Item: Baltimore is the metropolitan area whose residents' values most closely match those of Americans as a whole, although it is also the most overlooked product test site in the nation, American Demographics magazine says.
Item: The Baltimore CFL's are about to embark on their first season in the Canadian Football League.
Two disparate pieces of news? No. They both emanate from the fact that this is a rock-ribbed, unpretentious place and that its strength remains a secret to much of the U.S. It is the reason that the city ranked first in the magazine's study on American values and dead last for test market sites. It is also a reason that the town finds itself cheering the up-and-coming CFL instead of the National Football League.
Maryland native Jim Speros saw an opening to bring Canadian football to Baltimore while the city was being jerked around by the NFL. Though you cannot discount the great impact that personalities played in the NFL's rejection of Baltimore -- namely NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue and Redskins owner Jack Kent Cooke -- the NFL owners as a whole didn't seem to grasp what Baltimore has become.