Darren

This time last year, Darren O'Day was fighting for a roster spot in Orioles spring training - every outing precious, every impression critical - as he tried to salvage his big-league career. After a stellar 2012 season in which he was the team's most consistent reliever, O'Day - a quirky, light-hearted side-armer - was rewarded with a two-year contract from the Orioles with a third-year club option, the team announced on Monday. It's the peak of a remarkable 15-month ascension for the 30-year-old O'Day.

In searching for a standout football moment involving himself and his brother Darren, Jamie Sharper remembers the hit that did not happen. It was back in college when Jamie, older by a year, was at Virginia, and Darren was at William & Mary. Darren was returning a punt down the sideline when he came face-to-face with Jamie, a key member of the Cavaliers' punt team. "He jumped out of bounds right before I had a chance to hit him," Jamie Sharper, 26, said. "Then he started talking junk.

Maximillian Cohen is a man on the verge of a nervous breakdown.A mathematician by trade, Max (Sean Gullette) is obsessed by numbers -- their beauty, their logic and their ineluctable hold over our lives and the natural world.Max is also convinced that by using numbers theory -- specifically, by figuring out the mysteries of pi, a number with an infinite amount of integers -- he can crack the stock market. Max's days are spent seeing patterns in otherwise random events, whether he's reducing the leaves of a tree to a series ofelegant theorems or charting recurring symbols on the New York Times financial pages.

Darren O'Day doesn't just transcend the dumb-jock stereotype. He shatters it into tiny pieces. He scored high enough on his entrance exam to get into medical school. Scored high enough on another entrance exam to get into law school. But right now he's too content with his gig as a quietly effective side-arm reliever for the Orioles to think about doing anything else. "I knew I wanted to play baseball," the 29-year-old right-hander says now. "You can't give up that opportunity for anything.

The Orioles have, for all intents and purposes, completed deals with all of their arbitration-eligible players, agreeing to terms Saturday afternoon with the final one, right-handed reliever Darren O'Day on a two-year extension worth a guaranteed $5.8 million. The Orioles said the deal is not yet completed, but they are nearing a multiyear extension with O'Day, who was 7-1 with a 2.28 ERA in 69 games last year. “It is something he asked us to explore during the course of negotiations for a one-year deal and we are taking a look at it ... and there is work to be done,” Orioles executive vice president Dan Duquette said.

Hamilton Tiger-Cats wide receiver Darren Flutie can't remember how many times he's been told he's too small to play in the National Football League.After a dominating season as the Canadian Football League's top receiver, Flutie probably will receive some offers south of the border, several NFL scouts said.The 33-year-old Flutie, whose older brother, Doug, is quarterbacking the Buffalo Bills after eight seasons starring in Canada, said he hopes to hear from NFL clubs when they're allowed to begin negotiating with CFL players on Dec. 5. NFL teams can't sign CFL players until Jan. 4."

Police arrested a 22-year-old man in the stabbing of another man during a fight in a gas station in Reisterstown. Darren Jay Burke, who has no fixed address, was picked up Thursday in Baltimore after last-month's assault of a 20-year-old man at a Shell station in the 11900 block of Reisterstown Road. On Oct. 12, Baltimore County police obtained an arrest warrant for Burke, whom they had been unable to find for questioning, and issued a public appeal for help in tracking him down.

Growing up in Richmond, Va., Darren Sharper carried on endless rivalries with his older brother, Jamie. The trash-talking debate after recreational football games typically centered on who scored the most touchdowns. During the winter, the argument shifted to who would score the most points on the basketball court.Tomorrow at Lambeau Field, Darren plans to welcome Jamie and at least 15 friends and family members into his new home. No house-warming gifts will be necessary, although more talk promises to break out on the field.

Darren Artuso has been a presence on the sideline for the Loyola men's lacrosse team for years. Yet the 27-year-old son of Joe - the university's assistant athletic director and sports medicine director - and Gretchen Artuso became nationally known via ESPN for his on-screen bear hug of coach Charley Toomey after the top-seeded Greyhounds defeated Maryland, 9-3, in the NCAA tournament final on Memorial Day. Matt Palmer, formerly of The Baltimore...

There's the comic strip, TV and movie character Batman and there's the Batman that stars on the Archbishop Spalding football team.Darren "Batman" Johnson, a muscular 6-foot-3, 175-pound junior, has become an impact player at running back and linebacker in Spalding's quest of two consecutive winning seasons.The Batman moniker was put on Johnson when he was an 8-year-old playing youth football for the Severn Athletic Club. It has stuck while would-be tacklers have not.His shifty, slippery, power running along with his bone rattling tackles have made the 4-2 Cavaliers' highlights film practically every week this season.