected by a vote of major league farm and scouting directors.

Wieters has ranked among the AFL batting leaders during the first two weeks of play and Matusz, this year's top Orioles draft choice, has pitched impressively in his first two appearances.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 12:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)
Categories: Just baseball
        

Maybe it's just a happy coincidence that the Raiders are coming to town the weekend before Halloween, but I can't wait to see if Sunday's game brings out any of those glorified trick-or-treaters they call fans.

I'm trying to remember the last time I got all made up like a pirate or a viking, other than on my wedding night. It was probably in my pre-adolescent years, and I was still slightly embarrassed about it. Raiders fans claim to be the toughest fans in football, then show up at the games in Oakland dressed like cartoon characters. Really, when you dress like that, you're supposed to carry a pillowcase and beg for candy.

I can sum them up in one sentence: They make Eagles fans look intelligent.

Of course, I don't really expect any of them to show up in Baltimore for Sunday's savage beating at the hands of the Ravens. You generally have to be able to work a telephone or a computer to buy a plane ticket.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 9:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)
Categories: Just football
        

Tampa Bay Rays right-hander Matt Garza (left) was voted Most Valuable Player in the American League Championship Series after pitching seven-plus innings and giving up just two hits on the way to a 3-1 victory over the Red Sox in Game 7. Do you agree?

It's hard to argue now, after he won both the pivotal Game 3 and the pressure-packed series finale, but I was hoping they would split the award between Garza and outfielder B.J. Upton, who had four home runs and 11 RBIs in the series. Maybe that would have been more likely if Upton hadn't gone hitless in four at-bats last night, but he has been the most consistent and productive member of the team through both rounds of playoffs.

He'll get his reward. He's closing in on the record for home runs in a single postseason, which is held jointly by Barry Bonds (2002) and Carlos Beltran (2004) with eight. Upton has seven and will have up to seven more games to equal or eclipse the record. If he breaks the record, he will have equaled or exceeded his home run total for the entire regular season (9). Evan Longoria is also in that hunt with six home runs so far in October.

Associated Press photo

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 7:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)
Categories: Just baseball
        

Can't remember the last time I've been so happy to be wrong. It was probably the time I thought Roch Kubatko had developed a weird man-crush on me. This time, it was because the Tampa Bay Rays dodged several bullets last night and pulled out Game 7 of the American League Championship Series.

I truly did not think they had a chance after blowing that seven-run lead in Game 5. In fact, I was so sure the Red Sox would win the final two games, I was willing to bet my entire 401K retirement account on them ... and I would have if there was anything left in it.

Now, I'm sure some of you think that I was just trying to drop a little reverse psychology on the baseball gods by whining for three days that the Rays were going to lose. There may be some truth to that, since I did have a big rooting interest in the series. Joe Maddon (right) is an old friend from my many years covering the Angels, and nobody deserves this more.

Joe spent the bulk of his career in the background as an instructor and coach in California, but he parlayed his reputation as a great organizational guy and the success he had working under Angels manager Mike Scioscia into an opportunity to manage the beleaguered Rays. I'm doubt many people envied him when he got the job.

Great guy. Great night. Great story. And it's not over.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 1:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)
Categories: Just baseball
        

Apparently, my new blog-friend JJ thinks I have time to do his homework for him, and he is right:

JJ's take: Hey Pete, someone mentioned that Flacco is doing no better than Boller during his rookie year or anytime. Can you wrestle up a comparison of the two stat wise at this point of their rookie seasons? Thanks.

Pete's reply: Of course, JJ, your wish is my command. I did a little Internet digging and came up with Kyle's day-by-day from his rookie season in 2003, and here are the statistical lines for both players:

Kyle Boller: 80 completions in 152 attempts for 845 yards and four touchdowns. He threw seven interceptions, fumbled seven times and lost three of the seven fumbles. He averaged 5.56 yards per pass and 141 yards passing per game.

Joe Flacco: 107 completions in 167 attempts for 1,076 yards and two touchdowns. He has thrown seven interceptions, fumbled six times and lost one of the six fumbles. He is averaging 6.44 yards per pass and 179 yards passing per game.

Conclusion: Both players won three of their first six starts. Boller (left) would win two of his next three games to go 5-4 as a starter before getting hurt and missing the next five weeks of the season. The overall numbers, I think, are inconclusive. I'd say they are statistically comparable through their first six starts.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 9:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (31)
Categories: Today's featured comment
        

If I've got to watch one more Red Sox pennant celebration, I'm going to lose my lunch, so I may be forced to watch the Buccaneers play the Seahawks on Sunday Night Football instead of Game 7 of the American League Championship Series. Interesting programming conflict, which nobody could have predicted when the NFL schedule was devised...or the MLB schedule, for that matter.

Well, at least I've got a pretty good chance to see somebody from Tampa celebrating after a victory.

Here are my predictions:

Red Sox 7, Rays 2

Buccanneers 23, Seahawks 13

I'd be just fine with being wrong on both.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 7:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
        

The Ravens scored a solid victory, but the best part was getting it done by 3:50 so that they wouldn't infringe on the Redskins' network broadcast. I'm sure John Harbaugh and Cam Cameron added extra running plays to burn some clock out of deference to the 'Skins.

This was as big a win as everyone was saying it needed to be. The Ravens now are in a position to play a soft team at home next week and -- if they can match today's intensity and execution -- move back above .500 before that string of three straight road games.

Joe Flacco bounced back nicely from last week's indignity against the Colts, but it's a little bit difficult to gauge his development, since the Dolphins are not a marquee team. It's just nice to see him come back and look like he was in control of himself and the offense. Good day all around.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 3:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (37)
Categories: Just football
        

The good: Joe Flacco has not looked like a rookie today, driving the Ravens for a pair of scores and throwing a touchdown pass to Derrick Mason in the final minute of the first half. He's got himself very much under control and the Ravens appear to be in pretty good position to grind out a win.

The bad: Tight end Edgar Jones was shaken up after he was the victim of a late hit out of bounds. Of course, no flag was thrown because the questionable sideline hit was not by a Raven.

The ugly: Antwan Barnes continues to display maturity issues. He was called for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty in the final minute of the half to give the Dolphins great field position -- one decent reception out of field goal range.. Fortunately for the Ravens, it did not lead to any points.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 1:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Just football
        

While we're waiting around for the Red Sox to ruin a perfectly good postseason, there's a little football game coming up that should keep your interest, even though it features a team that went 5-11 last year and a team that went 1-15.

The Ravens, who many thought at the outset would not play any truly meaningful games this year, need to beat the Miami Dolphins to have any reason to look down the road with hope for a truly competitive season. If they lose and fall to 2-4, it's going to be very hard to position themselves for the tough second-half run that includes the Steelers, Jaguars and the four NFC East teams.

My prediction in Friday's paper: Ravens 20, Dolphins 9. I think the Ravens defense has something to prove after last week's fiasco in Indy, and I don't think the Dolphins "Wildcat" offense will be that big of a problem.

Frankly, I've never been that impressed with the Kentucky football program. I'd be a lot more worried if they had adopted the "Trojan" offense, since it scored 69 points against Washington State yesterday. ("BCS, baby! Here we come!")

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Just football
        

First baseman Brandon Snyder had two doubles and two RBI to help the Surprise Rafters of the Arizona Fall League score a 10-9 victory over Phoenix last night. Snyder's 2-for-4 performance raised his average to .444. Matt Wieters went 0 for 4 (.385) and Nolan Reimold went 1 for 4 (.120).

Reliever Chad Thall is still whittling down his ERA after a tough AFL debut a couple of weeks ago, but he's getting there. He worked 2 2/3 scoreless innings last night and struck out four batters.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 9:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Just baseball
        

When Fox contributor Tom Verducci asked Tampa Bay Rays manager Joe Maddon (right) about the situation his team finds itself in -- forced to play a decisive seventh game to get to the World Series after having the ALCS all but wrapped up on Thursday night -- he got a typical upbeat Joe Maddon response.

"We're in a great position,'' Maddon replied. "We're in the seventh game of the ALCS. The first day of spring training, we'd have taken this. We'll see what happens."

I think I know what's going to happen and TBS analyst Dennis Eckersley apparently does, too, since he said before last night's game that if the Rays lost Game 6 they would not be able to recover. Of course, I said on Thursday night that they were toast, so I was a couple days ahead of him.

It isn't unanimous, however, Cal Ripken countered during the postgame show that the Red Sox have used up too much energy getting to this point and will have trouble getting to the finish line. He's picking the Rays tonight. Don't like to gainsay the Iron Man, but he apparently didn't notice that the Rays were so tight they were having trouble making the routine plays in Game 6. They didn't handle the pressure and the pressure is only going to increase tonight.

Getty Images

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Just baseball
        

When the Red Sox closed out Game 6 of the ALCS late last night, they won their ninth straight postseason elimination games under manager Terry Francona (left). They haven't lost a sudden-death playoff game since Aaron Boone's dramatic ALCS home run kept them out of the World Series in 2003, the year before Francona took over the club.

They're the team that will not die, and -- despite the impressive home record of the Tampa Bay Rays -- that sudden-death streak probably will reach 10 tonight when Jon Lester takes the mound for Boston against Rays right-hander Matt Garza.

Garza gave up just a run on six hits to register a huge victory in Game 3 at Fenway Park. Lester gave up five runs (four earned) on eight hits over 5 2/3 innings to get the loss. So, under normal circumstances, you'd think that all the indicators point to the Rays, except that they had nothing to lose on Monday and they have everything to lose in Game 7. They've got the weight of that seven-run collapse two nights ago and it's a lot heavier now than it was before last night's game.

Getty Images

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 12:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Just baseball
        

Still hoping that the Tampa Bay Rays prove me wrong and close out the American League Championship Series, but it's not happening at the moment. They look tight and the normally dependable Jason Bartlett just fielded a high bouncer and sailed a routine throw over the head of first baseman Carlos Pena to keep the sixth inning alive for David Ortiz.

What do you think happened next? Big Papi lined a single to center field to give the Red Sox their second run of the inning after Bartlett homered to tie the game in the fifth.

If you don't believe in momentum, go back an inning and a blown hit-and-run play by the Rays. Why did it go awry...because Josh Beckett's curveball was so bad that the hitter couldn't even swing at it, so catcher Dioner Navarro was thrown out easily at second base. The tide has turned and it probably won't turn back, but the Rays still have four innings to avoid a nerve-fraying seventh game.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 9:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Just baseball
        

Take a look at Jeff Barker's story today on the front of the sports page about the possibility that Redskins fans in Washington could miss the beginning of the 'Skins' 4:15 p.m. game if the Ravens game against the Miami Dolphins runs long.

It isn't going to be pretty if the Ravens game runs long or is a repeat of last year's game and goes into overtime. Of course, Redskins fans, after what the Browns did to the defending world champion New York Giants on Monday night, maybe you should pre-empt yourselves and watch the Home Shopping Network instead. I hear Dan Snyder has subdivided his ego and is selling timeshares.

Schmuck on the air: Be sure and listen to the Peter Schmuck Show today at noon on WBAL (1090 AM). If you're out of the area, you can go to WBAL.com and click on the "Listen Live" icon.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 9:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (21)
Categories: Just football
        

Not a whole lot of chatter coming out of the Warehouse right now, which could mean a couple of things. Either nothing at all is going on during the playoffs or Andy MacPhail is quietly trying to ascertain whether he can sign Brian Roberts to a long-term extension before the trading season begins in earnest. I'm going with the first option. I think MacPhail is still crunching the information he got from the organizational meetings earlier this month.

The free agent market will open in about two weeks, but it will be a big surprise if the O's jump in right at the beginning. I'm guessing the Paul Byrd press conference won't be held until after the winter meetings.

For all the talk about A.J. Burnett and his supposed desire to play in Baltimore, everything Andy MacPhail has been saying about big-money free agent pitchers the past couple of months argues against a free agent of that caliber. Even some of the second-tier pitchers figure to be too expensive. It seems more likely that MacPhail will let the market shake out and become more of a buyer-friendly environment before making his move.

There's already some trade buzz about Jake Peavy (above left), but you'll need a ham radio to hear it in Baltimore. The guy wants to stay in the NL and he's got a full no-trade clause. You do the geography.

There'll probably be some talk about that kind of pitcher over the next few weeks, but the O's are going to skulk around hoping for another waiver steal like Jeremy Guthrie. Then there's always the Rule 5 draft.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 6:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (47)
Categories: Just baseball
        

Orioles top 2008 draft choice Brian Matusz made his second professional appearance for the Surprise Rafters today and gave up three runs over four innings, but only one of the runs was earned and he struck out eight batters. He was not involved in the decision in an 8-7 loss to Phoenix.

Matt Wieters was 2 for 4 with a walk to raise his batting average to .455. He ranks third in the league in that department.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 9:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: Just baseball
        

Since The Baltimore Sun already published my prediction for Sunday's game against the Dolphins (Ravens, 20-9) in today's print editions, consider this just another of my cautionary posts. I've been such a negative guy lately, I don't like me either, but Mike Preston pointed out something in his column that jumped right off the page and slapped me right across my ample visage.

Mike feels the Ravens should throw caution to the wind and pass the ball a lot against the Dolphins because their pass defense ranks 29th in the NFL. That sounds entirely logical until you remember the recent (very recent) history of this Ravens team when facing such a compelling statistical weakness in an opponent.

Weren't the Colts ranked 32th in the NFL against the run when the Ravens arrived in Indy the other day? Weren't we also talking about how bad the Colts were against the run last year and the near before?

The Ravens need to go into Miami with a balanced attack, or they'll walk right into a trap. The Dolphins don't defend the pass well, but they'll defend it a lot better if that's all they have to worry about. They aren't the Colts, who only needed to keep the Ravens under wraps long enough to score 17 points in the first quarter and throw all that game planning went right out the window.

It's OK to try and attack your opponent's weakness, but if the Ravens are a better team than the Dolphins -- and God help them if they aren't -- then they are better off playing their own game than trying to find a particular crack in the Dolphins' defense.

Radio Free Schmuck: If you can stand to hear me talk about current events instead of sports for a few hours, tune in to WBAL (1090 AM) at noon for The Week in Review with me and Clarence Mitchell IV. If you're out of radio range, you can go to WBAL.com and click on the "Listen Live" icon.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 10:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: Just football
        

Let me explain why the Tampa Bay Rays are not going to the World Series, and it's not just some frustrated fan throwing out a fatalistic scenario after a devastating loss. This is a lot of postseason observational experience talking, so listen closely.

I was there in 1986 when the California Angels had 3-1 lead in the ALCS and a three-run lead going into the ninth inning of Game 5 against the Red Sox. They came within a strike of going to the World Series, but the Red Sox came back on a dramatic Dave Henderson home run and the ALCS was over.

It wasn't technically over that day. The Angels were still up three games to two, but the momentum shifted so dramatically that they never recovered. The Red Sox have staged a couple of similar LCS comebacks over the past four years and gone on to win a pair of world titles. They are going to do it again. I hope I'm wrong, but the Rays reached their high-water mark when B.J. Upton hit that two-run double off Jonathan Papelbon to go up 7-0 in the seventh inning last night. The tide shifted on the three-run homer by David Ortiz in the bottom of the inning and there's not going to be any turning back.

The emotional swing reminds me of the Steve Bartman game in 2003 that scuttled the Cubs' best chance in nearly 60 years to reach the World Series. Baseball momentum is a cruel mistress, especially when it comes to teams that are short on postseason experience.

Last year, when the Colorado Rockies were on a historic late-season and postseason roll that included 21 victories in 22 games and seven straight postseason wins, I predicted that once they finally lost, they would not win another game. Their postseason winning streak ended in Game 1 of the World Series and, sure enough, they were never heard from again.

Maybe I just got lucky, but I've watched a lot of postseason baseball and I saw the air come out of the Tampa Bay balloon last night. They were already celebrating the American League pennant in their heads, which is why this loss will take too much out of them to get the job done when they get back to Tropicana Field.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (37)
Categories: Just baseball
        

Not a good day to be an Orioles prospect today in Arizona. Wieters, Nolan Riemold and Brandon Snyder were a combined 0 for 8 in the Surprise Rafters 13-1 loss to the Scottsdale Scorpions. Wasn't too great yesterday either. O's pitching prospect Ryan Keefer reportedly left the game with an apparent elbow injury.

Look for top draft pick Brian Matusz to make his second appearance either today or tomorrow. Matusz pitched three hitless innings in his professional debut on Saturday.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 10:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
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Carlos Pena and Evan Longoria just went back-to-back yard to give the Rays a 5-0 lead in the third. Longoria now is tied with B.J. Upton with six homers in this postseason. One of them is probably going to break the record for homers in a single postseason (maybe tonight). If the Rays end up in the World Series, they'll be playing their road games in another cozy ballpark.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 9:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
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It was something like four minutes into Game 5 of the American League Championship Series when B.J. Upton cranked another ball over the Green Monster. It was his sixth home run of the postseason, just two short of the record of eight hit by Barry Bonds in 2002, and there could be a long way still to go.

The Rays already have hit 17 home runs in the first two playoff series in franchise history. Evan Longoria is one behind Upton with five. That's 11 homers for two guys who aren't even 25 years old yet.

If you want to dream, there are people who think Matt Wieters will soon join them as one of the best young players in the major leagues.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 8:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Just baseball
        

Steelers safety Troy Polamalu (right) apparently has become the spokesman for a new generation of old-school players. He's upset that some of his teammates have been fined for what the NFL considers unnecessary roughness and wonders if the game has gone soft.

"I think regarding the evolution of football, it's becoming more and more flag football, two-hand touch," Polamalu told reporters at the Steelers training facility. "We've really lost the essence of what real American football is about. I think it's probably all about money. They're not really concerned about safety."

Hines Ward (boo-hoo), James Harrison, Nate Washington and Ryan Clark drew fines totalling $45,000 for their conduct in the Steelers Oct. 5 game against Jacksonville, drawing complaints from coach Mike Tomlin and team chairman Dan Rooney.

Polamalu went a step further and said that football is being turned into a "pansy game" and said that the former defensive greats of the game could not have functioned under the current system of discipline.

"When you see guys like Dick Butkus, the Ronnie Lotts, the Jack Tatums, these guys really went after people," Polamalu said. "Now, they couldn't survive in this type of game. They wouldn't have enough money. They'd be paying fines all the time and they'd be suspended for a year after they do it two games in a row. It's kind of ridiculous."

Now, Troy is a former USC guy, so I usually cut him a lot of slack, but he probably took this a little too far. Former Oakland defensive back Jack Tatum provided the rationale for the more protective rules that are in place now when his brutal hit in a preseason game turned Patriots receiver Darryl Stingley into a quadriplegic.

There's no question the NFL has gone a little overboard at times in its attempt to protect the players -- the Terrell Suggs roughing call two weeks ago is a good example -- but the rules against egregious hits are more than justified because today's players are much bigger and faster than they were in the days of Dick Butkus.

Don't you agree? Or would you like to read the entire story before making up your mind?

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 6:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (13)
Categories: Just football
        

I'm still a little banged up after last night's comedy roast, which featured the cream of the Baltimore media (and isn't that damning with faint praise) taking two hours worth of potshots at the big guy in the ugly shirt.

Actually, it was great fun and it was for a great cause. The Cool Kids Campaign (410-560-1770) does nice things for kids with cancer, so if you couldn't come out last night to the Comedy Factory, you can still call and buy a ticket retroactively and tell everybody you were there and we'll totally back you up.

Can't say I minded missing Game 5 of the NLCS, since I was kind of rooting for Joe Torre to get back to the World Series and figuratively thumb his nose at the Yankees for a couple more weeks. No offense to the Phillies, who clearly are the better team and whose fans haven't been all the way to the mountaintop since 1980.

The Red Sox are hanging by a threat, but you can't count them out. They've come back from bigger deficits than this, most notably in their 2004 world title run after they fell behind 3-0 to the Yankees in the ALCS and gave up 19 runs in a Game 3 rout that seemed to signal the end of that series. That said, I'm on the Rays bandwagon big time.

I missed the presidential debate, too, but I'll probably bear up under the disappointment. Sounds like it was a little more interesting than the last one, but given the choice of watching those guys take potshots at each other and having Roch Kubatko, Mark Viviano, Mickey Cucchiella, Pete Eibner, Wes Johnson, Bruce Cunningham, Steve Davis, Stan Charles and Nasty Nestor take their best shots at me, well, it wasn't a tough choice.

Thanks again to The Baltimore Sun for sponsoring the event and to everybody at the Comedy Factory and the Cool Kids Campaign for doing all the heavy lifting. Thanks also to MC Bob Somerby, and special thanks to all my old friends and some new friends for making it such a fun evening.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 10:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)
Categories: Schmuck being Schmuck
        

Orioles prospect Nolan Reimold has not gotten untracked at the Arizona Fall League. He's got just a single and a double in 18 at-bats (.111) Teammate Matt Wieters, meanwhile, has hit safely in every game in which he has appeared (.500) and Class-A first baseman Brandon Snyder had six hits, including a home run, in his first 10 AFL at-bats.

Chad Thall continues to whittle away at the huge ERA that resulted from one horrible outing last week. He gave up one run over 1 2/3 innings, giving up four hits and striking out two to drop his AFL ERA to 12.27.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 9:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Just baseball
        

Ravens coach John Harbaugh clearly isn't about providing bulletin board material for opposing teams, but it doesn't take much when that team was 1-15 last year and its former coach is now the offensive coordinator of the Ravens.

Harbaugh's rather vanilla defense of Cam Cameron's performance in Miami last year didn't sit well with some of the players who were on that team and are now part of a more respectable Dolphins team. Here's what he said:

''He (Cameron) was an effective coach down in Miami last year, even though the results weren't what people were hoping for. He did a great job there with what he had to work with.''

That was about as controversial as a canned food drive. Harbaugh was just using a bland pleasantry to steer around a sensitive issue that is largely irrelevant to anyone outside of the Miami area, but his quote inadvertently opened up some old wounds and became motivational fodder in the Dolphins' locker room.

Here's the story that was posted The Miami Herald's Web site yesterday.

Sun file photo

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 6:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (17)
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Orioles broadcaster Joe Angel is hoping someone can help him recover his 1997 Florida Marlins World Series ring and his 2002 San Francisco Giants National League pennant ring, both of which were snatched from his luggage at some point during his trip home from Baltimore to Florida a couple of weeks ago.

He's kicking himself for packing the two treasured items in his checked baggage, but had gotten into the habit because all of the team's in-season flights are on charter airplanes. Now he's hoping against hope that somebody knows something and comes forward. His name is engraved in both items, so they would be easy to identify.

"It's really sad,'' Angel said. "I'd just like to get the word out in case somebody tries to sell them or pawn them, but I know it'll be a miracle if I get them back."

If anyone has any info, I'll be happy to pass it along.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (15)
        

Frankly, I thought it was just my imagination. Reports of loutish behavior at Philadelphia Eagles home games have been in decline the past few years, but I figured that I just wasn't paying as much attention since coming to an uneasy truce with Eagles fans in 2006.

Turns out, there actually are quantifiable reasons why Eagles fans have become much more genteel since the opening of Lincoln Financial Field. Apparently, they have to be richer to afford tickets and they have to run a three-tiered security gauntlet to prove they're sober enough to enter the stadium. This is documented in a Wall Street Journal article that has shaken my faith in the old Eagles faithful.

It wouldn't be the first time the opening of a new stadium led to the gentrification of a team's fan following. It happened at Camden Yards in the 1990s, but I have to admit I thought Philly would be immune to the wine-and-cheese effect. Please, Eagles fans, say it isn't so!

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 8:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (11)
Categories: Just football
        

So much for everybody's dream World Series matchup. Barring a dual playoff outcome that stretches the limits of probability, Manny Ramirez will not be returning to Fenway Park to thumb his nose at the Red Sox and Joe Torre will not enjoy the ultimate October vindication after being run out of town by the Yankees.

The Dodgers are down three games to one in the NLCS and the Red Sox are getting bullied by the upstart Tampa Bay Rays, who pushed them to the brink of elimination with a resounding 13-4 victory last night at Fenway Park. The Red Sox have a recent history of rebounding in such situations, but the odds against both teams winning three straight are astronomical.

Well, it wasn't everybody's dream anyway. The last-to-first rise of the Rays should be the most compelling and inspiring story, and -- the way they are playing right now -- it might have to be.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 6:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Just baseball
        

Congratulations to all-time Ravens offensive tackle Jonathan Ogden, who will be inducted into the Ravens' Ring of Honor at M&T Bank Stadium during halftime of the Oct. 26 game between the Ravens and Oakland Raiders.

Like you, I was kind of hoping they would lure him out of retirement instead, but this will have to do. Ogden (shown at right at his retirement press conference) was the first-ever draft choice of the Ravens and made the Pro Bowl 11 times. He will be the fifth Raven whose name will don the upper ring of the stadium, joining Earnest Byner (2001), Art Modell (2003), Michael McCrary (2004) and Peter Boulware (2006).

Dueling Steve Davis: I'll be joining Steve Davis on WBAL (1090 AM) tonight after the John Harbaugh Show. The Davis smackdown will begin at 7 and last until he is brow-beaten into submission. If you're outside of broadcast range, go to WBAL.com and click on the "Listen Live" live icon.

Baltimore Sun photo

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 5:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
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Just want to remind everyone that the Schmuck Charity Roast is tomorrow night at the Comedy Factory at Lombard and Light Sts (above Burkes Restaurant). The verbal abuse starts at 8 and there are a lot of people who want to get their licks in, so you better get on the phone and call the Cool Kids Campaign for tickets ($25) at 410-560-1770.

It's a great cause and my ego needs have some air let out of it, so join local media celebrities like Mickey Cucchiella, Bruce Cunningham, Mark Viviano, Steve Davis, "Nasty" Nestor Aparicio, Roch Kubatko and Stan "The Fan" Charles as they take me to task. Comedians Bob Somerby, Pete Eibner and Alabama also will take their best shots when The Schmuck Stops There.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 3:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
        

Just took a look at the CBSSports.com NFL Power Rankings, in which the Tennessee Titans and Pittsburgh Steelers hold the top two positions this week. If memory serves, those were the two teams that beat the Ravens by a field goal before Sunday's ugly loss to the Indianapolis Colts.

The Colts, by the way, are No. 6 out the 32 NFL teams, so the fact that the Ravens are 2-3 isn't quite as damning as it might look right now. There I go, drinking the Kool-Aid again. Next thing you know, I'll be guaranteeing a victory over the Dolphins.

There is a "Who'd a thunk it?" aspect to this week's pecking order. I mean, did anyone think the Buffalo Bills would rank fourth at any time this season -- or this decade, for that matter? Could you have imagined that the Bills and the Arizona Cardinals would be in the top 10 while the Ravens were barely able to stay out of the bottom 10 (No. 20)? Well, you don't have to imagine that anymore.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 2:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Just football
        

...and how often does anybody get to say that. The Browns absolutely humbled the defending world champion New York Giants, 35-14, in an upset victory that probably took a little of the sting out of the disappointing upset losses suffered by the NFC East rival Redskins and Cowboys on Sunday.

The Cleveland secondary picked off Eli Manning (left) three times and made him look a lot like the suddenly embattled rookie quarterback whose three picks on Sunday brought down the wrath of a significant chunk of Ravens Nation.

Let's go to the stats: Joe Flacco completed 28 for 38 passes for 241 yards against an Indianapolis Colts team that is -- despite a sluggish start -- considered a Super Bowl contender. Manning completed 18 of 28 passes for 196 yards against a team that was beaten soundly by the Ravens four weeks ago.

This is not to imply that Flacco played all right on Sunday. He didn't. He looked overmatched for the first time this season. It is, however, important to realize that anyone can have a day like that on the road against an inspired opponent. That's why the scattered calls to replace Flacco with Troy Smith are somewhat premature.

In other words, lay off the kid for a couple more weeks and see how he does against the Dolphins and the Raiders. I'm pretty sure we'll all be back on the Flacco bandwagon before you know it.

Associated Press photo

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Just football
        

That's a quote I got some time ago from Dr. Bobby Brown, the former Yankee who became American League president. I was interviewing him after he ruled lightly on a beanball incident during the 1980s.

The reason I bring that up is because I'm getting some posts about last night's purpose pitch over the head of Phillies hitter Shane Victorino, which almost sparked a brawl during Game 3 of the National League Championship Series at Dodger Stadium.

There are always calls for a zero tolerance policy for that kind of incident, but Brown was pointing out that it's not practical, because of the intensity of the game and the fact that the purpose pitch might actually not be a purpose pitch. It is possible to accidentally throw a ball near someone's head. Just ask Daniel Cabrera.

But the players know which is which and there are going to be times when they handle the situation themselves, which sets up a check and balance system that -- believe it or not -- has worked pretty well over the years.

If the umpires threw every pitcher out who threw a suspicious pitch, it would change the nature of the game dramatically. If you want an example from another sport about the folly of that kind of over-officiating, just go back the Terrell Suggs, roughing call last week. It had a huge impact on the game, even though there was very little actual contact. I don't want the same kind of thing in baseball.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 11:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
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Rookie quarterback Joe Flacco said basically the same thing after each of the Ravens' first four games. Whether the team won or lost, he volunteered that "it was fun."

I wasn't in Indianapolis yesterday, but I'm guessing those words were not in his post-game vocabulary. There is nothing fun about what the Colts did to Flacco and there is nothing positive to be taken from a game like that other than the fact that all of his important ligaments are still intact.

What's important now is not that he is 2-3 in his first five regular-season starts. What is important is how he handles the doubts that have to be bubbling up inside of him and the negative energy that is swirling around the team after such a one-sided defeat. That calm demeanor everybody has been talking about the past few weeks is going to be tested as the fans become impatient and the tenor of the media inquiries becomes more negative.

I'm guessing he can handle it. He came back from the tough loss against the Steelers to hold his own against Tennessee. He'll have an opportunity to bounce back against less formidable competition the next two weeks -- though playing the Dolphins in Miami is going to be no picnic.

The same goes for rookie head coach John Harbaugh, who refused to dissect the individual performances of some of his players after the game. He kept the focus squarely on the team, which was both logical and appropriate, since this hugely disappointing performance was definitely a team effort.

Associated Press file photo

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 6:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (26)
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It was ugly, but it's not what you think. The Ravens came unraveled today, and they looked totally overmatched in their third loss in a row, but it wasn't the kind of game that is a legitimate bellwether for the season.

They weren't blown out at Lucas Oil Stadium because they are a bad team. They were blown out because the Colts are a good team that finally woke up after sleepwalking through the first quarter of the season. Peyton Manning actually looked like Peyton Manning. He put points up early. And the Ravens are not the kind of team -- at least not yet -- that can come back from an early 17-point deficit against a quality opponent.

So, what do you take out of game like that? Not much. About all you can do is chalk it up as another coordinate on the Joe Flacco learning curve. He still has some distance to go to become a solid NFL quarterback, but he wasn't the reason the Ravens got blown out. This was a team loss if ever there was one.

Flacco (at right, after a bad exchange with running back Ray Rice) threw three picks. The Ravens put the ball on the ground several times and were fortunate to lose just two fumbles. The depleted secondary was carved up like an early Halloween pumpkin. The Colts won the battle of the special teams ... which created a huge disparity in field position. About the only positive thing that happened in the game for the Ravens was Matt Stover making his only field-goal attempt.

Everyone, deep down, knew there would be games like this, but it's particularly galling when the Ravens have that kind of game against the Colts.

All that said, they'll bounce back and win in Miami next week. I guarantee it.

Associated Press photo

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 3:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (72)
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It's been a very tough afternoon for Ravens cornerback Chris McAllister, and it's still early in the third quarter. He got torched by Marvin Harrison for the first Colts touchdown of the game and was left behind again on a short TD pass in the second quarter. He might have given up another first-half touchdown after he bit on a Peyton Manning pump fake, but the pass was just out of Harrison's reach.

Normally, you have to go Scores to see somebody get undressed that fast.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 2:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
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We're just a few minutes into the game between the Ravens and Colts, and I'm very concerned about something -- what appears to be a heavy-handed plan to make sure Flacco doesn't throw any more interceptions.

The CBS analysts pointed out that the Ravens included drills this week that forced Flacco to throw the ball away instead of into coverage. I guess that's logical after some of the interceptions he's thrown, but the last thing you want to do is suck the aggressiveness out of him at this point in his career.

He looked tentative on the Ravens' second possession, which is the last thing you want to see against a team that is going to put some points up -- as Peyton Manning just did with his long TD pass to Marvin Harrison. This is no time for the Ravens to play it close to the hip, unless the their goal is to make sure they don't lose by too much.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 1:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (41)
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My prediction for today's showdown between the Ravens and the Colts is already in print, and it isn't a happy one. I fear the Colts will prevail by a score of 24-16, but the oddsmakers say the game will be closer. The last time I looked, the Ravens were only a 3 1/2-point underdog.

If it's any consolation, the line moved slightly toward the Ravens this weekend, probably when it became official that Colts safety Bob Sanders would be out for the third straight week following arthroscopic knee surgery, though that was no great surprise.

For the Ravens to win, they have to exploit the Colts' mediocre defense against the run and keep Peyton Manning from having his way all day. The Colts merely have to reconstitute their offensive chemistry and put 20 points on the scoreboard against a Ravens secondary that again is decimated by injuries. That simple.

Big question: Can the Ravens maintain their defensive intensity after the team came up three points short in back-to-back bruising games against the Steelers and Titans?

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 9:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)
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In case you nodded off, the Rays and Red Sox played well into this morning in Game 2 of the American League Championship Series before the Rays evened the series with a 9-8 victory in 11 innings. It isn't often that a 5 1/2-hour baseball game is worth the wait, especially one that doesn't start until nearly 9 p.m., but at least it wasn't a school night.

What figured to be another low-scoring game like the night before turned into a meteor shower that left both Red sox starter Josh Beckett and Rays starter Scott Kasmir wondering what hit them.

Dustin Pedroia hit a pair of homers for the Red Sox and presumptive American League Rookie of the Year Evan Longoria (right) parlayed a personal pep talk from manager Joe Madden into a 3-for-5 performance that included a home run and two doubles.

The two teams combined for seven home runs, which tied a postseason record that was first set during the 1989 "Earthquake Series" between the San Francisco Giants and Oakland A's. It might have ended at a semi-reasonable hour if not for a wild pitch that scored Pedroia with the tying run in the eighth inning, but that was the only blemish on a terrific 3 1/3-inning relief outing by Tampa Bay's Dan Wheeler.

The Rays finally won in the bottom of the 11th on a shallow sacrifice fly ball by B.J. Upton that scored speedy pinch runner Fernando Perez and sent the ALCS to Boston tied at a game apiece.

Getty Images

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 2:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)
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Today's featured comment comes from Brandon, who was pretty jazzed that Matt Wieters is dominating another league:

Brandon's take: Unreal. this kid is going to be the greatest Orioles player ever!

Pete's take: I think we can all agree that we love to hear somebody express this kind of enthusiasm for an Orioles prospect, but that's a lot to put on the kid. The last 11 years notwithstanding, this is a team with a lot of Hall of Famers in its history. Let's start with Wieters making the team next spring and go from there.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 6:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)
Categories: Today's featured comment
        

No. 1 draft choice Brian Matusz made his professional debut today for the Surprise Rafters of the Arizona Fall League and he didn't disappoint. He pitched three hitless innings against the Mesa Solar Sox, striking out one. The game is in the seventh inning right now, with the Rafters holding a 2-1 lead. It hasn't been a great day for Orioles prospects Matt Wieters and Nolan Reimold, who are a combined 1 for 7.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 5:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Just baseball
        

Orioles No. 1 draft choice Brian Matusz is scheduled to make his professional debut for the Surprise Rafters of the Arizona Fall League this afternoon at 2:35 p.m., facing the Mesa Solar Sox.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 1:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Just baseball
        

We're going to get rid of two more undefeated teams in the Top 25 today, because undefeated Texas (5-0) is going against top-ranked Oklahoma (5-0) this afternoon and Oklahoma State (5-0) is at No. 3 Missouri (5-0) tonight.

This is what I've been reduced to since then-No. 1 Southern Cal got knocked off by (ugh1) Oregon State a couple of weeks ago. There are eight BCS-possible undefeated teams left, and I need seven of them to lose to open a possible slot in the BCS title game for my Trojans.

Yes, I realize most of you don't give a hoot about my favorite college football team, but if you're a fan of any of the top 15 teams in the two major polls, this stuff matters. I'm also a big college football fan in general, so I love these big matchups.

Radio free Schmuck: Please join me for my WBAL (1090 AM) talkshow today at noon. I'll be talking playoff baseball and previewing the Ravens/Colts game. If you aren't in the area, you can also listen by going to WBAL.com and clicking on the "Listen Live" icon.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 11:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Just football
        

If you're an Orioles fan, you've got to hope that every pitcher in the Orioles organization was watching last night's ALCS opener between the Boston Red Sox and Tampa Bay Rays, because Daisuke Matsuzaka put on a clinic on pitching out of trouble.

Not that he was in trouble much. He took a no-hitter into the seventh before giving up back-to-back singles to Carl Crawford and Cliff Floyd with no one out, but it was how he deconstructed that budding rally that makes him such a great pitcher. He pitched like all the pressure was on the Rays, who were trailing by one run and looked like they were about to take control of the game.

Dice-K got Dioner Navarro to pop out to short left field, then struck out Gabe Gross in what probably was the most important at-bat of the game. The key is his absolutely unflappable demeanor. He never gives in, as evidenced by the pitch that Gross swung through for the second out. It probably would have been ball four, loading the bases, but he went on to get Jason Bartlett on a routine grounder.

Matsuzaka got into one of his typical first-inning jams by walking the bases loaded, but also got the outs he needed to keep the Rays off the scoreboard. The combination of his large pitch selection and his ability to change speeds makes him almost unbeatable. But it is his terrific focus and inner calm that makes him a truly special pitcher, though you only need look at his 18-3 regular season record and 2.90 ERA in baseball's toughest division to know that.

The Rays also got two runners on with none out in the eighth against Matsuzaka, but he didn't get the chance to work out of that jam. Sox manager Terry Francona went to his bullpen for Hideki Okajima, setting up the situation that was documented in my earlier post today.

Getty Images

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 9:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Just baseball
        

Don't know if you stayed up for the late innings of the ALCS opener, but if you did you were probably wondering the same thing I was when the Tampa Bay Rays outsmarted themselves in the eighth inning and suffered a 2-0 home loss to the Red Sox as a result.

The Rays were trailing by two runs with baserunners at first and second, no one out and Boston reliever Hideki Okajima behind 3-0 on the count to Tampa slugger Carlos Pena. What happened next defies logical explanation.

Everybody in the ballpark and millions of television viewers knew that Pena would be taking the next pitch. Okajima obviously was struggling with his command and the tying run was not yet in scoring position, so the opportunity to load the bases with Evan Longoria on deck was too good to be true.

Except that manager Joe Maddon (right) apparently gave Pena the green light and Pena swung at a pitch up -- and maybe out of -- the strike zone. He hit a routine fly ball to right and Longoria followed by pounding another pitcher's pitch into the ground for an inning-ending double play. It was the third time the Rays were in a position to take control of the game and they let the Red Sox off the hook each time.

It's way too early to say the upstart Rays aren't ready for prime time, but they looked very much like a team that's never been in this situation before, while the Red Sox looked like the defending World Champions that they are. We'll have to wait and see if there's a trend forming.

Getty images

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 7:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
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Four games into the Arizona Fall League schedule, Matt Wieters is doing what he did at two different levels of the Orioles' minor league system. He went 4-for-4 yesterday and reached base three times today on a single and two walks. He has hit safely in all three games in which he has appeared and is batting .667. He entered today leading the league in batting average.

Teammate Brandon Snyder, the Orioles' Single-A player on the Surprise Rafters, is also off to a nice start at the plate, with four hits (two doubles) in seven at-bats for a .571 average. Nolan Reimold is 1-for-7.

Still waiting for the AFL debuts of this year's top draft choice, Brian Matusz, and Bowie reliever Ryan Keefer. Chad Thall bounced back from a rocky first outing to give up a run and strike out two in one inning of work today. Bob McCrory has made one appearance and he's given up two unearned runs over 2/3 of an inning.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 9:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)
Categories: Just baseball
        

Today's featured comment comes from Almost Believin', who took offense to my end of the conversation about Sarah Palin being invited to drop the ceremonial first puck by the Philadelphia Flyers tomorrow night at the Wachovia Center:

Almost Believin's take: Sorry Mr. Schmuck, but you lost me with your comments in response to the Palin on Ice comments. In my opinion, your comments were out of line for a sportswriter. I might come back and read your stuff in the future, but I probably will not.

Pete's reply: Are you really that sensitive? I was told that the blogosphere was like the Wild West, where anything is fair game (within reason). Frankly, though I appreciate your participation, if you don't have the stomach for somebody disagreeing with you, I'm not going to shed any tears at your departure. I like a lively conversation and I'm not going to censor myself because some fans aren't tough enough to handle it. I'm tough enough to take criticism every day in this blog -- and I post all of it unless it libels someone else or includes words I'm not allowed to publish -- so I expect no less for from you. If you can't stand the heat, go ahead and get out of the kitchen.

Bonus Schmuck explanation: I'm a little surprised at the response to the Palin item, which was viewed by a lot of people as some kind of endorsement. In the item, I clearly questioned the contention by the Flyers owner that it was not a political event, and I cited the Philly.com poll that said 60-plus percent of the respondents disapproved of it. I didn't make a single, positive editorial comment about Palin. The only thing I can think of in the comments section that might have offended this poster was my criticism of another poster for calling Palin a derisive name. I would have done the same if he had directed that kind of verbal abuse to any of the candidates. I agree with some of the posters that it would be inappropriate of me to spend time on the blog trying to impose my political beliefs on anybody, and I will not do that. In that realm, I even bore myself.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 5:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)
Categories: Today's featured comment
        

Orioles officials are returning from Sarasota, Fla., where they spent the past four days in organizational meetings aimed at positioning the team to make trades and compete for free agent players this winter. Andy MacPhail was basically getting all of his ducks in a row, but you have to wonder if the worldwide economic downturn will impact the team's budget.

The Orioles are in the midst of an economic downturn of their own. Total attendance dropped below two million this year for the first time in the history of Camden Yards and viewership of the team's regional sports network has been disappointing. This might be the ultimate case of needing to spend money to make money, but it's going to be hard to project revenues going forward because of the effect the greater economic crisis might have on the team's fan base, which could have a chilling effect on any payroll increase.

I'm pretty sure the Orioles can afford to add a couple of starting pitchers and sign a shortstop, but we'll have to wait and see if they're still willing to do so.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 1:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (25)
Categories: Just baseball
        

Former NFL kicker Morten Anderson, who retired as the game's all-time leading scorer, wants to go out again, this time as the oldest player ever to appear in the NFL. He wants to do that by kicking one extra point in the Dec. 7 game between the New Orleans Saints and Atlanta Falcons, two teams he played with for a total of 21 seasons.

Anderson would be 48 years and 110 days old, one day older than George Blanda was when he played in his final game on Jan. 4. That would require a roster exemption from the league and the Saints would have to be willing to go along for the short ride.

Personally, I hope they aren't. Blanda deserves the distinction of being the oldest player ever for one important reason. He wasn't just a kicker. He was also a quarterback of some note who threw 236 touchdown passes in his career -- the last when he was 47 years old.

Radio free Schmuck: Join me, Kendel Ehrlich and Clarence Mitchell IV for The Week in Review on WBAL today at noon. If you're out of radio range, you can go to www.WBAL.com and click on the "Listen Live" icon.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 11:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Just football
        

Just a few not-so-random thoughts before I head over to McDonald's to spend the rest of my 401K:

The Ravens can beat the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday, but if you forced me to bet my house on one team or the other, I'd have to go with the Colts. I'd even give the four points and then root against myself because the Ravens really need this game.

Colts defensive end Dwight Freeney did not participate in practice on Wednesday or Thursday because of a hamstring injury. I never wish for any athlete to miss a game because of injury, but I really think it would be in Freeney's best long-term interests to be placed on the inactive list this week. I say that out of sincere concern for the guy's welfare. Really. I mean that.

I took quite a beating two seasons ago when I wrote a column suggesting that it was time for Baltimore sports fans to let go of their animosity toward the Indianapolis Colts. Two years later, I'll concede that it would be a lot easier if the Ravens spanked them on Sunday.

Offensive coordinator Cam Cameron hinted the other day that the Ravens might open up the offense a little more against the Colts. We can only hope. If 10 points wasn't enough overcome the Tennessee Titans and a key personal foul call on the final drive of the game, that probably won't be enough against Peyton Manning.

The Colts do seem particularly vulnerable with Bob Sanders out and Freeney doubtful, but if Manning and his offense start to click, you might as well crawl into a big bag of Doritos. I'll be doing that either way.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 6:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (19)
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Whether you like him or not -- and there are a lot of people who don't -- you can't say Fox broadcaster Tim McCarver always toes the company line.

McCarver's harsh appraisal of Manny Ramirez made national headlines and was a top story on just about every sports show last night. He called Manny's maneuvering to get out of Boston "despicable," and essentially reminded everyone in Los Angeles that -- as happy as they are right now to have the re-energized Manny -- they might be dancing with the devil.

The truth is, Manny's behavior in Boston was despicable and baseball commissioner Bud Selig should have stepped in to protect the integrity of the game when it became obvious he was altering his performance (players call it "jaking") to force the Red Sox to trade him.

The other truth is, the Fox network is thrilled how it all worked out, because the NLCS features a traditional matchup between two cornerstone National League franchises from huge media markets. Tonight, we'll get to see how the whole situation is presented during the opener at Citizens Bank Ballpark.

More Schmuck Live: I'll be filling in for Steve Davis again tonight on Sportsline from 6-9 on WBAL (1090AM). Football analyst Stan White joins me for "Ravens Gameplan" 8 to 9 to break down Sunday's game against the Colts. If you're out of the area or away from your radio, you can go to WBAL.com and click on the "Listen Live" icon.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 4:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)
Categories: Just baseball
        

I'm pretty sure a lot of O's fans know the answer to this fairly easy trivia question. Phillies outfielder Jayson Werth (left) was a first-round pick (22nd overall) by the Orioles in the 1997 draft and was eventually traded to the Toronto Blue Jays for pitcher John Bale without having made a major league appearance in an O's uniform.

He was traded to the Dodgers for Jason Frasor in 2004 and signed with the Phillies as a free agent two years ago. It's been a long and difficult road to his place now as an everyday player on an NLCS team, and he came full-circle when the same GM (Pat Gillick) who drafted him into the Orioles organization signed him in Philadelphia.

Getty Images

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 3:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)
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Self-described "Hockey Mom" and Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin will drop the ceremonial first puck when the Philadelphia Flyers open the NHL season on Saturday against the New York Rangers.

Here's the Associated Press story from Philly.com, in which Flyers owner and John McCain supporter Ed Snider tries to explain why this isn't just a partisan political photo opportunity.

Can't imagine it's sitting well with Democratic VP candidate Joe Biden, who is the U.S. Senator from Delaware but spent the vice presidential debate talking so much about his roots in the election battleground state of Pennsylvania that I started to wonder if (as Roger Clemens put it) I mis-remembered his state affiliation.

Don't know how this will play from a political standpoint, but it isn't playing well on Philly.com, where a reader feedback poll is running 62 percent against the idea.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 12:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (14)
        

Today's timely featured comment comes from Birdland Todd, who wonders if there is a fairer way to incorporate a wild card team into the baseball playoff format:

Todd's take: Pete, I like the wild card, but I don't like the fact that, other than not having home field advantage, there is difference being a division winner or wild card. I wish the season was cut short to 152-155 games (not going to happen, I know) and have two wild card teams that play a best out of three series and that winner plays the team with best record and the team with the second best record plays the third best team. This way if you make it to the series as a wild card team, YOU EARNED IT.

The other thing that a 152-155 game season would do is allow the games (not wild card) to be seven-game series, as this five game format is crazy. I get that we can't have games going on in the middle of November, but if they cut spring training and cut the schedule, I think the post season would be even more special.

Pete, is there any talk about changes and what is your take?

Pete's reply: I agree that the Division Series should be best of seven, but the powers that be aren't looking for competitive purity here, they're trying to make it possible for a weak second-place team to win the World Series. That was the point from the start, so that small-market teams would have more of an avenue to compete. It's not fair to the team that won 100 games and ran away with its division title, but that's not going to change.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 10:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)
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If you haven't already heard, Ravens coach John Harbaugh has taken the maybe out of Joe Flacco's status as the Ravens starting quarterback, confirming yesterday that Flacco will be the Ravens starter for the remainder of the season.

Take a look at the story by Baltimore Sun football writers Jamison Hensley and Edward Lee for the particulars and Flacco's typical low-key reaction to the news.

Once again, I think Harbaugh really gets the interpersonal side of being a head coach, even if he's still growing into the job after only five weeks of the regular season. With Troy Smith finally ready to practice and five of the next six games on the road, he obviously wants Flacco looking forward instead of over his shoulder. I'm guessing Harbaugh also wants to send a message to the team and the fans that -- regardless of the costly mistakes Flacco has made during the past two games -- there is no organizational doubt about Flacco's status as the team's quarterback of the present and the future.

This might not sit well with Smith, but it can't be a surprise to anyone else. Flacco was drafted to be the QB of the future. Once he was forced into service because of the injury to Kyle Boller and the illness that sidelined Smith, there really was no turning back.

Baltimore Sun photo

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)
Categories: Just football
        

Twelve-year-old Zachary Sharples is such a big Tampa Bay Rays fan, when the Rays took a two-game lead in their Division Series against the Chicago White Sox, he decided to show solidarity with the Rays players and get a "Ray-Hawk" haircut for Game 3.

So, the Manatee, Fla., seventh-grader shaved the sides of his head and sprayed his hair blue to watch the game on Sunday, then washed out the temporary dye in time for school on Monday. Unfortunately, that wasn't good enough. When he arrived at Lincoln Middle School, he was hit with an in-school suspension for violating the school's dress code -- even though a mohawk haircut is not specifically against school rules.

The principal of the middle school insisted that Sharples either cut the rest of his hair off or serve an in-school suspension until it grows back. He acted under a rule that prohibits haircuts and clothing that might be disruptive or distracting to other students.

That's silly, of course, but I'm not going to throw the principle under the bus. We live in a world where he can't make an exception, or some lawyer is going to show up the next time he has a perfectly good reason to enforce the school's dress code. He's just lucky the eighth graders haven't formed a Manny Ramirez fan club.

Here's the story from the Bradenton Herald.

Schmuck Live: I'll be filling in for Steve Davis the next two evenings on Sportsline from 6-9 on WBAL (1090AM). Former NFL star Qadry Ismael joins me for the entire program tonight, and we'll also have guest appearances from golfer Gary Koch and former Ravens star Tony Siragusa. If you're out of the area or away from your radio, you can go to www.WBAL.com and click on the "Listen Live" icon.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 5:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)
Categories: Just baseball
        

Bonds likes freedom from baseball: In an SI.com story, Barry Bonds says that he has had fun during his first full season out of baseball and is enjoying his freedom from the game.

Barry, of course, may have to enjoy his freedom while he can. He's still awaiting trial on 14 counts of making false statements to a grand jury and one count of obstruction of justice. I also think, by and large, baseball fans have enjoyed their freedom from him.

IOC to test doping samples from Beijing: The International Olympic Committee is going to retroactively test for a new blood-boosting drug that was first detected during the Tour de France. Like you, I'm shocked and dismayed to hear that international cycling isn't on the up and up.

Misty May Treanor injured "Dancing": Olympic Gold medalist Misty May Treanor apparently ruptured her Achilles tendon prepping for an episode of Dancing With the Stars. And you used to scoff at reality TV.

Rumors are flying that Kim Kardashian (right) will return to the show to take Misty's place. Maybe Kim -- who's famous for what, actually? -- picked up some moves watching boyfriend Reggie Bush return two punts for touchdowns on Monday Night Football. She certainly loves being in front of the camera.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 11:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)
Categories: Schmuck being Schmuck
        

For those Orioles fans who are already going through withdrawal, the Arizona Fall League opened yesterday, and Matt Wieters had a triple and a walk in four plate appearances in his first start behind the plate. Nolan Reimold (0-for-2) and Wieters batted third and fourth for the Surprise Rafters in a 10-3 loss to the Peo Javelinas.

Bowie reliever Chad Thall struggled through one inning in relief of Rangers pitcher Willie Eyre, giving up three runs on seven hits. Yankees prospect Phil Hughes pitched five innings and gave up one hit for the Javelinas.

Top 2008 Orioles draft choice Brian Matusz (right) will be making his professional debut soon in the area where he grew up, and talked about that in an article on the Baseball America Web site that you can read right here.

USA Baseball photo

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 2:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (13)
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This didn't take long. The lead story on the Cubs page on the Chicago Sun-Times Web site today is titled Cubs could have used Roberts and speculates that the Cubs might have won their Division Series against the Dodgers if they had the Orioles second baseman (right) to add some balance to their largely right-sided batting order.

It's probably a dead issue this winter. The Cubs and Orioles went back and forth on a possible trade before the 2008 season, but the Cubs used some of the talent from that unfinished deal to acquire Rich Harden from the Oakland A's.

As for the notion that Roberts might have made a major difference in the postseason, the logic breaks down pretty quickly. Though the Cubs won the NL Central by 7 1/2 games, you can't unwind the Harden deal and assume they would have cruised into the playoffs. He was 5-1 with a 1.77 ERA in his 12 starts after the deal and helped stabilize the starting rotation down the stretch.

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Posted by Peter Schmuck at 3:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (30)
Categories: Just baseball
        

This is what happens when none of the Division Series goes all five games. There's no baseball tonight, so I'll have to watch the town hall debate between