DMA 7-22 Sports

Understanding Why Melo Wants New York

2011-02-19T11:00:00Z

Now suddenly,during All-Star weekend, they are giving the kibosh to Melo over this trade/contract stuff.

You know, the great Carmelo Anthony being dissed and marginalized because he wants more control over his life.

On one national sports talk radio program Friday night, the host thought he was being cute and clever with the question for his listeners about whether other superstars would want to join Carmelo Anthony, whether for the New York Knicks, New Jersey Nets or some other place.

Ridiculously, the host asked whether Melo could attract elite future free agent point guards like Chris Paul and Deron Williams, asserting he did not think so, asserting Melo was not the type of player to lead a team to the promised land of an NBA championship.

That has us scratching our heads here in Baltimore. This is Melo we're talking about -- one of the top 5 players in the game today with LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Dwayne Wade and Dwight Howard. It is Melo as a freshman in 2003 who won his Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim his one and only national championship in 35 seasons coaching the Orange.

For Melo, remember, the 33 points and 14 rebounds in the national semifinal game vs. Texas and the 20 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists in the national final against Kansas. No wonder Syracuse even has a Carmelo K. Anthony Basketball Center named for him.

Melo, we remind you, was just 18 then as a national champion. Who else has done that as a freshman in the leading role? Surely not Paul and Williams at Wake Forest and Illinois. No push down on them, but they ain't Melo.

]]> Carmelo Anthony, like James, Bryant and a handful of others, is that once in a generation NBA baller. He rates with the few, among the best of them.

Coach John Thompson, who won one national title too at Georgetown, knows the talent of Melo. Thompson said on his Washington, DC, radio sports talk show this week that you "trade the whole team" to get a Carmelo Anthony.

Melo is a proven winner whose Denver Nuggets team has hit the NBA playoffs circuit every year since he was drafted and joined the team during the 2003-2004 season.

Surely, we are partial to Melo here in Baltimore. We count him as a favorite son. His family moved here when his father died when he was a young boy, and he learned his basketball here. He still follows the Orioles and Ravens and advances charitable causes in the city through his Carmelo Anthony Foundation. When his sister passed recently, her funeral was in Baltimore.

But make no mistake, Carmelo Anthony is New York. As New York as any of the other natives -- whether Sean "Puffy" Combs, Lady Gaga, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Jerry Seinfeld, Donald Trump, Rosario Dawson, Al Pacino, Sammy Davis Jr. and countless others.

But when Melo gets criticized for apparently trying to stick to his guns to play for the Knicks instead of New Jersey, he gets bashed. Now they are calling him a selfish player who doesn't play defense and lacks leadership skills. Again, no Melo, no Syracuse national title (and don't tell me the key to winning was Gerry McNamara, Hakim Warrick or Boeheim's vaunted 2-3 zone).

Native New Yorkers usually make their way back home. They don't really go to Jersey. Melo is hardly a Hoboken kind of guy. While he might end up a New Jersey Net in the long run because of business and financial considerations, why would he want to play in Jersey when he could play in Midtown at Madison Square Garden?

Would Woody Allen be Woody Allen if he lived in Jersey and not Manhattan? Howard Stern?

Indeed, the Brooklyn-born Melo is a New York kind of superstar. You won't see him all over commercials like Wade and James or Jordan and Barkley. He will never be elevated to Hollywood status like Kobe in sprawling LA. He won't go into broadcasting when he retires. Yet Melo, whose business and charitable operations are spread across the country, in many respects is more sophisticated than James and Bryant. His orientation to New York gives him that edge.

New York is a place where as much is done in the background as is done before the bright lights. Just ask Trump. You can see Melo, along with his wife, personality LaLa Vazquez, wheeling and dealing from beneath the surface and adding to their brand and fortune. That's what you do in New York, business and finance.

Actually, this mess over Melo's future playing status in the NBA is showing us that he is maturing as a superstar and young man.

Only a few short years ago they were trashing the man. Soon after coming into the league, he got that 15-game NBA suspension for punching out Mardy Collins then of the Knicks and caught hell in Baltimore for appearing apparently unwittingly on an infamous "Stop Snitchin' " DVD warning against cooperation with Baltimore cops. And there were arrests for marijuana and DUI.

But Melo, now in his eighth season with Denver, is more about family and business than acting out. At 26, he has paid his Rocky Mountain dues out West and is deserving of getting back to the "city." They all do it. Garnett escaped Minnesota for Boston and won a championship. Shaq left Orlando for LA after a few years. And, of course, LeBron has moved on from Cleveland. Now it is Melo's turn to move his life forward.

Melo with his 24.8 ppg career scoring average is just doing what superstars do.

Great, it would be to see him do it in New York and be the man with Amar'e Stoudemire to bring a Knick championship home.

DMA 7-22 Sports is a blog column about sports and sports connections in the Washington-Baltimore market, covering amateurs, colleges and pros. The title DMA 7-22? Means "Designated Market Area," per use of media rating services, signifying Washington is the 7th largest media market in the United States and Baltimore is the 22nd. You can reach editor M.V. Greene at DMA722Sports@gmail.com

Photo: via New York Times blog

Say What, LeBron? Shrink the NBA

2011-02-13T08:00:00Z

Marching toward the NBA All-Star game Feb. 20, what better time than to give some credence -- or maybe examination is a better word -- to controversial comments LeBron James made some weeks ago.

In fact, The King might be on to something -- though it will never happen.

James commented about how much more competitive teams would be if the NBA were to "shrink" the league. Thinking about it, maybe he is right. Just watch some All-Star games past.

"It would be great for the league," James said then, comforted by a Miami Heat team with a Big 3 along with Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh.

Of course, it will never happen.

Neither the NBA Players Association nor the league owners would go for it. Die-hard fans, too, still want their NBA teams win or lose. Lakers' Derek Fisher, president of the NBA Players Association, immediately took James to task, and James backed away from the comments saying they were taken out of context. Certainly, too much money to be made, and, fewer franchises mean fewer multimillion contracts for players.

But consider the way of the league in 2010-11. While we delight in anticipating the playoffs with the Heat, Lakers, Celtics, Spurs, Bulls, Magic and Hawks as the prime-time title players, 14 of the league's 30 teams are sitting below the .500 mark and three others are at barely above .500.

And just look at the sorry state of some of the franchises -- such as the knucklehead Washington Wizards these days, 0-25 in road games for the season, and the miserable 9-45 Cleveland Cavaliers, losers of 26 in a row before snapping the skein against the Clippers. The Nets, Raptors, Kings, and Timberwolves aren't faring much better.

So while he did backtrack, maybe LeBron James is on to something. In this column, we just can't let James off the hook so easily. We need to have some fun first.

]]> So let's do what LeBron said originally and shrink. Let's go radical and eliminate 12 franchises: Minnesota, Sacramento, New Jersey, Indiana, Memphis, Cleveland, LA Clippers, Charlotte, Toronto, Milwaukee, Denver and Golden State. Sorry guys. No rhyme or reason for our choices. Most of you have been proud franchises down the years , but we have to shrink somewhere. So Nothing against those aforementioned locales, and, remember, we're having fun here.

By the way, you'll note we're keeping the old-school franchises from the 60s, 70s and 80s, such as Washington (nee the Baltimore Bullets, Chicago Zephyrs, Chicago Packers), Boston, New York and Philadelphia. Besides, this blog is based in Baltimore-Washington, so the Wizards are our baby.

So here is what it comes down to: With a league shrunk by more than a third, we can divvy up the superstars and do a Big 3 for the remaining teams. Heck, let's instead go for a Big 4 for the remaining teams.

Here goes, in no particular order, with commentary:

Miami Heat: James, Wade, Bosh are as good as it gets, in fact, revolutionary, no matter how you feel about Cleveland and "The Decision." But whether the Heat can truly compete with Boston in a 7-game series without a big bruiser in the middle remains to be seen. We'll know a lot more after the two face off today on national TV. Erick Dampier, Juwan Howard and Žydrūnas Ilgauskas may not be enough for the bigs stockpiled in Boston, so we'll ship the talented Michael Beasley and his 20.3 scoring average back their way from Minnesota to make that Big 4..

Los Angeles Lakers: Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol, Lamar Odom and Ron Artest are a serious Big 4 already. You know, two-time NBA champions. And they still have long Andrew Bynum to contend with on the boards. So as enticing it might be to put Chauncey Billips in a Lakers uniform since we are breaking up the Denver Nuggets, we can't do it. But it is tempting as Billips would look good running the show alongside Kobe?

Boston Celtics: Boston coach Doc Rivers finagled Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and Rajon Rondo on the East All-Star roster --even though the Celtics failed to win a championship last season. All great players and you can't argue much against those four, but four Celts as All-Stars is a bit much. We're not talking Russell, Cousy, Bird, Heinsohn, McHale or Havlicek. Let Rivers win another title first before he starts stockpiling All-Stars like Joe Torre (Jorge Posada).

New York Knicks: With Amar'e Stoudemire, a great start toward a Big 4. But it's time to overhaul the backcourt. So steady Devin Harris of New Jersey and spectacular Monta Ellis (25.1 ppg.) of Golden State, welcome to your new team. We like Raymond Felton at the point, but Harris would be an upgrade. And to round out a Big 4, we'll move Andrea Bargnani and his 21.5 ppg. over from Toronto. Can you say Andrea Bargnani and Danilo Gallinari.

Washington Wizards: Carmelo Anthony, Rudy Gay, John Wall, Zach Randolph. Maybe time for Melo and Gay to come back home (Baltimore) with Wall dishing it out. Melo wants to be in NYC, surely, but to us he will look just as good strolling Capitol Hill, K Street and dining on the Potomac. And big Zach from Memphis can score and board with the best of them. (Plus, since the Wiz are our fav team, we're shipping Steph Curry of Golden State back East to the nation's capital to help Wall.)

Detroit Pistons: We were going to put the Pistons on an ice floe and roll them out to sea, but that Super Bowl commercial and the gripping TV show "Detroit 1-8-7" (Natalie Martinez, wow!) changed our minds. So you start, of course, with vets Richard Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince. Baron Davis of the Clippers is still a heck of a point guard, so he looks good with Hamilton and Prince. Then drop in the bad boy rookie DeMarcus Cousins from Sacramento. Detroit had the original "Bad Boys," so the Motor City also welcomes J.R. Smith from Denver to wreak more havoc.

Phoenix Suns: Sure, Steve Nash is ancient, but can still dish the ball. Vince Carter and Grant Hill are among the biggest names in the game, but those North Carolina-Duke ACC glory days are well beyond them. So Nash needs a bit of a spark and some bulk to power up these wily veterans. First Darren Collison from Indiana comes in to back up Nash at the point and Nene Hilario slides over from Denver. While he's no Stoudemire, Nene will bring a bit more skill to the Phoenix post.

Philadelphia 76ers: Let's reward Doug Collins here. Elton Brand and Andre Iguodala go ahead and welcome Blake Griffin and Eric Gordon from the Clippers to the City of Brotherly Love. Brand is not the Brand of old and it seems Iguodala's star is dimming, but it is the Sixers with a legacy of Chamberlain, Erving, Barkley, Cunningham, Cheeks, Malone and Dawkins. They deserve to be good again, so we'll let young Blake carry the torch. For good measure, here is where Stephen Jackson (reminds of Andrew Toney) of Charlotte lands too for good measure.

San Antonio Spurs: Already with the best record in the NBA at 45-9, and Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili, what else could the Spurs need? Well, since this is a Big 4 (though Richard Jefferson is a big star in his own right), let's go ahead and plug in the rook Derrick Favors of New Jersey in behind Duncan.

Oklahoma City Thunder: We love Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and Jeff Green. Could the missing piece to the puzzle be none other than Kevin Love from Minnesota. Love and his rebounding, double-double prowess lobbied hard and got to be an All-Star. Imagine him going up after Durant missed shots. Since we like OKC so much, here is where Billips from Denver shows up. Since ol' Chauncey is no longer an All-Star, he shouldn't mind serving as a sounding board/backup for young Westbrook.

Houston Rockets: Houston has Kevin Martin and his 23.5 ppg scoring, and that's a good start. With no Yao Ming, Luis Scola is proving to be decent, qualifying as a piece of a Big 4. Probably an upgrade is due at the point, so why not Jose Calderon and his 8.8 apg coming in from Toronto. And bring in J.J. Hickson from Cleveland and the emerging two-guard Arron Afflalo from Denver. Not a super-duper Big 4, but, hey, we're moving the players about.

Chicago Bulls: With Derrick Rose, Carlos Boozer, Joakim Noah and Luol Deng, who can argue with the Bulls and their sterling 36-16 record. But for good measure, we'll have efficient Danny Granger at 20.9 ppg make the short trip from Indiana to the Windy City to add some scoring punch.

Orlando Magic: Dwight Howard might be Superman, but it will take more than Gilbert Arenas, Jason Richardson and Hedo Turkoglu to keep Howard away from the Kryptonite that is Miami and Boston in the East. Marcus Camby/Kenyon Martin coming from Portland/Denver to help Howard staff the frontline might seal the deal. Problem is both have been battling injuries all year.

Atlanta Hawks: Joe Johnson, Al Horford, Josh Smith, Marvin Williams mean some of the best raw talent around, yet not likely to get Atlanta to the Eastern Conference final. So why not add even more pure talent -- young stud Tyreke Evans coming over from Sacramento to run the point for a fading Mike Bibby. And for good measure, we'll throw in Robin Lopez from Jersey.

Portland Trailblazers: A big four? LaMarcus Aldridge should be an All-Star and the injured Brandon Roy is as tough as they come. So that's half the battle. But we're adding Brandon Jennings and Andrew Bogut from the Bucks with O.J. Mayo coming in from Memphis. Might help resurrect the Rose Garden days of Bill Walton-Maurice Lucas.

Dallas Mavericks: Dirk Nowitzi is Dirk, but, really, who else on this team rates when you think of a championship? Jason Kidd and Shawn Marion are older and Caron Butler is always hurt. But with the talent level already, here is what we do: David Lee from Golden State will add some punch to the lineup with Tyson Chandler is already playing well and Jason Terry big-time off the bench. To give Mark Cuban a little more money to spend, Ty Lawson is coming in from Denver to give Kidd some back up.

New Orleans Hornets: Surely Chris Paul should be playing in New York, but we like basketball in the Big Easy where the legend of Pistol Pete thrilled us. David West is formidable at the 4 and Emeka Okafor is solid. But the Hornets need to get bigger so let's go with Roy Hibbert from Indiana. Then we'll add in slam-dunk champ DeMar DeRozan and his hops from Toronto. And since we admire Antawn Jamison from his D.C. days, his leadership and hard work could solidify this group.

Utah Jazz: Deron Williams lost Carlos Boozer to free agency and needs some backup. Al Jefferson is a solid center and Paul Milsap dependable. Andrei Kirilenko is making almost $18 million a year, but never has added up. Neither has Mehmet Okur. So, to satisfy Williams (they say he ran Jerry Sloan out), we'll bring in Gerald Wallace from Charlotte for inside scoring and Indiana's Mike Dunleavy for outside punch. And wouldn't Marc Gasol look good in a Jazz uni, competing head--to-head in the West with his bro.

Shrinkage.

DMA 7-22 Sports is a blog column about sports in the Washington-Baltimore market, covering amateurs, colleges and pros. The title DMA 7-22? Means "Designated Market Area," per use of media rating services, signifying Washington is the 7th largest media market in the United States, and Baltimore is the 22nd. You can reach editor M.V. Greene at DMA722Sports@gmail.com

Photos: James, Wade, Bosh photo, NBA.com

For Modell, Road to HOF Untenable

2011-02-02T08:00:00Z

Fifteen modern-era NFL players and contributors will learn on Super Bowl Saturday whether they made the cut for enshrinement in the 2011 class of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Jerome Bettis, Marshall Faulk, Curtis Martin, Cris Carter, Tim Brown and Deion Sanders are among the headliners in the current class.

When the ballot of finalists was announced Jan. 9, it meant that the old man, Art Modell, would have no chance again. Modell, now 85 years old, made it to the semifinal round for induction for the first time since 2001, but merely has been an afterthought during the intervening years.

For Mr. Modell -- the former majority owner and current minority owner of the Baltimore Ravens and the man most responsible for the likes of Ray Lewis, Ed Reed, Jonathan Ogden, Joe Flacco, Brian Billick, etc., by bringing pro football back to Baltimore -- enshrinement as a Pro Football immortal may never come or at least not until he is dead and gone.

You see they hate Art Modell -- in Cleveland especially where he uprooted that storied franchise, grabbed the almighty dollar and brought them to Baltimore in 1996. That seems to remain the main reason Modell was not among the HOF finalists again, though unforgiving critics are starting to take even deeper shots at his legacy.

Modell is so vilified in Cleveland that his hate-meter reading is even higher than the one for LeBron James.

]]> Baltimore knows how Cleveland feels. Robert Irsay surreptitiously uprooted the proud Baltimore Colts franchise in 1984 and set them down in Indianapolis, leaving us here without football until the Browns (Ravens) arrived.

You hear on sports talk radio in Baltimore from time to time about how it is a shame Modell is being denied a rightful place in Canton. Surely, Baltimore is indebted to Modell for getting us football, winning a Super Bowl in 2001 and fostering one of the great rivalries in sports today with the Steelers.

Yet, otherwise, you get the feeling that the Baltimore citizenry is largely ambivalent about Modell and his prospects for the Hall. While Cleveland deeply hates him, Baltimore probably doesn't care much.

Maybe when he moved here, Mr. Modell could have approached the town in a way other than as rich pro football savior and opportunist. But when you build your fortune through family money, it becomes hard to relate to the working man. Modell's grandfather founded and his father built the enduring Modell's Sporting Goods chain in New York, still the largest such family-owned chain in the country to this day.

So there is no outpouring of support here among the populace for Modell. That's the kind of town Baltimore is. It's not a knock, just reality -- glad to have football, and that's all that really matters here. Local sportswriters, broadcasters, talk show hosts, former-players-turned commentators and business people tend to speak more loudly in favor of Modell, but self preservation and getting paid because the Ravens are in town might have as much to do with it as anything.

Modell sold majority control of the Ravens to then minority partner Steve Bisciotti in 2004.

The ordinary Baltimorean probably doesn't much care because Modell's demeanor since coming here has been more regal, royal and upper crust than Average Joe. Most of the town, those mired in the trenches of getting through city life, just aren't like that and figure why should they care. Sure, to his great credit, Mr. Modell and his family have been attentive to Baltimore since coming here and have been generous, at least what you see on the surface, in doing their part to be philanthropic. In Cleveland, you don't get the feeling that they saw him as royalty. Maybe that is why they hate him the way they do. Even as well-heeled as the late Irsay was, Baltimore probably related to him more than Modell. Baltimore still feels about Irsay the way Cleveland does about Modell.

Irsay was never shy about chugging down some shots and then going on TV or radio for a slobbering, drunken rant. It was legendary. In belittling Modell's HOF credentials, Cleveland partisans are now saying moving the Browns to Baltimore isn't the sole reason why Modell isn't worthy. Old school columnist Bill Livingston of The Plain Dealer said in a December 2010 column, for instance, that digging into Modell's historical record shows he simply has been an "average" owner "at best."

Livingston pointed out that unlike Oakland Raiders Hall of Fame owner Al Davis, who also has moved his teams, Davis has won three Super Bowls and is credited with helping to force the AFL-NFL merger when he was AFL commissioner by spearheading talent raids on the established league.

Modell, Livingston pointed out, won no Super Bowls in Cleveland and was mired with a 161-174-1 record during his last 22 seasons in Cleveland. (Modell had owned the Browns in Cleveland from 1961-1995. In those 35 seasons as team owner the Browns qualified for the postseason 17 times, winning 11 division titles and the NFL championship with Jim Brown in 1964. The team's overall regular season record during his time was 252-233-10.)

"As a businessman, he managed to lose money hand over fist as an NFL owner. It is a feat of impressive ineptitude," Livingston wrote, alluding to the years of wrangling in Cleveland over money and new stadiums.

Modell also has received credit over the years from supporters for savvy in the 1960s and 70s in helping the NFL become a television-rich through contracts with the networks, but Livingston seeks to debunk Modell's role.

So Modell gets only venom from Cleveland on the possible road someday to Canton. And, again, Baltimore, is just glad to have the Ravens and is grateful to Modell for that. But as a city, the feeling is, if he gets in the Hall of Fame, great. If he doesn't, he doesn't.

DMA 7-22 Sports is a blog column about sports in the Washington-Baltimore market, covering amateurs, colleges and pros. The title DMA 7-22? Means "Designated Market Area," per use of media rating services, signifying Washington is the 7th largest media market in the United States, and Baltimore is the 22nd. You can reach M.V. Greene at DMA722Sports@gmail.com

Photos: Art Modell with 2000 Lombardi Trophy, AP; Art Modell, circa Cleveland Browns, Getty Images

Luke Scott, Tell Us How You Really Feel

2010-12-09T00:00:00Z

So, Luke Scott, tell us how you really feel.

Baltimore, in the few years he has played here for the Orioles, has loved DH Luke Scott. The cowboy mentality, the free spirit, the chisled profile.

But Luke Scott showed us he is a "wazoo" with his comments Tuesday at baseball's winter meetings in Orlando about the president of the United States.

Despite Oriole centerfielder Adam Jones tweeting that treammate Scott remains his boy, we root for Luke Scott no longer.

Barack Obama would never say it, but Luke Scott, simply, is another one of those who just can't get over the fact that in this marvelous country of ours we have gotten to the point where we can have a black president.

Yes, we're offended by Scott's remarks. How else are introspective black folks and others of good will supposed to take his comments?

Here is some of what Scott said that ticks us off: "Obama does not represent America. Nor does he represent anything what our forefathers stood for. This country is basically built on an attitude. It's a way of life. It's not because you're born here. It's not that you're supposed to take from those who have and give to those who haven't. That kills a country. It killed Russia."

]]> The question for someone like Scott is if Barack Obama does not represent a nation with an immigrant core, then who does. Do you have to be from, say, Idaho, or somewhere like it, to be a "legitimate" American? Is Louisiana's Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal, a man descended from the nation of India who was born in Baton Rouge, no less a legit American?

And this bit about forefathers, some will say America's only true forefathers were the Native Americans.

In many ways, Barack Obama is more authentic American than Luke Scott any day.

Whether you are progressive or conservative or whatever persuasion, Obama (and conservative Jindal, too) epitomizes what we are told to believe about America -- that if you go to school, treat people right, do the right things in life, be good citizens, etc., etc., then you can make it here.

America, Luke Scott, is hardly a nation solely of blue bloods. We're a mix of anything you can imagine.

Whatever you say or think about the policies of President Obama -- even if you are a birther -- the man from the land of Lincoln managed, like Lincoln, to take the best that this country had to offer and elevated himself to historic status. In Baltimore, what we do know about Luke Scott is he is a gun-monger, and perhaps that is the source of his ignorant contempt for a duly-elected U.S. president.

We know he fired guns as a young boy and young man around his hometown of DeLeon Springs, Fla. We know he delights at the echo of gunfire and believes it is his God-given right to carry firearms. We know he goes out in the woods to stalk and fire on Bambi. And we know of his love for freak-show Ted Nugent, which is his right.

And certainly, no one here has qualms with another man's right to arm and defend himself. This country was founded on that convention. Yet you have to wonder about people who are only able to man-up when they are strapped -- no matter that they are millionaire athletes or home boys in the hood.

Here's what Scott told the Baltimore Sun in February about guns after Major League Baseball issued a directive banning them from locker rooms after the Gilbert Arenas situation with the Washington Wizards and former New York Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress accidentally shooting himself in a New York City nightclub in November 2008: "I've carried a gun for 10 years. I've carried them in the locker room, and nobody really knows about it. I know how to handle myself, and I stow it away where nobody really knows about it."

And as Scott told the Washington Post in a June 2008 interview, "I've got an AK-47, AR-15s, hunting rifles, sniper rifles, shot guns."

What a self-absorbed whack job.

With all things being equal, Luke Scott is not the role model we should want in Baltimore. We have too many issues here as an East Coast urban town to be looking to Luke Scott for inspiration.

But, yes, in purely sports terms, we'll marvel in 2011 again at Scott's majestic homers to right field at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. We hope he will follow up with another big year as Oriole MVP as he was in 2010.

But with his comments about our president and his over-the-top gun-toting ways, we won't root like before for Luke Scott. We won't take our daughters up to him for an autograph at the next game. We'll look at Luke Scott with a little more circumspect.

Like Obama, we were born here, too. Our forefathers helped build this great country, too.

DMA 7-22 Sports is a blog column about sports in the Washington-Baltimore market, covering amateurs, colleges and pros. The title DMA 7-22? Means "Designated Market Area," per use of media rating services, signifying Washington is the 7th largest media market in the United States, and Baltimore is the 22nd. You can reach M.V. Greene at DMA722Sports@gmail.com

Photo: Luke Scott, AP

Maryland Horse Racing -- Get Real

2010-11-08T08:00:00Z

Watching the spectacle over the weekend that was the Breeders' Cup at Churchill Downs in Louisville likely leaves many Marylanders chagrined over the seemingly moribund state of the Sport of Kngs here.

The big news out of Maryland last week was that citizens in one jurisdiction, Anne Arundel County, Maryland, decided by their vote that a potentially lucrative slots parlor be placed on the site of a popular regional mall rather than, as the horse industry wanted, at nearby Laurel Park Race Course.

Waking up in an apparent fog the day after the Nov. 2 election -- in which voters supported the ballot question with a 56 percent tally -- the president of the Maryland Jockey Club decried the result. The Maryland Jockey Club, which operates Laurel Park in Prince George's County, Maryland, and Baltimore's historic Pimlico Race Course, the home of the Preakness Stakes, put out the word for the umpteenth time that such a voters mandate would lead it to reduce racing operations in the state significantly, imperiling the more than 9,000 jobs and $600 million in revenue generated annually.

Over the slots vote, a venerable tradition of thoroughbred racing and breeding in Maryland would go down the drain, racing interests say. Specifically, the Maryland Jockey Club says it would need to eliminate live racing at Laurel Park and turn it into an off-track betting facility and then close a training center in nearby Bowie, Maryland. All that would be left in the state is a 40-day annual meet at Pimlico around Preakness time. Racing interests would have you believe that slots would have been the only way to save the industry.

We say bunk to such an argument.

]]> Despite the splendor of the Preakness and a long tradition at its back, it is nonetheless difficult for many Marylanders to feel bad for the racing industry and those who have run it. There is a feeling that horsemen ran their own industry into the ground, pushing for slots over the years as a way of getting the public to bail it out.

(In the interest of full disclosure, the writer of this blog column would prefer no slots anywhere within the great state of Maryland, but given a choice would have favored the 4,750-machine parlor at Laurel Park instead of at the Arundel Mills shopping complex.)

Spending millions of dollars in TV advertising in a failed effort to sway the public and defeat the Arundel Mills slots ballot question didn't help their cause. If perception is reality, it seemed they were willing to spend whatever it took in a shameless money grab.

Yes, they will tell you that the state's racing industry was surviving OK until slot machines sprang up in neighboring Delaware, West Virginia and Pennsylvania over recent years, prompting hordes of Maryland gamblers to cross state lines for their fix, thus rendering Maryland purses and breeding bonuses less competitive.

We in Maryland do love the beauty of horse racing as much as anyone on the planet. We know the history, horses, personalities. We watch the activity and excitement around the country -- at venues like Churchill -- and wish that same vibrancy was here.

But the Maryland racing scene seems to be convoluted mess of its own making. The De Francis family, Magna Entertainment Corp., MI Developments Inc. are all names that have been intertwined in recent years with the industry. One party selling assets to another, then bankruptcy filings, then buyout proposals. Supposedly, the De Francis family and other Maryland Jockey Club investors sold controlling interests in the Maryland tracks to Magna in 2002 in a $117 million deal. Wow, where is that money? In short, what it means is somebody is making money.

Had they gotten slots at Laurel Park you figure it would have meant good money after bad on the backs of the public.

Maybe what the racing industry needs to do is pool its resources, spend more its own money, leverage and put up its land holdings and, simply, do a better job of marketing the industry to the local citizenry.

For instance, what has the Maryland Jockey Club, an organization founded in 1743, done for the struggling community surrounding Pimlico in northwest Baltimore. The area surrounding the Pimilico track is where you hardly want to take an evening stroll. Have there been programs, initiatives, opportunities for melding that largely minority community into the fabric of the industry beyond having people with little resources coming to the track to place bets?

As for the Preakness, as much as we love it, it seems that the only piece of the profits going to the locals occurs when they rent out their front yards once a year for parking. Every year during Preakness time, folks pour in to take in the festivities only to caboose with their money after the day is over.

And what about those 9,000 jobs supposedly generated by the Maryland horse racing industry. Who do those jobs go to? Family members, brethren? Think about it.

Sorting out the mess of horse racing in Maryland is difficult at best. Like anything in business, perhaps market conditions have passed the industry by here. When that happens, as much as you would hate to lose a sport and industry, you move your money to something else.

But if the well heeled racing interests want to continue here, put your hands back in your pockets, give back to the communities where your tracks reside and starting writing checks rather than seeking a handout from the public. Give the locals a bigger piece of the action. Get them involved in the business -- even at your picturesque farms in Greenspring Valley, Howard County and Monkton. And how about fixing up Pimlico so it is not an eyesore to Baltimore's Park Heights community.

Clearly, Maryland voters sent you a message over the slots issue that since you broke the industry it is yours to repair.

DMA 7-22 Sports is a blog column about sports in the Washington-Baltimore market, covering amateurs, colleges and pros. The title DMA 7-22? Means "Designated Market Area," per use of media rating services, signifying Washington is the 7th largest media market in the United States, and Baltimore is the 22nd. You can reach M.V. Greene at DMA722Sports@gmail.com

Photo Credit: Lookin At Lucky, 2010 Preakness Stakes winner, Getty Images

Cowherd, Dude, It's Just the 'Dougie'

2010-11-05T14:00:00Z

ESPN Radio guy Colin Cowherd deserves grief for calling out Washington rookie John Wall over Wall's rendition of "The Dougie" dance during introductions before the Wizards home opener Nov. 2 versus Philadelphia.

You might say that Colin Cowherd needs to get a life. Slamming the Rook, who turned 20 on Sept. 6, as another Iverson, Marbury or Stevie Francis because he charmed Wizards fans with the Dougie shows a gross lack of perspective about young athletes and maybe young people in general.

Actually, everybody's trying to learn to Dougie. It's all the rave.

You know, "Teach Me How to Dougie, Teach Me How to Dougie." School kids all over America are uttering those words at Friday night mixers. Everybody wants to know if you can Dougie. Like the "Bump" and "Hustle" fad dances in the 1970s or the "Macarena" during the middle 1990s, nothing decadent, just the Dougie.

You listen to Cowherd on the radio and you know his shtick is to fire up the legions. And normally you give him credit for doing the backgrounding necessary to draw patterns and conclusions about sports issues. But to lump Wall with malcontents in his third NBA game is much ill conceived.

]]> In his rant the day after the Wizards beat the Sixers 116-115 in overtime on the strength of Wall's spectacular performance of 29 points, 13 assists and nine steals, Cowherd went on: "I'm gonna call out John Wall. ... Before the game started, he spent 34 seconds doing the Dougie. That tells me all I need to know about J-Wow. Then he opened his mouth later and confirmed it: not a sharp guy. All about him. In that line last night, that 29-point line, when he was out of control, he had 8 turnovers. By the way, Rajon Rondo had 17 assists last night, 0 turnovers. Rajon's got rings. Wall will never have one. ..."

Cowherd's assertions on Wall lacks credence on a number of fronts. First, comparisons to Rondo can't possibly hold water. As great as he is already, Rondo can't match the potential of Wall. In just three pro games, you can see that Wall is the heir apparent to the league's great players of today. He has the explosiveness of Dwayne Wade, on-court instincts of LeBron James and relentlessness of Kobe Bryant.

Simply, Wall is the best rookie player to come down the pike in the last few years -- likely matching the impact Kevin Durant is having in Oklahoma City. Wall's budding legend will bump up tonight when he makes his Madison Square Garden pro debut in New York against the Knicks.

Cowherd skewered Wall for committing eight turnovers during the Sixers game. Yet moments after the game ended, during the on-court post-game interview, Wall was cognizant enough to bemoan the turnovers despite the interviewer gushing all over his performance. "Yeah, it was great, man, the one thing I want to really work on, though -- great win for the team -- but turnovers. I came back in and had nine or eight. That's too many turnovers for this team."

His off-the-cuff comments underscore that Wall understands the game and knows what he has to do to get better. Besides, on Cowherd's comparison with Rondo, let's not forget that Rondo is passing the ball in Boston to Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen. Wall is chucking it to the likes of JaVale McGee, Andray Blatche and Al Thornton. Huge difference.

Cowherd went further to brand Wall as selfish, saying Magic Johnson, Isiah Thomas and others would never do the Dougie before a game and that Wall would never get a championship ring. Maybe, maybe not, but Johnson and Thomas weren't without their indiscretions during their careers, and, as great as they were, can't be held up as models of virtue (Do we need to rehash "the kiss," running women, Isiah's flakiness?).

As for never winning a championship, who else wins championships in the NBA but the Lakers or Celtics anyway, because they buy all the top players. But give Wall time and a credible supporting cast and he could win. Besides, by the time Bryant, Garnett, James, Wade and others get closer to the end of their careers, a guy like Wall will be in mid-stride and might be the best of the best.

How do you put Wall in such company already or categorize him with the issues Iverson, Marbury and Francis have had during their careers. You can't. By all accounts, Wall has been on the straight and narrow. He's a country boy from North Carolina who lost his father to cancer when he was 9 years old. He has had his ups and downs, but a strong mother in the absence of his father during his formative years kept him going.

We've seen all-knowing sports guys like Cowherd over the years. But calling out the kid Wall in a seemingly vile manager is a gratuitous stretch. Based on the Dougie? So he likes to dance, so what. But no media reports of high school jail-time, drug usage or abusing young girls. And you get the sense from hearing him that Wall has a genuine love and respect for the game. What else do you want in the league's next superstar?

DMA 7-22 Sports is a blog column about sports in the Washington-Baltimore market, covering amateurs, colleges and pros. The title DMA 7-22? Means "Designated Market Area," per use of media rating services, signifying Washington is the 7th largest media market in the United States, and Baltimore is the 22nd. You can reach M.V. Greene at DMA722Sports@gmail.com

Photo Credit: John Wall, Colin Cowherd, AP

NFL Good to Smack Down Nasty Hits

2010-10-22T10:00:00Z

Way back in the day, when little boys were first learning about this game called football, you had three choices -- two-hand touch, flag (if you were lucky to have that equipment) and tackle.

It was football in its most raw form -- hardly Pop Warner and pads. This was the ball played in schoolyards, bumpy rec center fields or in the street. The rules were simple. You played touch when on narrow one-way streets where the parked cars were the sidelines. You played tackle on the grass or dirt. No shoulder pads, jerseys or helmets, just the ball.

So with the NFL this week cracking down on concussion-creating, helmet-to-helmet hits, with many of the league's top defensive players and hitters furious and complaining, you think back to that time when learning football and ask -- why don't they just play tackle.

You know, boy with the ball. Running around the end. You swoop in past your block. Bring him down at the waist or legs. No launching, just tackle.

We love football more than ever, but maybe this episode of all the violent hits on Sunday shows that the game should get back to its roots. You block and you tackle, the essence of football.

]]> We know the game is different in 2010. Linebackers like Baltimore's Ray Lewis and Pittsburgh's James Harrison might have been defensive lineman in the 1960s and '70s. Hard-hitting safeties like Pittsburgh's Troy Polamalu and New England's Brandon Meriweather may have been linebackers. Simply, players are bigger, faster, stronger than 40 or 50 years ago.

In Baltimore, Ravens fans have grown accustomed over the past 15 years to bone-jarring hits on the football field from hero Ray Lewis. Lewis complained in the aftermath of the NFL's pronouncement of increased fines for helmet-to-helmet hits on defenseless receivers and possible suspensions that the move would cause "the game will be diluted very quickly.'' You can't know yet whether Lewis' prediction will come true.

The big hit is nice, but what is off with just tackling the guy if he has the ball. Surely, the goal is to prevent the catch, such as Lewis' hit on New York Jets tight end Dustin Keller in the season opener. Keller couldn't hold the ball and Lewis enhanced his legend in a 10-9 win on Monday Night Football.

Last season, of course, Lewis was fined $25,000 for a much-discussed hit over the middle on Cincinnati's Chad Ochocinco and a second infraction. In today's environment, clocking Ochocinco may have cost Lewis the same $75,000 the league levied on Harrison for the hit on Cleveland's Mohamed Massaquoi or the $50,000 apiece on Meriweather for cold-cocking Baltimore's Todd Heap and Atlanta's Dunta Robinson for ringing Philadelphia's DeSean Jackson's bell.

Lewis and other defenders have complained over the years that the league has gone too far in protecting quarterbacks and now receivers. In Baltimore, Ravens fans cried that it was a dirty shame last season that New England's Tom Brady was the beneficiary of two late-game roughly the passer penalties when the big paws of Haloti Ngata and Terrell Suggs grazed his helmet -- a game the Ravens lost.

Defensive players say the game is sullied when receivers and other skill position players get too much protection from the rules. They say the hit often comes when the receiver is going down after the catch or attempt, causing the helmets to collide. They say it is hard to adjust their momentum to the ball.

But what about bigger, faster, stronger? These are the best of the best -- world-class athletes always going on about the ability to stop on a dime, something foreign to mere mortals. So just stop on a dime. Granted, you can't let receivers run wild, but if he doesn't have the ball, just stop on a dime before the useless hit.

Harrison complained the loudest and even "threatened" retirement. But we say that instead of giving Massaquoi that forearm shiver across the chinstrap, just wrap the guy up and tackle him.

Fans love the action of football, but the thinking here is that you would rather have the diminutive Jackson streaking down the field for an 80 touchdown pass from Mike Vick than having to sit out games with a concussion.

Meriweather's cheap-shot hit on Heap had him coming in from 10 to 15 yards away in Bill Belichick's cover two defense when the ball clearly had sailed over Heap's outstretched arms. Maybe we get back to some one-on-one like it once was without all the exotic defenses.

And maybe what this controversy will do -- and it will ramp up even more when the first player is suspended a game -- is bring more pizzazz back to the game like when we first learned it.

Instead of a measly 10-9 Ravens win over the Jets, let's go back to the day when the score might have been 49-35 -- Raiders' Darryle Lamonica heaving bombs to Cliff Branch in man coverage or Roman Gabriel chucking it up for Jack Snow and Bernie Casey with the Rams.

Remember how we learned the game in its most virgin form on the play lots. We're in the huddle, down on one knee, drawing up the play in the ground: "Run down past the tree, fake at the water fountain, cut to the middle at the light pole ..."

DMA 7-22 Sports is a blog column about sports in the Washington-Baltimore market, covering amateurs, colleges and pros. The title DMA 7-22? Means "Designated Market Area," per use of media rating services, signifying Washington is the 7th largest media market in the United States, and Baltimore is the 22nd. You can reach M.V. Greene at DMA722Sports@gmail.com

Photo Credit: Todd Heap, Brandon Meriweather, AP

Troy Smith Gone, But No Goner

2010-09-06T16:00:00Z

The Baltimore Ravens cut perhaps their most popular player on Saturday in backup quarterback Troy Smith as NFL teams got down to their 53-man rosters going into the new season.

The move raised some eyebrows in the national sports media, but Baltimore football observers knew that Smith had been walking a tightrope for a roster spot with the Ravens, considered a prime 2011 Super Bowl contender. Smith quarterbacked the Ravens with second- and third-teamers in their preseason finale Thursday - a 27-21 loss in St. Louis to the Rams - and the game seemed to seal his fate.

Smith breezed into Charm City in 2007 as a former Ohio State quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner, and an infectious smile, easy manner and confident demeanor immediately put him in good stead with Baltimore fans, teammates and the media. He was just a fifth round pick in the 2007 NFL draft and the Ravens' bringing him to Baltimore was considered a steal.

Smith seemed to have the perfect public persona well suited for a blue-collar enclave like the great city of Baltimore. Even at 26 years old, too bad Smith wasn't running for mayor instead of third-string quarterback. Given that the city's last duly elected mayor was forced from office earlier this year over some alleged misdoings involving the almighty dollar, a young guy like Smith with seeming limitless leadership qualities might win in a landslide.

But Smith now is figuring out his next move as a pro football quarterback. Somebody figures to snap him up. You can do a lot worse than having Troy Smith on your football team.

]]> The rap on Smith since joining the Ravens always had been that he is too short at 5-10 to be an effective frontline quarterback (his NFL bio lists him at 6 feet tall). His strong arm, talent and athleticism weren't so much the question, but just his atypical size for a quarterback.

Some football analysts have cast him like a Steve Young -- who started out with Tampa Bay in the NFL then migrated to San Francisco to be Joe Montana's backup before coming into his own. Young spent eight years as a pro backup before getting his shot, excelling and reaching the Hall of Fame. Many believe Smith has what it takes to follow a similar path.

At the start of the 2008 season, the year the Ravens drafted starting QB Joe Flacco in the first round, Smith actually was in the running for the No. 1 job, but an illness (rare case of tonsillitis) put him on the shelf for many important weeks at the beginning of the season. Ravens coach John Harbaugh, starting his first season, too, after replacing Brian Billick, found his shining star in the 6-5 Flacco who got the Ravens to an 11-5 regular season record and the AFL title game.

Smith's performance Thursday night against the Rams, in which he played the whole game, probably confirmed the Ravens' decision. Frankly, you thought he would have been better in the game despite scoring a couple of touchdowns with his legs. Getting a couple of balls batted down at the line of scrimmage didn't help his cause.

The Ravens also signed veteran Marc Bulger to join in the QB competition. Bulger has been an immediate hit. The signing began to put the handwriting on the wall for Smith and clearly was deft move by Ravens GM Ozzie Newsome. If the still-maturing, third-year pro Flacco stumbles at any point during the season, having a veteran and former Pro-Bowler like Bulger in the fold brings a certain level of comfort the team believed it could not find with Smith.

Bulger, 33, has been through the NFL ringer, and probably still could be starting somewhere. The Ravens are fortunate to have a guy who spent a career throwing bullets to Isaac Bruce and Torry Holt and checkdowns to Marshall Faulk during some high-flying years with the Rams. With two proven chuckers in Flacco and Bulger, conventional wisdom for the Ravens was there was little need for a third quarterback in Smith at over $1 million a year.

Yet Smith was an immensely popular teammate with the Ravens. You hope his departure doesn't create a fissure in team chemistry. Some Ravens teammates, like all-world safety Ed Reed, scorned the Bulger acquisition, calling him in a radio interview in July "just another guy that has been in the league and been around."

Reed went on to say, "I honestly think at the quarterback position Troy was the guy and is the guy, and he's more than qualified to lead the team to a championship." Reed, who begins the season on the Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) list because of a hip injury and thus will sit out the first six games, unquestionably is the Ravens leader in the clubhouse with Ray Lewis.

But you figure Reed and Lewis will go along. Signing wide receiver Anquan Boldin gives the Ravens that legitimate Super Bowl chance. Reed has never won a Super Bowl and Lewis wants his second. For them, 2011 is about cementing their legacies.

During the offseason, Smith had publicly expressed his discontent at even being Flacco's backup, requesting a trade through his agent. Apparently there were no takers, but you like his imprimatur and boldness.

Even Harbaugh liked what Smith brought to the table, but it came down to a numbers game. Keeping Smith likely would have meant cutting one of their promising young receivers, David Reed or Marcus Smith. "Troy ... makes plays. He does bring a unique ability. He gets out of trouble and makes plays with his feet and his arm. We've always liked Troy. He's a good player," Harbaugh said following the Rams exhibition game Thursday.

In Baltimore, some fans will believe Smith wasn't given the shot to lead the team because he is a black quarterback. While black QBs certainly have been marginalized through the history of the league, a fact that is well documented, Smith doesn't seem to be the case. As black quarterbacks go, Smith hasn't yet showed the flash of a Randall Cunningham, size and strength of a Doug Williams or dynamism of a Warren Moon.

Plus Newsome is a black GM and Hall of Famer. If anybody understands some of the negative history of the league, it is Newsome. Cutting Smith simply was about the business of football.

One thing for sure, you don't expect Troy Smith to be done as a NFL QB anytime soon. His origins won't permit it. A native of Cleveland who was raised in Columbus, OH, Smith spent time in foster care as a kid, so he has seen harder times than this. Ever the top athlete, Smith started his collegiate career as a running back and kick returner, before taking the reins as Ohio State QB in 2004 and winning the Heisman in 2006.

He has been down, but never seemingly out.

Many Baltimore fans will hope that maybe Smith will come back to the Ravens practice squad in a few days at a reduced salary. Who knows. The game often takes unusual twists and turns.

One thing his supporters have to believe is that Troy Smith will get his chance at some point.

DMA 7-22 Sports is a blog column about sports in the Washington-Baltimore market, covering amateurs, colleges and pros. The title DMA 7-22? Means "Designated Market Area," per use of media rating services, signifying Washington is the 7th largest media market in the United States, and Baltimore is the 22nd. You can reach M.V. Greene at DMA722Sports@gmail.com

Photo Credits: Troy Smith, AP

Haynesworth PR Fix: Remember Roots

2010-08-29T09:00:00Z

Washington Redskins defensive lineman Albert Haynesworth is having a string of bad weeks this summer.

What Big Al sorely needs is a PR makeover. Makes you wonder who is image-advising football's 100-millon-dollar man.

Haynesworth's roots are embedded in the fabric of the Deep South, something he shouldn't forget. That might be a good place to start if he wants to repair his image.

What makes the summer of 2010 so bad for Haynesworth is that DC is hardly a pro football town where they give short shrift to their gridiron heroes - like how Eagles fans bad-mouthed Donovan McNabb toward the end in Philadelphia or with the New York Giants where they will plunk you with snowballs for losing a game.

DC is all about national politics, government and tradition, and, as such, professional athletes, tend to fly under the radar amid side-room congressional deals, federal agency rulemakings, deep-pocketed K Street lobbying, and non-profits with their hands out seeking grant money. Even locker-room gun-meister himself, Gilbert Arenas of the NBA Wizards, suspended for most of the 2009-2010 season, still enjoys a largely favorable rep in DC.

Yet Haynesworth, widely acknowledged as one of the NFL's most dominant defensive players, has been in a crisis communications freefall. He has let himself get to the point where he is losing the stature that great players typically command.

]]> Brooding and lazy are not what you want them to say about you when it's time to write your epitaph.

You look at what happened with Haynesworth's frequent public clashes with new Redskins coach Mike Shanahan. Owner Dan Snyder brought Shanahan in the clean up the mess in Washington. Winning two Super Bowls like Shanahan means you're a big-time coach, so you do trump a wayward Haynesworth.

First Haynesworth skips the team's off-season conditioning program and demands a trade, complaining about being ticketed this season to play nose tackle instead of defensive end in Shanahan's new 3-4 defensive alignment. On April 1, of course, Haynesworth snaps up his $21 million contract roster bonus on April 1, but not long afterward begs off the club's mandatory mini-camp. He then becomes the butt of jokes in the sports world when he failed the team's conditioning test at the start of July training camp and was held out of practice 10 days until he could run the sprints.

The biggest indignity for Haynesworth came when Shanahan held him out until the second half - playing with and against backups - during the Skins 23-3 trouncing by Interstate 95 rival the Baltimore Ravens during the two clubs' annual exhibition Aug. 21 at FedEx Field. In seeming superficial remarks after the game, Haynesworth, a 9-year pro and former Pro Bowl player, suggested crudely that the move was an attempt by Shanahan to make him "look bad."

Yet during three weeks of Redskins' training camp, Haynesworth completed only five of the 13 full practices. Shanahan retorted, "Albert has gotten away in the past with playing without practicing. That will not happen under this regime. If he's going to play, he's going to practice, and that is the same with every player here. The days of him playing without practicing are over."

Shanahan and Haynesworth seemingly patched things up as Haynesworth got to play with the first unit at defensive end and nose tackle during the Redskins' third exhibition game, a 16-11 win Aug. 27 over the New York Jets.

Like Shanahan, Super Bowl-starved Redskins fans have a low tolerance level right now for Haynesworth. Many criticized Snyder for signing him to such a huge contract.

What Haynesworth should know about image building is that he could have a compelling story to tell if he worked at it. That is how Arenas stays above the fray with fans -- doing foundation work, always staying positive and making time for kids in the community.

Building on his problem-filled time with the Redskins, mostly what you hear about Haynesworth involves skirmishes -- such as the stomping incident in October 2006 as a Tennessee Titan when he attacked a helmet-less Dallas Cowboy center Andre Gurode, who was cut on the forehead by Haynesworth's cleats. The league suspended Haynesworth a hefty five games without pay. And you also know about the reported 2003 incident at Titans training camp in 2003. Haynesworth kicked then teammate Justin Hartwig on the chest and had to be separated from Hartwig by teammates.

What is ironic with Haynesworth, is he is involved with charitable work in Washington and is donating money to community causes. Plus, reading his quotes, he professes an inherent understanding of the plight of impoverished people. He seems to have a humanity about himself. Only it all gets drowned out in the noise surrounding his on field, brutish persona.

One thing Haynesworth needs to know about having a public image is when to talk and when to shut up. For instance, it is only preseason 2010 and Haynesworth has already said publicly he plans to skip the team's off-season program again in 2011. Why even make such a pronouncement at this point? If it is for the sake of being defiant, that's not a good reason. Bottom line: Simply bad PR.

You have to ask yourself, who really is Albert Haynesworth. At 29 years old now, there's little to account for him in the sports literature, but he surely has a story to tell.

On the down low, there was the 2008 news that his former wife, Stephanie Haynesworth, asked a Tennessee judge to compel him to pay child support for their son and daughter and another son from another relationship. His former wife also reportedly sought a restraining order against him.

You also see some scant references to his mother, Linda, from some quotes about how she tried to raise Albert and two siblings without a father around, but she refused to make excuses for the apparent hard times the family had to withstand. That's the kind of PR spokesperson Haynesworth needs to hire.

Haynesworth, named for his father and grandfather, comes from tiny, rural, backwoods Hartsville, South Carolina. As many sons and grandsons of the South know full well, that is worth a story in itself for a man -- albeit 6-6, 340 pounds and catlike quick on the d-line - to go from Hartsville to a $100 million contract.

We all should be so smart, no matter how good we are. A hundred million transcends talent almost. You have to be sharp to get that kind of money in life.

Leveraging where he has come from might be a good start for a Haynesworth PR makeover. All the greats do it, like Baltimore's Ray Lewis, Ed Reed and Anquan Boldin and their roots in South Florida.

Haynesworth made it out of Hartsville High School. You don't want to poke at the challenging school systems in the South, but no way would Hartsville High measure up to a Sidwell Friends in DC or a Gilman and Bryn Mawr in Baltimore.

Hartsville, population 7,556, according to the 2000 U.S. Census, is located in Darlington County in the northeast quadrant of the state, just north of Florence in the Pee Dee region. Median household income in 2000 was $26,063, with more than a quarter of the population stuck below the poverty line.

Except for Native Americans, the area was unsettled territory until around the 1730s when the first land grants were recorded, according to the area's history. Like so much of the South's history, it was formed in 1785 around a plantation and homestead, adjacent to Florence and Lee counties. Hartsville belonged to Capt. Thomas Edward Hart, who owned most of the land and was said to be a kind and caring southern landowner. It was a time in history, during the years before the Emancipation, where cotton was the cash crop and slaves did the work.

Unlike many of us, whose fathers and grandfathers, migrated north from South Carolina for work in the big towns along the East Coast of Baltimore, Philadelphia, Newark (NJ) and New York, Haynesworth rates as a "true" product of the South -- living there until the late 1990s when he moved to the University of Tennessee to play college football.

He shouldn't forget the facts about his life.

Again, to get out of Hartsville and make $100 million is a pretty big deal. The South remains a place where once-accepted societal traditions die hard -- even in 2010 - so you have to be doing something right as a young man to make it out in one piece.

So unless the mighty Albert Haynesworth is a downright intemperate scalawag, he should pursue that PR makeover and get his public image in order. At some point, age 29 becomes 39 and age 39 becomes 49, and all of a sudden you're a former elite athlete whom no one cares about because of all the hijinks during primetime. TO.

DMA 7-22 Sports is a blog column about sports in the Washington-Baltimore market, covering amateurs, colleges and pros. The title DMA 7-22? Means "Designated Market Area," per use of media rating services, signifying Washington is the 7th largest media market in the United States, and Baltimore is the 22nd. You can reach M.V. Greene at DMA722Sports@gmail.com

Photo Credits: Albert Haynesworth, AP, Getty Images, Afro-American newspaper

Everybody Loves Rex, But Right On Dungy

2010-08-20T19:27:40Z

Everybody does love Rex.

But, thanks, Tony Dungy for calling the big guy out on the carpet.

We know about Rex Ryan in Baltimore-Washington. Many here still believe he actually should be coaching the Ravens, where he for 10 years was defensive coordinator/assistant head coach and respected by his players, instead of leading the New York Jets.

What you see with Rex is what you get: big-talk, bold, affable, bluster. A big man, of course, Rex is the lovable oaf in the classroom you avoid, only to find out he really is a good guy. Beyond appearances, the one thing you know too about Rex Ryan is that he is a smart guy who knows football - a seeming genius at football, actually.

Dungy, the former Super Bowl-winning Indianapolis Colts coach and now a NBC football analyst, called Ryan out for Ryan's indiscriminate use of the F-word during HBO's "Hard Knocks" program that provides inside access to the Jets training camp. Dungy went so far as to say he would never hire Ryan for his staff because of his over-the-top salty language. (In that first Hard Knocks edition, Ryan threw out some 10 f-bombs.) Dungy also alluded that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell should speak with Ryan about it.

Good for you, Tony Dungy -- probably the game's leading unofficial "ambassador" today along with retired coach and announcer John Madden.

]]> In his own inimitable way, Ryan took exception to Dungy's criticism. Despite later connecting with Dungy by phone and inviting him to the Jets training camp in Cortland, NY, Ryan apparently still doesn't get it. Neither apparently does his dad and mentor, Buddy Ryan, an original hard edge who joined the fray and called Dungy out.

Instead of maybe conceding that his language on Hard Knocks may have been a little over the top, Rex Ryan -- like a bully we all know in Baltimore he is not - nevertheless decided to fuel his tough-guy, machismo image, saying in reports he and Dungy spoke "man to man" and that "he told me his position, I definitely told him mine."

Then writers come out of the woodwork with shortsighted criticism and faulty perspective - like this one: "In Tony Dungy's world, the NFL would be a land of sunshine, lollipops and rainbows, where nobody ever uses profanity and everyone is more focused on guiding the youth of America rather than winning football games."

Nice writing, but that is hardly what Dungy is driving at.

All across America today, fathers, as they watch games at home on television or take their kids to the ballpark, are getting peppered with questions from their 11-year-old daughters. "What is a bunt?" "How can he steal a base, that's not fair?" "What does the coach need a uniform for (in baseball)?" "Why is he kicking (punting) the ball?"

You don't need the specter of f-bombs hovering over you when trying to teach your kids the game.

We all know football is a tough man's game. If we were bigger, quicker, faster and trained, we would have played, too. But the rest of us are relegated to watching and dreaming - and explaining to an 11-year-old the meaning of a first down. The last thing the dads need to do is have to shield the ears of their kids from Rex Ryan's uncouth language on national TV. The last thing they need to do is have to explain why that coach is cussing all over the TV.

And before you say it, we know that kids are exposed today to inappropriate language on a number of fronts, school, TV, video games, rap music, etc. Shucks, juvenile AAU girl basketball players regularly call each other the b-word during games. Yet all of that still does not absolve Ryan's easily controlled behavior.

The other thing is, hasn't Goodell been trying to square away the image of the NFL, including incidents of domestic violence perpetrated by players?

And weren't Michael Vick and dog fighting and Pacman Jones and alleged assaults all about criminality associated with the game that we want wiped out? Surely, they were out there cussing, too.

No one is suggesting that the language of Ryan and those like him is anything more than crude and inappropriate. And no one is saying Ryan isn't a brilliant coach who deserved the opportunity to run his own program.

But you wonder. Does he routinely talk like that in his house, to his own sons? You know, take out the f...ing trash, do your f...ing homework, eat your f...ing dinner. Probably not.

The big guy, indeed, could clean it up and leave most of the f-bombs to the gallows of the locker-room. Besides, as mentioned, Ryan is a smarter guy than the public gives him credit for. He knows when the camera is running on him.

One column called Dungy a "Mother Hen," but that's hardly it. Dungy's a tough football guy too. Remember, he also played the game at a high level with the Steelers. "Now, I've been around f-bombs, so it's not like it's new. I just don't think that has to be part of your every-minute, every day vocabulary to get your point across," according to Dungy's comments in a radio interview. Agreed.

So instead of laying the wood on Dungy, let's celebrate his vision for having guts to take on the topic.

DMA 7-22 Sports is a blog column about sports in the Washington-Baltimore market, covering amateurs, colleges and pros. The title DMA 7-22? Means "Designated Market Area," per use of media rating services, signifying Washington is the 7th largest media market in the United States, and Baltimore is the 22nd. You can reach M.V. Greene at DMA722Sports@gmail.com

Photo Credits: Rex Ryan, AP; Hard Knocks logo, HBO; Tony Dungy, Getty Images

'Honeycomb' Soaring One More Time

2010-08-13T10:00:00Z

How great was Gus "Honeycomb" Johnson?

Often a measure of a man comes down to comparisons, associations and standing.

Consider that before the 1969-70 NBA season, the once mighty Cincinnati Royals were in a funk, but got a splash when they hired legendary Boston Celtics' hero Bob Cousy to coach. Only Cousy and the Royals' best player, the "Big O," Oscar Robertson, arguably the game's top guard during his era, clashed early and often. Before the start of the 1970-71 season, Cousy tried to trade Robertson - to the Baltimore Bullets for none other than Honeycomb Johnson.

Robertson ultimately vetoed the trade, later going to Milwaukee instead to play with a young Lew Alcindor and finally winning an NBA championship.

That Bob Cousy was willing to ship out an Oscar Robertson heads-up to Baltimore in exchange for Gus Johnson tells you what they thought about the tenacious 6-6 high-jumping Bullet. While his career was cut short from knee injuries, Honeycomb Johnson was right there with the best of them in his era: Chamberlain, Russell, West, Robertson, Baylor, Reed, Hawkins, Frazier, Lucas, Monroe, Greer.

And finally, the late Gus Johnson gets his formal just dues tonight with his posthumous induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

]]> Johnson, a native of Akron, OH, came to Baltimore in 1963 from the University of Idaho. One of his high school teammates was big Nate Thurmond, the Hall of Fame center, so the balling was serious. During his 1962-63 basketball season at Idaho, Johnson led his club to a 20-6 record, averaging 19.0 points and 20.3 rebounds per game. Only Creighton's Paul Silas averaged more rebounds that season at 20.6 per game to beat Johnson out for the NCAA rebounding title.

Nicknamed Honeycomb by his college coach, Johnson brought with him to the NBA a sweet but powerful game. He was one of the first skywalkers, long before Erving and Jordan. When they spoke of Johnson, they spoke of "hang time" because of his ability to play above the rim.

Johnson spent nine seasons with the Bullets. He made the NBA All-Rookie Team in 1963-64, played in five NBA All-Star Games, was named second team All NBA four times and first-team All-NBA Defense twice. He averaged 17.1 points per game and 12.7 rebounds per game during his career, which included stops in Phoenix and Indiana after leaving the Bullets in 1972.

Compared to others in his era, like the 30 and 20 Wilt Chamberlain would routinely put up every night and Robertson, who "invented" the triple double, Johnson's stats were modest. But stats hardly marked the measure of Johnson's game. Growing up in Baltimore and listening to games on AM transistor radio, you only needed to take in the resounding call of games by the late Bullets play-by-play announcer Jim Karvellas to understand Johnson's impact on the NBA.

Here's what his equally spectacular Baltimore teammate Earl "The Pearl" Monroe said about Johnson in "Elevating the Game: Black Men and Basketball," from Nelson George in 1992: "Gus Johnson created the new power forward position, where the guy comes in and jams way over guys. He placed his hand on your hip and moved you around on the court. When the guards got out of hand, he knocked down guards, forwards, and he played center, too."

In another interview, Monroe said: "Gus was ahead of his time, flying through the air for slam dunks, breaking backboards and throwing full-court passes behind his back. He was spectacular, but he also did the nitty gritty jobs, defense and rebounding. With all the guys in the Hall of Fame, Gus deserves to be there already."

In "The City Game: Basketball from the Garden to the Playgrounds," where the late sportswriter Pete Axthelm chronicled the epic Knicks-Bullets Eastern Conference battles during the 1969-70 season when New York went on the win the NBA championship, Walt "Clyde" Frazier celebrated Johnson as having an "Adonis body."

Johnson epitomized gritty Baltimore in the 1960s and early 1970s - especially black Baltimore. That gold star in one of his front teeth was so Baltimore back then, as was Johnson's penchant for flamboyance. He wore long leather coats and drove a Lincoln Continental, recounts a Baltimore Sun article from April 6 that reported on his selection to the pro basketball Hall of Fame. He frequented Baltimore poolrooms and savored "soul food." He was a showboat of the first order. He was the kingfish.

As professional basketball was being transformed into a black man's game, where the exploits of the likes of Pettit, Mikan, Cousy, Sharman and Heinsohn were fading into history, high-flying Gus Johnson was one of the centerpieces of the new NBA. On outdoor asphalt courts in Baltimore during summer, athletic young boys, mimicking Johnson, would soar through the air toward the rim shouting "Honeycomb."

It was a time in Baltimore's downtown too when Harborplace, Oriole Park at Camden Yards and a vital Fells Point amounted to pipedreams. When Baltimore's infamous "Block" on East Baltimore Street attracted goodfellas to the girlie shows. When drunks and hobos hung out along the darkened wharves and warehouses of what is now the Inner Harbor. When the majority population took flight to the suburbs.

The Bullets played then at Baltimore's Civic Center, the small, decrepit arena on the westside of downtown that still stands today as First Mariner Arena. The Civic Center was cozy for a high school graduation, Grand Funk Railroad concert or the indoor soccer played there today, but hardly a mecca for big-time pro basketball. Yet it was Johnson's domain.

In a Dec. 21, 1964, article from Sports Illustrated headlined "A Touch And A Tooth Of Gold," Johnson discussed his love of the affection he received from Bullets' fans. "Man, what I like best is when I'm playin' in Baltimore and them fans start yellin', 'Sock it to 'em, Gus, sock it to 'em, baby!' " Johnson told writer Mark Kram, according to the article.

Johnson's Hall of Fame induction, indeed, has been long in coming. The other greats of his era are all there, so why not the Honeycomb? "We were wondering, what took so long?" Bullets teammate Wes Unseld, himself a Hall of Fame center, told the Sun.

Coming 37 years after he played his last game and 23 years after his death from inoperable brain cancer in Akron at age 48, Johnson gets his long overdue, ultimate recognition tonight in Springfield, MA. His fellow inductees are Lakers owner Jerry Buss, former women's star Cynthia Cooper, high school coach Bob Hurley Sr. and former NBA greats Karl Malone, Scottie Pippen and the late Dennis Johnson.

His legacy? Honeycomb Johnson always will be remembered for the unique, open-court, crowd-pleasing athletic style of play he helped to pioneer in the NBA.

His legacy also will be the battles with the Knicks back in the day as Axthelm detailed in his book on the 1969-70 season - a rivalry as fierce any to have happened in sport.

You had Johnson going against a just as tough Dave DeBusschere at power forward. The shooters, Jack Marin versus Bill Bradley, at small forward. Unseld and Willis Reed, two strong but undersized centers - each league MVPs -- battling in the paint. Dogged Kevin "Murph" Loughery and crafty Dick Barnett at the two guard. And Monroe and Frazier - flash and smooth, respectively - running the point.

With Johnson and Monroe, the Bullets were perhaps the most explosive and dynamic team in the league. With Frazier, Reed and DeBusschere it was about precision and stifling defense.

Six knee surgeries limited Johnson's career as peer after peer was inducted in the Hall.

If you were in Baltimore from 1963 to 1972, you know it's about time room has been reserved for the man they called Honeycomb.

DMA 7-22 Sports is a blog column about sports in the Washington-Baltimore market, covering amateurs, colleges and pros. The title DMA 7-22? Means "Designated Market Area," per use of media rating services, signifying Washington is the 7th largest media market in the United States, and Baltimore is the 22nd. You can reach M.V. Greene at DMA722Sports@gmail.com

Photo Credits: NBA.com, City of Akron, OH, NBA.com

LeBron, Miggy: Good for Goose, Gander?

2010-08-02T22:00:00Z

Professional sports suddenly is being defined through the prism of LeBron James.

Call it the psychology of the fallout of "The Decision."

James - after completely fulfilling the terms of his contract with the Cleveland Cavaliers and serving as the highly successful face of the franchise for seven years - decided, of course, with much fanfare and derision to ply his trade for the next several years with the Miami Heat.

Even weeks later, James still is being widely excoriated by the traditional sports universe for the way he made his announcement that night on ESPN. Cleveland fans, buoyed by the vitriolic comments of their owner, brand James as self-absorbed and disloyal -- a turncoat with no empathy for their plight as adoring followers. And two James role models in the game, Magic and Michael, now in the ownership class, took their shots.

No need to recount all the specifics. It was that big. The biggest story of the year in sports and perhaps in a generation. It was a game-changer that altered some of the landscape of the business of professional sports - that a young, marvelously gifted athlete actually would have the gall to buck the system on multiple fronts and be the man.

James' controversial and groundbreaking decision July 8 gets you thinking in a wholly different way these days about the relationship between the players and ownership and how the two sides will co-exist in the future. It prompts you to ask as well, why was it not OK for James to do what he did, but OK for the Baltimore Orioles to do what they did to Miggy July 29.

]]> Miggy is Miguel Tejada, the former Orioles third-baseman shipped unceremoniously a couple of days ahead of Major League Baseball's July 31 non-waiver trading deadline to the San Diego Padres for a Double A pitcher. Amazingly, the Orioles, considered a payroll-challenged club, even threw in $1.1 million in cash in the deal to offset some of Tejada's salary.

We know that as long as there has been baseball, July 31 always looms as a key date - when winning teams would seek to fortify their chances of getting to the postseason and losing teams like the Orioles would seek to shed payroll and gobble up prospects.

So we know the game. We know the procedure. We know how it works. Roy Oswalt goes to the Phillies for the stretch run on the same day the Orioles dealt Miggy. Oswalt's Houston Astros teammate Lance Berkman is shipped to the Yankees. In 2009, Jim Thome was sent packing to the Dodgers to be a pinch hitter of all things for the postseason. Indeed, the trading deadline is a rite of baseball.

Tejada joined the Orioles on Jan. 23, 2010, signing a one-year $6 million contract to come back to a club where he had been the star player from 2004 through 2007. The Orioles had shipped him to Houston for five players in a salary dump at the end of 2007.

It was evident during his time with the team this season that this wasn't the Miggy of old, not the Miggy who once put together a streak of 1,152 consecutive games, who once won an AL MVP award, who was named the 2005 All-Star game MVP, who drove in 150 runs in his first season with the Orioles.

But it was the same enthusiastic, hard-charging, good-guy Miggy despite the noticeable decline in skills and notable career transgressions, such as when he pled guilty to perjury in February 2009 for lying to Congress in testimony in the Rafael Palmeiro steroids case or allegedly lying about his age when he came to pro baseball. Yet it was still the same Miggy respected by Orioles fans because of his infectious optimism about playing the game.

Like many Dominican players who grew up learning baseball in abject poverty, Tejada is just a ballplayer. He would play his 162-game season then go back home and play a slew of more games in the winter leagues. You always wished more talented American players showed they love the game as much as Tejada did. Miggy, if you have followed his career, has always just wanted to play ball.

Sure, at $6 million this year, Tejada was very well paid for a player hitting just .269 with seven homers and 39 RBIs in 97 games before being traded. He was making $14 million during his last season in Houston, so there aren't too many tears to shed for being shipped off to first-place San Diego in the middle of a pennant race.

Orioles president of baseball operations Andy MacPhail said Miggy is gone because the Orioles needed to get a good look at Josh Bell, their slugging third-baseman of the future.

MacPhail was effusive in his regard for Tejada, despite the Orioles' dismal 2010 season. "He certainly delivered everything we asked from a standpoint of effort, energy and enthusiasm and leadership. He did everything we looked for in switching to a new position. He did everything we asked. He loves the Orioles and loves to play, and those two things I am very grateful for," MacPhail told the Baltimore Sun.

But other than the money he is being paid, where was the loyalty to Miggy? Where was the loyalty to the fans of Baltimore who wanted this guy around?

That's the LeBron rub.

No one is advocating that pro sports teams stop trading players. Blockbuster deals especially are a delight for fans. The way it works is that the player is under contract, and, unless there is a no-trade clause, the club can ship that player out for competitive, business or other reasons.

Yet Baltimore was happy to have Miggy back. He was the closest thing in recent years to a big-time player here since Cal Ripken retired.

The chagrin over Tejada's trade was that he seemed genuinely to want to stay, despite the continuing speculation he would be moved at midseason almost from the moment he was signed.

"It hit me hard. It's not because I [got] traded, but one thing I never want to do is leave this team. I love being here. I feel bad because I left a lot of good guys behind. I always say that I love the city and I love this team. It hit me hard, but I got to go play and help those guys (Padres) to win a championship," Tejada told the Sun.

Tejada said all the right things upon his departure, but given his stature in Baltimore you get the feeling he meant it.

We know baseball and professional sports are a business. Ultimately, the move will be good for Baltimore, especially if Bell develops as expected.

But in the multimillion-dollar world of professional sports, why not keep Miggy here in town? What was the real loss? The team was bad anyway. Miggy has even said he would love to coach here. As his career plays out, why not keep him here for the fans, the loyalty to a good man.

So the next time you hear them slamming LeBron James, think about it for a moment. He fulfilled his contract and made a decision to move in another direction that would be in his best interests. Isn't that what Baltimore did in jettisoning Miggy with regard to only their interests?

Maybe that old idiom should apply: "What's good for the goose is (should be) good for the gander."

DMA 7-22 Sports is a blog about sports in the Washington-Baltimore market, covering amateurs, colleges and pros. The title DMA 7-22? Means "Designated Market Area," per use of media rating services, signifying Washington is the 7th largest media market in the United States, and Baltimore is the 22nd. You can reach M.V. Greene at DMA722Sports@gmail.com

Photos: Miguel Tejada, LeBron James, AP

Matusz Rotting in Spotty MacPhail 'Plan'

2010-07-29T10:00:00Z

Enjoying a reputation as a "son" of baseball, expectations always have been high in the game for Andy MacPhail.

Just the name alone tells you about the pedigree.

Dad was former American League president Lee MacPhail and one-time Orioles and Yankees executive. Granddad was Larry MacPhail, another baseball legend and contemporary of Branch Rickey. (Larry MacPhail and Lee MacPhail are the only father-and-son members of baseball's Hall of Fame.) Uncle was William MacPhail, a former president of CBS Sports and CNN Sports.

Just sitting at the feet of his dad, granddad and uncle, the wunderkind Andy MacPhail probably has absorbed more about baseball and administering the game than anybody else can hope. In fact, many believe that his remarkable orientation will land him someday in the commissioner's chair.

Today, MacPhail, 57, is president of baseball operations for the lowly Baltimore Orioles, and Orioles fans have to be wondering where exactly is the genius they've been promised. In short, where is the turnaround? Heck, where is the hint of the turnaround?

]]> As it stands, Baltimore -- now enduring its 13th straight losing season - simply is a laughingstock.

How do we count the ways: worst record in baseball at 31-70; a 2-11 record since the All-Star break; losers of an astounding 12 consecutive games this season to the Toronto Blue Jays in the AL East. OK, we'll leave it there.

Many things boggle the mind about the Orioles under MacPhail. Owner Peter Angelos brought MacPhail in to run the club in June 2007. After a revolving door of general managers, MacPhail was the anointed one. He nearly got the Cubs to the World Series as president and CEO from 1994 through 2006. Before that, he was general manager of the Minnesota Twins during their 1987 and 1991 World Series championships.

Indeed, MacPhail would be the one who finally would right the Orioles ship.

He asked for patience in 2007, but three years in and that patience is running thin.

After the 2009 season and a 64-98 record, MacPhail said the franchise, having stockpiled a bevy of highly regarded prospects, had gotten to the point where it would be judged on wins and losses. But then now-fired manager Dave Trembley comes back to start 2010 and the team goes 1-11 and 2-16 out of the gate. Season over.

Yet give MacPhail some credit. He has a measured, reassuring tone. You believe he knows what he is doing. You want to believe.

But the misery continues to spiral out of control for the Orioles. Can you say Garrett Atkins. What about Mike Gonzalez. Both failed 2010 free-agent signees.

Then we are teased at the All-Star break that big-time skipper Buck Showalter would replace novice interim Juan Samuel by that weekend, but Showalter is still tethered to Bristol not Baltimore - supposedly tedious negotiations. The latest word is that Showalter remains ticketed to Baltimore, but that nothing will happen at least until after the non-waiver trade deadline July 31.

MacPhail is said to be concentrating this week on the trade deadline, but why? Is there really a booming market out there for Ty Wiggington, Miguel Tejada, Will Ohman and Corey Patterson. We'll find out in a couple of days, but fans aren't expecting a blockbuster and want to get Showalter in place.

Despite the sham of a season, perhaps nothing sticks in the craw of Orioles' fans as the handling of the young pitching staff.

And nothing certainly beats the travesty of young hurler Brian Matusz.

Brian Matusz was drafted No. 4 overall by the Orioles in the 2008 Major League draft. He was on the fast track: signed Aug. 15, 2008, made his major league debut Aug. 4, 2009, finished the 2009 season 5-2 with a 4.63 ERA in eight starts. Going into 2010, Matusz was predicted for Rookie of the Year honors.

But with his last loss to the Twins last week, Matusz is 3-11 this year going into his start tonight in Kansas City. The rook has no wins this season at Oriole Park at Camden Yards and has won just once since April 18 covering 17 starts. Before the start of the 2010 season, Baseball America named Matusz the fifth best prospect in all of baseball.

Question for MacPhail, how do you let your prized lefty go 3-11 at this point in the season? Something's wrong with that picture. Why did you not get him back to the minors rather than destroy his career record already? It's a bad team, anyway.

Maybe he'll win 20 in 2011, but what do you do, let the kid finish 5-16 in his first full season? And look also at Matusz stable mates on the staff -- already behind the eight ball for their careers. Chris Tillman already is 3-9 for his career record in two seasons. Brad Bergesen is 10-13. David Hernandez is 8-17. Jason Berken is 8-14.

Maybe MacPhail has a greater plan with the young pitchers and the club's future as a whole and maybe it is with the continued confidence of Mr. Angelos.

But those diehards who love Orioles baseball, Esskay hot dogs, Cal and Eddie and Utz potato chips aren't feeling it.

Sports management and administration these days demand aggression, not passivity. Maybe Showalter would be working magic right now.

The old model of "building from within" doesn't seem to be the successful trend in 2010 baseball and pro sports. Angelos, often called the worst owner in baseball, could be the culprit, but it seems MacPhail is a bit too reserved. If the Miami Heat is competing for a NBA championship next spring, that will confirm it. Bring in LeBron James and Chris Bosh and jettison Michael Beasley and just about everybody else in order to give yourself a chance to win.

MacPhail needs to throw something on the wall and keep throwing it harder until it sticks. With the Orioles, what is there to lose?

DMA 7-22 Sports is a blog about sports in the Washington-Baltimore market, covering amateurs, colleges and pros. The title DMA 7-22? Means "Designated Market Area," per use of media rating services, signifying Washington is the 7th largest media market in the United States, and Baltimore is the 22nd. You can reach M.V. Greene at DMA722Sports@gmail.com

Photos: Andy MacPhail, Brian Matusz, AP

Baseball Should Embrace Strasburg Effect

2010-07-20T15:00:00Z

The baseball gods wouldn't have allowed it, but when you see the paltry ratings of last week's All-Star Game, maybe they should have let the "phenom" play.

Unless you have been hiding out since June 8, 2010, when he made his big-league debut for the Washington Nationals, you know the phenom is none other than Stephen Strasburg.

Quick, name another rookie in the decade or so before Strasburg to make such a monumental splash on the game. You can't and would need to go back into the 1990s and Alex Rodriguez and Ken Griffey Jr. and before that to the 1980s to find Gooden and Strawberry.

Simply, no player, veteran or rookie, is sparking up the pastime right now as Strasburg.

He comes to your town and you want a ticket. You invitingly want to catch his act on television. You are now checking the Nationals boxscores regularly for his games.

But Strasburg in the All-Star Game, debated in major-league ball yards in the days leading up to the July 13 contest in Anaheim, was a no go. After all, everyone against it reasoned, a rookie hurler with just a handful of starts for a last-place team didn't deserve the honor.

]]> Baseball, thankfully, is a game tied to its history. That is part of the allure of the game - that you see the replay of how Bobby Thomson and the N.Y. Giants won the pennant that year and realize what a moment it must have been, that you can pour over the career stats of Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams and debate who was the more prolific hitter, that you think back to the time when Denny McLain amazingly won those 31 games in 1968. Always in baseball, you wonder what is the next piece of history coming down the pike.

Well, in 2010, at least so far, it is Strasburg and his blazing, 100-mile per hour fastball.

This year's All-Star Game drew a 7.5 household rating and an average of 12.1 million viewers, according to the Nielsen ratings company. LeBron James drew almost as many for "The Decision." This year's numbers, down 16 percent compared to 2009 when President Obama threw out the first pitch, amounted to the lowest ratings since the game has been televised, according to reports.

Would a Strasburg appearance have made a difference in bringing more TV eyeballs to the game? Most surely you have to think it would. Just the anticipation a few days beforehand of the rookie being on the team would have generated excitement. The AL lost 3-1, but what if they were leading 3-1 in the ninth and the rookie was summoned to close it out? Wow!

With Strasburg, the buzz is not so much about wins and losses -- although a 4-2 record with a 2.03 ERA and 68 strikeouts in 48.2 innings is darn spectacular. With Strasburg it is more of a yearning among baseball fans just to see him pitch, wondering what he is going to do, wondering if he will get 10 or 15 strikeouts, wondering how he will dominate the game.

Maybe baseball, as great of a game it is season in and season out, should take a page from LeBron, who captivated the full attention of the sports world for two weeks leading to his decision to leave Cleveland and sign with Miami.

Why wouldn't you want to find a way to spotlight perhaps the most marketable commodity in baseball - Strasburg?

SportsBusiness Daily just named him baseball's fourth-most marketable player in a survey of sports business executives and the media. Judging by the Top 10 on the list, baseball would do well not to bury the Strasburg effect, and could have set the stage for him at the All-Star Game.

The survey puts Derek Jeter as the most marketable, followed by Albert Pujols, Joe Mauer, Strasburg and Ryan Howard in the top five, then Evan Longoria, Tim Lincecum, David Wright, Alex Rodriguez and Dustin Pedroia and Torii Hunter (tie) to round out the Top 10. Let's see, Jeter, the pro's pro who plays in the largest media market; Pujols, great hitter, of course, but where is the charisma; Mauer, OK, but has your wife ever heard of him?

All great players in the Top 10, but it is not like we are talking Cal Ripken, Kirby Puckett, George Brett and Tony Gwynn or even Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa and Mark McGuire from the steroid era.

One of the great moments always in the baseball All-Star Game is the introduction of the lineups when the players line the field. As fans you love this part of the festivities because you get to see the faces of the stars as they tip their caps. Among those introduced this year: Clay Buchholz, Jon Lester, Phil Hughes, Fausto Carmona, Neftali Feliz, Matt Thornton, Jose Valverde, Trevor Cahill, Joakim Soria, Jose Bautista, John Buck, Elvis Andrus, Ty Wigginton, Brian Wilson, Corey Hart, Matt Capps, Evan Meek, Arthur Rhodes, Yovani Gallardo, Omar Infante, Michael Bourn.

As baseball fans know, these are all players having good seasons, but something is wrong with this picture: you don't know most of the guys unless you are a die-hard fan. The NBA will roll out Tim Duncan, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Dwight Howard and Carmelo Anthony for its All-Star Game and the star gazing registers right away. The NFL will have the likes of Ray Lewis, Peyton Manning, Larry Fitzgerald, Tom Brady, Philip Rivers, Adrian Peterson, Drew Brees and Troy Polamalu trotting onto the field at the Pro Bowl and you can relate.

Strasburg isn't yet the best pitcher in baseball. The All-Star Game's starters, Ubaldo Jimenez of Colorado for the National League and David Price of the Tampa Bay for the American League, came in with respective won-loss records of 15-1 and 14-2. But again, ask yourself, can your wife pick them out? Very likely not.

Baseball's graveyards are littered with phenoms who failed to make it. Remember Brien Taylor, Todd Van Poppel, David Clyde?

But this is 2010, and Strasburg, who turned 22 today, is living up to the sensation after just a year removed from the 2009 amateur draft as the No. 1 overall pick. His debut in June was the thing of legends -- striking out 14 against the Pittsburgh Pirates - called "the most hyped pitching debut the game has ever seen." With massive star power already, Strasburg shouldn't have to wait his turn.

Baseball would do well to forsake a tad of its history, keep this kid on the front burner and expand the game beyond what the Yankees do. That should have included the 2010 All-Star Game.

Maybe Strasburg will flame out like phenoms before him have, but he is the real deal right now, the freshest face the game has going.

DMA 7-22 Sports is a blog about sports in the Washington-Baltimore market, covering amateurs, colleges and pros. The title DMA 7-22? Means "Designated Market Area," per use of media rating services, signifying Washington is the 7th largest media market in the United States, and Baltimore is the 22nd. You can reach M.V. Greene at DMA722Sports@gmail.com

Photos: Stephen Strasburg with Ryan Zimmerman, 2009, AP; Strasburg, AP.

Why LeBron Was Right

2010-07-14T18:00:00Z

LeBron James was right.

Yes, the whole nine yards - leaving the house that Dan Gilbert built, joining D-Wade in South Beach, milking "The Decision," letting the spurned suitors know at 9:01, support from Jesse Jackson.

In the grand scheme of things, indeed, LeBron was right -- even if in some haunting esoteric sense -- because of the tragedy that is John Crowder.

And, digging deeper back into the day, he was also right because of Benji Wilson and countless others.

For you doubters out there, it is hardly a stretch to draw such comparisons.

John Crowder was a 6-foot-8, 215-pound, 17-year-old Baltimore baller -- shot and killed in the early a.m. hours after July 4 in a challenging, grizzled city neighborhood.

LeBron spent the week following the Fourth finalizing his decision, while Crowder, whose funeral service was yesterday, was in the morgue.

]]> Had things worked out for Crowder, he would be preparing now to head back to his Baltimore County parochial school for his junior year this fall, ready to accelerate the next step of college recruiting as one of the top prep basketball recruits in the country. He had told folks he was already getting letters from Maryland, Virginia Tech, Clemson and St. Joseph's. As a freshman he played at the same Baltimore high school as Carmelo Anthony, Donte Greene and Malcolm Delaney before it closed.

The Baltimore neighborhood where Crowder was murdered (they haven't yet caught his assassin) is called Cecil-Kirk in East Baltimore. Cecil-Kirk is a place where young black boys learn to play basketball in Baltimore's uniquely tough style. Think post-World War II, Eastern U.S.-styled, packed-in row houses, expansive vacant former manufacturing-plant lots, trash-strewn, overgrown alleyways. Life is hard there, and everybody has to look for an edge.

Basketball players grow like the weeds do in the cracks of the broken sidewalks along Cecil-Kirk. Some ballers make it out. Others like John Crowder do not. They said he had drugs in his pocket when he died.

John Crowder's story is typical of young men who do not make the escape. You know the story: raised by his grandmother; mother dies when he was 2; father nowhere to be seen; landing in the juvenile court system; seeing older brothers suffering gunshots in drug deals gone awry; running the streets and, of course, learning to play ball.

As Crowder's basketball talents began to materialize in the eighth grade, they even shipped him to Dallas to play ball at God's Academy and live with a Christian family. But after a few months in the Southwest, the lure of Baltimore was too much and he returned home.

So do the contrast with LeBron.

LeBron James was born to a 16-year-old mother in Akron, OH, a stark Midwestern town itself with a hardened city-streets flavor. His bio-dad, an Anthony McClelland, was an ex-con who didn't hang around. LeBron had the usual hardships associated with rearing from his single mother, Gloria, but at least he had her around to keep him focused.

Make no mistake, John Crowder was not the next coming of LeBron James. Crowder was emerging at 17, but LeBron was already ticketed to NBA superstardom -- the first Ohio sophomore named the state's Mr. Basketball and the first sophomore ever selected to the USA Today All-USA First Team. Growing up, LeBron was the truly exceptional, once-in-a-life young athlete.

Yet the parallels with John Crowder are undeniable. That's why LeBron was right.

In another place or time or with an unlucky twist of fate, LeBron, still only 25 years old to this day, could easily have succumbed to the streets of Akron the way urban Baltimore shot down John Crowder.

About a month before LeBron was born, Ben "Benji" Wilson fell victim to Chicago's mean streets, a stellar basketball player shot to death while being robbed Nov. 21, 1984, just before the start of his senior season in high school. Benji Wilson, 17, of Simeon High was the next big thing back in the 1980s, the first Chicago basketball player to be recognized as the top high school player in the nation. Wilson's killing resonated nationally -- so much that NIKE featured his plight in a commercial.

Benji Wilson, regarded then as a player with LeBron-like potential, didn't make it out.

These aren't country club neighborhoods where these young men live. They are toughened urban enclaves where one slip up can mean your destiny.

So the negative hubbub over LeBron and the way he handled "The Decision" simply doesn't hold up. He made it out of Akron raised by a single-mother and got himself to an elite stature without a birthright. And when did you ever hear LeBron's name associated with drugs, bars, fighting or late nights running women? Never. He has done what America told him to do to make it.

So why not milk it. He made major news and got major pub - in the face of those so-called pundits and experts who questioned his decision-making. That hour-long special on ESPN pulled in 9.95 million viewers or 6.96 million households, according to preliminary figures from the network. That's genius, big-time - monumentally bigger than the coming out news conferences for Tiger Woods and Alex Rodriguez.

In communications, when you can command that kind of attention, you grab it. It's just marketing, branding.

That's why Cleveland owner Dan Gilbert's approach was so vexing and over the top. How can any man fault another man's opportunity to raise himself to an even higher level as LeBron has, especially given where he has come from? Gilbert called LeBron cowardly and narcissistic. Only a man with inherited money on the line would put such a notion out there.

Had LeBron not been so marvelously talented at basketball, no way a Dan Gilbert even gives him an opportunity to get near the boardroom. America is a place where anybody can make it, yes, but it also is a place where they can hold your bloodlines against you.

That was Jesse Jackson's point on his "runaway slave" comment. Writers like Jason Whitlock and Gregg Doyel immediately took issue, but why? Jackson is a civil rights leader doing his job as he perceives it, and, whether you agree or disagree, you give a pass to a man who walked with Martin Luther King Jr. It was Jackson, by the way, who conducted Benji Wilson's funeral 25 years ago in Chicago. He knows the territory.

All Jackson was saying to Gilbert was why treat this young man LeBron James in such a fashion when he has done everything that society has required of him. Who knows, "The Decision" may never come around again. Rhetoric aside, Jackson's message was quite simple.

Most of all, unlike poor John Crowder and unlike Benji Wilson, LeBron made it out.

DMA 7-22 Sports is a blog about sports in the Washington-Baltimore market, covering amateurs, colleges and pros. The title DMA 7-22? Means "Designated Market Area," per use of media rating services, signifying Washington is the 7th largest media market in the United States, and Baltimore is the 22nd. You can reach M.V. Greene at DMA722Sports@gmail.com

Photos: John Crowder, capitolhoops.com; Ben Wilson, Chicago Tribune/AP; LeBron James, AP.