Undeflated footballs notwithstanding, New England quar- terback Tom Brady was named the Most Valuable Player of Super Bowl XLIX as the Pats defeated the Seattle Sea- hawks by a score of 28-24 in a wild finish that featured
a goal-line interception and an outbreak of fist fights.

UNDEFLATED FOOTBALLS DON’T DEFLATE
SUPER BOWL XLIX, AS NEW ENGLAND
OUTLASTS SEATTLE SEAHAWKS, 28-24

NETANYAHU SHOULD NOT ADDRESS
JOINT SESSION OF U.S. CONGRESS
 
By David Maril
 
While wondering if controversy and negative head- lines actually increases, instead of reducing, the NFL’s popularity, it’s interesting to note the following:

  I’m not going to sit in judgment of whether Patriots Coach Bill Belichick took air out of his team’s footballs in the AFC Championship victory against the Indianapolis Colts. In Super Bowl XLIX, with game footballs that were scrutinized by NFL officials, the New England Patriots defeated the Seattle Seahawks 28-24.

However, I will say this: I’ve seen high school football coaches who have done far worse than what the Patriots were accused of, going into the Super Bowl, or the 2007 incident called Spygate when the team was disciplined by the league for videotaping Jets’ defensive coaches.

Decades ago, when high school coaches were expanding use of game films, and cable community-access TV stations started to televise games in local communities, I knew of at least one Massachusetts high school coach who regularly violated his league’s rule regarding how many tapes of opponents’ games he could secure.

To get around the limit placed on the number of games he could watch on film, he’d have people in different towns around the league record the locally televised football games and send him VCR tapes.

Another one of his tricks was to often send the wrong film to an opponent, instead of the one they asked for, when they were legally exchanging films the week before a game. By the time the “mistake” was corrected, several days of practice time had passed going into the game. Sometimes, when he did finally send the right film, certain plays were spliced out.
 
Some NFL observers believe Patriots quarterback Tom Brady gained an edge against the Colts with a better grip using footballs that had been deflated.

Read more »

Basketball superstar Wes Unseld, shown here in his rookie season (1968) with the erstwhile Balti- more Bullets, is a class act in humility even now.

THE BALTIMORE BULLETS/WASHINGTON
WIZARDS ICON IS IN A CLASS BY HIMSELF
WHEN IT COMES TO SUPERSTAR HUMILITY

21st CENTURY CELEBRITIES HAVE LESS AND LESS
IN COMMON WITH EVERYDAY PEOPLE NOWADAYS

Nationals must be counting on winning dispute with MASN
and the Orioles or they wouldn’t be so quick to pay
pitcher Max Scherzer’s $210 million contract
 
By David Maril
 
You can see why the Washington Nationals want their agreement with the Orioles and MASN renegotiated more in their favor.

Heck, if they keep up their spending spree with signing free agents, they may have to arrange for every word of their broadcasts to be sponsored by an advertiser. Can doubling the price of stadium hot dogs and sodas be very far away?

Signing former Tigers’ ace Max Scherzer to a seven-year $210 million contract is a reality slap to anyone who hoped there was still a chance professional athletes would maintain some connection to regular, ordinary working people.

When celebrities earn that kind of money, most hire armies of agents, advisers and lackeys to address their off-field tasks and responsibilities and, most importantly, rescue them from dealing with realities in the real world.

Even with the inflated television revenue figures that teams in the NFL, NBA and Major League Baseball receive, there will always be a need to raise ticket prices as long as fans keep squeezing into stadiums and arenas to watch these high-priced celebrities perform.

Who would have ever figured the minimum salary in the NFL would rise so quickly to $420,000?
 
Celebrity athlete contracts are going up in monetary value faster than the national debt. The market place for Major League Baseball, NBA and NFL stars, driven by the power of the celebrity market, has established an upper-class social group of athletes who are different from the type of sports heroes fans followed through the 1950s, 60s, 70s, 80s and even the 1990s.
 
Most pro athletes today make so much money, many feel they no longer have to deal with the public.

If you are putting on a charity or nonprofit function and want to have an athlete with a recognizable name appear, you should probably forget it unless you are willing to pay a not-so-small fortune. With high salaries and unlimited marketing opportunities, they can afford to isolate themselves.
 
Read more »

Does Baltimore really need to tear down and rebuild its 1960s vintage “Civic Center” for the 2020 Inner Harbor?

CHARM CITY’S ‘ARENA OF DREAMS’:
IF WE BUILD IT, WILL AN NBA OR NHL
TEAM COME TO BALTIMORE TO PLAY?

Hogan would gain bipartisan popularity
if he supports public transportation
and cleaning up Chesapeake Bay

AN APPEARANCE BY OBAMA IN PARIS
IN SUPPORT OF FREEDOM OF THE PRESS
WOULD HAVE BEEN DISINGENUOUS
 
By David Maril
 
While wondering what century is being referenced in the new biography on Bob Hope entitled Hope: Entertainer of the Century, it’s interesting to note the following:

 On the Martin O’Malley book trail, you’d have to figure unless he’s offering his proposed manuscript-autobiography as a cure for insomnia, the outgoing Maryland Governor must be a more engaging book author than he is a speechmaker.

Even though O’Malley is certainly no Richard “I Am Not a Crook” Nixon, thinking of the Maryland Governor’s long-plotted plan to run for president, I can’t get John Dean’s book title, “Blind Ambition,” out of my mind.

One certainty, unless Hillary Clinton picks him as her running mate, O’Malley will have plenty of time to tune up his manuscript.

 Let’s see, Baltimore doesn’t have any prospects for getting an NHL or NBA franchise and we still have the so-called obsolete Royal Farms Arena, which, according to The Sun, continues to be profitable, holding 130 events a year.

So why do we need a $450 million showcase arena built in the Inner Harbor? And, what happens to the existing facility, which we old Baltimore Bullets fans still refer to as the Civic Center?

Or does someone have inside information that a pro basketball or hockey team would come here if we only had a first-class, modern facility?

 The incoming Larry Hogan promises to offer a refreshing change of pace as Governor.

Read more »

Pete Rose:  “Charlie Hustle” has morphed into “Charlie Hustler.”

BONDS, CLEMENS, McGWIRE & SOSA
SHOULD BE VOTED IN OR OUT
BASED ON THEIR RECORDS,
NOT THEIR CHARACTER

Mike Mussina gets shortchanged,
as ‘Charlie Hustle’ (Pete Rose)
morphs into ‘Charlie Hustler’

ROSE, FOUND GUILTY OF GAMBLING,
DESERVES HIS LIFETIME BAN
 
By David Maril
 
One of the rewards from my having covered Major League Baseball for 25 years is becoming one of only 549 voters participating in the annual Hall of Fame balloting.

This year, we elected four new inductees, the most voted in since 1955.

However, it should have been even more.

Former Orioles pitcher Mike Mussina, in his second year of eligibility, was named on just 135 of the ballots, a slight increase from last year but way below the required 75 percent minimum. Voters are allowed to vote for just 10 and the players remain on the ballot for only 10 years.

There’s still hope for Mussina, who pitched for the Orioles from 1991 to 2000, in future elections, in years when there are fewer marquee former players becoming eligible. This year, Pedro Martínez, Craig Biggio, John Smoltz and Randy Johnson drew most of the attention.

Mussina’s election, however, should be a no-brainer. To put it in perspective, he has almost the same career record as Jim Palmer, considered the greatest pitcher in Orioles history . Mussina’s major league won-lost mark is 270-153 while Palmer’s is 268-152.

No question, Palmer achieved a higher class of brilliance and had a much better earned run average, seven 20-win seasons and three Cy Young Awards.

But don’t forget the fact that Mussina was, for the most part, pitching for some pretty mediocre Orioles teams and spent a good portion of his Baltimore stay towing the mound at Camden Yards, a launching pad for home runs.

Read more »

 Is this the real Martin O’Malley? or a “MO’M lookalike”?   (Ya gotta read the column or you won’t get the joke.)

O’MALLEY DENIES PLAN
TO USE LOOKALIKES
IN 2016 CAMPAIGN

TV’s ‘Meet the Press’ schedules
Jan. 18 show without any press

SENATOR SCHUMER DISCUSSES POLLS;
IS RALPH NADER A ‘FRESH NEW FACE’?
 
By David Maril
 
One of the great perks of having been in the newspaper business is all the great anonymous sources that are readily available to provide inside information.

With the arrival of 2015, here’s a guide and calendar — with highlights for the upcoming year — culled from an army of admitted experts, inside traders, outside traitors, conspiracy theorists, and political inactivists:

Jan. 13 — Maryland gasoline stations warn there will be a shortage of the numeral “1” for their display signs when prices drop below $2.00 a gallon.

Jan. 18 — “Meet The Press,” the longest running news show on network television, makes history by not including a single press journalist on its Sunday discussion guest panel.

Jan. 21 — After a six-inch snowstorm, two county towns announce they have already spent their entire snowplowing budget for the winter.

Jan. 24 — With flu vaccines less effective battling the strain of viruses this year and people obsessed with sterilizing their hands every time they touch a doorknob, stock in companies that make disinfectant tissues and hand-wipes is up more than $75 a share.

Feb. 8 — A group of impatient liberals, led by Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who feel President Barack Obama has sold them out, form an activist group called the Coffee Party, demanding big government and more spending to contain the “fat cats” of Wall Street.

Feb. 17 — Ralph Nader launches a consumer safety campaign to have real bumpers and fenders restored to cars.

Feb. 23 — Martin O’Malley, former Maryland governor, denies rumors that he has two lookalike fill-ins to help make it appear he’s campaigning in more than one state at a time, trying to get his name recognized so he can make a legitimate bid to challenge Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Read more »