Crab Soup Bowl of Baltimore and Maryland Sports – Bowl 5
This is the fifth of what is a regular weekly feature on The Baltimore Wire of links to interesting Baltimore and Maryland sports stories on the web.
In the bowl of crab soup this week are these stories …
Ingredient #1 – Orioles fans, when seeing this article, could be a bit riled up that the franchise value is not as low as usually thought. In fact, according to this study, it would rank 7th overall. Of course the Yankees are the highest by far. So does this lend weight to the argument that the Orioles should be able to spend more on player acquisition? At first glance it would seem so … though there might be a “yes, but ___ ____ ____ that puts a different spin on it.”
Ingredient #2 – HERE is a quick read that shows the cities with the highest win percentages of professional sports franchises and those with the lowest. Indianapolis was the winner. Baltimore was near the middle, while Washington D.C. was third from the bottom!
Ingredient #3 – I have been told that there is no college football experience quite as awesome as the annual Army-Navy game. Many years ago I went to a game at Army, and it was fascinating to watch all the traditions. I remember also being a college student in Philadelphia on Army-Navy weekend, and it was a loud affair of cadets in the city late into the evening. This article by John Feinstein – a great, great writer – captures the essence of the 34-7 Navy win, and also the pageantry and uniqueness of the whole experience.
Ingredient #4 – If you have read my Orioles articles about relief pitching, you’ve seen me occasionally say that I don’t believe in “closers.” I’ll have an article on this at some point – one I re-post every so often with the latest proof. This very good article makes many of the points I have been saying for years, and it does so by saying that the Orioles are actually better off without Jim Johnson.
Ingredient #5 – Nate McClouth was a very popular player with the fans over his short time with the Baltimore Orioles. This Dan Connolly article from the Sun gives a question and answer session with the outfielder that reveals how he is a class act in every way.
Ingredient #6 – It is always interesting to see how the out-of-town media think about Baltimore teams, and in this case specifically the Ravens. This article from a Michigan writer talks about the Harbaugh family’s deep roots in that state. He also closes the article by talking about how (apart from last year with the opposite pattern) all the Harbaugh-coached Ravens team have closed out each season well … and how they seem to be doing it again.
There has been a years-old controversy about the first-ever Ravens logo, copyrights, compensation, etc… and this article from our own network speaks briefly about this odd situation and a recent legal decision.