Hall Of Fame

When it comes to towering cultural icons, the difference between Baltimore's lineup and Nashville's is like the difference between the varsity and JV. NASHVILLE Dolly Parton Overly chesty country artist whose warbling "mountain soprano" irritates again on her latest CD, Backwoods Barbie. Elvis Presley Bloated, pelvis-thrusting King of Rock 'n' Roll toppled by addiction to barbiturates and Sara Lee products. Jack Daniel Possibly unstable founder of Jack Daniel's whiskey distillery who died of massive toe infection after kicking a safe in anger when it wouldn't open.

Wasn't exactly a stretch of the imagination to predict Rickey Henderson and Jim Rice would make it into the Hall of Fame. Rickey was a no-brainer, and Rice's status as a borderline candidate probably had something to do with his horrible relationship with the baseball media. ( For more, go to baltimoresun.com/schmuckblog)

Obama campaign manager gets seven-figure book deal David Plouffe, President Barack Obama's campaign manager, has agreed to a seven-figure deal to write a book about last year's presidential election. The Audacity to Win: The Inside Story and Lessons of Barack Obama's Historic Victory will be published by Viking, an imprint of Penguin Group, next fall. Interest was strong for Plouffe's book. His literary representative told the Associated Press that 17 imprints (some within the same publishing house)

Come Monday - as Jimmy Buffett once sang - either Kurt Warner or Ben Roethlisberger will be the proud owner of two Super Bowl rings. And because we live in a media culture that demands everything must be instantly analyzed as if the future of civilization depends on it, you're going to hear a lot of talk about how the winner has likely earned himself a bust in the Hall of Fame. Don't believe the hype. In Roethlisberger's case, it's simply too early to make any kind of judgment about his career.

Hall of Fame president Dale Petrovsky opened yesterday's ceremony by relaying the news that an all-time record high of 717,000 fans attended major league games Saturday. That dovetailed nicely with the fact that the Hall of Fame also set a single-day attendance record with 14,000 visitors Saturday and set an attendance record at the induction ceremony with an estimated crowd of 75,000.

Ripken elected to Hall of Fame Orioles great Cal Ripken Jr., who played in 2,632 consecutive games and had more than 3,000 hits and 400 home runs, was elected by the Baseball Writers' Association of America to the Hall of Fame with the third-highest vote percentage in history. Dixon cleared in ethics probe Baltimore's Board of Ethics cleared City Council President Sheila Dixon of wrongdoing, nearly a year after beginning an inquiry into whether she used her influence to direct city money to a company that employed her sister.

MIAMI -- Well, at least Paul Tagliabue didn't get into the Hall of Fame. That would have been the ultimate compound insult. The Indianapolis Colts in the Super Bowl. The Museum Man in Canton. The official reaction from Baltimore would have been a collective dry heave. Tagliabue didn't get past the first vote, which has to be some consolation for all the disenfranchised Baltimore Colts fans who hold him responsible for the expansion snub of 1993. Who knows how responsible he really was, but his cavalier statement that the city would be better off using its expansion money to build another museum still rankles after all these years.

Hall of fame -- The 11th Howard County Women's Athletics Hall of Fame game and induction ceremony will be held Saturday at Atholton High School in Columbia. Inductees are Tierney Clark Ahearn, Sylvia Groomes, Kisha Jett and Genny O'Donnell Kozusko. The event, which is sponsored by Patuxent Publishing, will be held between the alumnae basketball game, which starts at 5 p.m., and the Centennial vs. Atholton girls varsity basketball game, which starts at 7 p.m. There is a charge for admission; proceeds will go to the Women's Giving Circle.

Honey dripped from the tongues of baseball greats yesterday as they praised this year's Hall of Fame inductees, Cal Ripken Jr. and Tony Gwynn, for their skills with bat and glove. But their skills on fairways and greens? Well, not so much. The rain that had hit Cooperstown for two days cleared just in time for 27 Hall of Famers and two inductees to play in an annual golf tournament yesterday morning. Ripken and Gwynn played but, by their own admission, not at an expert level. They left that to Robin Yount, Mike Schmidt and a few others.

The man who never flinched in the batter's box during his 20 seasons in the majors, who never lost his composure under the most trying of circumstances, had a natural reaction yesterday when informed by phone that he was elected to baseball's Hall of Fame in his first year on the ballot. Tony Gwynn broke down and wept. Smooth swing, raw emotions. "For the last five years, I kind of thought what that call was going to be like," Gwynn said. "When I heard, `Congratulations, you made the Hall of Fame,' I lost it. I just could not imagine the feeling that you were going to get. It was elation, it was thinking about my father, my family, thinking about all the hard work you put into it. "I thought what I did was going to be worthy, but until you actually hear it and those words come out ... I just lost it."

He wasn't much to look at - a slender, 6-foot-3 guard with knobby knees, creaky hips and elbows that looked as if they had been run through a pencil sharpener. But, oh, could Earl Monroe play basketball. For four years, Monroe wowed the crowds in Baltimore with circus shots, between-the-legs dribbles and no-look passes. "God couldn't go one-on-one with Earl Monroe," former Bullet Ray Scott once said of his Hall of Fame teammate. From the time Monroe hit town as a rookie in 1967, the Civic Center was his juke joint.

As the Ravens' offense continues to surprise, here's a twist no one expected before this season: Heading into their Week 4 showdown at New England, the Ravens have a higher-ranked offense than the Patriots. Scoring more than 30 points in their first three games of the season - the first time that has happened in team history - the Ravens lead the AFC in total yards per game (430.3) and points scored per game (34.3). Tom Brady and the Patriots are ranked two spots lower than the Ravens and have scored 43 fewer points.

CHICAGO - -Hall of Famers don't ride buses. They don't carry their own bags and they don't look forward to post-game meals from restaurants like Shoney's and Arby's. They don't do those things often, anyway. But Ryne Sandberg has. He has managed in the Cubs' farm system for three years, including a trip to the championship series of the Double-A Southern League this season, and has positioned himself to become the first Hall of Fame player in more than 30 years to get a chance to manage in the major leagues.

News item: : Orioles rookie Brian Matusz was shut down this week after delivering an impressive last performance of 2009 against the Yankees in New York. My take: : It was the right move for all the right reasons. Matusz went 16-4 with a 2.68 ERA at three organizational levels in his first professional season. Might want to save some of that for later. News item: : Rookie Matt Wieters drove in nine runs in the Orioles' four-game series against the Tampa Bay Rays. My take: : That should quiet the Wieters-is-a-bust bunch for a while, but I'm even more impressed with the adjustments he has made behind the plate.

News item: : The Ravens open the season Sunday at M&T Bank Stadium as a 13-point favorite over the Kansas City Chiefs - equaling the biggest spread of any Week 1 matchup. My take: : That kind of on-paper mismatch usually scares the heck out of me, but it's hard to work up much anxiety about a team that fired its offensive coordinator two weeks before facing one of the best defensive teams in the NFL. Related news item: : The Chiefs were 2-14 last year and are getting little respect from the preseason pundits, which means they might be coming to Baltimore with a chip on their shoulder.

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - -Humble and reflective earlier in the day, Michael Jordan showed once again Friday night why his competitive fire never will be extinguished as he officially entered the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. Jordan basically trash-talked his way through his acceptance speech, thanking all those slights - real and perceived - for adding "wood to the fire" and motivating him during his unparalleled career. He then closed with a tantalizing thought. "One time you might look up and see me playing the game at 50," Jordan said, drawing chuckles.

Orioles left fielder Felix Pie's cleats are going to Cooperstown. And he hopes to visit them this offseason as part of the Baseball Hall of Fame's exhibit on players hitting for the cycle. "I'm excited, happy. I never knew that anything was going to happen in my life like that," said Pie, who has not stepped foot in the Hall of Fame. "I'll go check it out this year." On Friday night, Pie became the fourth player in franchise history - and the seventh major leaguer this season - to hit for the cycle, joining teammate Aubrey Huff and Orioles Hall of Famers Brooks Robinson and Cal Ripken Jr. Pie, who has played sparingly this season, doubled in the first, homered in the third and singled and tripled in the seventh.

In April, the Ravens acquired one the best bargains of the NFL draft in Lardarius Webb. Webb, a third-round pick out of Nicholls State, has proved he is one of the best athletes on the team. He could save the Ravens two spots on the final roster because he can play safety and cornerback and return kicks. In camp, Webb has done them all pretty well. "He might end up filling several roles on the field, and that wouldn't surprise me," Ravens coach John Harbaugh said recently. He might eventually become the Ravens' shutdown cornerback.

Arundel baseball coach Bernie Walter, who holds state public school records with 609 wins and 10 state titles, has stepped down after 36 years. Walter recently informed Arundel athletic director Lee Rogers of his decision, ending the finest high school baseball coaching career in the state of Maryland. "I talked it over with my wife [Barbara], and we decided that it was a good time to do this. We've been there quite awhile, and there wasn't a whole lot more we could do," Walter, 66, said.

Barring a change of mind by voters, former Ravens quarterback Steve McNair will not be enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. In The Baltimore Sun's poll of selectors this week, the three-time Pro Bowl player would fail to gain the 80 percent approval needed for election. Seventeen of the 24 voters who responded to The Sun - the committee has 44 members - said they did not consider McNair a Hall of Fame quarterback because he lacked elite career numbers. McNair, who was shot and killed Saturday, is eligible for the Hall of Fame in 2013.