Chance To Play

Lou Montanez won the Triple Crown in the Double-A Eastern League after hitting .335 with 26 home runs and 97 RBIs in 116 games for Bowie. He hit .295 with three homers and 14 RBIs in 38 games for the Orioles. He deserves to have a chance to play every day in the majors. ( For more, go to baltimoresun.com/osondeck)

The Baltimore Bohemian isn't your usual sports club. The team splits a case of beer at practice, it wins national championships and it plays sports you've probably never heard of. The Baltimore Gaelic Athletic Association, or BGAA, is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. The Bohemian, as the organization is commonly called, is separated into four teams that play traditional Irish sports such as men's and women's Gaelic football, camogie and hurling. But while that sounds like a league for displaced Irishmen - and it is to an extent - the Baltimore team is predominantly made up of people trying the games for the first time.

Sara Red had nightmares the day before the competition. Laura Bolton danced around nervously before her performance. And Andrew Yang's hands were sweating until he took the stage. All normal before a competition -- especially one as intense as yesterday's Columbia Orchestra Young Artist Competition. "I was shaking backstage," said Laura, 12, who has been playing the flute for four years. "It was a little better when I got on stage." Laura was one of a dozen young musicians who competed yesterday at Howard Community College's Smith Theater for a chance to play a solo with the Columbia Orchestra on March 5. More than 40 family, friends and supporters, including a few fathers toting video cameras, filled the performance hall.

The Orioles have known since Sunday night that they were playoff-bound. On Wednesday night, they finally learned whom they'll play. The club will begin its first postseason in 15 years at 8:37 p.m. Friday in Arlington, Texas, where the Orioles will have to win a wild-card game against the Rangers to keep their season alive. If the Orioles win Friday night, they'll begin the American League Division Series at home Sunday against the New York Yankees. The Orioles cost themselves home-field advantage in the wild-card round with a 4-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays on Wednesday night, surrendering three home runs to third baseman Evan Longoria.

ASHBURN, Va. -- They came at different times, for different reasons, and with different perspectives. When Brandon Lloyd arrived at Redskins Park last spring after spending his first three seasons in the NFL with the San Francisco 49ers, he looked at the trade as a chance to play with a winning team and a veteran quarterback, and in the new high-powered offense Al Saunders had just brought from Kansas City. Redskins@Texans Sunday, 1 p.m., Ch. 5, 1430 AM Line: Redskins by 4

MIAMI -- San Francisco 49ers cornerback Deion Sanders is lobbying for a chance to play more than defense in the Super Bowl.Sanders put his arm around coach George Seifert at one point during San Francisco's practice yesterday and the two talked for a few minutes. It ended with Seifert laughing."If he puts his arm around me, you know exactly what he's asking for -- offensive playing time," Seifert said. "Hopefully, we'll be in a position [Sunday] to do it."That's an indication that Seifert may not want to risk Sanders as a kick returner unless the 49ers have the game in hand.

EMMITSBURG -- As a sophomore at Mount St. Mary's, the challenge for Kevin Booth was delivering points as a reserve, not a starter. He did just fine, averaging a team-high 18.5 points, most from long range, and earned second-team All-Northeast Conference honors.This year, coach Jim Phelan wants Booth, a 6-foot junior, to play the point. He has been a shooting guard since his days at Salesianum High in Wilmington, Del., but Booth knows he might have to sacrifice his scoring average if the Mount is going to continue to improve in Division I."

Normally, when children find out they are going to Disney World, all they can think about is riding roller coasters and meeting Mickey Mouse. But 13-year-old Brandon Oliver has more important business on his mind: winning the Super Bowl. Oliver and his Charm City Buccaneers teammates are heading to Orlando, Fla., to compete in the Pop Warner Football National Championships, which begin today at Disney's Wide World of Sports complex. Their first game is Tuesday against the Tri-Town Raiders of Indiana.

Don Beaupre is expected to be in goal when the Washington Capitals meet the Canadiens at the Montreal Forum tonight.Beaupre, who missed all of training camp and the preseason in a contract dispute, spent Friday and Saturday on rehabilitation assignment with the Baltimore Skipjacks of the American Hockey League and led them to 5-2 and 7-1 victories over the Fredericton Canadiens.Beaupre made 49 saves in the two wins, and two of the goals he allowed were during Fredericton power plays. After Saturday's sharp performance, in which Beaupre made 29 saves, stopping three breakaways, he was recalled to the Capitals and practiced with the National Hockey League club yesterday.

Clemson junior forward Devin Gray, who suffered a heart attack three months ago, said he will begin rehabilitation to determine whether he is able to return to the court for the Tigers.Gray, an All-Metro player at St. Frances High, suffered a heart attack April 4, caused by a clogged artery.Gray said he will train five days a week for six weeks, with running, swimming and weightlifting. Doctors plan to gradually take him off the antibiotics he has been taking.Clemson's team physician, Dr. Stuart Clarkson, will decide in October whether Gray will play this season.

Standing in the living room of his mother's Belair-Edison home late one summer evening, Allan Chaney raised his plain white T-shirt below his collarbone. He had just been asked to show his chest, to reveal the remnants of a more than two-year ordeal that threatened his life - let alone the once-prized recruit's basketball career. Directly over his sternum lies a 3-inch scar, a byproduct of last March's surgery to remove abnormal tissue surrounding his heart. But the scar tells only part of Chaney's story.

During last week's Cal Ripken Major/70 World Series at the Ripken Academy in Aberdeen, a few dozen disabled children were afforded the opportunity to play ball, a chance that might not have been there were it not for the League of Dreams program. Convening on the turf practice field on Saturday afternoon, the local children were treated to a baseball clinic, during which they were instructed on the hitting, fielding and throwing aspects of the game, and were supposed to take part in a scrimmage game, but that was canceled when a heavy rainstorm cut short the proceedings.

In a perfect world, Robert Andino wouldn't get this opportunity at the expense of an injured teammate. But after getting designated for assignment by the Orioles at the end of last spring and spending the majority of the 2010 season in the minor leagues, Andino knows how fleeting big league opportunities are. With J.J. Hardy headed to the disabled list with a strained left oblique and expected to miss up to three weeks, Orioles manager ...

Zack Greinke , who has two years left on his deal with the Royals, is talking like he's getting the itch to move to a contender. He's unlikely to ask for a trade, but the Royals could decide to deal him at some point after this season, as did the Padres for Jake Peavy last year and the Astros for Roy Oswalt last week. … Indians catching phenom Carlos Santana is out for the season after tearing up his left knee in a collision with the Red Sox's Ryan Kalish on Monday night.

These campers won't have to endure any singsong routines with marshmallows around a fire, but the 120 or so participants in the first BSO Academy will still have a packed schedule of group activities when they gather at Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in June. The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra's latest project is aimed at amateur adult musicians who would like to step not just onto the concert hall stage, but into the thick of orchestral music-making itself. For a week, beginning June 13, participants in the academy - tuition starts at $1,650 - will work intensely with BSO players and music director Marin Alsop.

PHILADELPHIA -- Michael Vick's speed and flash are back. His arm strength also has looked good during Philadelphia Eagles practices at the team's NovaCare Complex. But can he still play quarterback in the NFL? We'll begin to find the answer Thursday night. That's when Vick - wearing a No. 7 jersey and with what coach Andy Reid said likely will be butterflies in his stomach - will play in his first NFL game in two years when the Eagles meet the Jacksonville Jaguars at Lincoln Financial Field.

On the field: When Todd Pratt swung and missed at a fourth-inning pitch from Rick Krivda, he inadvertently hit Chris Hoiles on the back as the Orioles catcher rose to throw to second. The throw bounced wide of the base as Bernard Gilkey slid in safely, and trainer Richie Bancells came out to check on Hoiles, who stayed in the game.In the dugout: Manager Davey Johnson left it in the third inning to briefly dispute a balk call on Krivda that awarded Carl Everett second base. Krivda also was called for a balk while trying to keep Anaheim's Rickey Henderson on Aug. 16.In the clubhouse: With the expansion draft coming up, Lenny Webster was asked if he'd welcome the chance to become the No. 1 catcher for either Tampa Bay or Arizona.

Annapolis standout senior C'Vette Henson plans to take her basketball talents to the University of Maryland. The second-team All-Metro guard, who averaged 18.4 points, 5.0 rebounds and 4.6 assists this past season, will attend Maryland on an academic grant and technically be welcomed on the women's basketball team as a walk-on next season. "It's very exciting," said Henson, who also considered Bowie State. "I wanted to go there to get more exposure toward maybe playing in the WNBA or whatever other job I may get. My goal is to become a better player and help boost the program."

Lou Montanez won the Triple Crown in the Double-A Eastern League after hitting .335 with 26 home runs and 97 RBIs in 116 games for Bowie. He hit .295 with three homers and 14 RBIs in 38 games for the Orioles. He deserves to have a chance to play every day in the majors. ( For more, go to baltimoresun.com/osondeck)

Jim Leonhard wanted the chance to play in Rex Ryan's defensive system. Fabian Washington wanted the chance to play anywhere other than Oakland. Together, they are starting over in the Ravens' secondary, perhaps just in the nick of time. In a daily battle against attrition this summer, Ryan, the Ravens' defensive coordinator, has yet to put his projected starting secondary on the field because of injuries. With the season opener just 11 days away, Leonhard and Washington could become key figures in any potential makeover.