Do the 2020 Terps Have What it Takes to Go Back to Atlanta?

Let’s talk Terps, shall we? Let’s. Talk. Terrrpppssss! Let’s Gooooooo Mary-LAND… 

For my money this has been the most exciting season in a long time, perhaps since the Greivis era when we thought the Terps could make a deep run in the tournament. In the 2009-10 season, the Greivis-led Terps (with Eric Hayes, Sean Mosely, Jordan Williams, Landon Milbourne, remember those guys?) went 23-8, 13-3 in the ACC and lost to Michigan St. in the second round of the tournament on a last second 3-pointer. Man that one stung. Michigan St. went on to a Final Four run and I always felt that that Maryland team could have done the same but alas, it wasn’t to be.

In 2015, the Terps, in their first year in the Big Ten (or B1G, which, side note, has 14 teams) went 26-5, 14-4 B1G and also lost in the round of 32, this time to West Virginia in a game that wasn’t real close. That Terps team also gave us lots of thrills, led by then freshman sensation Melo Trimble and tough-as-nails senior Dez Wells. 

Do we dare get our hopes up this season for a return trip to Atlanta for the Final Four? … Site of the 2002 Final Four, where my favorite team of any kind ever, the Juan Dixon-Lonny Baxter-Chris Wilcox-Byron Mouton-Steve Blake-Drew Nicholas-and-I’ll-throw-in-Tahj Holden Terps, coached by Gary Williams, I miss him, closed the whole deal, running through, ahem, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Connecticut, Kansas, and Indiana in the process. I could write 3,000 words without Googling much about that team, but suffice to say they provided memories for a lifetime for Terps fans; but since that time, we’ve been searching and hoping for similar magic.  

By the way, in writing this, I keep going to Wikipedia to remember some names and records and then I remember other things from other seasons, especially THAT 01-02 season. Here’s a video I made from the last game ever at Cole, where Ron Herbst and I went to pretty much every home game. Scroll to about 4:20 to see me and Herbst choking up about the Terps as the curtain closes on the regular season and Cole Field House. Go to this one and scroll to about the 1-minute mark to see Herbst with Scott Van Pelt, with hair, standing outside Cole. 

OK, snapping back to 2020, where I’m 50 (Jesus) and don’t broadcast Terps pre-game shows anymore (I did that for a couple seasons) or drive down to CP for games as much anymore (because life?) but I still make watching Maryland basketball appointment TV,  and still text things like “we’re gonna lose” or “I’m freaking out” or “why can’t good things happen for us?” during games to Terps fan friends. 

But here’s the thing or A thing about the 2019-20 Terps: good, fun, magical things ARE happening to and for this team and it’s past time to recognize that and have fun with it and appreciate it, even if writing this long about Maryland basketball for the first time in about a decade for me is likely to jinx them but that’s just a chance I’m gonna have to take.

If your heart can handle it, it’s been a really fun and memorable season. And here, let’s stop for a moment to recognize that if you only put stock in how far your team goes in the tournament in order to evaluate whether or not it was a ‘good’ season, I think you miss out on the joy and the fun of a great ride. One team will win the Final Four, but even if Maryland loses in the first round of the tournament (OK that would suuuuck), it’s been a lot of fun and thrills already to follow this edition of the Terps. According to this article in the Washington Post, they’ve won 7 games this season after trailing at the half, and in three of those, they trailed by 14 or more points. None was more surprising or shocking or thrilling or fun (if you stayed up, @bruce smith, sorry) than the 74-73, did-that-really-just-happen win at Minnesota on Wed. night. For the love of Bentley’s that was fun (I was always more of a Sante Fe guy, didn’t actually go to Maryland, by the way, went to JMU went Lefty got there, I did take one graduate school course and then dropped out to go work at Advantage Int’l; got a B in statistics, so there’s that). 

Anyway, right now, as I write this, ESPN is setting up shop in College Park for a GameDay Terps-a-palooza at Xfinity Center (I miss Cole Field House), Maryland is ranked 9th in the nation with a 23-5 record and sits stop the BIG 14 with a league record of 13-4. In the latest Bracketology they are predicted to be a 2 seed but still have 3 tough games - home vs. Michigan St. and Michigan and at Rutgers (17-1 at home) remaining. 

Here are some things I love about this team:

Anthony Cown’s grit. Cowan is the Terps’ senior starting point guard, he’s started every game since he got to College Park; he’s the kind of player who opposing teams must feel like is in his 10th season… and he’s a joy to watch. Cowan is undersized at a listed 6-feet (I doubt it) and he’s lightning quick, fearless, and the team’s undeniable leader. He has made some HUGE shots this season, none bigger than when he took over at Michigan State and made three threes in the final minutes to lead the Terps to a big win. Cowan’s downside is that he sometimes gets a little cold from the floor and his size can, at times, hinder his ability to finish at the basket after he beats his man off the dribble, which he can do to pretty much anyone. I love Cowan, he’s our guy, maybe just maybe, in the same way that Juan Dixon was our guy in 2002. In that season, Dixon, at a certain point, just took over and decided that Maryland basketball wasn’t going to lose anymore. I hope Cowan can do that for the 2020 Terps.

The evolution of Jalen Smith, aka Stix. Fun fact… my nephew Jake Abel worked out with Stix and a private coach when Jake was about 12 and Stix was 10. At the time, Jake was a sharp-shooting guard and Stix was a gangly, well, 10-year-old. Jake is a wonderful young guy and a playground hoops beast I am sure, but will go on to success in life in ways not involving basketball. Stix is now 6-10 and ripped and became a superstar before our eyes this season. He’s not skinny any longer and he’s not just a leaper, shot blocker, rim protector and low-post guy; the big man has a soft touch, shoots 36% from 3 and can handle himself anywhere on the court. My only complaint about Stix is that sometimes he doesn’t DEMAND or get the ball enough. Of all of the Maryland players, he is the clearest NBA prospect and will likely leave this season and get drafted somewhere in the teens. Which is fine, because he should leave to pursue a professional career, but it is unfortunate (for fans) that we don’t get to see guys like Stix continue to develop in college anymore. 

Who doesn’t love Darryl Morsell, our ‘glue guy?’ Morsell has a lot of Byron Mouton in him, doesn’t he? Plays sticky D, hustles at all times and seems like a great team guy. His game-winning 3 at Minnesota will go down as one of the greatest endings to a regular season Maryland game in history, that was so cool. And Morsell just seems like the kind of guy every championship team needs; the kind of player that guards the other team’s toughest player and steps up in key moments. Morsell isn’t a pure shooter and might be a tad undersized as a forward, but perhaps it doesn’t matter; he’s got a ton of heart and he’s fun to root for. 

There’s really only 3 more players on this Maryland team who Turgeon trusts, and they are Aaron Wiggins, Eric Ayala and freshman ‘he might be great’ Donta Scott. Each has had big moments this season and have drifted in and out of prominence. Wiggins might be the biggest X factor. He’s a streaky shooter who is also, by the way, 6-6 and a solid defender but shooting only 37% this season, which isn’t great. Wiggins was on NBA first round watch lists when the season started… he might become that guy and I’m sure he feels he still has a lot to prove. This is not entirely a bad thing. So… if Wiggins can find that stroke down the stretch, he makes Maryland really hard to beat. 

Ayala… very solid sophomore guard who sometimes is great and sometimes disappears but Maryland obviously needs him to take pressure off Cowan in terms of ball handling; and Donta Scott is the kind of guy who will likely emerge next year as a star; right now he’s like the fourth option on offense but I just get the feeling that Donta Scott has a ton of game we haven’t seen yet. 

Finally, let’s talk about Coach Mark Turgeon and the Turg era. Do we like this guy? Do we believe in him? Guess how many seasons Turgeon has been at Maryland? Four or five, right? Wrong, it’s been 9. Nine! The knock is that he hasn’t made a deep run in the tournament. And the fiery Gary Williams, who took Maryland to the promised land, was never going to be an easy act to follow. But let’s give some credit where it’s due; Turgeon has kept Maryland mostly ranked and relevant during his tenure and has brought some big-time players to College Park. 

I have issues with end-of-game and end-of-half execution sometimes, but coaches only can do so much. At the end of the day, or game, it’s the players who have to make plays. The way Morsell and Cowan and Stix and Ayala and Wiggins and Scott have done this season. They’ve battled and you have to give credit to Turgeon for keeping his team fighting even when they get down -- and for some reason they regularly get down -- and then battle to the end, and win a whole lot more than they lose. 

I mean, what do we want from the teams we root for? To win every game? To be invincible champions? That would be nice but it isn’t real, that isn’t how this works. So what Turg has delivered is a high quality team that fights and wins a lot more than it loses. He’s put a team on the floor that has delivered some amazing memories and wins; a team that seems to really love playing together and might just be GREAT or historic. This team might be good enough to go to Atlanta. And they might not, because that’s sports. So I’ll take it, and if you love Maryland basketball, you should be excited about this team, and appreciative of the job that Turgeon has done. He, and they, have earned it.  

LET’S GO TERPS!!!! 

Little League, Big Dreams

Little League, Big Dreams

Few experiences I’ve had in sports - from playing on great and awful teams as a kid to witnessing Super Bowls and Final Fours as an adult - measure up to the intensity of the championship game I coached, and lost, in the Roland Park Baseball League this week. And as in business and life, you often learn more from the mistakes and the tough losses than the wins, so I thought I’d share.

Allow me to set the stage. I coach my 10-year-old son’s team in the American League of RPBL, which is for kids who are mostly 11 and 12 (some are still 10 and some turn 13 during the season). This is in an interesting age group because you have kids who have already hit their growth spurt and look like man children; and those (like my son) who are still on their way up. As a result, you witness comical confrontations like a four-foot-seven, 75-pound pitcher facing a five-foot-eight, 165-pounder hitter. Often enough, the little guy wins.

This season our Vikings were the little guys, mostly younger kids for this group. But we had talent and solid pitching, and enjoyed a winning season, finishing 8-5-1 and in fourth place in a 12-team league. We went on a run in the playoffs, winning two games and advancing to the championship game against the Falcons, a team largely composed of older, bigger kids. They were 13-2 overall and the No. 1 seed.

It was an epic Little League game, with parents and family and friends lining the newly built and beautiful Roland Park Baseball home field in Mt. Washington. If you haven’t seen it, this field is right out of a Norman Rockwell painting; it’s perfect, tucked away in a wooded lot with with an outfield fence in right, towering yellow foul poles, dugouts, and even an old school scoreboard.

The night of the game, I saw, for the first time, the charity brick I had purchased to honor my late grandfather. It read, “In Memory of Daniel Abel, Baseball Fan.”

I got a little chill when I saw it - my grandfather was our family’s first baseball fan. He must have listened to thousands of Orioles games on a transistor radio. He took his kids - my dad and his brother - to the welcome parade when the Orioles came to Baltimore in 1954. When my father showed up to see his grandson’s game that night, I showed the brick to him. He didn’t know I had purchased it. And, wearing his City College reunion baseball cap, he just nodded in appreciation and said thanks. I felt good.

And then it was time to play the game. Our boys played hard and well, and thanks to some great defensive plays and opportunistic hits (and walks) we took a 4-2 lead ino the bottom of the the sixth, the last inning. But as fate would have it, that’s when the Falcons’ bats came alive. With one out in the bottom of the inning, the Falcons had tied the score, 4-4 and had runners on second and third, with first base open.  

I convened with my assistant coaches and we agreed to intentionally walk the next batter to load the bases and create a force out at home. Now this is a good, no-brainer move in a Major League game, where the level of play and nuance of the game is understood by all to be at the highest level. But in Little League… let’s just say that’s the first intentional walk I’ve called for in 8 years as a youth baseball coach. I felt a little like Buck Showalter and a little like a guy who just took away a shot at glory for the kid who was about to hit. There’s also the knowledge that the kids and parents are watching how I’m handling this situation and myself and I needed to show appropriate composure and sportsmanship, even though I’m grinding away inside.

But that’s sports and that’s life. You have to make decisions and live with the outcomes.

Back to the game. With runners on every base and the season on the line, our pitcher Max found his fastball and location and struck out the next batter. The crowd erupted. Maybe we’d get out of this. The next batter came up and he did it again with three fastballs that were nearly impossible to hit. On to extra innings!

The intensity grew as both teams had to rely on pitchers who weren’t nearly as experienced as the ones who preceded them. In the bottom of the 8th, with daylight dwindling, and the fans and kids nearly bursting from anticipation and tension, the Falcons loaded the bases and pushed a run across on a soft ground ball that eluded our pitcher and first baseman. Their team piled on one another in joyous celebration. Our kids and fans could only watch.  

Some of our players shed a tear or two but we all felt so proud. We had over-achieved and played well. But it definitely hurt. We were right there and came up just a tiny bit short. After the game and the handshakes with our worthy opponents, I gathered the kids to congratulate them on a game and season well played.

We stood, our little circle of kids and coaches, just a few feet from the third base line, with dozens of parents and friends behind us. I felt so proud but also a deep sense of disappointment for them as they looked up at me. Those faces. So earnest and young. Some with tears, some who were already over it. Some who probably didn’t know how to feel and were waiting to take their cue from me.

Honestly, at first I didn’t know what to say. After most games, we’d recap what we did well and what we needed to work on. But now the season was over and there was nothing left to work on, it was over.

I scanned the kids for a moment waiting for the right words. I felt the emotion rushing in me.

“I love you guys,” I said. Then we went out for pizza and ice cream.

Getting Back to Business

OK it's been about 5 years and I figure, kinda like Jimmy Chitwood in Hoosiers, that it's about time I start blogging again. This space was reserved mostly for commentary about the state of Maryland basketball, but seeing as how it's baseball season, let's just dive into some Orioles talk, shall we? Then if I can get some writing momentum going, I'll check in with you on the Terps for the 2017-18 season, when the Melo-less Turtles try to find a new identity and reclaim a regular spot in the top 25.

The view from our family seats in 328.

As for the Orioles, I am hopeful for a winning and entertaining season. In the Buck Showalter era, at least we have a competitive team that has been near or at the top of the AL East standings the last five years. And that's saying something for a team and fan base that endured 14 consecutive losing seasons (1998-2011). Fourteen years of losing!

After that many years, anything resembling a decent team should bring tears of joy to our collective, Orioles-loving eyes. But such is the human condition that as soon as you experience a bit of a good thing, you want MORE. Getting to the playoffs 3 of the past 5 years has been fun, but most fans now want the Os to take the next step and make a World Series run.

Me? Of course a World Series would be nice, I mean it's been since 1983, which is, wait a sec... 34 years ago... but I also like to enjoy the ride. I have a 13-game ticket plan and what I really want, when I take my family of 4 to a ballgame, is to watch a team playing games that matter. When your team is 15 games out by the All Star break, it's not a ton of fun to sit around watching and hoping that maybe they'll go on a 27-game winning streak and get back into contention.

And so I am truly thankful for the seasons we've had the last five years. They've been exciting and suspenseful and thrilling. Yes, also crushing and disappointing, but that's life, right?

Since I'm just starting to get my groove back on this thing, perhaps I should say less than more. I'd like to share a few links to baseball writing I've done the past few years, mostly in the Baltimore Business Journal and the Baltimore Sun, about the need to take a break and watch baseball; or hate on the most beloved Yankee of the last 50 years. Here they are:

Make Opening Day Your Real Resolutions Day

Opening Day Should be an Actual Holiday 

Good Riddance Jeter 

Lessons in Leadership from Buck

Allow me to end this post with a quick parenting failure story. The other day my son Alec, who is 9 and an improving young baseball player, said to me, "Dad, what do you think the chances are that I can make the Major Leagues?"

I should say at this moment that we are jokesters but also realists in our house. Alec is funny and sharp; he gets sarcasm, has a YouTube channel devoted mostly to Trump parody videos, and watches more Simpsons episodes than he should. All of this is to say that I thought he could handle (and was aware of) the truth. So I said something like, "Oh, I don't know, about 1 in 5 million... you know it's not happening, right?"

Oh man, wrong answer. He curled into a ball and wept tears of disappointment. I almost cried too. What had I just done to my child? He's 9... I could let him have the dream a little while longer but NO, I had to go and drop realism on him like a Chris Davis moonshot to right.

Here's Alec, 9, pitching in his first game. 

Well, after my feelings of guilt and his feelings of disappointment subsided, we went outside and had ourselves a catch. I went back to throwing him pop-ups and grounders and he went back to pretending he was in the Major Leagues.

And that's the thing about baseball, you can always sit around and hope... for the next season, the next game, the next play, the next hit, the next out. But it's better to just live in the moment and hope to see a good game and if all else fails, just go outside and play catch.

Welcome back my friends, I'll be back soon.

GA
4.14.17

Enjoying this Magical, Memorable Orioles Ride of 2012

What a story the 2012 Orioles have been.

All the elements are there:

Surprise  - really? we’re good this year?

Excitement - Best winning percentage in one-run games in the history of Major League Baseball.

Suspense - is this really happening? Can it continue?

Hope  - This feels good!; and, hopefully

Joyous Resolution  - no comment

Those who have followed the team at any level know the major plot points: Storied franchise known for winning and doing things the right way - The Oriole Way - falls on hard times to the tune of 14 straight losing seasons. Not just losing seasons mind you, but dreadful, interminable and seemingly pointless exercises in futility.

A revolving door of managers and general managers attempt unsuccessfully to right the ship. A generation of fans loses interest. Caring about the Orioles becomes, for the most part, uncool. Baltimore becomes, fully, a football town, immersed unapologetically in its Ravens, whose swagger and comparative success are completely foreign to the new Oriole Way. 

The 2012 Orioles season begins with modest expectations. Sure, the confident manager, Buck Showalter, has had success in the past - particularly in his second full year with a club. But no one is expecting much out of these Birds.  Their leadoff hitter and arguably best player, Brian Roberts, remains out indefinitely with concussion symptoms. The starting rotation appears thrown together haphazardly – someone’s No. 3 guy here, an unknown Asian import there. And the team’s top position players - Wieters, Jones, Markakis, Hardy - all seem to be a click or two below elite.

Here we go again.

But slowly, methodically, the 2012 Orioles play respectable, winning baseball. Buoyed by a  stingy bullpen of all things, they reach the All Star break five games over .500. But rather than feeling optimistic for the future, the fan base awaits inevitable collapse. We’ve seen this act before.

Undaunted by relatively sparse crowds, the team keeps on winning as the calendar flips to August. A rookie makes a spectacular debut and provides a spark. And now it’s September and the beat of a magical, memorable summer goes on. A team that has called upon not less than 12 different starting pitchers finds itself neck and neck with that most hate-able of enemies - the New York bleepin’ Yankees. And now, after all this time, there can be no question - the 2012 Baltimore Orioles are for real. 

I don’t know that there is some larger lesson to be learned here. One could argue that perseverance pays off; or that a team that has lost for so long is bound to win at some point, etc., etc.  Will we look back on this season as the one when the Baltimore Orioles turned the tide and returned to winning baseball for years to come? Or might it just be a blip; a statistical outlier in an otherwise orderly series of losing campaigns.

Who knows? Does it matter? More than anything what I am personally trying to do as a fan of this team is enjoy the moments, enjoy the ride.

There was that night back in July as I watched the game lying in bed with my son Ethan, who is 8, both our heads propped up on pillows.  After putting on PJs and brushing teeth, our summer routine often included watching Orioles baseball for a few innings together. On this night, the Orioles were down three runs late in the game. J.J. Hardy was up at bat; and I said aloud to Ethan, “we need a 3-run homer right here.” And on the next pitch, damn if J.J. didn’t launch one of his signature line drives clear out of the park. My son stared at me for an instant, mouth agape and eyes wide - “you called it dad!” - and then we high fived and hugged and rolled around on the bed together, celebrating one of those magical surprises that can only be delivered by a clutch three-run homer on a warm summer night.

Those moments, these opportunities, are what’s kept me into it all these years. For reasons having to do with obligation or inevitability, I’ve passed on the love of the game to Ethan and his younger brother Alec, who is 5.

We talk standings and statistics. We look together at averages and discuss the difference between a major leaguer and minor leaguer. We go to the games as a family and scream “Charge!” and buy ice cream.

And who am I kidding? I’m not just happy for them. I’ve invested a lot of time following some seriously bad teams. I have a few friends with whom I text nearly every single game talking about the minutia not just of wins and losses, but of individual plays and at bats all season long. Here, right now, is the payoff for caring. Something Oriole fans thought might never happen again is happening right now. I think it’s worth caring about. I hope my kids can think back on this 2012 Orioles team like I think about the ’79 Os, who went all the way to the World Series when I was 9. I vividly remember that team, those games, and those feelings.

Baseball is a game of failure. Most of the time your favorite player doesn’t hit a home run, or even get on base. I won’t be the first to point out that life is a lot like baseball in that it’s often about suffering; but also striving and enduring, which makes moments of glory and success all that much sweeter. It’s why I can’t stand the entitled attitude of Yankees fans, who don’t seem to take pleasure in small victories – they seem to care only for the big ones. 

But us Oriole fans? We have spent a decade and a half in the baseball wilderness, forced to celebrate only the small victories – like the occasional win against the Yanks or Red Sox when our stadium is filled with their fans. Even during one of those recent 69-93 seasons, there were moments of glory and success, but they were fleeting moments against a backdrop of hopelessness.

Here in 2012, however, we have an entirely new and hopeful script. Each game presents an opportunity for success of a type that has everyone who cares about baseball, never mind just the Orioles, paying attention.

“How about those Baltimore Orioles?” they say on ESPN and write in The New York Times. Can they keep it going?

We can only watch and hope.

Maryland at Duke, the (probably appropriate) End of a Tradition

Maryland will play at Duke this afternoon, and it will be the end of a long era, one in which the teams have faced each other, home and away, each season, since the formation of the ACC in 1953.

When Miami and Virginia Tech joined the ACC in 2004, followed by Boston College in 2005, the ACC did away with the round robin format to the basketball season and introduced an unbalanced schedule. Prior to the league's expansion, the ACC featured nine member schools, a number that now seems quaint in the era of the super conference, when every team played every other team, home and away, every season.

Then when the ACC became a 12-team league, the conference created a system whereby each team had two 'primary partners' that they'd play home and away every year, and then rotate playing once or twice per year against the other teams. I personally hated the change because it replaced what was a perfect system -- you got to play each team on your court and on their court. But that's ancient history and not worth discussing. With the mid 2000s expansion following shortly on the heels of the Terrapins rise to the national championship in 2002 - and, more importantly, some truly epic battles with Duke during the Juan Dixon era - the ACC made Maryland a primary partner to Duke and UVa.

Over the years, Maryland had some great games with Duke, but none arguably more memorable or important than the ones in the late 90s and early 2000s, with both teams in the top 10. While Duke has maintained its excellence among the nation's elite program since that time, Maryland has been much more up and down, with a few very solid seasons interspersed with some very average, forgettable ones (Travis Garrison anyone?)

There were, of course, the stinging chants of "not our rival" from the Dukies when Maryland would visit Cameron Indoor, a chant meant to indicate that Duke's one and only true rival is and was North Carolina, a program that Maryland replaced at the top of the ACC pecking order for a short time, but not anymore.

And, so, where are we now? With Gary Williams retiring last year and the hiring of Mark Turgeon, Maryland has entered an entirely new era. And, perhaps fittingly, so has the ACC. This is the last year - and today is the last game in the series - where Maryland will play Duke twice a year, every year. Starting next year, the Terps' new primary partner is not Duke or even UVa, but Pitt, a team Maryland has absolutely no history or tradition with - but a very good program that's been among the nation's elite for the past decade under coach Jamie Dixon. Pitt is slightly down this year (15-9, 4-7 in the Big East), but has been to the NCAA tournament the past 8 seasons and hasn't won less than 25 games since the '04-'05 season.

As a Maryland fan, there are two ways to look at this new primary partner. One is to feel slighted by the powers that be in the ACC. After all, the Terps have been a part of the conference since its formation, so why are we the partner to one of the newbies? Is there not one school that we've developed a rivalry with worth preserving? Sadly, or perhaps just interestingly, the answer is "not really." I don't think any Terp fan gets particularly fired up to watch Maryland play UVa (and UVa is a natural rival to Va Tech), and who else was it going to be? N.C. State? Wake Forest? Nah, better to give Maryland and its new coach a new rival, one altogether worthy of respect, and, hopefully over time, the source of a kind of hatred reserved only for teams that it feels so good to beat.

Today, of course, there is the matter of Maryland at Duke. A rebuilding Maryland program without its point guard has little chance to beat the Blue Devils at Cameron Indoor, but one never knows. Perhaps Terrell Stoglin has a career-defining 40-point explosion of a performance in his system, it wouldn't shock me. So I'll be watching. And, while I initially felt that losing the home and home with Duke every year would hurt the Maryland program and its fans, I now feel like it's the right change at the right time.

It will be a good change for the program to stop thinking so much about the Duke games, and more on building the kind of team and program that goes to the tournament every year and competes for the league title. Kinda like Pitt. No use fighting it, bring on the Blue Devils today, and bring on the new era under our new coach next year. Go Terps.

The 17 Games In, 2012 Season Preview

Hola my friends, it's been a while. I'll spare the excuses for not prolifically filing reports about the young and 'developing before our eyes' 2011-2012 edition of the Maryland men's basketball team. Heading into tonight's contest at Florida State (9 p.m. on ESPNU), Mark Turgeon's Terps are 12-4, 2-1 and a win could get people talking about Maryland as a possible bubble team. Right now they are on no one's list, largely because they haven't really beaten anyone good, got clobbered by, um, Iona, and pulled out a series of a single digit, nail-biting victories over the likes of Mount St. Mary's, Florida International, Radford, and Alabany. I am not even making up that list of schools in such a way that would indicate Maryland has played a bunch of softies, those are among the schools Maryland has played against, and they almost lost to all of them.

Ah, but before we get all hyper-critical like an angry Ravens fan calling a sports talk show to complain about Joe Flacco's completion percentage, let's give these Terps a break, huh? They lost their big man, Jordan Williams to the NBA's New Jersey Nets (where he's appeared in 6 games and scored 6 total points and appears to be the last man on the bench... ) their designated foreign 'fundamentally sound guy,' Haukur Palsson to professional ball in Europe, and several decent roster fillers to graduation or the end of their eligibility or whatever it is happens when a college basketball player completes 4 years in a row of competition at an institution of higher learning. (Hey - side note, did you know that former Terp Cliff Tucker, who made that one game-winner against Georgia Tech, walked on the football team at UTEP? It's true. I don't feel like surfing and linking to his bio, but I think he had 2 or 3 catches.)

Anyway, where were we? Full admission, I have watched about 2/3 of the Maryland games this year and don't feel quite as 'plugged in' as I did in the past when I actually covered the team and/or made Terps games appointment TV or attended most home games.

However, I do feel qualified to now provide a journalistically questionable analysis of the top 5 or 6 guys on this years Terps, plus the new coach:

Let's start at the top with that whirling dervish of a two guard, Terrell Stoglin - Put it this way, you WOULD NOT want to have to try to guard Terrell in a pick-up game. He would destroy you and 3 other guys and score basically, all the points. Only problem is that in this made-up game that will never happen, the other guys on Terrell's team might not have a ton of fun watching him do his thing while they, well, watch him do his thing. He's not exactly a big sharer of the basketball, but man can he score. Stoglin leads the ACC in scoring at 21 points per game and without him, Maryland probably loses to Cornell, Albany, Mt. St. Mary's and few others. He's Maryland's only truly legit player, who would likely start for any other team in the ACC.

OK, moving on then, we have Shawn Mosley, the 34-year-old senior small forward from Baltimore, who is the Terps' what? Glue guy? Team leader? Insert cliche about pretty good but not great senior forced to stay for four years here? Mosley works hard, seems to do everything well, nothing great. Players like Mosley are very nice to have on your team if you have 2-3 stars and he can be content to be in the background, but if he's your guy, well, you aren't that good.

James Padgett - power forward. High energy. Leads the ACC in offensive rebounding at over 4 per game, but only gets 2 on the defensive glass. I don't understand this statistic. Padgett sometimes looks like he can take over, sometimes disappears, not sure what else to say here.

Pe'Shon Howard - when he came back from a toe injury about 10 games in to the season, Maryland had a breath of fresh air - a pass first point guard. Like his name, Pe'Shon is flashy, loves the spectacular or difficult pass and can hit an open shot. He is very entertaining and I'm guessing the coaches would say he's playing his way into game shape and will only get better. I like Pe'Shon.

Alex Len - So when Pe'Shon came back from the toe injury, the Terps also gained the services of Alex Len, a 7-1 center from the Ukraine who had to sit out 10 games because, in the eyes of the NCAA, he did something he shouldn't have, like accepted a few bucks for playing basketball.

Len plays a lot like you'd hope a 7-1 center from the Ukraine would play. He's not just gigantically tall, he's athletic, blocks shots, has a good court sense, and seems to be really enjoying himself. On the down side, big Alex isn't exactly the second coming of Patrick Ewing, or even Uwe Blab for that matter. He's a bit thin and got lost in the recent Georgia Tech game, where he scored only 0 points, but got 9 rebounds. Let's hope there are lots of double-doubles in store for this guy - Terps really need him to play well to be a good team.

Off the bench, Maryland gets thin fast, with Ashton Pankey playing a serviceable power forward and another skinny tall foreign white guy, Berend Weijs at center. Also serviceable. Another role player who shows flashes of serious talent is Mychael Parker, but he also seems inconsistent.

Wait, I'm forgetting Nick Faust, the athletic 2 guard from Baltimore's City College high school who started the first 9 games before Howard came back from injury. I think Faust was a bit overwhelmed at first and was shooting like 25 percent through his first 10 games or so but is probably better suited for a role off the bench right now. From what I've seen, he moves gracefully around the court, can make the three, but forces shots and makes plenty of bad decisions. Faust has the potential to blossom into a very good player but he's not exactly an impact guy who can throw his team on his back. The only guy Maryland has in that category is Stoglin.

And last, let me just throw out a few words about the new leader of the Terps, Mark Turgeon. From what I can tell, Maryland basketball is in very good hands. Turgeon not only works hard, coaches hard, recruits hard, he is brutally honest in press conferences. He says things like, "we need to grow up as a basketball team" and has pushed Stoglin with some tough love, including sitting him out to start a couple of games and chiding him for not passing the ball more.

I'm sure it's not easy to coach a guy like Stoglin, a player who can score like few others, but might not exert maximum effort on D or share the ball as much as he should. So far, so good, for these young, improving Terps. A win tonight at Florida State would be a great stepping stone, and might just get Maryland moving toward something more than just a rebuilding season.

Go Terps.

My Other Stolen Car, Another Essay

On Thursday, May 19, 2011, I had to get up very early to go to a business event in downtown Baltimore - had to be there by about 6:45 to set up. I walked out of the house and to my car and upon getting in, noticed that the car had been rummaged through. Papers were scattered about from the glove box, loose change on the floor, compartment in the dash was opened and emptied of the broken watch and bluetooth headset that had been in there.

It's a petty crime and one that happens a little too frequently in our Mt. Washington neighborhood for my comfort level, but so it goes. I reacted as most people would in such a situation, by releasing a stream of under-my-breath expletives about as loud as I would permit myself while standing outside before 7 a.m. At the same time as I was stomping around, my very kind, neighborly neighbor Marianne was driving by on her way to work and slowed to ask what happened. At that particular moment, I thought I had just lost a few things in my car and I was trying to remember what was even in the car to be taken. I just grumbled to her about my car being broken into and losing a few things including, I thought at the time, a tripod that I needed for a video shoot that day.

But, alas, the tripod I soon found in the trunk, along with a few other items that I thought were worthy of stealing. I figured they didn't bother or couldn't figure out how to pop the trunk ... so I considered myself a bit lucky and just got into the car and drove off.

Fast forward to about 8 a.m. and my cell phone rings. I'm with the client and quickly turn it off without looking at the screen. A half hour later I check the message and it's from my wife Jennifer who says simply, "Hey, hon, uh, where's the Volvo?"

And then it hits me. I didn't even notice ... when I drove off in in the early morning in my car, my wife's car wasn't there.

We have been through this before. Back in 2007, my then 6-month old Mazda sedan was poached from in front of our house. That time, I ran into the thief while he was running errands at the Home Depot at the Reisterstown Rd. plaza. Truly. [One comical side note to that whole story, by the way, was in telling my brother Ken that I ran into my car thief with my car at the Reisterstown Rd. plaza Home Depot, the first thing he said was, incredulously, "you go to the Home Depot at the Reisterstown Rd plaza?"] Not anymore.

Anyway, back to my current source of frustration with city living ... the missing 2001 Volvo V70 wagon, the one with 140k miles, our kid hauler, filled with toys and children's books and two carseats. Now in the hands of someone likely on a joyride, who went scrounging for loose change, ipods and GPS's in the middle of the night and hit the dirtbag jackpot.

And let me just go on a rant for a moment here about crime. We all have watched tons of movies and shows where slick thieves are portrayed as cool as they rip off unsuspecting dopes. When you are the person whose stuff a criminal takes, the only feeling you have for them is rage. They took our car. With our kids' stuff in it. It's maddening.

But then, you know, you calm down. It's just a car, a thing, you tell yourself and each other. Hell, it had a lot miles on it and we were shopping for something new anyway. The kids got an unexpected day off from school and by 3 p.m. we had a loaner Jetta and new car seats. A thing comes into your life and it goes away. It's a utility, you tell yourself, don't get too worked up about it, insurance will cover it. But still. It stings.

POLICE SQUAD

Now allow me to digress from that digression for a moment about the disinterest of the Baltimore police department in this particular crime. Jennifer and I weren't expecting Bunk and McNulty to bring down the criminals with an elaborate undercover operation, but what the police did do in response was just north of nothing.

A responding officer came out that morning to file a report. We learned the last time that what usually happens in these instances is that the thief is not an arch criminal with a network of comrades in Europe selling used parts to the mob ... no, it's typically a teenager on joy ride who is going to leave the car wherever it stops when it runs out of gas. Then someone will report that a car has been abandoned on their lawn or in the middle of the street and then Baltimore's finest will impound it and give you a call.

Our car was stolen in the overnight hours of May 19th. A week and a half later, Jennifer got a call from the insurance company saying that they were having trouble processing our claim because the car was not officially reported as stolen and in the police database. Jen called the officer who filed the report to find out what was up - the officer made a few calls and found out that due to "dispatcher error," the car was never reported as stolen. So, in the time from when it was stolen, not only was no one looking for it (as if) but there wouldn't even be a reason for a police officer to call in something suspicious if they saw the car or even pulled over the driver. Unless, of course, the driver posted a sign that said "stolen car" in place of our tags.

Two days after that call, they found our car. With the gas on E and the sunroof smashed in, the cops picked it up not far from Pimlico, less than 2 miles from our house.

THE IMPOUND LOT EXPERIENCE

Ever had your car impounded? When most people have their car impounded, it's usually for one of a couple of reasons:
1.) Failure to pay tickets.
2.) It's been in a hellacious accident and just gets hauled off there.
3.) Someone stole and abandoned it.
4.) Lord only knows.

Baltimore city's impound lot is located on Pulaski Highway, which looks a lot like a place called Pulaski Highway, in an area dotted with strip clubs, auto body shops, adult book stores, and shady looking motels. It fits right in. The office is a large shed of a building, with attendants behind barred off windows, gas station style, separating faithful city employees from people who might not be super psyched that their vehicle has been placed in the parking lot of broken dreams.

To get your car out, it costs $140 for the tow, $50 for storage and a $40 administrative fee. $230 is a figure we kept hearing people being charged for getting their car out. (Wonder why we haven't seen an impound lot Groupon yet...) You may use a credit card, but that carries with it a $12 fee because they consider it a cash advance and, you know, credit cards are such an exotic form of bill payment these days. In fairness, there is a MECU ATM in the corner near the cashier cages, just to the left of the nailed down plastic chairs.

So what happens when you get there is you take a number from deli-counter style machine and they call you and you step right up to the counter. You give the worker your title and driver's license and tale of woe. Then you sit back down until your car model is called, and a guy who's seen it all takes you back, three or four at a time into a massive parking lot of broken down, discarded, and otherwise troubled vehicles.

The lot is huge, and the cars populating it are not, generally in good shape. There's a caged off area of motorcycles and mini bikes. Because you go in groups, you get to see and hear the stories of the other people as you sit scrunched next to them in a crappy Chevy with a City of Baltimore logo on the side.

Anyway, I was in there with an elderly woman who informed us that she was there to fetch the belongings from her brother's car - she said he walked away fine after passing out at the wheel and slamming into 2 parked cars. She had to unload the car, a Crown Victoria, of a bunch of his stuff. Anxious to get to my car, I got out to help and watched as she waded through his car, a few hats, a travel iron, grocery bags. She popped the trunk and found some corn that had turned a spoiled brown. Before getting back in the car, she stood there for a while with a hand on a hip, just looking at the mangled front end. There was a massive, V-shaped crater in the front grill and both airbags had been deployed and now hung limp - "mmmph, mmmph, mmmph," she said, "good thing for those airbags."

Next up came a young woman who needed to pay a visit to her Chevy Blazer. She told the driver she couldn't afford to get it out right now, but needed her shoes and a bunch of other stuff. So I watched as she unloaded more pairs of shoes than you would hope that anyone you know stores in their car into a brown paper bag.

Next up came my turn... it's kinda like an airport Super Shuttle for losers this ride I was on ... and I saw the nose of the Volvo peeking out from the row. Looked OK. Got up close and saw that the sunroof was smashed. But the body looked alright, no major dents. Got out of the impound limo and got in my car, pushing glass off the seat... turned the key and it started. Realized there were a bunch of clothes that weren't ours all over the place ... didn't drive the car out because I didn't want to drive it with all the glass and didn't know if it was OK to drive. So I had to go back to the shack and release the car to the insurance company, which later sent a tow truck and had it brought to our car repair place of choice.

I felt happy to have the car back, still mad that it was stolen but overall a decent outcome considering the circumstances. As I write this we're still waiting for the adjuster to give us a damage total but I'm assuming we'll put it back on the road after a thorough cleaning. I'm thinking we are going to ask whoever details it to detail it after they detail it.

THINGS LEFT BEHIND
When you're out at the impound lot, it's hard to take a long time with the car because you feel the eyes of the other auto sweepstakes losers waiting for you, as is the friendly driver. Finally when the Volvo was at the auto shop, I put on a pair of gloves and sorted through the stuff in it.

Jen was happy that the kids "Bop It" toy was left behind, as was Alec's Thomas the Tank engine umbrella and sunglasses and their books and some action figures. Though I feel like I want to have those things washed or just toss em. I put em in bags.

Then I looked at what the car thieves left in the car. Very weird. It was an assorted bunch of karate gear - several black belts and a robe that included the name of a karate place. As it turns out, the name of the place is for troubled youths... and, here we go, one of the blackbelts had a person's name on it.

I'm not going to write that name here because I don't know if that person stole our car, is related to the person who stole our car, or had his stuff stolen by the person who stole our car. I'll let the police put their best team on that case.

Then, the final kicker. Jen later visited the car and found the kids' Milkshake CD (kids songs) had been destroyed, and in the CD player was a homemade mix called "In the Guttah."

You can't make this stuff up.

Thanks Gary

My favorite memory of the Gary Williams era of Maryland basketball did not burn its way into my brain at Cole Field House, Comcast Center, or even Minneapolis or Atlanta, where Gary and the Terps played in back-to-back Final Fours.

No, the indelible moment took place in Anaheim in March of 2001. Gary and the Terps had just defeated top seeded Stanford in the Elite 8 and I was lucky enough to be in the stands, in the lower bowl even, having snuck down from the nose bleeds I scalped to sit in Terrapin red among a bunch of well-heeled, burgundy-clad Stanford alums.

After the final horn blew on an amazing game – Maryland won 87-73 – Gary climbed up the ladder to take his turn cutting down the net. He’d finally done it. All the years, all the battles, all the sweaty suits, and all the sideline rants were in the past. He had a look of elation and peace. The Final Four awaited. He’d done it.

For the prior two hours, his third-seeded Terps took apart top-seeded Stanford, led at the time by future NBA players Jarron and Jason Collins along with All America Casey Jacobson. Maryland's Lonny Baxter absolutely schooled the Collins twins in the second half to the tune of 24 points with an array of half hooks, drop steps and reverse layups. Juan Dixon nailed his share of trademark jumpers and the score kept stretching out, stretching out in Maryland's favor as the clock wound down.

I'm getting the chills now typing as I remember that game. It meant so much. No team before or since, in my opinion, embodied the Gary Williams era more at Maryland. They were scrappy and talented, but not overwhelming favorites. They played hard, like their coach, and took their share of criticism. Just a month or so prior to that magical night in Anaheim, the Terps fell at home to a mediocre Florida State team. The home crowd booed the team off the court.

As Maryland completed the win over Stanford (for my money, the best played game of any team in the Gary era), the Florida State loss felt like another season. But I bet Gary remembered. I bet he heard those boos somewhere in his brain as he ascended the ladder, scissor in hand. I remember watching him intently, not wanting to miss a second of it. I can’t remember feeling as happy as a fan or as satisfied for a coach as I did at that moment. He cut the remains of the net, grabbed it, and swung it over his head. “There! You see this?" he seemed to say with each twist of the rope. "You didn’t think I could do it, did you? Well here I am. What do you want to say now?”

I just want to say thank you. Thanks Gary. There will never be another coach like you. It was quite a ride.

Oh, Oh, Tokyo

Some friends have asked what I'm doing here in Tokyo, so I'll share the story here:

So, why the heck am I in Tokyo?

The story goes back to last fall when I took on a project to represent a Japanese company called Remo System that wanted to attract press in the US around the New York marathon in November.

The company makes, among other things, a shoe insert called the i-Grip, which has an elevated bump in the center that is intended to help your feet ‘grip’ better. Their media hook was that they were sponsoring an elite Japanese runner who had a chance to contend in the race. He had an interesting twist in that this runner broke away from the traditional Japanese corporate system and was running as an independent. So I took on the project and we were able to land some nice coverage, like in Runner's World and the Times

After that, they asked what I could do for the Tokyo Marathon in November. The goal, again, was press in the US because they want to get someone in the US to sell their product and want some credibility in the market. So I said well, you’re a Japanese company, with a Japanese product, and your endorser is Japanese and the race is in Japan. I don’t know how I’m going to get the NY Times to care about that.

So we got to thinking about who we might hire to represent Remo in the Tokyo Marathon that press in the US and internationally would take an interest in. At first I was thinking about a reality TV star or a retired athlete, but ultimately suggested Edison Pena, the Chilean miner who completed the New York marathon just three weeks after being rescued from the mine. I was in NY for the NY marathon for Remo and sat in on the press conference when he was introduced. The guy is a natural in front of the media and his story is compelling of course.

They liked the idea so then I had to go about finding him and making an offer and working out all the details. This took about two months, but we finally got it done. Here’s where I need to give a shout out to Barry Flaks. Barry speaks Spanish and made himself available to me to call Pena and his wife and present our offer to them and finalize all the details.

Anyway, so once Pena agreed, then we were able to make an announcement about it – which generated some good press - http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/wire?section=gen&id=6145281

I’m over here now working to drum up more media interest, build the relationship with the client, and try to see what Tokyo is all about. There are so many details I could share, but let me just start by throwing out some random observations about Tokyo, in no particular order:

It’s clean, really clean. The people and the cultural are all very orderly. The people on the subway almost don’t talk at all. Very nice people if you ask for some help but they are not outwardly friendly; as in they don’t make eye contact and nod to a stranger, they barely make eye contact at all if you don’t know them; My toilet seat is heated and has a bidet feature. I would pay good money to install both of these features at my home, just sayin. Our American way of dressing down for work has not caught on over here. People wear suits. They are very stylish, they dress well and seem to be incredibly attentive to the details. Lots of people, maybe 15 percent, walk around with surgical masks in public, I think this is related to the cleanliness obsession.

There’s an odd, sort of whimsical nature about Japanese cultural that I can’t quite describe. For example, at night the last 2 nights I’ve noticed that there are these weird shows that I guess you’d describe as a variety show, where you have performers and talk segments and weird stupid human tricks, and it’s all set against a kaleidoscope of a background that’s colorful and weird and childlike.

What else can I tell you? I had a moment in a minivan today when it was me, Edison and his wife, and 5 Japanese people from Remo, the company that hired me. My contact to Remo is Kaz, a US-based Japanese business development guy, whose job it is to connect Japanese businesses with international opportunities.

I’ve gotten to know Kaz pretty well and today in the car I asked him what city he is from. And he replied, “Hiroshima.” And a short uncomfortable silence during which I contemplated apologizing on behalf of the US for dropping an Atomic bomb on his city, I instead went with, “so what is your favorite sport to watch?”; to which he answered baseball; so I quickly changed the conversation to my appreciation of Ichiro’s approach at the plate.

My role here is very odd in that I am a US PR guy who speaks only English and I’m with the Chilean miner who speaks only Spanish, working for a company of people that speak mostly Japanese. So there are weird situations where there isn’t much conversation going on because, basically, no one understands each other. Well, that's not entirely true. Kaz speaks good English so he talks to me and I speak a little Spanish, so I try with Edison and his wife but once they get going in Spanish in return, I can’t understand a word, unless for some strange reason they ask me ‘donde esta el quarto de bano?’ which means, as you who took Spanish in high school know, “Where is the bathroom?” But they have yet to ask me where is the bathroom.

Anyway, the language thing is confusing. I’m finding myself saying gracias to the Japanese concierge, who speaks pretty good English.

What else should I share? Here was my day today:
Woke up around 7 a.m. local time and went to breakfast with Edison and the media director from the NY marathon, who wanted to present him with a gift. Table conversation was difficult so I literally had Kaz call Barry, who walked away from his kid’s basketball practice in Reisterstown for 10 minutes to translate a conversation in Tokyo between me, Edison Pena and his wife and the NY marathon guy, Richard. Have I mentioned that I love Barry?

After breakfast we were picked up by the Remo CEO and drove to the official marathon expo, where Edison met the Chilean ambassador to Japan for a meet and greet and photo opp. A quick note on driving in Japan – they drive on the left. The cars are a touch smaller. Like the minivan we were in, was 3 rows, but a bit more narrow and sleek than the US minivans, which are more bulky. This design, it seems to me, goes hand in hand with the fact that Japanese people are much slimmer than Americans and don’t require as much space. I wish they sold a van like that in the US, it’s got what you need but isn’t a beast to drive around.

Anyway, after the expo, it was time to go to the official marathon press conference. I arranged for Edison to be introduced and interviewed and it went pretty well. There’s some conflicts between Remo and the official marathon sponsors that I’ve had to tip-toe around so it wasn’t as highly publicized as it could have or should have been, but hopefully we’ll get some nice coverage out of it.

After the press conference we took the train back to our hotels. The Japanese subway system is awesome. They have digital readouts above the doors that tell you where you are and what stop is next. There are English translations for most things and everything operates with mind-blowing efficiency. Unlike the subways in DC or New York for example, where people gaggle around the doors all mish-mashed, they have people whose job it is to line you up and there are tight lines of people waiting to get in, who stand behind the line. There’s a crush to get in, of course, but it’s an organized crush.

I’m trying to think of some other good tidbits but my brain is starting to feel a bit soft and uncooperative so I’ll wrap it up. I’ll send some more news and notes later this weekend, hope you made it this far in my little write-up.

GA

Not a Single Vote for the Terps? That Ain't Right

I'm not one to put a lot of stock in preseason polls. In fact, were I the King of All Things College Basketball, I would decree that no poll should be taken and released until teams have played at least five games. That way, the initial poll would be at least partly based on the actual performances on the court, and the not the reputation of the program, or Rivals ranking of the recruits.

But the world doesn't work that way and every year before a game is played, the AP and ESPN/USA Today release the "Top 25" ranked teams in college basketball. This year, a year after Maryland went 13-3 in the ACC, 24-9 overall and came within a buzzer-beater from the Sweet 16, the Terps received Zero votes in the AP preseason polls and 2 votes in the ESPN/USA Today poll, aka the Coaches Poll. It's not just that the Terps aren't ranked, not one AP voter thought enough of Gary William's program to give the Terps a single vote. Somehow Wofford, ODU, Utah State, and Ohio University received votes, but none for the Terps.

And so now I'm mad. And I'm guessing this is great for our program because Gary Williams will get mad, feel disrespected, and use this slight to fuel his team's performance. Which is all a very good thing for Terps fans, because no one is better than Gary as an underdog.

But what I'm annoyed about is that, really, how much does this program have to do to get a little respect? Sure, Maryland lost 3 senior starters in Grevis Vasquez, Landon Milbourne, and Eric Hayes, but do the voters think that the program has brought no one who's worth a lick in to replace them?

Just having Jordan Williams and Sean Mosley the starting lineup around three other decent players should get ONE voter to throw Maryland a bone. Hell, Duke or UNC could graduate every one of it starters and get ranked 15th in the preseason poll just because voters think, "those guys always bring in the best recruits."

But Maryland? Well, truth be told, Gary doesn't bring in the best recruits. He brings in good players, and sometimes he brings in great players. But give the man his due already. Maryland runs a quality basketball program. Even when we've complained in recent years that they aren't "good enough," the worst Maryland has ever done under Gary in the last 15-17 years is be "one the bubble." They are NEVER horrible, and they are often good. Just based on the fact that last year, Gary pulled off 13-3 in the ACC should be good enough for someone to give him the benefit of the doubt.

But no. No one thinks Maryland is any good, not even a top 50 team. Oh, how Gary and the Terps will love proving them wrong.

Embrace the Horror

This post was written and conceived entirely by Steve Sherman, known to Baltimore sports radio listeners as "Steve from Homeland." I hereby approve this message:

The Cusp of Greatness

When it comes to the Baltimore Orioles, fans like us are on the cusp of witnessing true greatness. Well, greatness at being not great. Greatness at losing, greatness at failing, greatness at sucking. And I think that's –well- great!

The Orioles (16-42, .276) are on a pace to win less than 30 percent of their games this year. In the last 60 years (that’s 60 with a “6” and “0” next to it), there have been two teams that have finished the season with less than a .300 winning percentage. The 1962 Mets* and 2003 Tigers-- That's it. Two teams. Yes, 2.

I calculated the following: 60 years X a rough average of 30 teams in the league= 1,800 seasons. The Birds are on pace to be ranked 1,798 (with luck maybe 1,799th or even 1,800th!). I say dare to dream.

Club 200

The O’s need to win less than 49 games to finish the season with a winning percentage that starts with a 2, which I hereby dub, “Club 200."

This is the kind of club that the B-Rated Hollywood stars go to at 4:00 a.m. to snort Oxycontin right off the lacquered tables. It’s so uncool, that it’s super cool. I’m picturing the bar scene in Star Wars and then Dana Plato , Gary Coleman , Todd Bridges does stand-up and starts puking out his teeth. Next thing you know, John Waters walks in with two trannies and you wake up 2 days later with no kidneys or wallet. The point is – Club 200 is an interesting (albeit disturbing) place to be.

And if the Orioles' season is going to be terrible (which it is), let it at least be interesting.

You Have to Earn You Way into Club 200

It's easy to be sort of terrible. Hell, the Pirates, Royals and even our Orioles have won in the recallable past. The Old Senators (think baseball, not Robert Byrd**) were never in Club 200. Even current terrible teams like the Astros can’t expect an invite. (Astros are at .390!).

But Orioles fans . . . we can expect an invite.

When the slit in the door opens, and the bouncer sees our squad of misfits (Izturis will need a box to stand on so he can be seen), we’re all getting in. First round is on Atkins.

I look forward to my captain and coke with Crowley.

Dare to Dream gentlemen, Dare to Dream-

Written June 9, 2010 by Steve Sherman

* The Mets’ Marv Throneberry was once ruled out after hitting a triple. He had missed both 1st and 2nd base.

** Robert Byrd (WV) was in the Ku Klux Klan and has served as Senator for 51 years.

*** By the way, the 1906 Cubs have the best record of all time at 116-36 (.763)—which is a real kick in the ironic pants.