Crab

Paul Blair remembers Dave May, who broke into baseball with the Orioles and spent 3-1/2 seasons here, as a skilled outfielder who was in the right place, but at the wrong time. "Unfortunately, when he got here (in 1967), there wasn't any room for him to play. He just couldn't break into our lineup," said Blair, the Orioles standout center fielder who was flanked by Frank Robinson and Don Buford. May died Saturday of cancer. The New Castle, Del., native was 68. A reserve with the Orioles, he hit .216 before being dealt to Milwaukee in mid-1970.

Former two-sport standout and current NFL Network analyst Deion Sanders, in town for Thursday night's Ravens home game against Cleveland, stopped by Oriole Park at Camden Yards to take batting practice with the Orioles. Some players got a kick out of it -- left-hander Troy Patton asked Sanders for his autograph -- and Orioles manager Buck Showalter, who was Sanders' manager with the Double-A Albany-Colonie Yankees in 1989, reminisced about Sanders' athletic ability, saying that watching Sanders leg out a triple is "still one of the prettiest things I've ever seen.

For now, Michael Phelps is doing what any 27-year-old who has won more medals than any Olympian ever - and earned millions along the way - would probably do. Vacation a little bit. (You've probably seen pictures of him in Las Vegas and the Maldives .) Golf. (Of course, his golf game is the subject of a reality television show.) Date a model. ( You've read all about Megan Rossee by now.) And, because he's from Baltimore, eat crabs. “Pretty much I'm just living the retirement life,” Phelps said Monday after a ceremony/pep rally at Under Armour headquarters.

It's hard work catching soft crabs, a fickle livelihood in an increasingly precarious part of the world. Starting before sunup, Smith Island waterman Mark Kitching spends hours repeatedly "scraping" the submerged grass beds that grow abundantly around his home in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay. On a recent morning, he's commuted 45 minutes through the pre-dawn darkness to work north of Holland Straits some 13 miles away. The Cummins diesel engine in his work boat, Miss Anita, provides the power to drag a pair of nets through thick grass beds where Kitching hopes to find soft crabs and "peelers," those young crabs about to shed their shells and form larger new ones.

Ever even conceive of a 300-pound crab cake? The folks at Handy International did -- breaking their own record for World's Largest Crab Cake and serving it up to attendees of the Maryland State Fair Saturday. What goes into a 300-pound crab cake? 200 pounds of crab meat, as well as eggs, breading and seasoning. Handy Seafood's Jim Cupp designed a rotisserie-style cooker to complete the challenge. It took 8 hours for the massive crab cake to cook, and it was weighed at noon. Sandwiches from the record-setting cake were sold, benefitting the Maryland 4-H Foundation. 

Even as the dining room of Ross' Crab House filled up with smoke, Cindy Reidnauer kept a clear head. Reidnauer oversaw the evacuation Sunday night of six staff members and 15 customers — including a senior citizen confined to a wheelchair — after a two-alarm fire destroyed the popular Dundalk seafood restaurant. "I yelled, 'Everybody out,'" said Reidnauer, who manages the crab house at 1109 North Point Road. "We had an elderly woman who can't walk and some of our customers pulled together to carry her out. I'm just so grateful that everyone got out safely.

Marylanders looking to pile their picnic tables with crabs for one last send-off to summer this Labor Day will likely have to do so with a less-than-jumbo variety of the state's favorite crustacean, thanks to Hurricane Isaac. The storm that tore through Louisiana last week did significant damage to Gulf Coast docks and roads, disrupting a regular supply to Maryland — and elsewhere — of the jumbo and large crabs that, for a variety of reasons, aren't being harvested locally this season.

Eat Maryland crab meat and win a prize. Throughout September, diners who eat at restaurants participating in Maryland's True Blue program can win a pair of tickets to the Mermaid's Kiss Oyster Fest, an after-hours celebration of Maryland seafood on Oct. 3 at the National Aquarium in Baltimore . Launched this spring by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, the True Blue program allows restaurants serving DNR-verified Maryland blue...

A two-alarm fire gutted Ross' Crab House in Dundalk on Sunday night, according to a Baltimore County Fire Department spokesman. An employee of the family-owned restaurant in the 1100 block of North Point Road noticed smoke coming from the basement about 7:25 p.m. and alerted five other employees and about 15 customers, who all evacuated the building, said Lt. Jay Ringgold, the spokesman. A fire engine out of the Wise Avenue Volunteer Fire Company that happened to be nearby responded almost immediately, and firefighters entered the building and found heavy fire in the basement that was hard to reach, Ringgold said.

Phillips Crab Deck is now open in Annapolis. The 140-seat terrace restaurant, which opened very quietly Aug. 16, marks the return of Phillips to Annapolis - in the same Dock Street location it left in 2009. It was replaced there by Hell Point Seafood , which shut its doors in late February. Phillips Crab Deck, which is open daily for lunch and dinner beginning at 11:30 a.m., occupies only one of three buildings - 14 Dock St. - that used to house Phillips Annapolis Harbor Restaurant and then Hell Point Seafood.