Hamlin

Hamlin needs earplugs George Diaz Orlando Sentinel Denny Hamlin has the car. He has the speed. He has the skills. The only question is whether he has tone-deaf hearing. That's what it's going to take to win a NASCAR Cup Championship on Sunday in Homestead. Hamlin is going to have to block out the pesky voice in his head. The voice belongs to Jimmie Johnson. For days now, Johnson has been taking jabs at Hamlin, making sure he feels the pressure of trying to hang on to a 15-point lead.

While a pair of NASCAR championship contenders emerged Sunday in the Busch brothers, two took yet another hit in their seasons filled with highs and lows. In fact, they were the only two anyone talked about before the season began — Jimmie Johnson and Denny Hamlin. They got together early in the race when Johnson's car swung down the track into Hamlin's way. Hamlin drove through the grass, sparks flew out of his car and his night stalled. "I was either going to clobber him in the left rear or have to go through the grass," Hamlin said.

The Ravens added their "safety" net on defense by agreeing to a one-year deal with Ken Hamlin on Thursday. Hamlin, 29, provides injury insurance for Pro Bowl safety Ed Reed, who isn't expected to be ready for training camp after having a hip procedure last month. Known as a hard hitter and "a quarterback in the secondary," Hamlin impressed the Ravens in his tryout last week, which came two months after he was released by the Dallas Cowboys. A Ravens official couldn't confirm the agreement because it has yet to be signed.

The Ravens found a replacement for injured fullback Le'Ron McClain on Tuesday, signing free agent Jason McKie , who spent seven years with the Chicago Bears. To make room for McKie on the roster, general manager Ozzie Newsome announced the team had released safety Ken Hamlin . McKie, 5 feet 11 and 247 pounds, played with the Bears from 2003 to 2009. He started 11 of 16 games in 2009 with Chicago and was released last March. In 88 career games, including 47 starts, he contributed on goal-line offense, catching passes and blocking.

Welcome back, Denny Hamlin. Where have you been? It seems you disappeared a long time ago. We sent out an APB after Homestead last November, when you let Jimmie Johnson slip by you for the Cup championship on the final race of the season. You really weren't much of a player in Las Vegas for the awards ceremony. It was a bummer of a time anyway, since you were forced to witness the coronation of a king who wasn't you. And then the season started, and Victory Lane became elusive — until finally you were anointed a champion last weekend in Michigan.

Anybody want to give Kevin Harvick a shot at the Sprint Cup championship? He is in this thing, is he not? It's not all about the Jimmie Johnson and Denny Hamlin. At first blush, Hamlin and Johnson seem to offer the most compelling storylines coming out of South Florida this week, where NASCAR's championship will be decided. Johnson is the four-time champion needing to rally from behind for the first time. Hamlin is the young gun who sits in front of the standings, despite coming off a major disappointment in Phoenix.

Four times Jimmie Johnson came to the Arizona desert in November, and four times he left with either a win or another strong finish that propelled him to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship. Johnson didn't win this fall, but he still might have the momentum yet again in his "drive for five" -- five consecutive titles, that is -- courtesy of Denny Hamlin and Hamlin's Joe Gibbs Racing team. Hamlin dominated most of the Kobalt Tools 500 on Sunday at Phoenix International Raceway, only to see the win slip away when forced to pit his No. 11 Toyota for fuel with just 14 laps left in the 312-lap race.

LAKE PLACID, N.Y. -- With light snow falling and an American flag waving from a nearby hillside, Samantha Retrosi and Erin Hamlin claimed places on the U.S. Olympic luge team yesterday and signaled a changing of the guard. The two young women from upstate New York, who train together on the Lake Placid track, parlayed their local knowledge into top-five finishes in World Cup competition and a trip to Turin, Italy, in February. They grabbed their heads in disbelief and then hugged each other as their race results were announced.

James Hamlin likes to say, "It's not about the rolls," insisting that the next big thing on Baltimore's historic Pennsylvania Avenue - his Avenue Bakery - is about commitment to your community and respect for its heritage. It's about being a role model to others who dream of owning a small business. And that's all grand and admirable. But most people are just going to nod when Mr. Hamlin says, "It's not about the rolls," because they'll be too busy eating them to argue. Same for Mattie's Muffins, named after Mr. Hamlin's mother and made from sweet potato, apples, walnuts and raisins.

Shakespeare's "Henry V" is a politically malleable play. It can be staged as a pro-war paean to patriotism -- the 1944 Laurence Olivier film is the most famous example -- or as an anti-war testament, as was often the case with productions during the Vietnam War era.Director Michael Kahn staged one of the better known anti-war interpretations in 1969. But his current production at Washington's Shakespeare Theatre occupies more neutral ground, focusing more on the nature of the king than on the philosophical and political issues of war.Pulling this off demands a subtle, accomplished performer in the title role.