Home Team

A noon rally on Jan. 13, held by the Towson Chamber of Commerce, drew about 60 people to Patriot Plaza to support the Baltimore Ravens in advance of Sunday's Divisional Round playoff game with the Houston Texans. Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Nancy Hafford had urged residents to "wear your favorite purple garb ... and show that Towson has more spirit than any other town in Maryland. " About 60 people heeded that call, and took part in an celebration and "home team" photo near the large Ravens logo, painted at the plaza earlier this week.

Adam Jones, the always-opinionated center fielder for the Orioles, gave a bizarrely cantankerous interview to a few reporters last week. What he said became a little kerfuffle on the eve of the Orioles opening their quest for their first .500 or better season since 1997. Let me be up front and say that I don't know anything about Adam Jones, other than what I've read in The Baltimore Sun. Generally cast as a jovial, playful guy, he's probably weary like anyone would be after answering years and years of reporters' questions.

Spring is the season of free agency, when birds, retirees and professional athletes move their base of operations. These transitions are difficult for everyone, particularly sports fans, daughters-in-law and people who have been parking their cars under trees. But especially for sports fans. Oriole fans will need talk therapy and a lot of beer to cope with the sight of beloved Mike Mussina in a Yankee uniform for the next six years. And even Alan Greenspan is at a loss to explain what Texas saw in former Seattle Mariner Alex Rodriguez that's worth $25.2 million a year, although it isn't hard to understand why A-Rod changed addresses.

While there will be more to say on this subject at the end of the week as the next big game draws near, it's worth taking a few lines here to give a shout out to the home team: Go Ravens! A cast of I-bleed-purple fans has descended upon the sidewalks of Harford County to paint team symbols. And it's hard to go anywhere without noticing just about everyone is wearing something purple after our purple and black birds won their first playoff game, which came in the second round of the postseason.

Robert Ford sat sketching Jack Skellington, the pumpkin king in Tim Burton's movie, The Nightmare Before Christmas, onto the plump, orange, round gourd. He put the pumpkin down on his desk and walked over to a table filled with about a dozen others painted with witches, scarecrows, mummies or cartoon characters. "I have to take a lot of breaks when I work on this one," said Ford of the movie character. "It's hard to draw all the detail on such a small space." Ford, 69, of Carney, paints the pumpkins each year and then leaves them "on the doorsteps of people I know, and some people that I don't know."

Centennial's tennis team survived the greatest threat to its unbeaten season last week, winning 5-4 at Mount Hebron.Last year, the Vikings upset Centennial by the same score, ending a winning streak that stretched back a couple of years. But this time, the Eagles' No. 2 boys and girls doubles teams posted the final wins of the day for a come-from-behind $l Centennial victory.Courtney Martin and Julia Dougherty defeated Jamie Stasiulewicz and Alicia DeGregorio, 8-6, while Kahn Pathan and Neil Adler beat Mickey Chawla and Jason Smith by the identical score.

Professional basketball has become wildly popular in recen years. The TV ratings of playoff games are soaring, the league has expanded all over the country and the top players are known as well as or better than those in other sports.Which is remarkable if you consider that pro basketball has become this popular despite a serious public relations problem that other team sports don't share.Put simply, the problem is this: Many fans, maybe a majority, think the games are rigged.Not only fans.

While there will be more to say on this subject at the end of the week as the next big game draws near, it's worth taking a few lines here to give a shout out to the home team: Go Ravens! A cast of I-bleed-purple fans has descended upon the sidewalks of Harford County to paint team symbols. And it's hard to go anywhere without noticing just about everyone is wearing something purple after our purple and black birds won their first playoff game, which came in the second round of the postseason.

It wasn't too long ago that the California Angels enjoyed a distinct home-field advantage. That is not presently the case, as apathy is no longer reserved for the Rams.The Angels also are suffering from the disease so common to losers. And while everyone (especially in Baltimore) speculates about the future of the football team, few have noticed that the baseball team is likewise caught in the mudslide of indifference.With so many major-league players having ties in southern California, particularly Orange County, a trip to the "Big A" often took on the appearance of a huge family reunion.

WASHINGTON -- For once this season, Washington's home fans consistently cheered for the home team. For once, President Clinton came to a game to watch the home team. For once, the Wizards were victorious on their home court.On opening night for the spanking-new MCI Center, against a Seattle SuperSonics team that entered the game with a 13-3 record, the Wizards ended a five-game, home-court losing streak with a 95-78 win before a crowd of 20,674.Juwan Howard and Tracy Murray scored 18 points and center Terry Davis added 14 for Washington, which improved to 6-11.

Carl Sagan observed: "If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe. " And if you wish to comprehend the palpable dynamic that operates between Baltimore fans and their professional football team, you first have to understand the chemical stew of events that long preceded today's NFL playoff game at M&T Bank Stadium. It is axiomatic that the home team enjoys some very real advantages in every NFL game. Local players are able to maintain their preparatory routines without the need to add travel to their agenda, and they enjoy familiarity with their surroundings and the game-day environment.

A noon rally on Jan. 13, held by the Towson Chamber of Commerce, drew about 60 people to Patriot Plaza to support the Baltimore Ravens in advance of Sunday's Divisional Round playoff game with the Houston Texans. Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Nancy Hafford had urged residents to "wear your favorite purple garb ... and show that Towson has more spirit than any other town in Maryland. " About 60 people heeded that call, and took part in an celebration and "home team" photo near the large Ravens logo, painted at the plaza earlier this week.

James Hall Bready, an Evening Sun editorial writer for more than three decades and originator of the "Books and Authors" column that was published in The Baltimore Sun for nearly 50 years, died Saturday of renal failure at Gilchrist Hospice Care in Towson. The Homeland resident was 92. Mr. Bready, whose parents were staff members of the old Philadelphia Ledger, was born in Philadelphia and raised in South Jersey. He was a graduate of Woodbury High School and Moorestown Friends School, both in New Jersey.

Growing up, Angela Showalter was no stranger to the harsh realities that come with being a foster child. The wife of Orioles manager Buck Showalter can remember the times when her family would take care of a couple of foster children from time to time either during the summer or on weekends. As a youth in a traditional family, it was difficult for her to see the hardships foster children endure on a day-to-day basis. "We weren't an actual full-time foster family, but we would pick up kids who were in foster care facilities," Angela Showalter said.

The grudging optimism in the Baltimore Sun's editorial on the Orioles' 2011 season was much appreciated ("In praise of long shots," April 4). Six decades ago as an elementary school kid in Queens, I was a devout follower of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Now I am an Orioles fan. Not much has changed. America is filled with wonderful things, not the least of which is hometown baseball. Hal Holzman, Columbia

- Their game, their gold - but the Olympic hockey finale between Canada and the United States belonged to history before the roars triggered by Sidney Crosby's overtime goal had faded by so much as a decibel Sunday. Crosby, whose silence the past two games had led an entire nation to brood, took a pass from Jarome Iginla and rifled a shot through the legs of U.S. goaltender Ryan Miller 7 minutes, 40 seconds into overtime, giving Canada a 3-2 victory in the last event of perhaps the last Olympic tournament that will include NHL players.

It is one of the basic assumptions that govern team sports. There is a clear -- if indefinable -- advantage that bestows on the team playing at home, and it is illustrated in the home/road split of almost every major college and professional sport.Major-league baseball is becoming the exception.The percentage of games won by the home team has tumbled during the past two years, from a 10-year average of .543 (1984 to 1993) to a combined .514 since the start of the 1994 season (through Saturday's games)

How gate receipts are disbursed in the Canadian Football League, when it comes to how much the home team keeps and what the opposition takes away, is a concept with a new and different kind of financial twist. It's 90 percent for the host, 10 percent for the visitor.Since the gross gate for the Baltimore CFLs' first game at Memorial Stadium reached $630,000, as represented by a paid crowd of 39,202, it means the visiting Calgary Stampeders will receive in round numbers, after taxes and stadium rent, about $50,000.

Terry Bradshaw won four Super Bowls as the Pittsburgh Steelers' quarterback. But, like others from this area, he has a special place in his heart for the New Orleans Saints. A native of Shreveport, he has closely followed the rare ups and frequent downs of a franchise that Sunday secured its first Super Bowl bid in the club's 43-year history. The Saints will play the Indianapolis Colts on Feb. 7 in South Florida. "You get the feeling if the Saints win and go to the Super Bowl, it rights the ship," said Bradshaw, a Fox analyst in attendance for New Orleans' 31-28 overtime victory Sunday over the Minnesota Vikings.