Crowd

Ravens officials said Thursday they won't extend an open invitation to fans again without first passing out free tickets, after this week's Super Bowl celebration at M&T Bank Stadium where larger-than-expected crowds amassed and an 11-year-old boy was trampled. Tiffany Hodge said she brought her son to the stadium from East Baltimore with hopes that he could see his hero, running back Ray Rice, but an unruly crowd overwhelmed them and both were knocked unconscious. She said her son, Tyrek, suffered a concussion, an injury to his eye, and still has a swollen face.

The Maryland Transit Administration is experiencing "massive delays" on local bus lines and the light rail system, a result of thousands of football fans attending the Baltimore Ravens parade and breaking through barricades controlling their routes through the city. "We put every available resource we had out on the system today, and the crowds were simply larger than the system could accommodate in the short time frame in which people were attempting to ride," said Terry Owens, a MTA spokesman.

The Dark Horse Saloon on Main Street in Bel Air kept the Baltimore Ravens love coming again on Sunday afternoon. Jacoby Jones, the Ravens star kick returner and wide receiver, arrived at the Dark Horse to meet an appreciative crowd of Harford County fans. Jones, one of the heroes of Baltimore's pulsating 38-35 overtime win over the Broncos in Denver in the Divisional Round of the NFL playoffs, signed autographs for a couple hours for fans of all ages. Ravens linebacker Paul Kruger visited the Dark Horse Friday night, when he also signed autographs.

Dale Capuano winced at the sight of the 10 or so people watching the horse race at Laurel Park as he walked from the paddock into the 3,000-seat grandstand. Most were familiar faces. Out on the track, his filly, Calcutta Cat, reeled from a rough break — the horse next to her veered left sharply coming out of the gate — and finished sixth of eight horses. She was the only Maryland-bred horse in the race. Only 19 of the 80 horses entered in races that day had been foaled in Maryland.

Shortly after it was clear the Ravens were headed for the Super Bowl, the massive crowds that had made it to Federal Hill bars poured into the street to celebrate. They jumped up and down, cried, screamed in joy. Strangers hugged strangers, and couples kissed in the middle of the throng. A few people crowd-surfed, and one man climbed into a tree. "Super Bowl, Super Bowl," was the chant. The crowd, estimated in the hundreds, primarily congregated on South Charles Street, outside Mother's Federal Hill Grille and Mad River Bar & Grille.

The Orioles' annual FanFest at the Baltimore Convention Center emits a festival atmosphere, complete with face-painting and bingo corner. Held just weeks before spring training begins, it springs the baseball season into motion. Players come to town to sign autographs and pose for photos. Even in the darkest years, optimism and excitement rules the day. But while Saturday's announced crowd of more than 18,500 marked a single-day FanFest record - the event used to run over two days in the 1990s - the day revolved around remembering Earl Weaver, the Orioles' Hall of Fame manager who died late Friday night at the age of 82. Wearing his custom-made Earl Weaver jersey, lifelong Orioles fan Rick Gaetano made the three-hour drive to Baltimore from his home in Mountain Top, Pa., on Saturday morning to attend FanFest when he received a text message from his wife and learned of Weaver's death.

Outspoken Del. Patrick L. McDonough outlined his plans for tough penalties for gun crimes as firearms owners gathered at a Bel Air shooting range as part of a national series of events to push back against proposed gun control measures. "What I'm mad as hell about is they want to take our Second Amendment rights away, but they don't care about people who are really committing the crimes," McDonough said of people proposing new gun laws. He was speaking at the Horst & McCann indoor gun range in Bel Air as part of a series of events dubbed "Gun Appreciation Day," by a Republican political consultant, and staged as a protest against new gun laws that President Barack Obama and governors including Martin O'Malley have proposed in the wake of the mass shooting at a Connecticut elementary school.

After a tragedy like the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in Newtown, Conn., the injection of anything short of seriousness into the subsequent public discourse about guns is touchy. But the National Rifle Association blasted numerous rounds into that particular barrier with NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre's mouth. The organization's hysteric solution to gun violence in America is to put designated sitting ducks - er, "armed police officers" - in every American school.

When 2 a.m. came Friday, the sound of coins hitting metal — electronically replicated, of course, since the slot machines pay out with a printed ticket — continued at Maryland Live casino. About 1,000 people stayed where they were, plugging money into the video terminals and ordering drinks. Terry Cohen of Randallstown was there to celebrate the new schedule that will keep the casino open 24 hours a day. "There's nothing to do around here at night," she said. "The town shuts down.

I find John Franchy's letter on the subject of gun control astounding ("More restrictive gun laws are not the answer," Dec. 20). I put it in my category of letters to the editor which I call "We have met the enemy, and it is us. " Mr. Franchy tells us he and other Americans have the right to bear arms - of any kind, apparently - in order to protect him and us from overbearing government and by implication other Americans. He says nothing about owning firearms for hunting or target practice.