Baseball Games

No one is going to write a Broadway musical titled "Damn Ravens!" Something about the sport of baseball lends itself to song. Strains of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" were regularly echoing in parks as early as 1910. The up-down ritual of the seventh-inning stretch, an interlude seemingly tailor-made for sing-alongs, was cemented in fans' psyches by the Roaring Twenties. Today, in this era of Jumbotron and MTV, ballparks rock from batting practice till final out. Spectators abhor a vacuum - and silence.

Another day, another inquiring mind wanting to know what it's like to be baseball's next big thing. Manny Machado is ushered into the large conference room at the Orioles' Ed Smith Stadium training complex, his attention quickly drawn to the portraits on the far wall. Brooks Robinson. Frank Robinson. Boog Powell. Cal Ripken. All in a row. "Someday," he says almost sheepishly, "I want to be up on that wall. " Someday, he probably will, but first things first. There is the small matter of living up to the advance billing and Machado instinctively knows that he won't be able to do that if he takes his eye off the ball.

AL KERMISCH, gazing out across the baseball diamonds of long ago, has made a discovery. He's made it as he sits there staring into a microfilm screen at the Library of Congress. The discovery is like a beer vendor's making a sale at an Oriole home game: It keeps happening.But this one stands out. It's the worst slaughter ever.In the history of baseball, particularly as played professionally in Baltimore and Washington, Al Kermisch has been everywhere. He has inspected the box score of every game ever played by the teams, major league and minor, of both cities.

After 15 years of waiting for playoff baseball at Camden Yards, Orioles fans had to endure an extra 21/2 hours as chilly rain pushed back the start of Sunday's division series opener against the hated New York Yankees. A mighty roar shook the stadium when the grounds crew peeled away the protective tarp at 8 p.m., conveying just how badly Baltimore fans wanted their October moment. The crowd didn't grow quiet until the Yankees scored five runs in the ninth inning on their way to a 7-2 victory.

Another day, another inquiring mind wanting to know what it's like to be baseball's next big thing. Manny Machado is ushered into the large conference room at the Orioles' Ed Smith Stadium training complex, his attention quickly drawn to the portraits on the far wall. Brooks Robinson. Frank Robinson. Boog Powell. Cal Ripken. All in a row. "Someday," he says almost sheepishly, "I want to be up on that wall. " Someday, he probably will, but first things first. There is the small matter of living up to the advance billing and Machado instinctively knows that he won't be able to do that if he takes his eye off the ball.

Take what you want, ownersWith regard to the proposed changes by Major League Baseball's owners to extend the playoffs and interleague play, I unequivocally and wholeheartedly agree. I am totally in favor of any change that will put more money in the pockets of the owners and players. Lord knows they deserve it for all the grueling hours they toil at this dirty business just to please us fans. And while we are at it, let's stop complaining about rising ticket, beer and hot dog prices. Just think of all the time Orioles owner Eli Jacobs spent designing our stadium.

Many young athletes don't believe they have to stretch before playing baseball.Baseball doesn't require constant running like basketball or soccer. It doesn't include the physical play of such sports as football or lacrosse.Young players spend their time before their soccer and football games in a formal pre-game workout with teammates. Young players spend their time before baseball games mainly playing catch while chattering with a buddy.And besides the pitcher and catcher, the rest of the team spends its time waiting to catch a fly ball or sitting until a turn at the plate.

WASHINGTON -- Fans of the C-SPAN cable channels are protesting Comcast's decision to pre-empt U.S. Senate broadcasts, Book TV and other shows in favor of Orioles or Washington Nationals baseball games. A dedicated viewer of C-SPAN2 sat down a week ago to watch Book TV, and quicker than a major league fastball, the program was gone from the public affairs channel. "All of a sudden a baseball game was on instead," the outraged viewer wrote to C-SPAN. "I was furious." Comcast says it provided notice before it began bumping some C-SPAN2 shows last week because the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network (MASN)

The Hamburg Street bridge will remain closed during Oriole baseball games -- despite an appeal from the South Baltimore business community that the bridge be reopened in midgame.City transportation officials say a month-long traffic study determined that opening the bridge during games presented too great a hazard to pedestrians.Since Oriole Park at Camden Yards opened in April, the bridge stays closed from two hours before the game until traffic clears after the game to accommodate baseball fans walking to and from the stadium.

Don Sutton was pitching against his boyhood idol, Robin Roberts. Playing second base for the Houston Astros was a future Hall of Famer named Joe Morgan. Clustered in the crowd of 25,000 at the Houston Astrodome were 12 astronauts, heroes who were racing to the moon.It was April 18, 1966. The Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the Astros, 6-3, in an otherwise routine game made memorable by the presence of a concrete-hard green carpet. This was baseball's first game played on AstroTurf, and the landscape of American sports would never be the same.

The site and time of Friday's Class 4A state championship baseball game has been changed. No. 8 Arundel and Northwest will play at the University of Maryland's Shipley Field at 2:30 p.m.

Today's Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference baseball game between No. 4-seeded Archbishop Curley and No. 1-seeded Gilman has been moved to Yankee Stadium at the Ripken Complex in Aberdeen.  The game will begin at 6 p.m.

Seddef Everest had been looking forward to touring Baltimore this weekend with her boyfriend, Dan McDole, who was visiting from Queens. But Hurricane Irene struck, shutting down the water taxi and making other destinations seem uninviting to the fourth-year medical student, who is doing a rotation at St. Agnes Hospital. "It kind of put a damper on things," said Everest, while she and McDole watched the weather through the doorway of The Point, a restaurant and bar on Thames Street.

The National team, coached by former major league manager Larry Bowa, topped the American squad, 6-4, in the 2011 Under Armour All-America Baseball Game Saturday at Wrigley Field. The American team was coached by former Oriole Bill Ripken. Ripken's nephew, Ryan, of Gilman, was the lone player from Maryland and played for the American team. The game was delayed in the middle of the third inning because of heavy rain that hit the area. Play resumed after about a 90-minute delay, and the teams were tied until infielder Yairo Munoz hit a two-run single in the bottom of the eighth to give the National team a 6-4 lead.

An incident during Monday's Northwestern at Patterson baseball game is being investigated by school police. "An altercation did occur," said Patterson athletic director Bill Buckless. "I can't comment on it. I wasn't there. But I am gathering written reports from witnesses. " Buckless said school police — officers are assigned to each school — are collecting information "and investigating what happened and who was at fault. " Northwestern athletic director Jerry Molyneaux did not return messages and Baltimore City coordinator of athletics Bob Wade referred questions about the incident to city schools spokeswoman Edie House-Foster, who had left for the day when her office was contacted.

William V. Ryan, a retired Polytechnic Institute educator, coach and referee who also ran the play clock for the old Baltimore Colts, died Feb. 18 from Parkinson's disease at his Rodgers Forge home. He was 83. The son of a postal worker and a homemaker, Mr. Ryan was born and raised in Medina, N.Y., near Buffalo. He was a 1945 graduate of Medina High School, where he had played varsity football, basketball and baseball and was a high and broad jumper in track. After serving as an electronic technician in the Navy aboard the destroyer USS Borie from 1946 to 1948, he attended St. Bonaventure College for a year and a half before transferring to Notre Dame University.

For Navy football coach Paul Johnson, spring practice has been a welcome opportunity to tweak and tinker with an offense that last season - when it didn't turn the ball over - wasn't that bad. For defensive coordinator Buddy Green, retooling the defense this spring has been nothing short of a complete restoration project. "We aren't anywhere close to where we need to be," said Green earlier this week. "We are moving a lot of guys around, taking a look at a lot of young faces. We are hoping individuals get better at certain positions, whether we've moved them [somewhere]

The person with the most difficult job in baseball might be Steve Palermo. The former American League umpire recently was appointed to lead a study to crack the mystery of why baseball games are getting longer. Palermo has gathered information for six weeks and expects to present his findings to baseball club owners. He spoke recently with The Sun's Mark Hyman.Q: One of baseball's main selling points has been that there's no game clock. Why the big concern about games that stretch on for three hours or longer?

For Michael Marsh and the Chesapeake Cougars, the 2010 baseball season has been a chance to exceed expectations. Unfortunately for the Cougars, they fell one expectation short Friday night at Ripken Stadium in Aberdeen. Sherwood's pitching staff of Jamie Dejter and William Bouey held Chesapeake of Anne Arundel County to three hits and struck out 10 batters (Dejter six, Bouey four) en route to a 2-1 victory in the Class 4A state championship game. The victory is the second state title for the Montgomery County school, which also won the title in 2008.