Sports at Large

Apparently, the observation that insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result did not originate with Albert Einstein. Regardless of who said it, it hasn’t taken NCAA president Charlie Baker long to recognize that that trope is true relative to the organization he heads. Baker, who took over the governing body of college athletics in March, has come to understand...

The industry of journalism in this country is under attack as never before. That’s not news. What is news is when the onslaught comes from within, as in self-inflicted wounds. And while the division of journalism that extends to sports may not always be held in the highest of regards within the division, it is an essential and perhaps most visible part. So, when that necessary and noticeable wing...

Everything in life is a matter of perspective, and depending on how you view things, the University of Michigan’s win over Ohio State in Saturday’s football game is either the universe setting things right or a triumph of darkness over the light. The Wolverines’ 30-24 victory over the Buckeyes puts to rest – for now – any talk about deception and chicanery in sports in general and college football...

Following Thursday’s 34-20 win over the Cincinnati Bengals, Ravens linebacker Odafe Oweh declared that the team wanted to make a statement. And so they did. In the process, they seized control of their division by soundly defeating their most significant opponent for a second time this year, the same team that knocked them out of the postseason last year. It was, indeed, a strong declaration of pu...

During the 8 p.m. Saturday window this week, there was a cavalcade of the usual college football suspects on television. As you moved up and down the proverbial dial, there were Georgia, Ohio State, Texas, Oklahoma, Florida and LSU all battling for touchdowns and eyeballs. Tucked in among that forest of masculinity was an unusual listing, namely the championship match of the National Women’s Socce...

While the sports world has been fixated on the goings on with the University of Michigan football program and the potentially explosive cheating scandal we told you about last week, the really important action has been taking place 2,000 miles away. In an Oakland, Calif. Courtroom, a judge is preparing to rule on a case that may decide nothing less than the future of American sports. As far as can...

Stop me if you’ve heard this before: There’s cheating going on in college sports and no one knows what to do about it. Actually, the situation that has arisen with the University of Michigan’s football program is still at the alleged status, as there have been no official findings and no admissions of guilt in a matter where there are accusations that the Wolverines, or people on their behalf, hav...

The landscape is dotted with plenty of ways for people of a certain age to try to stay relevant, up to and including sports cars, hair plugs, Botox and tummy tucks, to name a few. But while those solutions may work for people, how do long-standing organizations stay up to date and pertinent in the public eye? Well, if you’re Thomas Bach, the president of the International Olympic Committee and you...

When Brandon Hyde sat at a microphone last week and declared that he was irritated at the abrupt end to the Orioles season, he spoke for a shockingly small number of Baltimoreans. For the overwhelming bulk of Birds fans, the sweep at the hands of the Texas Rangers in the American League Division Series was a not so pleasant coda to an amazing season. Thousands, if not millions, of Charm City types...

No matter what this October portends for the Orioles, the immediate and perhaps extended future appears to hold considerable promise for the franchise. Here’s hoping Baltimore baseball fans get to experience the joy of rooting for a championship-caliber team in person at Camden Yards after suffering through such a miserable past couple of decades or so. Now, you’re probably asking ‘where’s this gu...

There’s been a collective feeling around Baltimore since the news broke that Brooks Robinson died that we now have this guardian angel above the clouds, doing what he can to make things better. And yes, in the immediate days since Brooks died, the Orioles clinched their first American League Eastern Division championship in nine years and their first 100-win season in 43 seasons. In addition, the...

We’re only a month and change into the 2023 college football season, but there’s already a dominant storyline and a central place where the story is being told, as well as a vehicle to tell the story through. The place is the University of Colorado and the story is the rebirth of the Buffalo program, And the conversion has come courtesy of new head coach Deion Sanders, who has brought a bright spo...

In a sport like football that takes itself way too seriously, there is no place more sacrosanct than the position room. It’s the place where players who play the same position and the specific coaches who lead them congregate to contemplate in the days leading up to that week’s holy war. For the Ravens, who opened their 2023 season Sunday against the Houston Texans, their quarterbacks room looked...

Of all the places one might expect to go for absolution, it’s a fair bet that a volleyball match would be fairly low on the list. Yet, that’s exactly what happened last Wednesday at the University of Nebraska’s Memorial Stadium, though hardly any of the more than 92,000 people in the house realized that was what was happening at the time. All they wanted was to see their beloved Cornhuskers play h...

Dear John Angelos, How ya doing? Seriously, how are you feeling these days? It doesn’t stink to be you, lately, not by a longshot. And yet, you seem to be doing your best Eyesore impersonation by casting a pall on the situation, publicly and apparently privately. In theory, it must be great to be the CEO of the Baltimore Orioles. Your team is the toast of the baseball world, riding high atop the t...

For many, this time of the year brings on memories of joyful times, of camaraderie with like-minded kids, of days spent under the bright summer sun in blissful play. We’re speaking of Little League baseball. In any town or city, there was the coach, invariably a parent endowed with the patience of a saint as he tried to teach easily distracted kids the basics of a game that often befuddles adults....

It takes a special quality to thumb your nose at a city, a state and a culture to hold out for just what you want just the way you want it. Call it persistence. Call it self-confidence. Call it arrogance. Whatever it is, Orioles CEO John Angelos has it in abundance. That quality has been on display for quite some time in the Angelos family, John’s father, Peter, a supremely gifted attorney and the...

Greed, duplicity, betrayal and treachery. Sounds like the plot of a summer blockbuster movie or a Robert B. Parker mystery novel. That and the latest chapter of “As College Sports Turns.” In a breathtaking span of roughly 24 hours last Thursday and Friday, five schools, the universities of Oregon, Washington, Utah and Arizona and Arizona State University all bolted from their moorings in the Pac-1...

So, what does $260 million get you? We’re about to find out, now that Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson has signed a new contract to remain arguably the most beloved figure in Charm City for at least the next five years. Jackson, who announced his deal Thursday in a social media post, is sitting theoretically atop the heap in the NFL world, where he has become the highest paid player for the moment...

You’re not likely to find the words of English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge hanging in the lockers of professional athletes now or ever. But the line “Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink” from Coleridge’s poem “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” is quite applicable to the situation that is endemic in American sports these days. Everywhere you turn, you’re going to see some reference to l...

Pick your favorite movie scene of good triumphing over bad, whether it be the death of the Wicked Witch of the West in either the Wizard of Oz or the Wiz or the destruction of the death star in Return of the Jedi. None of those likely compares to the elation felt by fans of the Washington Commanders of the NFL upon the news that a great evil is about to be purged from their midst. Word leaked last...

More than 10 million people tuned into last week’s NCAA Division I women’s basketball championship game between Iowa and LSU. For many, what they saw was a bit of a revelation. They saw young women like Iowa’s Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese of LSU, play basketball at its highest level, exhibiting shot making and athleticism to a degree only dreamed about when women first started playing the game in...

Maryland’s new governor is wasting no time establishing himself as the state’s fan-in-chief. Last Friday, there was Wes Moore with his wife, Dawn, and their kids at the Maryland women’s basketball team’s first round NCAA tournament game against Holy Cross. After the game, Moore and his family made their way into the Terps’ locker room, where he proclaimed that the team was quote making us all prou...

Lamar Jackson is betting big on himself. Will he roll sevens or snake eyes? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

St. Frances' program doesn't look like any high school program you've ever seen. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.