Cardinals

Calvert Hall's Mike Lance likes to lead by example. That's part of the reason coach Bill Karpovich selected the senior forward as one of his tri-captains this season.So after the seventh-ranked Cardinals opened their schedule with a disappointing tie against C. Milton Wright earlier this month, Lance took it upon himself to help his team step it up a notch.Yesterday, against No. 2 Severna Park, he showed them how.Lance hustled for three assists and the host Cardinals rolled to a 3-1win over the Falcons, extending their unbeaten streak to 37 games.

Calvert Hall's title-game loss to Archbishop Curley last year has left stopper Ryan Lachowicz feeling he has some unfinished business to attend to.The Cardinals trailed 3-0 before Lachowicz pounded home their first goal with 19:51 left in the game. Four minutes later, the Cardinals scored again. But a final shot sailed inches wide of the goal with seven seconds left, securing Curley's 16-0-1 season.Lachowicz earned All-Metro honors for scoring eight goals with two assists and anchoring Calvert Hall's defense to 10 shutouts.

Calvert Hall started quickly yesterday at No. 6 Mount St. Joseph. Five batters into the game, the Cardinals had three hits and four runs.And then they got hot.Top-ranked Calvert Hall battered three Mount St. Joseph pitchers for 13 hits, and John McKay tossed a three-hitter to give the Cardinals an 11-1 victory in a Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference game.Calvert Hall (20-2, 10-0) started the game hitting and never stopped. The Cardinals had at least two hits in five of the six innings -- the 10-run rule ended the game after six innings -- with four of them being for extra bases.

TAMPA, Fla. - Faith Hill will sing "America the Beautiful." Jennifer Hudson will belt out the national anthem. Fighter jets will fly overhead. Gen. David Petraeus, commander of the U.S. Central Command, will toss the coin. And then two teams will clash on a lush spread of grass and 150 million fans from sea to shining sea will stop everything to indulge. America and football. A union as perfect as any, inspiring among its faithful the most important of tenets: loyalty and love and devotion.

HERNDON, Va. -- Buddy Ryan knows defensive linemen.In his 25-year career as an NFL coach, he has guided such standouts as Alan Page, Reggie White and the late Jerome Brown.In his second year as head coach of the Arizona Cardinals, he said he's coaching another lineman in their class -- Eric Swann."He's a great player, he's one of the super greats. I've been around a lot of those guys, and he's as good or better than any of them," Ryan said. "Last year, he was the best defensive lineman in the league.

CATHOLIC CARDINALS work in mysterious ways. It goes with the job. Speaking in what laymen hear as that murky, Old World language serves to enhance the cardinals' image as sages of the Roman Catholic Church. I think we all appreciate a bit of this mystery -- just as we appreciate an ornate cathedral despite its outlandish cost -- but not at a time when American Catholics are seeking clarity on a painful matter. Coming out of their deliberations in Rome, the American cardinals issued a "Final Communique" calling for a special process "for the dismissal from the clerical state of a priest who has become notorious and is guilty of the serial, predatory, sexual abuse of minors."

In the olden, golden days of baseball, before the great westward migration, artificial surfaces, designated hitters and million-dollar utility infielders, the American League conducted its business in the manner of a formal court dance.The so-called pennant race resembled a sedate minuet, a stately saraband, in which a handful of teams minced around pretending to fight for the championship, with Chicago or Cleveland or Detroit making occasional flaccid gestures toward first place, while the other participants, fatigued and neurasthenic, watched politely from the sidelines.

The most significant game played in the NFL in the past decade matched -- believe it or not -- a 3-12 team against a 7-8 team in the 1988 season finale.That's when the Green Bay Packers went to Sun Devil Stadium with a 3-12 record to play the Arizona Cardinals.If the Packers had lost, they would have gotten the first pick in the draft and selected Troy Aikman in 1989.Instead, they upset the Cardinals, 26-17, and got the second pick. They bypassed those Sanders guys -- Barry and Deion -- to take Tony Mandarich, one of the biggest busts of the decade.

Rock music blared from the speakers, multi-colored lights flashed at one end of the pool as the house lights dimmed and announcements of Calvert Hall's intentions were on the walls.Signs said: "STUFF THE DONS," "LEVEL LOYOLA," "GO,CARDS" and "DROWN THE DONS."Clearly, Calvert Hall was primed for its rematch with Loyola.The defending MSA champion Cardinals thrashed the Dons, 111-75, yesterday before a standing-room-only crowd of 300 at Hucht Pool, avenging an 11-point loss to Loyola 2 1/2 weeks ago.The two MSA swimming powers will meet again Feb. 26 in the MSA Championships at Johns Hopkins.

If Jim Edmonds experienced any culture shock when he jumped to the National League last spring, it never showed. He pulled on that St. Louis Cardinals uniform and proceeded to put on an all-round offensive show that clearly made the difference in his new club's runaway division title drive. That's why he should be named the NL's Most Valuable Player when voting members of the Baseball Writers Association of America mail in their ballots this weekend. (Baseball's major awards are not announced until November, but the votes must be submitted before the start of the playoffs.