Dirt bikes as they’re meant to be ridden — on dirt, on a track.

TRUMP WILL LOSE GOP LEAD
ONCE THE CANDIDATES WHO
HAVE NO CHANCE DROP OUT

Dirt bikes on the loose
 
By David Maril
 
While wondering if we can expect a rash of camel riding or bumper-car racing to join the already established dirt-bike acrobatics and horseback excursions for Baltimore’s illegal Sunday night entertainment package, it’s interesting to note the following:

 The proposal being pitched for the city to build a dirt-bike track is an interesting idea, but first, some research should be done to see if the movie “Field of Dreams” theory “If you build it they will come” holds up in this case.

And if the bikers agree to use the track, it would be wise to make it a versatile enough facility to also be used for other activities that benefit youth in the city.

 One certainty, while the weekly dirt-bike spectacle is not unique to Baltimore, it doesn’t help the perception that the Mayor’s Office and Police Department hierarchy have diminished influence in the leadership department, or erase doubts over their effectiveness and ability to get things done.

 Boston, which withdrew from bidding on the 2024 Olympics, should be congratulated for fighting off the pressure coming from political hacks on the take, and so called “civic leaders” who had vested interests in construction at stake.

Common sense prevailed and the disruptive project, riddled with huge hidden-cost overruns, was rejected by the Governor.

The late baseball visionary, Branch Rickey, who helped integrate the National Pastime, would have called this decision “addition by subtraction.”

  Boston has withdrawn from consideration for the 2024 Olympic Games.

My question is if the Olympic people are so pure of motive and want to do good around the world, why don’t they find a way to hold the events, while offering financial support, in locations that can use an infusion of money and construction?

Instead of trying to fleece the citizens of Boston or Los Angeles, where property values are already inflated, why not go to an urban center like Detroit or Baltimore, and work with the community to help spur economic development?

 If the Republicans want to make Donald Trump disappear, all they have to do is convince a dozen or so GOP candidates, who have absolutely no chance of winning the nomination, to do the right thing and quit the race.

If the field were narrowed down to half a dozen or so candidates, Trump would still only be getting his 25-30 percent from the blockhead diehards who savor every one of his outbursts, and he would lose his lead.

 Speaking of GOP presidential candidates with no chance, you would hope that Bobby Jindal will show some class and curtail making negative comments about Jimmy Carter, now that the 90-year-old former President has been diagnosed with cancer.

No matter what your opinion of Carter’s term in the White House, which ended 34 years ago, it is surprising that Jindal can’t find someone else in the Democratic Party to mock while criticizing President Barack Obama.

While most of the former Presidents spend their post-White House years working on their library-shrines, Carter has devoted his life to humanitarian causes.

 Now that CNN is embracing entertainment programming at the expense of news coverage, wouldn’t it be appropriate for the network to launch an all-news channel called CNN News that didn’t exist for ratings?

  1980s-era shock jock Morton Downey Jr. (1932-2001)

With documentary movies like the recent focus on shock-talk bigmouth Morton Downey Jr., the current station could be called CNN Features and go strictly for ratings. If there was a major news development it could drop the entertainment stuff and simulcast CNN News coverage.

 If Trump decides to keep running for President and finance his own third-party ticket, Curt Schilling would be the perfect choice for his vice
presidential running mate.

The former major league pitcher, just suspended by ESPN for tweeting out his comparisons between Muslims and Nazis, is an old hand at making irresponsible, outrageous statements.

And he, like Trump, knows all about escaping failing business ventures through bankruptcy. The State of Rhode Island has been in court negotiations for years trying to force a settlement over the failed $75 million deal with Schilling’s video game company.

 Do you know anyone who receives praise from the utility companies for using less energy than neighbors in the reports they send to customers on a regular basis?

The suspicion is that if you have not signed up for one of their energy programs, you are automatically branded an energy guzzler.

The report comes with chart and graph illustrations that demonstrate you are helping contribute to global warming.

I know of one person who has been away all summer and has just about everything shut off in the house who still is “accused” of using more electricity and gas than all of the surrounding neighbors.

 If Orioles GM Dan Duquette doesn’t find a way to jump ship and go to Toronto, or some other team, his job will be under heavy scrutiny next year.

The team has a ton of key players who can be free agents at the end of the season and sign elsewhere for next year. This is far from what you would call smart long-term planning,

If the Orioles miss out on the playoffs this year and the team is unable to retain a decent nucleus for 2016, his unwise personnel decisions will be more closely scrutinized.

Jake Arrieta, who the Orioles gave up on, would look good in Baltimore’s pitching rotation.

Orioles’ 2003 first-round draft pick Nick Markakis, a two-time Gold Glove Award winner, now plays for the Atlanta Braves. The Birds needed him this year.

Nick Markakis’s .302 average would certainly have helped the Orioles’ inconsistent offense at the top of the order.

And Travis Snider, a Duquette acquisition, has not helped in the run-production department and is part of the team’s offensive deficiency in the left- and right-field slots.

In the meantime, the Orioles will continue to thrill and frustrate their fans with their inconsistent one- dimensional feast-or-famine home run and strikeout offense, capable of scoring 10 runs one day, then getting held under two runs for several games in a row.

Royals’ radio voice Denny Matthews, a Hall of Fame baseball announcer, was interesting to hear during the Orioles’ four-game visit to Kansas City.

Astounded by the Orioles’ unbalanced offense, he remarked that if he was a pitcher, he wouldn’t bother throwing strikes because the Orioles swing at everything.

After quipping that Orioles hitters would swing at a pitch if it was thrown in the dugout, he said the only way they advance runners is to hit the ball out of the park.

 The way professional sports leagues, smelling the money, are forgetting their principles and embracing fantasy-league gambling, is it out of the question that Pete Rose may return from his banishment from baseball as the Commissioner and Art Schlichter someday replace Roger Goodell to run the NFL?

 Speaking of the NFL, why is it that a federal judge feels compelled to promise a ruling on the Tom Brady/“Deflategate” New England Patriots case before the season opener?

Celebrities should not receive privileges and scheduling considerations everyone else seldom gets.
 
davidmaril@voiceofbaltimore.org
 
EDITOR’S NOTE:  Art Schlichter is a retired NFL quarterback who played for the Colts, both in Baltimore and Indianapolis, between 1982 and ’85. He is known for his compulsive gambling and the legal problems caused by it:  By his own account he has committed more than 20 gambling-related felonies.

“Inside Pitch” is a weekly opinion column written for Voice of Baltimore by David Maril.

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