Crowd

Bob Baffert strode into the Preakness stakes barn Friday morning, shouting toward Orb's trainer Shug McGaughey loud enough so all could hear. "OK, Shug, I'm here to take away that media spotlight for you," he said. Baffert, indeed, is one of the few people in the sport who could have swiped some of the attention from McGaughey and his heavily favored colt this week . Baffert has won the Preakness five times, and on three occasions he's moved on to Belmont with a chance at the Triple Crown.

The Ravens have bolstered the talent and depth on their defensive line this offseason with the additions of Chris Canty and Marcus Spears and the selection of big nose tackle Brandon Williams in last month's NFL draft. But with all that shuffling on the defensive line, what role will fourth-year defensive end Arthur Jones have? Among Ravens, only defensive tackle Haloti Ngata played more snaps on the defensive line last season than Jones, who played at least 32 snaps in 14 of the team's final 15 games, including playoffs.

There was a sharp contrast between the two headlining performances at this year's Preakness InfieldFest. Frugal rapper Macklemore, an independent artist with two No. 1 hit singles to his name, won the crowd over Saturday with messages that were positive, compassionate and sometimes just silly. Pitbull, the stoic purveyor of Eurodance-inspired rap-meets-pop, bludgeoned the crowd with rib-cage-shaking bass. And though Macklemore performed to a dry crowd while Pitbull fought through the rain, the results were largely the same, with an approving crowd fist-pumping and dancing.

Maryland Jockey Club President Tom Chuckas said Saturday that the Preakness brand “has changed dramatically” in the last few years, citing an attendance bump in the infield celebration and increased security all around the racetrack.   “The crowd in the infield is up, and the wagers are coming in,” Chuckas said. “All in all, it's pretty much what we expected, and we'll continue to fine-tune it.”   Speaking with reporters just after the seventh race Saturday at Pimlico Race Cource, Chuckas acknowledged that the Jockey Club has sought to find a balance between catering to old-school horse racing fans and drawing in new crowds who could become racing enthusiasts.

He pulled on a Terps visor, to the crowd's delight. He rubbed noses with Gov. Martin O'Malley. And the Dalai Lama was met Tuesday with rounds of applause from a crowd of 15,000 at the University of Maryland, College Park's Comcast Center. "Sit down," the 78-year-old Tibetan spiritual leader said in a firm but friendly voice when he approached the podium and the crowd rose to its feet. "No formality! We are [the] same. … The way we are born, the way we die: no formality. " Clad in red robes and his trademark spectacles, the Dalai Lama appeared at the university to give an address on peace, compassion and fellowship as part of the Anwar Sadat Lecture Series.

Patterson basketball star Aquille Carr is featured in the "Faces in the Crowd" section of this week's issue of Sports Illustrated. The clip in the Jan. 23 issue, out on newsstands now, reads as follows: Aquille, a 5' 7" junior guard at Patterson High, scored 19 points in an 85 - 76 win over Price High (Los Angeles) to earn MVP honors in the feature game of the Brandon Jennings Invitational in Milwaukee. Last season he scored 31.7 points per game in leading the Clippers to their first city championship since 1976 and first regional title, and was named The Sun's All-Metro player of the year and MaxPreps' national sophomore of the year.

Michael Phelps can swim. Michael Phelps can golf. And finally here's a physical activity that Michael Phelps is, frankly, pretty bad at: crowd surfing. The Olympian tried to ride the waves of a crowd the other night at XS nightclub in Las Vegas. The crowd was into it, shouting, "Michael! Michael!" And Phelps was game. But after mere seconds, the ride was over and Phelps was on the floor. Don't worry, reports say he wasn't hurt. Perhaps just a bit embarrassed. Party foul? Or just a chance to find the Bob Bowman of crowd surfing, train and come back in four years.

The Baltimore area has produced another one of Sports Illustrated's "Faces in the Crowd. " Just two weeks after Patterson basketball star Aquille Carr was highlighted in the magazine, former Glenelg track standout Robby Creese is being recognized. Creese, a freshman at Penn State, is one of the athletes included in the Feb. 6 edition of SI. Here's the text from his write-up: Robby Creese Mount Airy, Md. > Track and Field Creese, a freshman at Penn State, ran a 2:19.53 in the 1,000 meters at the Nittany Lions Challenge--in his first individual collegiate appearance--to set American Junior and NCAA records.

Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul stormed through the University of Maryland on Wednesday, delivering his trademark libertarian message of noninterventionism and hands-off government to a wildly enthusiastic crowd of students who chanted his name. Paul told the 1,780 students who packed Ritchie Coliseum on the College Park campus that the government should get out of Afghanistan, repeal the Patriot Act, legalize marijuana and end the Selective Service system — ideas that repeatedly brought the students to their feet.

The Orioles played Friday night's game in front of an announced crowd of 29,270 -- about 2,600 more than Baltimore's average 2012 attendance. The crowd was one of the loudest of the season, and the Orioles, especially manager Buck Showalter, noticed. "They were instrumental in that motion in the ballpark, especially this time of year when it's so draining physically," Showalter said. "It's uplifting. Don't think our players don't hear it and don't feel it. " Camden Yards was rocking on Friday night for a variety of reasons -- it could have been that the game had four lead changes and was back and forth in the late innings, or that it was fireworks night, or that the team handed out bucket hats before the game.

There was a sharp contrast between the two headlining performances at this year's Preakness InfieldFest. Frugal rapper Macklemore, an independent artist with two No. 1 hit singles to his name, won the crowd over Saturday with messages that were positive, compassionate and sometimes just silly. Pitbull, the stoic purveyor of Eurodance-inspired rap-meets-pop, bludgeoned the crowd with rib-cage-shaking bass. And though Macklemore performed to a dry crowd while Pitbull fought through the rain, the results were largely the same, with an approving crowd fist-pumping and dancing.

Republicans like Rep. Darrell Issa and Bob Ehrlich must be getting pretty desperate trying to make a big deal about an Obama cover up on Benghazi ("Benghazi: The Obama spin continues," May 12). What is known is that a murderous crowd attacked the U.S. consulate and killed our ambassador and three other Americans. Whether there may have been al-Qaida thugs in the crowd or not appears to be a distinction without meaning. It seems ironic that the same crowd that dragged us into an unnecessary war in Iraq based on non existent WMD are now making a big deal out of a contrived issue.

For five days ending Sunday, thousands of film fans and scores of filmmakers watched movies together at the 15th Maryland Film Festival. From three-minute comedic shorts promoting horror films to gripping documentaries about the rise of Napster and cutting-edge narrative features about the relationship between a teacher and one of her students, the festival offered local cineastes the chance to lose themselves in the boundless possibilities of film....

Over the last couple of weeks, the Ravens have added and retained seven offensive linemen, further complicating what figures to be one of the more competitive -- if not interesting -- position battles in training camp. They drafted Wisconsin tackle Rick Wagner in the fifth round and Ryan Jensen , a tackle from Colorado State University-Pueblo, in the sixth. Immediately after the draft, they agreed to undrafted free agent deals with tackles Jordan Devey (Memphis), Rogers Gaines (Tennessee State)

He pulled on a Terps visor, to the crowd's delight. He rubbed noses with Gov. Martin O'Malley. And the Dalai Lama was met Tuesday with rounds of applause from a crowd of 15,000 at the University of Maryland, College Park's Comcast Center. "Sit down," the 78-year-old Tibetan spiritual leader said in a firm but friendly voice when he approached the podium and the crowd rose to its feet. "No formality! We are [the] same. … The way we are born, the way we die: no formality. " Clad in red robes and his trademark spectacles, the Dalai Lama appeared at the university to give an address on peace, compassion and fellowship as part of the Anwar Sadat Lecture Series.

First things first: Grantland has a terrific look-back at Hunter S. Thompson's "The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved. " I always start the Derby primer with a link to this story -- and by always, I mean I also did it last year -- and this adds even more context to how the story came about. A very popular question I receive from fellow Baltimoreans upon my return to our fair city by the bay is: How does the Derby compare to Preakness? The answer I ended up giving usually went something like this: The Preakness debauchery seems to be compressed into one day and in one spot, the infield, where once upon a time people ran across the portable toilets for sport.

Visitors began arriving at 8:30 a.m. yesterday and stayed well into the evening for the final day of the 20th annual Art scape music and arts festival. Lured by perfect weather and such performers as Ray Charles and salsa superstar Ruben Blades, more than 565,000 people showed up yes terday at the Mount Royal cul tural corridor, organizers said. With an estimated 350,000 peo ple on hand Friday and 750,000 on Saturday, crowds exceeded past highs of 1.5 million people. (Article, Page 1e)

The orange rally towels turned to white. Another capacity crowd filled Camden Yards -- and endured another rain delay. But this time the Orioles rewarded their home crowd with a win, a 3-2 victory over the Yankees that tied the American League Division Series at 1 game apiece as the series heads to Yankee Stadium. The win was monumental for the Orioles' postseason hopes - especially since the O's have won six of nine games in the Bronx this season - but giving their home crowd something to celebrate was also a huge victory.

More than 100 gloved volunteers, some in boots and others in waist-high waders, streamed along narrow paths and historic sea walls Saturday in a secluded nook of wetlands just south of Fort McHenry, their eyes scanning for trash or the perfect spot to plant a sapling. The volunteer cleanup and tree-planting event mostly centered on collecting garbage and removing large pieces of driftwood smothering growth areas for grasses. But from time to time, a more novel item turned up. "Here's a tennis ball," said Gail Hoffer, 48, a volunteer from Elkridge, who decided to join the cleanup after getting an email about it from the National Aquarium in Baltimore , where she's a member.

There has been much hue and cry in recent days about the General Assembly approving a "rain tax" this year that is punitive, anti-commerce and unnecessary. What's truly remarkable about these protestations is how none of the underlying claims are true. Rather, this may be a lesson in the perils of approving a policy at the state level but leaving the business of carrying it out to local government. It's far easier for county elected leaders to point a finger at Annapolis than to actually educate themselves on an issue - let alone try to explain why a tax is so clearly in their constituents' self-interest.