Comeback

John-John Williams IV has a story in Wednesday's Taste section about the revival of the formal afternoon tea tradition. Afternoon tea is not to be confused with high tea. Afternoon tea has various applications in England, depending on class. But let's say that there is the domestic version, performed in households, and the institutional version, performed in fancy hotels. That version let's call formal afternoon tea. It's that version that's the focus of Williams' story . The tradition comes and goes in Baltimore.

This was for every guy who ever had a mid-life crisis and tried to do something nobody thought could be done. Fifty-year-old Jockey Gary Stevens took Oxbow to the front early and never looked back on the way to an upset victory in the 138th Preakness Stakes that was truly one for the ageless. Oxbow was a 15-1 shot when he left the gate, and he wasn't the one beating the longest odds at Old Hilltop on Saturday. Stevens became the first grandfather ever to win a Triple Crown race, and he did it against a Kentucky Derby winner - Orb - that was considered almost unassailable.

Joe Flacco showed he could rebound Sunday, passing for three touchdowns just a week after throwing four interceptions. But the Ravens quarterback progressed in another area as well — delivering a game-winning drive in the fourth quarter. Coming through in pressure situations is often how quarterbacks are ultimately defined. In Sunday's 24-17 win over the Cleveland Browns, Flacco put together his fifth game-winning, fourth-quarter drive of his 40-game career. In comparison, Kyle Boller had six of them in his 53-game career.

The Orioles again proved Friday night that there are few deficits out of their reach, injecting late-inning suspense into a game that appeared to be a blowout. After trailing by eight runs in the eighth inning, they brought the tying run to the plate, falling just short in a 12-10 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays. But the concern in Birdland these days isn't about the offense, but a starting rotation that is struggling at a critical time of the season. Right-hander Jason Hammel, the club's Opening Day starter, has often played the role of stopper when the Orioles have needed innings.

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. - Former All-Star center Alonzo Mourning will attempt a comeback next season after being forced to retire from the NBA earlier this season because of a kidney transplant, a member of the New Jersey Nets' organization said last night. Mourning played in only 12 games after signing a four-year, $22 million free-agent contract. He appeared in his final game Nov. 22 and underwent a transplant on Dec. 19. He returned to the bench occasionally late in the season and joined the team on the road for the first time in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals.

Jim Palmer's latest comeback attempt apparently isn't a comeback at all. Palmer said yesterday that "there is no truth" to a report in Tuesday's Denver Post that he seriously is considering resuming his major-league baseball career.But then he repeated many of the things he told the Post reporter."I just told him I was going to throw. You never know. I may play in the Senior [Professional Baseball]League. Why? Because it's something to do."Palmer, 45, hasn't pitched in a major-league game since May 1984, when the Baltimore Orioles released him. But he often has spoken of trying to resurrect his 19-year career.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- The "other" comeback is coming along quite nicely, even if left-hander Mike Flanagan isn't getting quite the same kind of attention that routinely has been paid to past and present teammate Jim Palmer.Flanagan made an impressive 1991 exhibition debut yesterday, bucking a stiff wind to pitch three scoreless innings in the Baltimore Orioles' 6-3 victory in 10 innings over the New York Yankees at Fort Lauderdale Stadium, but he wasn't ready to proclaim his comeback a success quite yet."

The Race of My Life Hermann Maier with Knut Okresek Velo Press/320 pages Recently translated from German and published in the United States, The Race of My Life is the story of Hermann Maier's long, painful comeback from a motorcycle accident that nearly ended his skiing career at its peak in 2001. What is truly illuminating about the Herminator's story is that it's a warts-and-all tale. It's not like Maier always knew he'd make it back. Like any human who has his livelihood suddenly snatched away from him, Maier at times lashed out, threw things in anger and wanted to give up. And then he went back to work with the determination of a champion.

ARE YOU discouraged about the recent poor performance of your stocks? Cheer up. "Despite enduring a stock market that could conjure nightmares for macabre master Edgar Allan Poe," says Black Enterprise magazine, July, "it may well be time for investors to re-enter, retool and reposition themselves in the stock market." The article quotes Larry Folmar, chief investment officer of Folmar Group, a Michigan-based advisory firm: "Technology stocks are poised for a comeback, and at these prices everyone should buy back a significant position.

SEATTLE -- The most storied comeback team in college basketball history couldn't come back last night. The Most Outstanding Player in the 1993 Final Four couldn't hit the biggest shot of his career.This time, North Carolina is going home empty, having lost to defending national champion Arkansas, 75-68, in the second NCAA tournament semifinal game at the Kingdome. This time, Donald Williams is not going home the hero.It appeared as if the Tar Heels, whose come-from-way-behind victories are the stuff of legend for their fans and heartaches for their opponents in the Atlantic Coast Conference, would add to their legacy with Williams as one of the heroes.

No. 4 Stevenson can sit back Sunday and celebrate a hard-fought, come-from-behind 17-13 victory over No. 11 Washington College in Saturday night's NCAA tournament second-round contest at Mustang Stadium in Owings Mills. As much as talent and mental fortitude played a role in the team outscoring the Shoremen 6-1 in the pivotal fourth quarter, the Mustangs know they cannot afford to fall behind again when they meet No. 13 Lynchburg (14-5) - a 12-9 winner over No. 7 Roanoke - at home on Wednesday at 7 p.m. “We definitely have to jump out on them early,” sophomore midfielder Billy Burgoyne said of the Hornets.

The Orioles bounced back from a 6-0 deficit to win, 9-6, in 10 innings Friday night against the Minnesota Twins. Among the highlights was Jim Johnson breaking Randy Myers' club record with his 35th consecutive regular-season save (dating back to last year). Here's some of the postgame chatter from the clubhouse: Johnson on his record-setting 35 th consecutive save: “I wasn't thinking about it obviously. I was just thinking about watching us chip away. I thought it was a great team win. Everybody kind of chipped in. … Good effort out of the bullpen, guys had great at-bats and we ended up pulling it out.” Johnson on whether breaking Myers consecutive saves' record means something special: “It's not really anything I'm focused on. It's great, but our ultimate goal is our team record at the end of the year and going further than that.

UMBC has enjoyed some memorable comebacks wins during Don Zimmerman's tenure. Just a couple that come to mind include a five-goal rally to edge Maryland, 8-7, on March 6, 2012 and a 5-1 fourth quarter to nip Albany, 14-13, in an America East tournament final on May 3, 2008. But the longtime coach said that the Retrievers' six-goal explosion in Thursday's 15-13 decision over Hartford in a conference tournament semifinal at Stony Brook may have been one of best he witnessed. “That was a special comeback, especially against a team like Hartford in a championship setting,” Zimmerman said Friday morning.

As many of you know, I was born and raised in solidly working class Arbutus. My family's Protestantism qualified us as an anomaly; the majority of the neighborhood kids were Catholic. Most attended local Catholic schools such as Ascension, Our Lady of Victory, and St. Mark's. A majority of them went on to graduate high school at Cardinal Gibbons, Mount St. Joe, or Seton. This school experience provided parents an attractive "three-fer": religious instruction, challenging academics and excellent athletics - at a reasonable price, to boot.

A dozen inmates at the Patuxent Institution in Jessup have been working for months to help bring back the American chestnut tree, and in the process give themselves a bit of a comeback as well. This week inmates and administrators at the prison handed over 603 chestnut seedlings, grown in a greenhouse on the institute grounds, that they have raised from chestnuts to 12-inch sprouts. The seedlings were accepted by representatives from the American Chestnut Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to restoring the tree species.

Make room for cider and mead. In Maryland, cider was last popular in Colonial times. Mead never has been. But a new generation of mead and cider makers, with their feet planted firmly in Maryland soil, are rethinking these age-old fermented beverages and introducing them to new audiences. The meads from Orchid Cellar Winery in Middletown and the small-batch cider wines from Millstone Cellars in Monkton are showing up on the shelves of boutique wine and liquor stores. Bartenders are crafting them into cocktails at restaurants like Woodberry Kitchen and Bluegrass . Andrzej Wilk Jr. of Orchid Cellar and Kyle Sherrer of Millstone are the new agers, inspired by and committed to the attitudes about methods and sourcing that have inspired a generation of farm-to-table chefs.

PHOENIX -- When Dale Earnhardt and Rusty Wallace continue their battle for the NASCAR Winston Cup Series championship Sunday at Phoenix International Raceway, Neil Bonnett will be a member of the TNN team describing the action.Next season, Bonnett intends to be on the other end of the cameras in at least six races.The Charlotte Observer learned yesterday that Bonnett is planning a comeback, running a limited schedule of major events including the season-opening Daytona 500, the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte and the inaugural Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

SAN DIEGO -- He is the last golden boy. That's why all of the sentiment is with John Elway. That's why America roots for him in Super Bowl XXXII tonight.There aren't many like him left in sports, or even the real world, for that matter. This is an age when even the president leads a tabloid existence. An age in which athletes spit, make their own laws and generally act like punks.Elway is different.Elway is a throwback to a simpler time.Elway is the football version of Cal Ripken.America loves him because he always plays hard.

SARASOTA, Fla. - Right-hander Jair Jurrjens was hoping to show the Orioles once more what he can do on the mound before the club makes its final roster decisions. A line drive off the bat of Thomas Neal ended Jurrjens' last audition 21 pitches into Wednesday night's Grapefruit League game. The New York Yankees designated hitter smashed a comebacker right at Jurrjens, who instinctively turned to the side and was struck in the right ribs. He immediately left the game, two batters into the second inning.

Baltimore helped the avant-garde painter Max Weber forge a national reputation in 1915. Now, nearly 100 years later, this could be the city where the late artist begins his long-overdue comeback. It's not that critics and curators are unfamiliar with the Russian-born, Brooklyn-raised painter's work. As a new exhibit at the Baltimore Museum of Art makes clear, Weber has long been considered one of the most significant American artists of the 20th century. But, at the peak of his career, Weber was a bona fide celebrity, with spreads in "Time," "Life," "Look" and 'The Saturday Evening Post.