Clippings

In the end, the problems that existed all season cost the Ravens in the playoffs. The only way the Ravens were going to beat the Indianapolis Colts in the second round of the AFC playoffs was if they could run the ball, Colts quarterback Peyton Manning had an off night and the secondary could turn in a strong effort for a second straight week. The Ravens didn't succeed in any of the three as the Colts knocked them out of the playoffs Saturday night with a lopsided win at Lucas Oil Stadium.

CINCINNATI - - It now seems appropriate that Bengals wide receiver Chad Ochocinco sent deodorant to the Ravens a couple of days ago. Maybe it's time for the Ravens to start sweating. Showing no sense of urgency for a critical AFC North game, the Ravens fell apart early Sunday and never recovered in a 17-7 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals at Paul Brown Stadium. They didn't look like the team that routed the previously undefeated Denver Broncos a week ago, and they didn't look like a team gearing up for a playoff run. The defense was exposed once again, giving up points on the first three series of the game to put the Ravens in an early 17-0 hole.

It was a confrontation between a Baltimore cop and a 14-year-old boy that millions watched on YouTube. Somebody should tell the lawyers to watch as well, because their attempts to spin this story to fit their clients' self-serving agenda of what happened back in the summer of 2007 don't quite match what's on the video. In Officer Salvatore Rivieri's version, he simply asked several teenagers to stop skateboarding at the Inner Harbor. The 14-year-old protested, held his board "in a threatening manner," pulled it to his chest and resisted.

TORONTO -Some of the issues that confront the Orioles were present long before they arrived at Rogers Centre and were swept by the Toronto Blue Jays in three games, the latest tight loss featuring a lack of offense from the visiting team and manager Dave Trembley's second ejection in a five-game span. But as the team boarded a plane and headed to Florida late Sunday afternoon, just hours removed from a 4-3 defeat that extended its losing streak to six, the Orioles were carrying more baggage than when they had crossed customs three days earlier.

Presenting still more sports media notes after spending part of yesterday asking your forgiveness for the past year's transgressions in print and on the Web: * On Tuesday, Versus - motto: "We're so much more than hockey; we run movies you don't care to watch, either" - debuts a show that has been a good idea just waiting to happen. Here's hoping the execution matches the anticipation. Sports Soup will run Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10 p.m. It's a version of E!'s The Soup, which, in the versions called Talk Soup with Greg Kinnear and John Henson, and now again with Joel McHale, has replayed clips of outrageous television shows - mainly of the talk and reality variety - and offered hilariously snarky commentary.

Maryland Public Television's Artworks This Week, which for six years has spotlighted the state's arts scene, will all but cease production at the end of this month, changing from a weekly program featuring new material to one devoted almost entirely to clips from old shows. Robert Shuman, MPT's president and chief executive officer, said the money and resources that would have been devoted to Artworks will be used to help push the station into the digital age. Like all broadcast TV stations, MPT must broadcast its signal digitally by February to meet a government mandate.

An eco-friendly governor, an activist attorney general and a willing legislature arrived at the State House this year with plans to make Maryland a testing ground for some of the nation's most ambitious environmental policies. Then the economy tanked, and they found that it's not easy being green. Much of Gov. Martin O'Malley's environmental agenda is headed toward passage in the General Assembly - at least in some form. He has backed new goals for reducing energy consumption, boosting renewable energy and protecting the Chesapeake Bay. But the administration has had to temper many of those proposals when confronted with questions about the impact on businesses and energy costs for consumers.

And now back to our regularly scheduled sports media notebook, but there's no need to TiVo it. Comcast SportsNet doesn't carry Orioles games anymore, but it still has plenty of Cal Ripken Jr. Hall of Fame coverage. It will run a series of features daily on SportsNite starting Sunday, and Chick Hernandez and Brent Harris will report from Cooperstown, N.Y., starting Wednesday. Comcast SportsNet also has commissioned a song for the occasion, a Ripken-centric version of Terry Cashman's "Talkin' Baseball," written and performed by Cashman.

Earl Pruce, a local historian and retired librarian of the old News American who saved as many old newspaper stories and photographs as his department could house, died of cancer complications Tuesday at his Northwest Baltimore home. He was 97. Born in Baltimore and raised on Quantico Avenue, he attended Forest Park High School, Maryland Institute College of Art and the old European Conservatory of Music on St. Paul Street, where he studied piano. In 1927, he joined the Baltimore American, then a daily morning paper, as a personal copy boy to the managing editor.