Exhibition Season

Scott Zolak is good at playing the waiting game.The fourth-round pick of the New England Patriots out of Maryland in 1991, Zolak is in his seventh year with the team and has started only five games.As Drew Bledsoe's backup, he won't start as long as Bledsoe is healthy. Last year, he threw just one pass. In 1993 he threw two, and in 1994, eight.The only time he got much work was in 1992 when he threw 100 passes and in 1995 when he threw 49. Last year, he even lost the holder's job to punter Tom Tupa.

Buck Showalter laid out the perfect spring training scenario as soon as the Orioles reported to the newly renovated Ed Smith Stadium complex six weeks ago, and it didn't call for his club to win all 32 of its Grapefruit League games. He was looking for the O's to be right around .500 when they closed out the exhibition season — which they did on Tuesday — and that's just where they ended up. They lost to the Toronto Blue Jays, 7-4, to finish with a 15-15-2 record. Can't get more .500 than that.

There probably weren't too many words or tears or anything else overtly shared by Mike Peplowski and Bobby Hurley when the Sacramento Kings released Peplowski recently to meet the 12-man roster limit.Thanks to what happened on a dark stretch of highway outside the Kings' arena 11 months ago, they have something in common -- a bond that allows them to communicate whole sentences in a split-second glance and a true perspective on the insignificance of something like having to look for another NBA job."

The Orioles on Tuesday announced their 2010 spring training schedule, which will open March 3 against the Tampa Bay Rays at Ed Smith Stadium in Sarasota, Fla. After 14 years in Fort Lauderdale, the club is training in Sarasota for the first time since 1995 and will play 16 home games in 2010 at their new spring facility. The team's first workout for pitchers and catchers is Feb. 18 and the first full-squad workout will be Feb. 23. All workouts prior to the start of exhibition games are free and open to the public.

Can the Broncos get quality quarterback play from Bubby Brister or Brian Griese? Do the Jaguars have enough defense to get to the Super Bowl? Will the Vikings' dominating offense pick up where it left off last season?Those are several of the major questions on the NFL's table as another season kicks off this weekend. But every question pales next to the gigantic one everyone was asking during the exhibition season:What, exactly, are the referees watching in those instant replay booths on the sideline?

Highlights and lowlights from the Orioles' 4-0 loss to the New York Mets yesterday in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.Ups and downsUP: Eric Davis. His stiff back didn't prevent him from getting a base hit in the first inning and trying to steal second. He closed out the Florida portion of the exhibition season with a .360 batting average and 16 RBIs.DOWN: Jimmy Key. The left-hander got dinked to death in the second inning and gave up some hard-hit balls in the third and fourth on the way to his first loss of the exhibition season.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- The best way to judge the exhibition season is to check the injury report.By that criteria, the Ravens' practice season was a smashing success.They got out of it with only one potential starter, guard Sale Isaia, lost for the season.That's much more important than the 4-0 record they completed with a boring 14-6 victory over the New York Giants last night.This one was even more meaningless than most exhibition games because the starters played barely more than a quarter and the two teams were scoreless in the first half.

The Orioles are beginning to filter into Florida, where the club soon will begin preparing for its most promising season in a decade. Today is the reporting date for pitchers and catchers, but they aren't really required to be in camp until the club opens early workouts tomorrow at Twin Lakes Park.That's when manager Johnny Oates will welcome a pitching staff with a decidedly different look from the one that closed the 1993 season. Newly acquired left-hander Sid Fernandez is expected to join his new teammates.

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Jay Graham made his fourth straight start in the Ravens' 14-6 exhibition victory over the Giants last night.Time's up.Errict Rhett, not Graham, should start at halfback when the Ravens open the regular season against the Steelers in eight days.Rhett is more experienced, more accomplished, and had a much better preseason.It's an obvious call, a no-brainer, but Ravens coach Ted Marchibroda said after last night's game that Graham would start against the Steelers.Huh?

Granted, there's a whole exhibition season and seven weeks of the regular season to get through before the Ravens head to Pittsburgh for their first meeting of the season and the resumption of one of the NFL's best rivalries. But frankly, we thought you would need the whole three months to let the laughter subside once you heard the name our Steel City neighbors selected for their new mascot - after a contest, no less. Try Steely McBeam. We're not kidding. Steely McBeam. That name actually won a contest and got a grandmother a VIP package of a throwback helmet and jersey, and tickets to the Pittsburgh Steelers' Sept.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- The Orioles wrapped up their workout portion of spring training yesterday with the same number of questions that existed when pitchers and catchers arrived two weeks ago. They haven't settled on a fifth starter or a starting shortstop. They have vacancies in the bullpen and on the bench. All-Star second baseman Brian Roberts still could be traded, and one of their best pitchers, Adam Loewen, still needs to prove that he has recovered from serious elbow surgery and is ready to become a middle-of-the-rotation starter.

Granted, there's a whole exhibition season and seven weeks of the regular season to get through before the Ravens head to Pittsburgh for their first meeting of the season and the resumption of one of the NFL's best rivalries. But frankly, we thought you would need the whole three months to let the laughter subside once you heard the name our Steel City neighbors selected for their new mascot - after a contest, no less. Try Steely McBeam. We're not kidding. Steely McBeam. That name actually won a contest and got a grandmother a VIP package of a throwback helmet and jersey, and tickets to the Pittsburgh Steelers' Sept.

In the late innings of Friday night's exhibition game at RFK Stadium, Miguel Tejada gave way to a pinch runner and passed manager Sam Perlozzo on the way back into the dugout. "Feel better now?" Tejada asked. If he only knew. The Orioles have been fretting about their superstar shortstop since his disenchantment with the front office became a major offseason issue four months ago, and that concern clearly intensified as Tejada struggled through the final weeks of spring training. His poor performance at the plate and uncharacteristic behavior had club officials searching for answers and pondering the same contingencies that they considered when Tejada began talking about a change of scenery.

JUPITER, Fla. -- Guess I picked the wrong 10-day period to evaluate the ballclub. Orioles manager Sam Perlozzo is understandably excited about the prospect of getting back several of his top players as the World Baseball Classic draws to a close, but I'm going to have to be content in the knowledge that Brandon Fahey is going to be a pretty good player as soon as he gets out of middle school. I've never been known for my great sense of timing, so no one should be surprised that I arrived in Florida right after about half the Orioles' projected 25-man roster headed out to compete in baseball's version of the World Cup. Now, I'm headed home just as most of them are filtering back into camp.

Fantasy baseball players, I give you a simple task: Ignore most of what you see and hear from baseball writers over the next six weeks. OK, so I'm overstating to get at a more general point. Come November, passionate baseball fans begin counting the days to that glorious February morning when pitchers and catchers report. By the time we reach that day, which arrives later this week, we're incredibly thirsty for new baseball content. Baseball writers are equally eager to shovel new material our way. So every little happening in spring training is magnified.

COLLEGE PARK -- It didn't count for anything, but the Maryland men's basketball players agreed yesterday's 90-59 win over St. Francis Xavier definitely meant something. It meant the long-awaited, emotional return of junior guard D.J. Strawberry, who missed the final 18 games of last season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament. It was assurance that the Terps can score, as five players reached double digits, and 48 points were generated from the bench. And it was a reminder that their defense still needs work if Maryland is going to contain some of the top teams in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Mike Devereaux came to spring training with a sprained ankle, and things went downhill from there. First, he was moved from center field to right. Then, in the first inning of the exhibition season opener, he ran face-first into a chain-link fence while chasing a fly ball, a mishap that earned him several stitches.Baltimore manager Johnny Oates' outfield experiment -- he also temporarily shifted Brady Anderson from left to center and Jeffrey Hammonds from right to left -- has long been abandoned.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Orioles right fielder Chito Martinez should be enjoying his first spring as an established major-league player, but it isn't working out that way.He came into training camp with a place on the 25-man roster locked up, but a bum shoulder and a lingering offensive slump have left him worried about his place on the team."

COLLEGE PARK - The early returns have been mainly positive for the Maryland basketball team. Junior forward Nik Caner-Medley is visibly stronger and seems to have rediscovered the confidence that was missing toward the end of last season. The Terps' best defender, D.J. Strawberry, has been lauded for his offense. Mike Jones, the team's purest shooter, has earned some praise for his defense. And the team's stable of post players, the group that many believe will control the Terps' fate this season, is said to be making strides.

The Cincinnati Reds scored three times off Orioles minor league pitcher Rodney Ormand in the fourth inning to break a 2-2 tie and close out the exhibition season with their 18th victory yesterday, 5-3. Orioles left-hander Matt Riley allowed two runs (one earned) on two hits over the first three innings before manager Lee Mazzilli turned the game over to four relief pitchers. The Orioles scored twice in the third on RBI doubles by Brian Roberts and Melvin Mora, then added a run in the seventh on a double by infielder Jose Bautista.